The PC unexpectedly stopped working without warning.
The PC unexpectedly stopped working without warning.
Before diving into the detailed guide, this is essentially a lengthy troubleshooting note. If you have any suggestions, feel free to share what I've done so far—I might have covered something already. What does "Freeze" mean? In simple terms, the whole display freezes instantly; the mouse and keyboard stop responding, yet fans and RGBs keep working. When I was playing a game, everything returned to normal at idle speed. The only option was pressing the shutdown/start button to force a restart.
Specifically, I need to hold the shutdown/turn-on button until the PC powers down completely. The specs are: CPU – Ryzen 7 9800X3D, GPU – ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080, RAM – G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo 6000MHz DDR5 64GB, Motherboard – Gigabyte X870, SSD – Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe AIO, PSU – Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420, fans – Eleven 140mm (AIO included), and case – HAVN HS 420.
I kept my previous PC (Intel platform) for three months without issues. Now, after assembling the new build, I encountered random freezing events—whether during idle, gaming, checking temperatures, adjusting fan curves, or while streaming. For two weeks I searched for a solution.
I tried various BIOS updates, used the "one RAM stick" method, replaced RAM modules, swapped SSDs, even changed the motherboard from Asus TUF B850 to Gigabyte Aorus X870. Still, the problem persisted! I tested Windows 10, 11 Home and Pro, inspecting Event Viewer and Liability Viewer. No errors linked to freezing. I installed all drivers—AMD chipset, Nvidia, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, audio, USB, SSD—but nothing worked.
I left the GPU connected but not the monitor, and it was stable for a short time. Eventually, I took it to a repair shop for two days. They found missing visual C++ files and said they fixed it. They ran games for over 16 hours without issues, but when I brought it home, it froze again.
Some steps improved stability: forcing the motherboard to use PCIe Gen4 instead of auto, swapping the DP cable to 155Hz with an HDMI cable capped at 100Hz. This helped for a day, but the next day it froze again. I also tried running the PC without a GPU and using an IGPU, which worked briefly.
The power supply emitted a strange ticking noise at random times—electrical, not mechanical. It was the same in both my old and new PCs.
This situation is really frustrating and exhausting. Please let me know your thoughts on the matter.
It seems the issue resolved at the repair shop and ceased when you brought it home. Have you checked another wall outlet?
This was the initial step I took. The freezing problem is unusual because it occurs unpredictably—sometimes the PC runs for hours and then freezes unexpectedly the next day! I suspect a single freeze happened once, not a recurring issue, so they assumed it was resolved. The only way the PC became stable was by swapping my display port for an HDMI cable. It seems the repair shop had a different monitor and cable, avoiding further problems. Still unsure if swapping the cable truly fixed it, as I’m just continuing to use the PC for a week. If no freezes appear then I’ll revert to the old cable, hoping it resolves the issue.
This might be the cause of the issue you're experiencing at home. Sometimes turning off the power supply or unplugging the cable and then restarting can cause the circuit to fail instantly, making it hard to restore power. In your old PC, having two PSUs worked fine—both had a ticking sound and would break power, but only one was used for your current system.
Great, I'll give it a shot and let you know if anything differs later.