computer freezes

hey peeps. im not the most tech savvy person so im here to ask for help with an issue im having. it happens in every game i play. in gw2 ive noticed it happens when i use some kind of speed boost like my raptors jump or my griffons dive. in team fortress 2 ive noticed it isnt as bad when i play scout. in monster hunter world it happened when one of the mosters roared. its worse in gw2 though. just now ive had it completely freeze while i was in the middle of a raptor jump. ive asked on a fb group but i havent had much luck. ive only suspected the drivers and gpu. ive updated all the drivers. i have a 970 for my gpu. my processor is an i7-6700. i have 16gb of ram. someone asked for the motherboard but ive no clue how to find that information. thanks in advance for your help. EDIT: im not sure if this is the motherboard model they were asking for but i found its made by gigabyte technology and its a Z170-HD3P-CF.

Your specs seem more than adequate though, should cause you no issues if you run everything on low settings.

First thing you should do is make sure there are no bottlenecks (usually what leads to a crash) by running everything on lowest settings for a while. If no issues occur, turn each setting up one by one until you run into problems to identify the culprit.

For good measure you might as well run the "Repair" option on the launcher to make sure you're not missing any files or some got altered somehow.

Windows also sometimes has trouble prioritizing programs, so starting the game as administrator might work for some issues.

Freezes like this are 100% clientside though, so the issue definitely is on your end. Try shutting down every other program when running gw2, even arcdps or other addons/overlays to see if they might be the cause, because sometimes updates in these don't go well with the game.

Depending on your type of harddrive, you might want to consider reinstalling the game in the C: folder, especially if you got different types of drives in order to eliminate content loading as a factor (and might give you faster loading screens).

Since it's a freeze we can pretty much rule out a hardware issue, although it would help if you posted a little more info about these crashes:

• Can you alt-tab out to desktop?
• Do you get the "gw2.exe has stopped working" warning?
• Does the entire computer shut down?
• Does the sound continue after?
• What happens when you use Ctrl+Alt+Del to end the gw2.exe process?
• Does the screen go black after a while or does it simply show where you froze?

Rest assured no games are supposed to do this, so once we find the problem the solution should be simple. Also update your DirectX before doing these steps.

Good luck :)

@"rng.1024" said:Your specs seem more than adequate though, should cause you no issues if you run everything on low settings.

First thing you should do is make sure there are no bottlenecks (usually what leads to a crash) by running everything on lowest settings for a while. If no issues occur, turn each setting up one by one until you run into problems to identify the culprit.

For good measure you might as well run the "Repair" option on the launcher to make sure you're not missing any files or some got altered somehow.

Windows also sometimes has trouble prioritizing programs, so starting the game as administrator might work for some issues.

Freezes like this are 100% clientside though, so the issue definitely is on your end. Try shutting down every other program when running gw2, even arcdps or other addons/overlays to see if they might be the cause, because sometimes updates in these don't go well with the game.

Depending on your type of harddrive, you might want to consider reinstalling the game in the C: folder, especially if you got different types of drives in order to eliminate content loading as a factor (and might give you faster loading screens).

Since it's a freeze we can pretty much rule out a hardware issue, although it would help if you posted a little more info about these crashes:

• Can you alt-tab out to desktop?
• Do you get the "gw2.exe has stopped working" warning?
• Does the entire computer shut down?
• Does the sound continue after?
• What happens when you use Ctrl+Alt+Del to end the gw2.exe process?
• Does the screen go black after a while or does it simply show where you froze?

Rest assured no games are supposed to do this, so once we find the problem the solution should be simple. Also update your DirectX before doing these steps.

Good luck :)

thanks for your input. im well aware the issue is on my end since it happens in varying degrees on different games. worst of them being gw2. but to answer those bullet point questions the freezing happened today and i couldnt do anything. the center of the screen got pixel like and the areas around just froze. i heard a sort of krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. it wasnt a bsod. i just saw a low res raptor and my usual res around the raptor. after about 10 seconds of being frozen the computer restarted itself. im guessing it was to prevent damage. before today it was only stuttering. id get the krrrrr sound for as long as it stuttered and the low res in the middle of the screen but it would go back to normal in seconds. however that was in other games, tf2 and mhw to be specific. it has happened before on an old laptop i had. i never found a solution to it. i mean i saw a ton of things that worked for people but i was either too scared to try some and others seemed like putting figurative duct tape on the problem. theres no warning for it. i havent noticed a pattern for it. well i sort of had a ridiculous idea that maybe the character was traveling too fast. i mean it happened when i used the boost on the raptor and the scout is the fastest class in tf2, but then it stutters when i play engi on tf2 and also when a monster roared in mhw. i doubt its a driver. i updated every single driver the second after the first one happened. i should mention i didnt build this pc so i doubt its a bottleneck issue. right? i mean im sure they wouldnt put a gpu or cpu with a power supply that will limit them.

Yeah I also doubt it has to do with drivers. Speaking of power supply, you should check your battery settings to make sure your gpu doesn't go into powersaving mode even when the pc is charging.

The bottleneck is unlikely yeah, but the nature of the freezes point towards it being a processing issue. Also weird you get it in tf2, which isn't all that demanding graphic wise. Your pc should run that with no issue whatsoever. Do you experience any lag or rubberbanding in addition to your freezes? (Since you mentioned tf2 stuttering)

How fast is your internet? There could be an issue here with content loading, and if the game doesn't follow protocol when disconnected it will lead to freezes. Tried with an ethernet cable?

Remember to update your Direct X, as it is required for all these game engines to run optimally.

So try these steps:

1. Turn your pc onto "Performance" mode by right clicking the little battery on the right bottom of your screen and choosing battery plan - even when charging if you have a laptop
2. Turn off supersampling in all your games
3. Go to Control Panel and run the windows diagnostic tool on your ethernet card in case it's not working properly (go to devices, right click it)
4. Make sure your pc is set to use your dedicated graphic card if you have an integrated one as well, because using that will eat away at your processing power.
5. Download the newest version of DirectX

If doing everything in this thread doesn't work, I would encourage you to submit a ticket to support. Simply because they encounter tons of similar issues every day and have deviced a checklist to eliminate the most common causes (Plus they are awesome!). So even though you have issues in other games, these guys are familiar with all technical issues and will do their best to fix them. They will also give you alot of commands to run gw2.exe with that will help locate where it goes wrong.

So far I don't see how this can be a hardware issue, not drivers either. If it's a new computer you could do a factory reset - have these problems always been here or did they come recently? Also check your disk usage while playing (ctrl+alt+tab, open device manager) as some msi computers have the issue of it constantly maxing out causing all kinds of weird crashes - this value should be less than 100%.

That's all I got, hopefully someone else can chime in or your ticket bear fruit, so you can go back to play how you like :)

@rng.1024 The OP's components aren't laptop components, so it's moderately unlikely that his PC has a battery.

@jhern.6097 You may be having a heat management problem, either in the CPU or the GPU, or maybe other components. Intel CPUs are pretty good at protecting themselves from overheating, but it's worth downloading a program to display temperatures. If the machine is overheating while you play games, then you should (carefully) open the case and gently clean all the dust and stuff from every fan, heatsink, and so on that you can find. The ideal tool for this is an old toothbrush that you aren't going to use again to brush your teeth(1), or, failing that, buy a new soft one and use it for this.

(1) The dust that gets inside your PC will be ordinary household dust - dead skin cells, bits of human and/or pet hair, dust mites, dead dust mites, dust mite - er - droppings, the same for spiders and other livestock, and so on. Not one thing in that list is something I'd want to put in my mouth, thanks. Don't use the brush as a toothbrush afterwards.

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:@rng.1024 The OP's components aren't laptop components, so it's moderately unlikely that his PC has a battery.

@jhern.6097 You may be having a heat management problem, either in the CPU or the GPU, or maybe other components. Intel CPUs are pretty good at protecting themselves from overheating, but it's worth downloading a program to display temperatures. If the machine is overheating while you play games, then you should (carefully) open the case and gently clean all the dust and stuff from every fan, heatsink, and so on that you can find. The ideal tool for this is an old toothbrush that you aren't going to use again to brush your teeth(1), or, failing that, buy a new soft one and use it for this.

(1) The dust that gets inside your PC will be ordinary household dust - dead skin cells, bits of human and/or pet hair, dust mites, dead dust mites, dust mite - er - droppings, the same for spiders and other livestock, and so on. Not one thing in that list is something I'd want to put in my mouth, thanks. Don't use the brush as a toothbrush afterwards.

well ive done more cleaning than i usually do. usually its a superficial cleaning where i simply spray on the parts but today i removed the power supply to clean it and removed the graphics card to clean it better. i was too scared to go near the cpu so i used the straw to spray whatever i could around it and i did the same for the area around my hard drives. sprayed the side that has the cables organized as well and i played about 5 minutes of gw2 without problems. tf2 seemed fine. that might have been the issue. ill keep playing to see what happens. this doesnt happen when i watch videos so maybe it was overheating. thanks for your input btw

@"rng.1024" said:Yeah I also doubt it has to do with drivers. Speaking of power supply, you should check your battery settings to make sure your gpu doesn't go into powersaving mode even when the pc is charging.

The bottleneck is unlikely yeah, but the nature of the freezes point towards it being a processing issue. Also weird you get it in tf2, which isn't all that demanding graphic wise. Your pc should run that with no issue whatsoever. Do you experience any lag or rubberbanding in addition to your freezes? (Since you mentioned tf2 stuttering)

How fast is your internet? There could be an issue here with content loading, and if the game doesn't follow protocol when disconnected it will lead to freezes. Tried with an ethernet cable?

Remember to update your Direct X, as it is required for all these game engines to run optimally.

So try these steps:

1. Turn your pc onto "Performance" mode by right clicking the little battery on the right bottom of your screen and choosing battery plan - even when charging if you have a laptop
2. Turn off supersampling in all your games
3. Go to Control Panel and run the windows diagnostic tool on your ethernet card in case it's not working properly (go to devices, right click it)
4. Make sure your pc is set to use your dedicated graphic card if you have an integrated one as well, because using that will eat away at your processing power.
5. Download the newest version of DirectX

If doing everything in this thread doesn't work, I would encourage you to submit a ticket to support. Simply because they encounter tons of similar issues every day and have deviced a checklist to eliminate the most common causes (Plus they are awesome!). So even though you have issues in other games, these guys are familiar with all technical issues and will do their best to fix them. They will also give you alot of commands to run gw2.exe with that will help locate where it goes wrong.

So far I don't see how this can be a hardware issue, not drivers either. If it's a new computer you could do a factory reset - have these problems always been here or did they come recently? Also check your disk usage while playing (ctrl+alt+tab, open device manager) as some msi computers have the issue of it constantly maxing out causing all kinds of weird crashes - this value should be less than 100%.

That's all I got, hopefully someone else can chime in or your ticket bear fruit, so you can go back to play how you like :)

ty i was able to figure out how to do some of these things. no idea how to do 1 nor 2 nor 3. but 4 was fine. and i have the latest directx. i cleaned it up and played a bit. no problems... yet. thanks for the help

@jhern.6097 said:

@"rng.1024" said:Yeah I also doubt it has to do with drivers. Speaking of power supply, you should check your battery settings to make sure your gpu doesn't go into powersaving mode even when the pc is charging.

The bottleneck is unlikely yeah, but the nature of the freezes point towards it being a processing issue. Also weird you get it in tf2, which isn't all that demanding graphic wise. Your pc should run that with no issue whatsoever. Do you experience any lag or rubberbanding in addition to your freezes? (Since you mentioned tf2 stuttering)

How fast is your internet? There could be an issue here with content loading, and if the game doesn't follow protocol when disconnected it will lead to freezes. Tried with an ethernet cable?

Remember to update your Direct X, as it is required for all these game engines to run optimally.

So try these steps:

1. Turn your pc onto "Performance" mode by right clicking the little battery on the right bottom of your screen and choosing battery plan - even when charging if you have a laptop
2. Turn off supersampling in all your games
3. Go to Control Panel and run the windows diagnostic tool on your ethernet card in case it's not working properly (go to devices, right click it)
4. Make sure your pc is set to use your dedicated graphic card if you have an integrated one as well, because using that will eat away at your processing power.
5. Download the newest version of DirectX

If doing everything in this thread doesn't work, I would encourage you to submit a ticket to support. Simply because they encounter tons of similar issues every day and have deviced a checklist to eliminate the most common causes (Plus they are awesome!). So even though you have issues in other games, these guys are familiar with all technical issues and will do their best to fix them. They will also give you alot of commands to run gw2.exe with that will help locate where it goes wrong.

So far I don't see how this can be a hardware issue, not drivers either. If it's a new computer you could do a factory reset - have these problems always been here or did they come recently? Also check your disk usage while playing (ctrl+alt+tab, open device manager) as some msi computers have the issue of it constantly maxing out causing all kinds of weird crashes - this value should be less than 100%.

That's all I got, hopefully someone else can chime in or your ticket bear fruit, so you can go back to play how you like :)

1 is not necessary on a stationary computer, as it'll run full throttle nonetheless.

2 is simply to enter the game, press Esc, then "Options", find "Graphics options" and lastly make sure "Postprocessing" is set to None.

3 can be done by pressing the windows button, using the search function there to search for "Control Panel", click the "Hardware and Sound" category, then click "Device Manager" (you need admin permission for this), in the new window find Network Adaptors, right click your ethernet card and choose "Diagnose". Just follow instructions and let it repair if an issue is found.

Glad it seems to be working, might have been some dust gathering in the wrong places. As was mentioned earlier you should probably search google for a temperature program which more easily can detect where the extra heat originates.

My question is what video card are you using and what video settings is your game at. I don't care what people say about how this game runs on the cpu it also runs on the video card. If yours is not up to date it will cause problems like that.

@Chyanne Waters.8719 said:My question is what video card are you using and what video settings is your game at. I don't care what people say about how this game runs on the cpu it also runs on the video card. If yours is not up to date it will cause problems like that.

i have a geforce gtx 970. im starting to think its either my heatsink or one of the rams. i dont habe thermal paste yet so im not touching that. as for the rams idk how to test if thats the issue. i havent had the issue of it freezing. just very minor stutters.

Windows should have a built in ram test program. You could give that one a try and see what it comes up with.

Long story short (DR/TL):You should check:

• RAM (HW)
• Overclocking (anything, but above all CPU & RAM)
• PSU
• Cooling/Air Flows (heat management)

Long story long:

@jhern.6097 said:i doubt its a driver. i updated every single driver the second after the first one happened.I agree that it shouldn't be an old drivers issue. If you really keep everything updated to the cutting edge, we can agree that it isn't an old driver issue.@jhern.6097 said:i should mention i didnt build this pc so i doubt its a bottleneck issue. right? i mean im sure they wouldnt put a gpu or cpu with a power supply that will limit them.This makes me wonder. IDK who has built your computer, but in the case it is built by a retail store, big or little, or worst it is a ready to plug "big" trademark computer, then the chances are that it is built to make a profit for whom who built it, and not, like a computer directly built by its user, to perform the tasks which is why it was built, like gaming. Don't misunderstand me, in my words there is no hate toward any pre-built computer, or any computer retailer store, but it is a given and common fact that any firm has to do some profit to live, otherwise it fails, and I think they have their right to live and so to make a profit. This is the main reason because usually, laptops a part, I prefer to build my own computer. Remember that as bigger it is the customer base of a computer builder, more he has to pay attention to most of his customer base. Then you should expect perfectly working mainstream computer for the mainstream market, IDK how gaming needs could be considered mainstream, IMHO prices are just more than enough to put gaming computer out of mainstream market. It is really hard to see pre-built PC with a video card that costs more than 1000 euros or US$, there are some, above all graphic workstations, where video cards costs more than gaming ones, but these markets are definitively niches.@Cyninja.2954 said:Windows should have a built in ram test program. You could give that one a try and see what it comes up with.I agree. This is one thing that you should check. TBH don't limit to check the RAM HW, you should check also the RAM & MB compatibility above all the RAM & MB XMP if it is active.Bad overclocking is another main reason of computer freezing and restarting.Other usually underestimated reasons of freezing could be a bad PSU, or a perfectly working but underpowered one that is unable to feed enough power to the video card when the video card more need it.@jhern.6097 said:i havent had the issue of it freezing. just very minor stutters.If you have solved the problem of computer freezing, and right now it is just very minor stutters, then IMHO the original issue was solved. In such a case IMHO is more a performance issue that needs some fine tuning of game options (graphics maybe) and of your computer.

Sounds like either power, video card, ram issues. Had similiar symptoms when power supply was dying, until it finally died. Although it blacked screen and reset more than freeze. Bad ram usually results in a BSOD, I've had a bad ram stick that would go black/freeze and restart only when I played a game, indicating only when the bad sector was accessed, did it occur.

Drivers can also give similar/odd issues and not all driver related symptoms are always the same, I'm sure you know, it's entirely possible. I've had to roll back to previous drivers before, but if you can't search for similar issues with your current driver on goggle, then it's unlikely.

Recommended way to troubleshoot from simplest I would do. .

1. If you have onboard or spare video card, test however long you expect to see the issue pop up.
2. Segregrate Ram sticks, put one in a time. Same test for period of time or scenario, you'd expect it to happen.
3. If you have a spare power supply, test.

This is what I would do first.

The whole system just freezing up and outright restarting is in fact the result of a BSOD even though the screen did not flash. Try looking for a program called "BlueScreenView". That program (free) will let you know what lead to the crash, as well as possible factors. I do know I've had a few instances of that prior, with the pixels screwing up. That was the case of an insufficient power supply.

If you've recently upgraded a piece of equipment in your computer, chances are you do not have enough wattage to support all the devices. And while your GPU, CPU and main drives take up the majority of the overhead, also check for:

• peripherals you've recently plugged in (USB items such as webcam, external HDDs/sound cards -- USB headsets too)
• memory you've upgraded or recently added,
• other expansion slot items such as sound card and capture device

The little things can add up real quick. When building a system, always shoot for at least 100w over your expected target. More if you can budget it. You will never know if/when you'll upgrade.

So yes, before you go hunting a new PSU: > @Mushuchalaka.9437 said:

Drivers can also give similar/odd issues and not all driver related symptoms are always the same, I'm sure you know, it's entirely possible. I've had to roll back to previous drivers before, but if you can't search for similar issues with your current driver on goggle, then it's unlikely.

Recommended way to troubleshoot from simplest I would do. .

1. If you have onboard or spare video card, test however long you expect to see the issue pop up.
2. Segregrate Ram sticks, put one in a time. Same test for period of time or scenario, you'd expect it to happen.
3. If you have a spare power supply, test.

This is what I would do first.

Always test to see if you have faulty devices first. If none of your devices have issues, then upgrade your supply.

@"altermaven.7385" said:The whole system just freezing up and outright restarting is in fact the result of a BSOD even though the screen did not flash. Try looking for a program called "BlueScreenView". That program (free) will let you know what lead to the crash, as well as possible factors. I do know I've had a few instances of that prior, with the pixels screwing up. That was the case of an insufficient power supply.

If you've recently upgraded a piece of equipment in your computer, chances are you do not have enough wattage to support all the devices. And while your GPU, CPU and main drives take up the majority of the overhead, also check for:

• peripherals you've recently plugged in (USB items such as webcam, external HDDs/sound cards -- USB headsets too)
• memory you've upgraded or recently added,
• other expansion slot items such as sound card and capture device

The little things can add up real quick. When building a system, always shoot for at least 100w over your expected target. More if you can budget it. You will never know if/when you'll upgrade.

So yes, before you go hunting a new PSU: > @Mushuchalaka.9437 said:

Drivers can also give similar/odd issues and not all driver related symptoms are always the same, I'm sure you know, it's entirely possible. I've had to roll back to previous drivers before, but if you can't search for similar issues with your current driver on goggle, then it's unlikely.

Recommended way to troubleshoot from simplest I would do. .

1. If you have onboard or spare video card, test however long you expect to see the issue pop up.
2. Segregrate Ram sticks, put one in a time. Same test for period of time or scenario, you'd expect it to happen.
3. If you have a spare power supply, test.

This is what I would do first.

Indeed. I should clarify, you want to do each test from 1 to 3 independently from each other and in order, if it wasn't obvious :).

@Agon.1324 said:

@jhern.6097 said:i doubt its a driver. i updated every single driver the second after the first one happened.I agree that it shouldn't be an old drivers issue. If you really keep everything updated to the cutting edge, we can agree that it isn't an old driver issue.

It might, however, be a new driver issue. (That is, OP might have stumbled on a driver with a new bug in it.)