Hey there,
I am at a bit of a loss as to where to turn to for some much needed help/advice on an issue with my computer that has led to it being unusable as of last week.
I have a customer built gaming PC, that I’ve had for less than two years (bought it around 16th July 2016). The guy that built is lives in Scotland, so it’s difficult for him to come down here to have a look at the computer for me, so he advised to get a local PC repair service to have a look at it. As it’s less than two years old still, all the components are still within warranty, so if any need replacing I’ll be able to RMA them before 14th July.
For a while now my computer has been locking up now and then when I’ve been playing a game (mainly WoW, since that’s my main game). It was fairly infrequent, and a quick reboot usually solved the issue. I’d be playing a game and the screen would completely lock up, the sound would just be a continual loop of whatever sound was happening when it locked, and I couldn’t do anything until I rebooted; sometimes it would automatically reboot on its own, but most often I would just have to manually reboot it. As I say, it was fairly infrequent though still annoying, but a quick reset an it seemed to work.
Last week, however, it kept doing it whenever I loaded up a game, and then suddenly it wouldn’t even get to the game, it’d just lock up even when getting to the desktop. I’d boot it up, it’d go past the BIOS, get to the desktop, and after a minute the whole screen would just lock up, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it.
One thing I was able to do was run the machine in Safe Mode. I could load into Safe Mode and stay in there for hours and it doesn’t lock up. I can even load up a game in Safe Mode (but the frame rate was like 4 fps), but as soon as I come out of Safe Mode and go to normal Windows Mode it locks up.
I’ve tried all the usual stuff like updating all my drivers, I’ve tried updating/resetting the BIOS, I’ve tried to ensure that all the Windows updates are installed, I’ve tried unplugging all my USB devices. I’ve even tried to perform the Windows reset where it keeps your documents but removes everything else, and it starts the process, gets to about 36% and then just locks up and doesn’t continue. Finally, I tried to do a complete reset within Windows, rather than the one that keeps the documents, it crashed whilst performing it, and now whenever I load up the computer it goes past the BIOS, gets to a blue screen saying ‘Please Wait’ and then just stays on there indefinitely, never moving forward, often freezing on the screen itself as well.
So, after seeking advice from a few forums, and from the original builder, I downloaded a Windows 10 new install to a USB, and tried to boot a fresh install from the BIOS. Went in and deleted all my partitions, then created a new partition the size of the main drive and went to install on there.
It started off fine, went to the installing part and then froze. Tried it again and as it was doing it once again it froze. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what will solve the problem. After spending so much money on this computer, and with it still being within manufacturer’s warranty for the next month, I really want to get this sorted. I’m not that technically minded myself, so I’m trying fixes based off advice rather than knowledge.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope to hear from you soon.
I am at a bit of a loss as to where to turn to for some much needed help/advice on an issue with my computer that has led to it being unusable as of last week.
I have a customer built gaming PC, that I’ve had for less than two years (bought it around 16th July 2016). The guy that built is lives in Scotland, so it’s difficult for him to come down here to have a look at the computer for me, so he advised to get a local PC repair service to have a look at it. As it’s less than two years old still, all the components are still within warranty, so if any need replacing I’ll be able to RMA them before 14th July.
For a while now my computer has been locking up now and then when I’ve been playing a game (mainly WoW, since that’s my main game). It was fairly infrequent, and a quick reboot usually solved the issue. I’d be playing a game and the screen would completely lock up, the sound would just be a continual loop of whatever sound was happening when it locked, and I couldn’t do anything until I rebooted; sometimes it would automatically reboot on its own, but most often I would just have to manually reboot it. As I say, it was fairly infrequent though still annoying, but a quick reset an it seemed to work.
Last week, however, it kept doing it whenever I loaded up a game, and then suddenly it wouldn’t even get to the game, it’d just lock up even when getting to the desktop. I’d boot it up, it’d go past the BIOS, get to the desktop, and after a minute the whole screen would just lock up, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it.
One thing I was able to do was run the machine in Safe Mode. I could load into Safe Mode and stay in there for hours and it doesn’t lock up. I can even load up a game in Safe Mode (but the frame rate was like 4 fps), but as soon as I come out of Safe Mode and go to normal Windows Mode it locks up.
I’ve tried all the usual stuff like updating all my drivers, I’ve tried updating/resetting the BIOS, I’ve tried to ensure that all the Windows updates are installed, I’ve tried unplugging all my USB devices. I’ve even tried to perform the Windows reset where it keeps your documents but removes everything else, and it starts the process, gets to about 36% and then just locks up and doesn’t continue. Finally, I tried to do a complete reset within Windows, rather than the one that keeps the documents, it crashed whilst performing it, and now whenever I load up the computer it goes past the BIOS, gets to a blue screen saying ‘Please Wait’ and then just stays on there indefinitely, never moving forward, often freezing on the screen itself as well.
So, after seeking advice from a few forums, and from the original builder, I downloaded a Windows 10 new install to a USB, and tried to boot a fresh install from the BIOS. Went in and deleted all my partitions, then created a new partition the size of the main drive and went to install on there.
It started off fine, went to the installing part and then froze. Tried it again and as it was doing it once again it froze. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what will solve the problem. After spending so much money on this computer, and with it still being within manufacturer’s warranty for the next month, I really want to get this sorted. I’m not that technically minded myself, so I’m trying fixes based off advice rather than knowledge.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope to hear from you soon.
