New PC Installed, Experiencing Freezing / Stuttering / Crashes Without Any Load (Began after 5 days)
New PC Installed, Experiencing Freezing / Stuttering / Crashes Without Any Load (Began after 5 days)
Hello,
I just put together my PC about five to six days ago. At first, everything worked well after installing Windows 10. But on the very first day, while switching tabs out of a game and returning, my frame rate dropped sharply to between 1 and 20 FPS for a short time before normalizing. I tried restarting the system and updating the GPU drivers, which briefly fixed the problem.
Later, after four days, the issue returned and worsened. During gameplay, my frame rate fell from 400–500 FPS to just 30 FPS for about a minute. Occasionally the game would crash or the PC would freeze without coming back. My mouse also stuttered intermittently every 20 seconds (even when no games were running), and I would have to restart the machine unexpectedly.
At first, I assumed it was due to overheating since my CPU temperatures reached around 100°C. However, after changing the fan settings from Silent to Normal, the problem continued even when the CPU wasn’t under heavy load (desktop with no applications open).
To investigate further, I followed these steps:
- Updated all drivers via Windows Update and used GeForce Experience for GPU updates.
- Ran a Windows Memory Diagnostic test—no issues found.
- Performed a fresh Windows 11 installation using the Media Creation Tool (also tried Windows 10).
- Updated BIOS to the latest version, disabled XMP, and enabled it again; this caused the PC to fail booting and required a CMOS reset.
- Tested each RAM stick individually, but the problem remained. I also swapped the RAM slots without success.
- Ran memtest86, which passed all checks.
I hope this organized overview assists in identifying and fixing the issue with my system.
Details of the hardware:
- CPU: Intel Core i9-13900k
- GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti VENTUS 3X 12G OC, 12GB GDDR6X
- RAM: Kingston Fury beast RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000 CL36
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z690I AORUS ULTRA - Intel Z690
- SSD: Samsung SSD 990 PRO, M.2 - 2TB
- AIO CPU cooler: Cooler Master ML240L V2 RGB
- PSU: ASUS ROG LOKI SFX-L 850 - 850W
Thank you for your attention, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
The problem was a defective GPU. I attempted using another one, which worked fine.
I'm glad you found the solution helpful. If I were you, I would still keep an eye on your temperatures with the new fan settings.