Random 10~ second screen freezes when playing games - Hardware & Software

For a few months now I've been getting an issue where games visually freeze but the audio still plays, then after 10-15 seconds the game resumes. It started with Resident Evil 2 and was quite rare but I've been noticing it much more often in more recent games such as Sekiro, DMCV and Rainbow Six Siege. Hasn't ever happened in older/less demanding games e.g. Killing Floor 2. In Siege if I freeze I can still talk on Discord, so it's not a "full" computer hang, which made me think it was drivers or something until I wiped/updated them without a difference. There's one clue - when my printer turns off at 1am every night, my PC freezes ingame in exactly the same fashion as all the other freezes. Weird. I've tried; Using different cables for my monitor/using a different monitor entirely Moving game files between drives everything on this page up to step 9. https://decentsecurity.com/#/holiday-tasks/

Is there a spike in disk/SSD activity when these freezes occur? Like, does your HDD activity light go full solid? A a potentially stupid suggestion, but since you mentioned it, disconnect your printer entirely (from your computer or the network- whatever method it uses to communicate with your machine) and see if the issue still persists.

I had DMCV running as I disconnected my printer, and sure enough it froze. Here's the task manager at that point: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237778/d02eac7f-a909-4494-b817-5752e3fee476/printer off freeze.jpg Then I played for a while afterwards, but the game froze again. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237778/4c68ab61-0585-4a8b-88c2-c34e5f5a99db/Game freeze.jpg It's almost as though the computer forgets it's running a game and the CPU/GPU take a short break. I don't actually use webroot, that was just a standalone utility suggested by that decentsecurity website.

Have a quick look in Windows Event Viewer under the "system" and "Application" categories next time it happens. See if anything of significance is logged such as a driver failure or memory error.

Still trying to figure this out. Ran a 3DMark test (for what it's worth) and it didn't freeze at all. Started playing Wildlands with friends again recently and of course the game is freezing sporadically. Seems to be triggered by both intense situations (driving/smashing through undergrowth at high speed/helicopter exploding on top of my head) as well as more mundane stuff like getting notifications while in the inventory. Looking at past instances, like regularly freezing during item popups in Sekiro, makes me think that the freezing is being caused by big fluctuations in performance load. Still no idea if it's the CPU or GPU/drivers. Some games seem to freeze way more often than others - Fallout 4 and Battlefront 2 have never frozen in this manner. Nothing out of the ordinary - the only actual Errors logged are just programs crashing. Nothing logged at the specific times the games are freezing.

Download HWMonitor let it run and play some games.. then check your Max Temp if it goes over 90°C that might be issue as well as Voltage goes down or even frequency of the cpu which could be causing your issues.

Cloned my Windows install onto the new drive, but still freezing in games. Not really surprised, I doubt that would fix anything, but at least I have more space now. Anything look out of the ordinary here? https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237778/c73de1ab-8c83-4a6c-8fac-cb12bbc81d5e/image.png

You should get Process Monitor, it will give you a more in depth reason of what is causing it. If you hover over the graph when you get the freeze it will tell you what processes were running to help you eliminate it.

It sounds like more of a GPU issue than anything, but it's hard to say for sure. Do you have a spare GPU you can test?

I do actually. I have my old GTX 670 in now, but as I was messing with getting the cables set up my audio got changed to my monitor instead of my DAC-X6 amplifier. I instantly noticed as I tabbed into the game (Wildlands), there was no freeze like there is usually. I was just instantly able to get to the main menu with no delay. I tried plugged in my old USB Fiio E10 Dac/AMP and there was no delay either, so it's exclusively the DAC-X6 when connected to the PC via USB cable (the Fiio is a mini USB). Switching to Optical with the DAC-X6 has solved the freeze upon tabbing in issue, so at least that's solved. Remains to be seen if it really was the USB Audio all along which was causing the general freezing, in which case I never would have guessed it was my audio causing problems.

Good to hear! You said it happened when your USB printer changed power states too? Sounds very much like a motherboard issue.

I'd compare your temps to the freezes. This sounds like it could be a thermal issue.

Actually it's a network printer. Hmm... I just tried turning it off while ingame, no freeze. God knows what's going on anymore, but it's fixed until I get the chance to upgrade in a month or two. What you see on that HWMonitor screenshot is what I get. max 70 degrees CPU, 80 GPU.