System issues: computer freezes unexpectedly while playing.
System issues: computer freezes unexpectedly while playing.
Hi Everyone, I've been using my PC for roughly seven years. The problem started about two to three months ago, coinciding with adding 16GB of RAM. Before that, it was happening. When playing games, my computer freezes completely—no response to any keys, no mouse movement, just a total shutdown. I can still hear the game audio and Discord, but my microphone doesn’t connect, and I’m disconnected from the match automatically.
At first, I thought one of my SSDs might be failing, so I moved my games to another drive. The issue continued. I ran a health check on my SSD and everything looked fine. After a clean boot of Windows 11 (keeping local files), the problem still exists. I updated all drivers and ran a Cinebench R23 test with no issues. CPU: Ryzen 5 3600, GPU: RX 5700 MOBO, RAM: 32GB Corsair 3200 4x8GB. Drives: 250 Samsung Evo Boot Drive, 500GB WD SSD for games, and a 1TB Seagate HDD for the OS—running Windows 11.
I don't agree? The test ran hot at 85-90°C during Cinebench with the stock cooler in place. I also cleaned it roughly four to five weeks ago—switched off the fans, removed the CPU cooler, and cleaned all the fins. During the test, I got around 8500, whereas other sources suggest it should be just over 9000.
PSUs lose performance gradually. Based on this, it seems likely they’re failing. The older the system, the higher the chance it’s another hardware issue. Open Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System, look for error and critical entries, sort by time. Share your screen if you want to show what you see.
It's been the same PSU since I purchased it, which makes sense. I tested Cinebench and Furmark simultaneously for 5 to 10 minutes recently and experienced no problems except freezing during gameplay. Recently, Age of Empires and BattleBit have been the main issues.
The last freeze occurred at 8:41 pm; I’ll post another update once it freezes today.
The log also highlights a problem with the power supply unit. Error 6008 often relates to PSU failures. This indicates the system is being forced to stop, likely due to power issues. Since we don’t see GPU errors (the usual cause), we move to the next probable cause: the PSU itself. Other logged messages aren’t helpful for diagnosis. You might try downloading hwinfo and checking it in logging mode, observing the logs over the last minute before the failure. However, this may not yield more useful information. The safest option is to replace the PSU.