Taskmanager freeze, unable to properly launch or stop games

I have a relatively new pc built 2 months ago. Everything was smooth until 2 days ago.

-First the pc didnt power on, although rgb lights from motherboard were on. Moving it to another socket fixed this, after moving back to original socket it also worked again.

-After playing a 1 hour long barotrauma session with my friend through steam i tried to launch another game. Game became unresponsive during launch. Tried taskmanager, but it would freeze. Tried shutting down through steam but it was stuck on "stop". Trying to launch amd adrelanine (gpu controller) would also fail, while browser would still work without issues.

-After shutting down and powering on the pc again, the games i tried to launch earlier would still show up on steam as "running", taskmanager would freeze and remain unresponsive.

-Powered down the pc completely and unplugged it for hours, issues remained.

-Reinstalling windows would reset things until i tried launching a game again. After that the same things happen again. I tried several methods for reinstalling windows 11 including a clean install from an usb. However results would remain the same.

-Ran stress tests on my cpu and gpu without issues

-My home didn't experience any blackouts or electricity related problems

PC specs:

Motherboard: ASRock B650M PG Lightning

Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB PULSE

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7GHz Socket AM5

PSU: Seasonic Focus GX 750W

SSD with OS: 250GB Kingston SSD M.2 NVMe NV2

SSD with games: 1TB Kingston SSD M.2 NVMe NV2

RAM: G.SKILL 2*16GB DDR5 6000MHz CL30

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions!

Hi, Welcome to BC.
 
From a DOS Command Prompt from START | type cmd.exe into the start search box | RIGHT-click on cmd.exe | select "Run as Administrator" then Copy/Paste --> :
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command then Enter  if it finds problems then reboot. (Completed Successfully : means reboot)
then
 after reboot run from another CMD Admin Prompt SFC /SCANNOW and reboot if it fixes anything.
 
So when doing a Reset or a Clean Install the 1st thing after installing Windows is disconnect from the internet.
Install your Motherboard Drivers you previously Downloaded starting with the Chipset reboot and SATA and rest of your drivers Video, ect with tons of reboots.
 
Now you say the name of your M/B is : ASRock B650M PG Lightning is it just that or is it ASRock B650M PG Lightning WIFI  ?????  There is a slight difference.
Is the BIOS Current ??
 
Your ram is too fast for the Chip.  Do not use XMP.  : Max Memory Speed   2x1R   DDR5-5200
https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-7600x
 
Sapphire Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB PULSE Are you using Trix  ?? If so set the Video Card Back to Stock.
AMD

• Right-click on your desktop and select AMD Radeon Settings.
• Click the Preferences tab.
• Select Restore Factory Defaults.

Do not take Windows Update Drivers : Only the Makers of the Hardware.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-automatic-driver-updates-windows-10 /11
Never Video Card Drivers
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/146562-prevent-windows-update-updating-specific-device-driver.html
and
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-roll-back-device-driver-windows-10
 
In Bios Turn off anything that speeds up the Boot : example ASUS Fast Boot for the same reasons as below :
Turn off MS Fast Start : https://www.windowscentral.com/how-roll-back-device-driver-windows-10 /11 and WHY !!!
If use Optimized Defaults you turn it back on.
 
Note : if you are at a minimal install do another Clean Install.  If not continue below :
 
Please Post a "link" of Speccy Report.
Please install Speccy Free : https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/speccy.html
Use Custom Install
  At the Top Left Corner of Speccy --> Click File and then Click Publish Snapshot Report, a window will popup and Click YES. --> Another popup will appear and then Click "Copy To Clipboard" then Paste that "link" to your next reply in your thread.
 
Note : the Microsoft Store is a Integral Part of Updating Windows 11.
Open the MS Store and go down the left side to Library and install only what you use.
 
Download Minitoolbox from the below link :
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/minitoolbox/
  Run the tool and only select the following tick boxes.
    -List last 10 Event viewer errors
    -List installed programs
    -List devices
    -List users, partition and memory size
Now click "Go" and Copy/Paste and post the output text in your next reply


Kingston SSD Tools if not installed : https://www.kingston.com/en/support/technical/ssdmanager
 
If above does not do Firmware Confirm your SSD : 1TB Kingston SSD M.2 NVMe NV2
https://www.kingston.com/en/support/technical/products/snv2s

 

Edited by hamluis, 01 April 2024 - 08:46 AM.
Combined 2 posts - Hamluis.

Hello, thanks for the quick reply, im at the first step only and it did find problems, will keep you updated on how things are going, motherboard is the non-wifi version
 

Edited by hamluis, 01 April 2024 - 08:45 AM.

You can also run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore from an administrator command prompt.

 

If it reports that the "Number of Reclaimable Packages" is "0", and that "Component Store Cleanup Recommended" is "No", you can SKIP doing the below.

 

However, if it reports that the "Number of Reclaimable Packages" is "1" or more, you can run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup.

 

Then, anyway, you can run Dism /Cleanup-Mountpoints, and reboot your computer.

 

Good luck!