I've been dealing with a frustrating issue on my PC for a few months now. It all started when Nvidia released some problematic drivers, so I initially thought that was the culprit. I ran stress tests using OCCT, which didn't show any errors, but now I'm not so sure.
The freezes happen randomly while I'm gaming, particularly with Destiny 2 while listening to music on Spotify. Suddenly, the music stops, and I can't Alt-Tab out of the game, though it seems to keep running smoothly without any FPS drops. A few minutes later, the game itself freezes, but I can still hear sounds—like player gunfire. At this point, I'm completely stuck and have to restart my PC, as nothing else works. Event Viewer only shows "Windows did not shut down properly."
I've been troubleshooting by testing my RAM with Memtest86. The first test returned 4 errors. After removing one stick, it passed. When I put the removed stick back in, it found 1 error again. I removed it again and noticed my PC felt much faster, even Twitch streams were smoother. However, after a solid 6-7 hour gaming session without freezing, my PC froze once more. Last night, while running Memtest again, it found 1 error, but when I checked it later, the test was frozen too. Could this mean it's not a RAM issue? I have the reports saved with error details.
This issue has been really stressful for me, and I'm sure I'm overlooking the obvious. I've tried several fixes like running SFC checks, rolling back to an old GPU driver, ensuring nothing is overheating, and checking the health of my SSDs. Here are my specs for reference:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800x3D
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super Gaming X Trio
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 32GB DDR4 3200 Mhz
SSD1: Samsung 970 PRO 512GB
SSD2: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB
PSU: Thermaltake Litepower 650W
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus HellFire
Monitor: AOC G2460VQ6 24" 1080p 75Hz
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
Have you tried backing up all your files and doing a full Windows reinstall? It sounds like you might have sorted out hardware problems, so that could be your best bet. Reinstalling the OS might fix any lingering issues left after repairs.
Also, have you thought about resetting your BIOS to default settings? And while you’re at it, double-check all the cable connections in your PC.