My husband has been dealing with a frustrating problem on his gaming PC ever since we moved to our new place a year and a half ago. It's been randomly freezing and restarting, disrupting his gaming sessions. No matter if he's in the middle of a game or loading one, it suddenly shuts down, and I hear some choice words from the other room! He's really into gaming and values his computer, but we're not tech experts. The recent issues have been with a game called Body Cam, but it seems to happen with other demanding games too, even if he lowers the graphics settings. We could really use some advice on what might be causing this and how to fix it.
6 Answers
Have you checked if all the drivers are up to date? That’s crucial for gaming performance. If he’s updating weekly, you might be okay there, but it’s definitely worth a double-check.
It helps to access the Event Viewer in Windows to check for any errors around the crash times. Plus, a thorough cleaning of the internals for dust buildup and maybe checking thermal paste would be a good idea after five years!
It could be a power supply issue if it’s hard rebooting. Moving to an older house could affect the power supply too. It’s tough to pinpoint without more info, though.
Reinstalling Windows can help clear up issues, especially if the operating system has started to go wonky. Plus, it’s free and can solve a lot of problems!
It sounds like you guys might need to check several components. I’d start with the specs and temps. High temperatures can cause freezing—70c to 100c is pretty hot! Also, since you’ve moved, it might be a good idea to reseat the hardware to ensure everything is connected properly. Just a hunch, but those freezes could be related to a loose connection after the move.
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t think about reseating the hardware, but that makes sense. We'll definitely give that a shot.
With these types of shut-downs, overheating isn’t the only culprit. If it’s just freezing, look into old hard drives. I've had issues in the past where replacing a failing HDD with an SSD made everything stable again. Run some diagnostic tests on the drives to rule them out!
Interesting point! I didn’t consider the power supply, but since it’s a five-year-old computer, anything might be possible.