Hardware Accelerated Programs Simultaneously Freezing/NotResponding

SpookSnep · January 25, 2021

First off, basic hardware info:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600x

RAM: Gskill Ripjaws V 32gb 3600mhz CL16

MoBo: ASUS TUF GAMING x570-PLUS

Graphics card: ASUS GTX 1070 TURBO

Firmware:

MoBo: BIOS 3001

Graphics card: 86.04.26.00.83 (revision A1)

Software:

OS: Windows 10: Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042

graphics driver: 461.09

So, as the title implies, every few hours or even days of use my computer is "crashing" in a very strange way. All hardware accelerated programs completely break and freeze, being visually unresponsive even though sound of a video will still be playing and i can hear the mouse going over buttons that make noise (like cookie clicker, lol).This seemingly started after I took the card apart for repasting, which went smoothly I think. I'm almost certain nothing obvious broke during the procedure, though I cannot deny the connection, and the PCB did get a bit of a workout when i tried to get the cooler off of it, the paste was hard and sticky. The reason I think this problem is software is two fold though: My mouse cursor works perfectly fine after the crash, as does any other non-hardware accelerated programs. The other reason is that the night before I took apart the card I DDU'd the driver and installed the newest driver, but I didn't do much of a test for stability other than "it can run ARK and get hot, its fine" so I didn't run into this issue (whch can take hours of use and seems connected with hardware accelerated desktop programs like chrome). Ive been messing with a registry cleaner too and, while a registry repair seems to have kept this from happening for two days straight, it still happened again.

Here is the list of programs that I know for sure freeze when the issue occurs: Chrome, Discord, Task Manager. These don't: Windows File Explorer.

This is really all i know. I looked in the event log for anything that could be related but i couldn't find anything before or during the crash.

Analog · January 25, 2021

Since all this started after you took the card apart and reinstalled the drivers it must somehow be connected to either of these things. Did you run DDU in Safe Mode? If not, I recommend you do that now and later reinstall the driver. Since you said you messed with a registry cleaner, while in Safe Mode I also suggest you run the sfc /scannow command in CMD with elevated privileges. This will ensure that everything is in good working order and repair any minor issues if there are such.

Other than this, software wise, I think you are left with doing a clean Windows install with the latest build 20H2 and hoping that this will resolve the random crashes.

When you opened up the card, did you make sure all thermal pads are at the proper locations, also not broken or cracked? Did you also apply a liberal amount of thermal paste? There should be a good even spread on the entire die.

SpookSnep · January 25, 2021

7 hours ago, Analog said:

...Did you run DDU in Safe Mode?...

...Since you said you messed with a registry cleaner, while in Safe Mode I also suggest you run the sfc /scannow command in CMD with elevated privileges...

Other than this, software wise, I think you are left with doing a clean Windows install with the latest build 20H2 and hoping that this will resolve the random crashes.

When you opened up the card, did you make sure all thermal pads are at the proper locations, also not broken or cracked? Did you also apply a liberal amount of thermal paste? There should be a good even spread on the entire die.

Everything you've pointed out seems to be in order except for the fact that I didn't run the registry repair in safe mode, so ill give that a shot. I'll also hold off on a windows reinstall for now LOL

Alternatively, it appears the issue may be Cookie Clicker >.<

I'll do a registry repair in safe mode and if it happens again, I'll turn off hardware acceleration in chrome/stop playing cookie clicker. Thanks for the help!