PC Randomly freezes and progressively gets worse

[Folktale]

I have a Ryzen 1600, 1050 TI PC with Samsung SSD. Recently, it's been a few good months, and my PC randomly freezes. Everything freezes except the taskbar. And if I keep delaying to either turn off or restart, my taskbar also starts freezing. Then I can use Ctrl+Alt+DEL to get to log in screen and turn off or restart from there. I checked my RAM with memory Diagnose and it came out fine. I checked wiring of CPU/GPU and exchanged RAM places and still same thing. My Graphics drivers are up to date along with my OS (Win 10). 

 

Another scenario happens when my computer freezes, and if I manage to turn it off, the PC freezes at the Shutting down screen. And the loading circle keeps circling. 

 

I came across another very similar thread to this issue with no solution (sorry, I cannot find it again) and basically I try to keep my Task Manager open all the time and then freezes happen rarely. They do happen but not as frequent as it used to be. One time I let Malwarebyte scan my PC for 8 hours (all drives) while I browsed and put my GPU to 100% usage and the PC did not freeze.

Anyway, if my task manager is left open or if I open it during freeze, it doesn't respond or doesn't open properly. But in the background nothing speaks about conspicuous mining. is my GPU failing?

[Tetras]

2 minutes ago, Folktale said:

with Samsung SSD

Which specifically?

[Folktale]

Just now, Tetras said:

Which specifically?

EVO 860 256GB

[KidKid]

3 minutes ago, Folktale said:

I have a Ryzen 1600, 1050 TI PC with Samsung SSD. Recently, it's been a few good months, and my PC randomly freezes. Everything freezes except the taskbar. And if I keep delaying to either turn off or restart, my taskbar also starts freezing. Then I can use Ctrl+Alt+DEL to get to log in screen and turn off or restart from there. I checked my RAM with memory Diagnose and it came out fine. I checked wiring of CPU/GPU and exchanged RAM places and still same thing. My Graphics drivers are up to date along with my OS (Win 10). 

 

Another scenario happens when my computer freezes, and if I manage to turn it off, the PC freezes at the Shutting down screen. And the loading circle keeps circling. 

 

I came across another very similar thread to this issue with no solution (sorry, I cannot find it again) and basically I try to keep my Task Manager open all the time and then freezes happen rarely. They do happen but not as frequent as it used to be. One time I let Malwarebyte scan my PC for 8 hours (all drives) while I browsed and put my GPU to 100% usage and the PC did not freeze.

Anyway, if my task manager is left open or if I open it during freeze, it doesn't respond or doesn't open properly. But in the background nothing speaks about conspicuous mining. is my GPU failing?

How full (and old) is your SSD? Make sure your SSD is the boot drive, not the HDD. 

[Folktale]

3 minutes ago, KidKid said:

How full (and old) is your SSD? Make sure your SSD is the boot drive, not the HDD. 

 

Yes it is my Boot drive and it is almost 6 years old. 75GB free space

 

[ChrisLoudon]

3 minutes ago, Folktale said:

I have a Ryzen 1600, 1050 TI PC with Samsung SSD. Recently, it's been a few good months, and my PC randomly freezes. Everything freezes except the taskbar. And if I keep delaying to either turn off or restart, my taskbar also starts freezing. Then I can use Ctrl+Alt+DEL to get to log in screen and turn off or restart from there. I checked my RAM with memory Diagnose and it came out fine. I checked wiring of CPU/GPU and exchanged RAM places and still same thing. My Graphics drivers are up to date along with my OS (Win 10). 

 

Another scenario happens when my computer freezes, and if I manage to turn it off, the PC freezes at the Shutting down screen. And the loading circle keeps circling. 

 

I came across another very similar thread to this issue with no solution (sorry, I cannot find it again) and basically I try to keep my Task Manager open all the time and then freezes happen rarely. They do happen but not as frequent as it used to be. One time I let Malwarebyte scan my PC for 8 hours (all drives) while I browsed and put my GPU to 100% usage and the PC did not freeze.

Anyway, if my task manager is left open or if I open it during freeze, it doesn't respond or doesn't open properly. But in the background nothing speaks about conspicuous mining. is my GPU failing?

Hi buddy,

 

Are you able to look at the Windows Event viewer to see if there's anything useful in there that might shed some light on the situation?

 

In the search bar, type 'Event Viewer' then navigate to Windows Logs then you can either look at 'System' or 'Application'.

 

Now, to be clear, most of the info contained within these logs is kinda gibberish but sometimes you can spot the culprit if you scroll down to the timestamp of when things went awry last.

 

Another thing to try is do a fresh install of Windows. While its a bit of a ball-ache especially if you've got loads of files / apps / games that need backing up, it is generally the best way of weeding out software or hardware related issues.

[Folktale]

8 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy,

 

Are you able to look at the Windows Event viewer to see if there's anything useful in there that might shed some light on the situation?

 

In the search bar, type 'Event Viewer' then navigate to Windows Logs then you can either look at 'System' or 'Application'.

 

Now, to be clear, most of the info contained within these logs is kinda gibberish but sometimes you can spot the culprit if you scroll down to the timestamp of when things went awry last.

 

Another thing to try is do a fresh install of Windows. While its a bit of a ball-ache especially if you've got loads of files / apps / games that need backing up, it is generally the best way of weeding out software or hardware related issues.

yes there are some events but not sure which one

 

 

[Fasauceome]

You can check for corrupt system files, open CMD as an administrator and type "sfc -scannow"

[podkall]

19 minutes ago, Folktale said:

I checked my RAM with memory Diagnose and it came out fine. I checked wiring of CPU/GPU and exchanged RAM places and still same thing. My Graphics drivers are up to date along with my OS (Win 10). 

If you have 2 sticks, you can check each individually by taking out one and using the other, seeing if the problem fixes, or gets worse, or if nothing changes.

[Folktale]

5 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

You can check for corrupt system files, open CMD as an administrator and type "sfc -scannow"

already done that multiple times and everything is fine. 

[Folktale]

6 minutes ago, podkall said:

If you have 2 sticks, you can check each individually by taking out one and using the other, seeing if the problem fixes, or gets worse, or if nothing changes.

You sure it is RAM problem? Cause memoryDiagnostic said RAM is fine 

[podkall]

1 minute ago, Folktale said:

You sure it is RAM problem? Cause memoryDiagnostic said RAM is fine 

What kind of memory diagnostic? Never heared of that application.

 

If you want to try other app, and have USB drive (because it doesn't work by install), you can try memtest86 https://www.memtest86.com/

[KidKid]

21 minutes ago, Folktale said:

 

Yes it is my Boot drive and it is almost 6 years old. 75GB free space

 

Maybe try a new SSD.

[Folktale]

2 minutes ago, podkall said:

What kind of memory diagnostic? Never heared of that application.

 

If you want to try other app, and have USB drive (because it doesn't work by install), you can try memtest86 https://www.memtest86.com/

Windows Memory Diagnostic.  

[ChrisLoudon]

12 minutes ago, Folktale said:

yes there are some events but not sure which one

Is there anything within the 'System' part of the Event Viewer?

 

In my experience, errors within the 'Application' section usually show app crashes or crashes to desktop.

 

Windows Logs > System errors typically detail proper crashes like Blue Screens or system freezes.

 

Ignore the 'Critical' error that follows you power cycling the PC without doing a proper shutdown.

 

Personally, I'd get your files backed up to the cloud where possible, get a Win 10 install USB stick made up and do a fresh Windows install. I tend to find its the quickest way to rule out something more sinister.

[podkall]

Just now, Folktale said:

Windows Memory Diagnostic.  

Interesting, nobody ever recommended this here, so hard to tell how good the Windows Memory Diagnostic really is.

[Folktale]

7 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Is there anything within the 'System' part of the Event Viewer?

 

In my experience, errors within the 'Application' section usually show app crashes or crashes to desktop.

 

Windows Logs > System errors typically detail proper crashes like Blue Screens or system freezes.

 

Ignore the 'Critical' error that follows you power cycling the PC without doing a proper shutdown.

 

Personally, I'd get your files backed up to the cloud where possible, get a Win 10 install USB stick made up and do a fresh Windows install. I tend to find its the quickest way to rule out something more sinister.

I am in the middle of a project and cannot afford a clean install for some days. Restarting does the trick but fresh install is not an option for few days. I am trying  a fresh GPU driver installation. Then I will try the memory check sugegsted by @podkall

[Folktale]

9 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Is there anything within the 'System' part of the Event Viewer?

 

In my experience, errors within the 'Application' section usually show app crashes or crashes to desktop.

 

Windows Logs > System errors typically detail proper crashes like Blue Screens or system freezes.

 

Ignore the 'Critical' error that follows you power cycling the PC without doing a proper shutdown.

 

Personally, I'd get your files backed up to the cloud where possible, get a Win 10 install USB stick made up and do a fresh Windows install. I tend to find its the quickest way to rule out something more sinister.

This is the only error I Found in System Log. 

 

[thekingofmonks]

Use OCCT to test for stability. Test each category for at least ~1 hour until it finds an error

 

https://www.ocbase.com/

[jmwhite33]

@Folktale

found this, it's older but may be the answer;

 

[Folktale]

55 minutes ago, jmwhite33 said:

@Folktale

found this, it's older but may be the answer;

 

Longshot. Tried it. Will see if this improves. 

[Folktale]

On 6/23/2025 at 9:32 PM, jmwhite33 said:

@Folktale

found this, it's older but may be the answer;

 

This worked. Might be too soon to say but touchwood. 

[jmwhite33]

6 hours ago, Folktale said:

This worked. Might be too soon to say but touchwood. 

Good, glad to hear.

[Folktale]

On 6/25/2025 at 8:09 PM, jmwhite33 said:

Good, glad to hear.

Problem came again. 

[Folktale]

Used DDU. Uninstalled GPU driver. Did a clean fresh install of studio Nvidia driver. No help. But I gained over 17GB of free disk space in C because of DDU. Also did 2 passes of RAM using memtest and results came fine.