I was playing Overwatch with friends when, after several matches, parts of the HUD disappeared. I couldn't see the reticle or health bars, and the audio became unusually quiet, although I could still hear gunfire and continue playing. After about four minutes, the game closed and returned me to the Steam library.
Restarting normally didn't work, so I held down the power button to shut the laptop off. It boots through the Lenovo logo and Windows sign-in screen as usual, though logging in takes slightly longer than before. After entering my password, the screen stays black for roughly 10 seconds before the taskbar appears. During that time, clicking anything produces a Windows "not responding" message. The desktop eventually becomes usable after another 20–30 seconds.
Chrome and most other programs open normally, but Discord remains stuck on "RTC connecting," so I can't join voice chat. Steam also fails to start properly: it goes through the usual update and network checks, then freezes at "loading user data." I have to end its processes through Task Manager before trying again.
I ran both SFC and DISM, and initially they reported finding and repairing corrupted files. I later ran them again with DISM first, followed by SFC, and neither found additional problems. I'm currently running `chkdsk C: /f /r`, although I wasn't sure what it meant when Windows said the drive was in use and needed to be locked or checked after restarting.
The laptop is about six years old and was already an older model when I bought it, so I'm wondering whether the crash caused Windows corruption or whether the hard drive, SSD, memory, graphics hardware, or another component may be starting to fail. What should I check next?
2 Answers
Run DISM before SFC in the future, since DISM repairs the component store that SFC relies on. The fact that both tools initially found corruption, combined with the slow login, black screen, and programs hanging, could point to storage problems or another hardware issue. Let CHKDSK finish; when Windows says the drive is in use, it usually means the system needs to schedule the scan for the next reboot. Back up important files before doing more troubleshooting.
The symptoms could come from a failing storage drive, graphics driver, overheating, or less commonly defective RAM. Check the drive’s health with a SMART diagnostic tool, look in Event Viewer for disk or display-driver errors, and monitor CPU and GPU temperatures. Also test whether Windows behaves normally in Safe Mode. If the drive reports warnings or the laptop becomes unusually hot, back up your data and have the hardware examined before continuing to use it heavily.
Is there a particular hardware component that would be most likely to cause this? I’m not very experienced with diagnosing laptop hardware.
I reran DISM first and then SFC, and both came back clean. I’m also letting CHKDSK run now. The laptop is around six years old, so I’m starting to wonder if the drive is reaching the end of its life.