Hello,

I've run into a strange issue a few days back. To provide some background information, my computer (not my simming computer) has always run perfectly fine except for some stutters occasionally. The screen would randomly freeze for about a sec or less and the audio would make kind of a shrieking noise. Happened sometimes when watching YouTube videos and, though much more seldom, while playing games. Annoying but I never thought about it.

Now a few days back while playing a game I've played for years without any issue, all of a sudden my computer froze a couple minutes after starting the game. Screen stuck, no cursor and that horrific shrieking noise wouldn't stop. I tried to resuscitate the computer but it was all over the place so I cut the power by switching off the PSU to get it to reboot. It did and I selected 'Start Windows normally' instead of safe mode which had always worked fine. I fired up the game again only for the computer to completely freeze a few minutes in. Again, no chance of recovering so I was forced to cut the power again. This time though, all hell broke loose. Weird blue stripes on the initial screen after pressing the power button that weren't there before. Selecting 'Start Windows normally' got me to the Windows loading screen. However, starting Windows was aborted and a blue screen appeared (picture attached). You can even see other colour 'stains' in the background. First line which is missing in the picture says Windows was prevented from starting to avoid damage to the computer. Utterly shocked I attempted to start Windows in safe mode which worked fine. I also tried the problem troubleshooting thingy but it wouldn't find any problem. I can access the boot menu and bios normally.

I regularly switch between computers and use the same audio system and keyboard/mouse for both so I have to plug in and out frequently. Since the screen tells me to try to remove any newly installed hardware I did so but that didn't help. As well, I have not installed any hard- nor software for quite some time and I simply ran the computer the same way I did the hundred times before this mess when everything was fine.

Recently, I had a similar problem like this where the computer wouldn't start. After one or two attempts though it started normally and all worked as always.

https://pasteboard.co/GDcbJT9.jpg

If safe mode is working then perhaps it is a driver issue since those are normally not loaded in safe mode. If you have windows update in auto-mode
new drivers could have been downloaded without you noticing.

14 hours ago, BuboBubo said:

If safe mode is working then perhaps it is a driver issue since those are normally not loaded in safe mode. If you have windows update in auto-mode
new drivers could have been downloaded without you noticing.

It's actually fixed already. Forgot about this thread. It was the GPU which broke down.