PC is locking up, no BSOD

[kamikazekeeg]

Out of nowhere I'm watching something streaming on Amazon Prime, when my screen locks up, turning just some whitish/peach color (Which may be due to my f.lux screen dimming program, I'm not sure), but I'm not getting a blue screen or anything.  It just freezes, no amount of button pressing does anything, no frozen sound, just silence, and my computer sounds fine, but I'm forced to restart from the tower.

I'm using Windows 10 and if anyone has any idea what is up, I had it happen twice tonight.  I'm not sure if it's related, but lately, Chrome has had this weird flickering thing to it, where it'll flicker abit and once I move my mouse around or scroll up/down abit, it goes away, but it happens regularly.  I just tried reinstalling Chrome and I'm doing a clean install of my graphics card, but I'm unsure of what is going on right now.

Windows 10 64 Bit
i5 4670k
8gb DDR3
4gb Nvidia GTX 970
Asus Z87-A Socket 1150 Mobo

[fighterpilot562]

From a quick google search (mind you, i dont know much about computers), it could be a bad graphic card.... Have you inspected it yet?

[kamikazekeeg]

From a quick google search (mind you, i dont know much about computers), it could be a bad graphic card.... Have you inspected it yet?

I can take it out, clean it, and then just see if anything happens afterwards, but I can't really "inspect it".  Speccy says it's at the usual 40 degrees C, so it doesn't seem to be overheating out of the blue that I can tell.  It's annoying that there is no BSOD, because then I can't check the reliability report that stores problems.  The only thing I get are the forced shutdowns I do.

I've updated my graphics card with a clean install and come morning if it doesn't happen again, I'll physically clean it.  I'm just looking for ideas should anything come up again.  Really bad timing for this to happen.  No way to replace hardware, especially if it's an expensive graphics card.  Even just replacing the card for the same one I bought last year would cost 300 bucks.

[davifus]

Something to try
- Try running Memtest. [to check if your ram is bad]
- Any CPU OR GPU Stress test
- update any hardware drivers
- it could be malware

[dreama1]

So much for PC master race.

[kamikazekeeg]

So much for PC master race.

Yeah, snark, that's whats gonna help me out here.  Thanks.

[gf78]

So much for PC master race.

Yeah, snark, that's whats gonna help me out here.  Thanks.

LOL.  But on topic, I have seen this before when graphics cards are near death.  I had similar issues with an old Radeon card.  Things would be fine, then it would just lock up with a distorted screen, such as strange characters or "bars" across the screen that looked like a bar graph.  Like Davifus said, there are numerous things that could cause that.  His suggestions are solid to start with.

[karyann]

Something to try
- Try running Memtest. [to check if your ram is bad]
- Any CPU OR GPU Stress test
- update any hardware drivers
- it could be malware

Thirding this. Faulty hardware is sneaky and causes a lot of issues, so those are pretty much the best starting point.

[tripredacus]

If you can repeat the issue, run OCCT on the video card. If you get any errors in the first 3 minutes, replace the card. If your card is under warranty, contact the manufacturer. In my experience, bad cards will show errors within 10-15 seconds.

Alternatively, if a video card generates errors with OCCT, it doesn't mean it is garbage. I use failed cards for testing purposes, such as testing computers where they are only going to use 2d. 3d or any video work won't be used due to the reliability issues.

[kamikazekeeg]

Thanks for the help folks.  I bought my graphics card in July of last year I think, so maybe there's a chance it's still under warranty if it turns out to be the problem?  I've had graphic card problems before, so usually I've been able to tell when it is one of those with a BSOD or the graphical bugs, but never had just a clear white'ish screen before.  I'll try and get tests done and do a cleaning of my tower, since it's been a little bit I guess.