My PC started freezing at random, out of nowhere, with no trigger. A full clean install of Windows didn't fix it. Worse: almost every fix I tried seemed to work for a few days... and then the problem came back. After weeks of ruling out suspects (RAM, disk, drivers, Explorer, two keyboards, two mouses, USB ports, BIOS, background software), I found out the middle-click switch on my Logitech G502 was firing phantom clicks on its own. Each phantom click triggered auto-scroll, which captures the mouse for the foreground window... every other window went "dead," looking exactly like a system freeze. Fix: disabled the middle button in the mouse's onboard profile.

Consider this a guide for everyone out there chasing a 'random freezing' problem, ruling out suspect after suspect and finding nothing, who, like me, never once thought to suspect the mouse. I used IA to help me describe everything.

How it started:

One day the PC simply began "freezing" at random. No new hardware, no new software, no update I could tie it to, nothing had changed. It would lock up out of nowhere, sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes longer, and then go back to normal as if nothing had happened. No pattern: it could happen twice in an hour, or not at all for days.

My first assumption was the usual one: "Windows is broken somehow". So I went nuclear early: a full clean install. Wiped the drive, reinstalled everything from scratch.

The problem survived the clean install. In hindsight, that was the loudest clue in the whole case so far.

The symptoms, in detail.

If you're searching for something similar, here's the exact fingerprint. During a "freeze":

• The cursor moved normally, but clicks did nothing;
• Ctrl+Alt+Del responded instantly, and coming back from it, everything returned to normal;
• Alt+Tab worked during the "freeze";
• The scroll wheel worked;
• Only the foreground program responded, everything else was dead, even when I brought it to the front with Alt+Tab;
• And the weirdest part: sometimes the auto-scroll cursor (the middle-click one) appeared without me clicking anything.

The pattern that fooled me 3 times.

This is the part I most want people to find, because it's what kept me chasing the wrong suspects for weeks. Almost every fix I tried appeared to work:

• Moved the mouse to a different USB port → quiet for days → relapse;
• Cleaned the keyboard and the Logitech G502 with isopropyl alcohol → quiet for days → relapse;
• Replaced the entire keyboard → quiet for ~3 days → relapse.

Everything that got ruled out (in order, so you can appreciate the size of this rabbit hole).

1. Full clean install of Windows → problem persisted;
2. RAM in Task Manager → low usage, all normal;
3. Disk (CrystalDiskInfo) → clean SMART;
4. CPU/GPU temps → fine;
5. Windows Memory Diagnostic → no errors;
6. Hung Explorer? → Restarting explorer.exe during a freeze changed nothing;
7. Moved the mouse to another USB port → "fixed it" for a few days... then it came back;
8. Replaced the ENTIRE mouse → "fixed it" for a moment... then it came back (or I thought so?!);
9. Disabled USB selective suspend + removed ghost devices in Device Manager → nothing;
10. Stuck modifier key? (phantom Ctrl/Alt/Shift) → cleaned the keyboard with isopropyl alcohol → "fixed it" for days... then it came back;
11. Replaced the ENTIRE keyboard → "fixed it" for 3 days... then it came back;
12. XMP → this one deserves its own chapter: I enabled the 5600 profile and got a blue screen. Turns out the i7-12700KF (12th gen) officially supports only DDR5-4800 on the memory controller. Disabled it, BSODs gone (but the "freezes" weren't);
13. Gigabyte's DDR5 Auto Booster → it was on "Auto," silently overclocking my RAM to 5000 without my knowledge. Disabled it → nothing;
14. Updated BIOS and chipset drivers → nothing;
15. Fury CTRL (RAM RGB software) → uninstalled → nothing;
16. Clean boot (msconfig) → problem CONTINUED even in a clean boot;
17. Filter drivers in the input stack (reg query on the keyboard/mouse classes) → clean, only kbdclass and mouclass;
18. Logitech G Hub → uninstalled → problem persisted.

Eighteen suspects. Eighteen acquittals.

The turning point.

Three clues closed the net:

Clue 1: during one "freeze," the browser accepted clicks but the Start menu didn't. Later, the reverse. Meaning: the system was NEVER frozen, something was stealing the clicks.

Clue 2: Alt+Tab brought another window to the front, but it stayed dead to clicks. That's the signature of stuck mouse capture: when a window captures the mouse, ALL clicks go to it, no matter what's in front. Keyboard focus and mouse capture are independent things in Windows. And the Ctrl+Alt+Del secure desktop forcibly cancels the capture — which is why it "unfroze" everything.

Clue 3: the auto-scroll cursor showing up on its own. Auto-scroll is triggered by the middle click (clicking the wheel). If it appears with nobody clicking... the system is receiving middle clicks nobody sent.

Caught red-handed.

I opened an online mouse tester site and left it running. Result: MIDDLE CLICKS counting up on their own, with my hands off the mouse. Spinning the wheel 700 times registered 4 phantom clicks the switch fires from vibration, I guess.

The complete mechanism of the "freeze," explained:

1. The worn middle-click switch fires a phantom click;
2. The foreground window enters auto-scroll mode and captures the mouse;
3. Every other window goes dead to clicks (even via Alt+Tab), scrolling still works (pan mode), the cursor moves normally;
4. Ctrl+Alt+Del → secure desktop cancels the capture → "everything goes back to normal."

Every bizarre symptom, explained by ONE ten-millimeter component.

Bonus: the button also had a double failure: it fired on its own, but didn't register when I clicked it on purpose (likely a cold solder joint or degraded internal contact: vibration closes the circuit, pressure opens it).

The fix

Reinstalled G Hub for 10 minutes just for this: enabled the G502's onboard memory and assigned "Disable" to the middle button. It's stored in the mouse's own chip: works with no software running at all. The switch can fire all it wants: the mouse no longer transmits anything from that button. Then I uninstalled G Hub again.

Open-link-in-new-tab can be remapped to a side button, or just use Ctrl+left click.

Lessons (for anyone hunting a similar ghost)

1. If Ctrl+Alt+Del responds instantly, your PC is NOT frozen. Locked-up hardware doesn't open the secure desktop. The problem is software/input in your session;
2. If the cursor moves but clicks are dead, suspect stuck mouse capture: a phantom button (from the mouse OR another HID device) or a stuck modifier key;
3. Auto-scroll cursor appearing on its own = phantom middle click. Go straight to a mouse tester;
4. With an intermittent problem, "it stopped after I did X" proves nothing. Only "it came back despite X" proves anything. Set a trial period (I used 7 days) before declaring victory;
5. An online mouse tester is the most underrated diagnostic tool there is: leave it running in the background and it catches the phantom event with a timestamp;

If you're going through something similar: test Alt+Tab during the "freeze," check whether scrolling still works, and leave a mouse tester open. It might save you the weeks I lost.

I’ve had my SanDisk 512 GB flash drive plugged into my desktop computer for years, and for some reason now my computer recognizes that the flash drive is connected, but I can’t access or see its contents. When I try to click on it, it says it’s write-protected.

The contents are really important, there are family photos and videos we’ve been taking for years. I want to recover the files without resetting the flash drive— is there a way I can access the files?

I tried to do some research before writing here, but the topics were really old and they were talking about formatting the flash drive. I don't care about the flash drive, I just want to recover the files.

I have been trying to delete hp sure click off of my laptop and it wont delete it just runs persistently on task manager even after i end the task is there any way to get rid of it and if not what even is it

im on windows 11

Recently I realized that my GPU's temperature was 93°C while playing Black Ops 7 because it kept alerting me. At first I thought maybe I'm running my graphics too high or maybe it was because I was playing while shaders were pre-loading. So I decided to lower the graphics over and over until minimum and it was still at the same temperature. After that I decided to take my PC outside to clean the inside. I also cleaned my room, then I deleted a few apps I don't use and cleared up space. But the problem is that now its just at 92°C while no apps are open. I have no idea what to do or what is causing this problem.

Update: After further inspecting I realized my GPU’s weren’t spinning at all while in a COD match. I have no clue why but when I closed the match and tried to see if I could change the fan speed the fan did start spinning but made this weird sound like rattling sort of.

I'm having the same issue as in this post (and the comment from December 2025):

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/s/5EuwMHADFm

My bluetooth often turns itself off, a restart usually fixes this but it's happening more frequently now. I have no external antivirus software as stated in that post, only Windows' own.

I only use BT for my mouse, which does NOT have a USB dongle to plug in to connect it via BT, though I have ordered one now because this issue doesn't seem to be going away and I'm hoping having a dongle will fix it. also, if I turn the BT off myself, I'm not able to turn it back on. I can flick the switch but it just greys out and doesn't actually turn BT on.

I have an ASUS TUF gaming laptop if that means anything in context of the problem.

I have tried:

-disabling and enabling BT on device manager

-uninstalling and installing an updated driver from the ASUS website

-turned off power saving options that causes BT to turn off

-restarted BT support services, also toggled it to run automatically

also:

when BT gets turned off, often device manager lists one of 3 things each time: "the device is working properly" "there are no drivers installed" or "code 45"

I normally don't have this problem but this started yesterday for whatever reason.

Directly went up to 93% memory usage with basic startup apps, I know those are not the problem because I never had this.

Had CRAZY frames drop and low fps when playing ow because it makes the usage go to 99%.

Idk what the problem is, ig it's something hidden

I am not the most knowledgeable person on computer parts or software or anything and my problem has officially exceeded my competence. Please help.

CONTEXT
I live in a apartment with my roommate, his room is in the opposite side of the apartment and he also has a stationary gaming pc. His PC is connected to the internet via a ethernet outlet (or whatever it is called) in the wall in his room, the router is in my bedroom and I'm connected directly to the router with ethernet.

What we have is 500/500 upload and download speed and that is what my roommate gets, but i get no more than about 90/90 at best.

This has been a problem for a bit over a year now and I've moved apartments since then so I'm pretty certain it's a computer problem and nothing to do with the router or provider, especially since its just me having these issues and not my roommate. I play a lot of valorant and i get high ping spikes that makes the game unplayable. I'm also having trouble with other games like dead by daylight. More recently my mouse/corsair has also started lagging in a way where i cant move it smoothly across my screen, its janky and laggy (this is a newer problem and I don't know if it's even related).

WHAT I'VE TRIED/CHECKED
- Switching ethernet cables (I currently have a brand new cat7 cable)
- Switched to Wi-Fi
- Updated motherboard
- Updated all my drivers
- Done a full scan for viruses
- Checked for windows updates
- No VPN's
- I reset my computer some months back
- Dusted the inside of my computer (I switched cabinets about a year ago so everything was taken out and dusted properly then, but it's also been dusted since then, I think last time was in April/May).
- Checked CPU temperature (listed further down)

COMPUTER SPECS
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight-Core Processor (3.70 GHz)
- Installed RAM: 32.0 GB
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (11 GB)
- Storage: 787 GB of 1.78 TB used
- System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

CPU TEMPERATURES

SENSOR |CURRENT |MINIMUM |MAXIMUM |AVERAGE
CPU (Tctl) |51.1℃ |43.0℃ |51.9℃ |45.7℃
CPU (Tdie) |41.1℃ |33.0℃ |41.9℃ |35.7℃
CPU Die |34.1℃ |31.5℃ |37.7℃ |33.9℃
Core Temperatures |31.0℃ |28.6℃ |36.6℃ |31.1℃
L3 Temperatures |30.3℃ |29.3℃ |32.4℃ |30.3℃ DESCRIPTION OF THE LAG
It seems like the lag gets worse the more i play and the more time that goes by, and gets better (but not fixed) when I turn my computer off for a bit (I'll often stop playing and shut down my PC in the evening because the lag is so bad and frustrating, and when I turn it on the next day it's better). The lag, in addition to what I described earlier with the corsair being janky and unsmooth, is as if time stops in-game, everyone is running in place for a few seconds and i cant hear anything (not in discord either), and then it "syncs" back. That's when it's really bad, but most of the time discord doesn't lag out and it's only the game and my PC being slow, teammates and enemies will teleport but it's not constant.

THINGS THAT COULD BE RELEVANT (BUT I HAVE NO IDEA)
I also can't play blue prince, a single player puzzle game that to my knowledge requires no internet connection to be played. When I've played blue prince everything starts off fine and then at some point in the first 2 minutes of gameplay it's as if everything is moving in slow motion, movements are smooth and not at all janky, just very very slow.

If I use my camera in discord, the picture will be delayed by 3-5 seconds. I say something and my friends hear it right away, and then the camera shows me speaking 3-5 seconds later.

My computer fans are very loud and always have been, both in my old cabinet and in my new one. I often get comments about it from my roommate or if I have friends over, and I get shocked when I hear their computers because compared to theirs's, mine sounds like an airplane engine.

SUMMARY
Internet speed is way lower than it's supposed to, ping spikes in valorant and dead by daylight, other issues with games like blue prince, PC generally runs slow, corsair/mouse lags.

It appears to be a way bigger problem in valorant than any other game so idk if it's something to do with riot but there is definitely something going on with my computer.

If you've taken the time to read all this to try and help I really appreciate you. Thank you.
__________________________________________

Edit: thanks to help from some really nice people in here I’ve troubleshooted pretty much everything, at least everything obvious, the only thing that’s come up is that my CPU is not officially supported by my motherboard so I’m gonna switch it out with one that works and hopefully that fixes the problems, I’ll try to remember to keep this post updated when the cpu gets here

I purchased a new PC from Newegg and I have to return it since it is faulty.

I am factory wiping the PC using the local reset option but it has been stuck at 1% for an hour now. Is there any idea how long this will fix or what I can do?

​

Hi! I've had some problems with my PC recently and I'm completely stumped as to what the problem is.

My PC originally stopped displaying after I had left it running. When I came back, the computer itself was still on, but there was no display. I turned the monitor on and got nothing.

I initially suspected the GPU, so I tried different HDMI cables and other basic troubleshooting. I then put my husband's known-working graphics card into my PC, but I still got no display.

I then started testing the RAM. I have 4 × 8 GB Corsair DDR4 RAM. I tried running the PC with two sticks and then with just one. I noticed some very strange behaviour: with two sticks installed, my keyboard and mouse wouldn't light up, whereas with four sticks they would.

There was also one occasion during troubleshooting where the display briefly came back and the PC successfully booted into Windows. It stayed working for around 4–5 minutes, and then the display cut out completely again.

I have also tried clearing the CMOS. After doing this, I briefly got a message on the screen saying that the CMOS had been cleared. This was while using my husband's graphics card. However, that message never appeared again, and I haven't been able to get any display since.

The GPU testing is where I'm especially confused:

- My husband's known-working GPU in my PC: no display, and the CPU debug light comes on. There is no VGA debug light.

- My RTX 3060 in my husband's PC: no display, and his motherboard shows a VGA debug light.

- So both PCs are giving different diagnostic lights depending on which GPU is installed.

My current specs are:

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X

- Motherboard: MSI B550-A Pro

- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060

- RAM: Corsair 4 × 8 GB DDR4

- PSU: Corsair RM650e 650W

I have already replaced the PSU because I've had power surges in the past and initially assumed the PSU had failed. I completely rebuilt the PC today, but the problem is still there.

So I'm really confused about what is actually faulty.

The symptoms seem to point in different directions:

- My RTX 3060 doesn't display in my PC.

- My RTX 3060 also doesn't display when tested in my husband's PC, where it causes a VGA debug light.

- My husband's known-working GPU doesn't display in my PC, but my PC shows a CPU debug light instead.

- RAM configuration seems to change the behaviour of my PC.

- I have successfully reached Windows once, but only for around 4–5 minutes before losing display again.

- I have successfully received the CMOS-cleared message once, but haven't been able to reproduce it.

- The PSU has already been replaced.

- The PC has been completely rebuilt.

At this point, I'm wondering whether I could have a problem with the GPU, motherboard, CPU, RAM, or potentially multiple components.

All of my tech-support friends are completely stumped too. I don't mind buying replacement parts, but I really don't want to start replacing perfectly good components at random.

What would you test next, and is there a way to determine which component is actually faulty before I start buying new parts?

I can provide photos of the motherboard/debug LEDs and any other information that would help.

My elderly father stupidly gave details to obvious scammers. I jumped in and stopped him but the computer sign in screen was saying blocked or something along those lines. I assume the scammers on the phone were about to ask for money for it but that’s when I took the phone and essentially told them to fuck off and turned the WiFi off. I know abit about computers and built my own by I am far from an expert. Is the clean install of windows enough? We’ve called the banks and cancelled the cards and changed a lot of passwords including the Microsoft one is there anything else we need to do/worry about. The scammers seemed like amateurs in a call centre and haven’t accessed banks or the Microsoft account it seems

i usually use a wired connection but for some reason my wifi and ethernet connection settings are completely gone. i can’t run a diagnostic test bcs i don’t have internet connection.

Hi, this is my first Reddit post, and I'm here because I need some help with my PC.

I left my PC in sleep mode for quite a while because I forgot to shut it down. When I came back, I pressed a few keys to wake it up, but the monitor still showed no signal.

I tried shutting it down and turning it back on, but nothing happened. I even completely unplugged it from the power and tried again, but still no display. I also tried using the integrated graphics, and I did get a picture that way. Honestly, I really don't want to think that my GPU has failed. I don't know much about this kind of thing, so is there anything I can try to fix it or at least rule out some possible causes?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I have been trying to access the bios when booting my pc but it always seems to jump straight to my log in.

What I’ve tried so far:
All F keys and delete
Advance restart to access UEFI
CMD shutdown /r /fw /t 0

Any, and all help is appreciated right now. TIA

I bought I new battery thinking that was the culprit but the battery slowly drained with use and wouldn't charge. I replaced the charger and the adaptor so it would be compatible but still wouldn't charge. I’d show in the photos the outputs and the inputs of the charger with the numbers of the charger and the cradle but this community doesn’t allow photos.

Any advice would be super helpful.

Recently my I noticed my faceID stopped working for reasons I won’t get into (I know I can get it working again by just setting it up again, that’s not the problem).
When I brought this up in casual conversation, someone mentioned how solely relying on faceID to unlock my phone is a security risk since law enforcement and other bad actors can use it to access my phone if I’m physically present.

This got me thinking, what would be the optimal way of locking my phone? Just a password? If so, what length would be best and should it be a random string of characters or an actual word I commit to memory?

Lastly, if this isn’t the right question for this sub, could anyone point me to a better place to get a solution for this issue?

monitor will suddenly lose display and then flicker back on and then some times static lines will flicker as well. had this for about 6 years now. got a new PC 3 months ago and already tried different ports with the same results.

Hey there

I bought a mini pc fire at MN56 from AliExpress, did a clean install, installed the drivers from their site, it worked. However every time I put the pc on sleep or if I shut it off, there's no internet as if the drivers weren't installed, when I reboot the pc it works

I went into the bios and put everything on performance instead of balanced but to no avail

Much appreciated for the help

i have ryzen 5 5600x, 9060 xt, ddr4 16gb and msi b550 a pro mobo. my pc works completely fine under load but when i go away and come back it is on the login page and i know it crashed. i don’t know how to fix it and don’t wanna perform a windows reset. i’m sharing the mini dump file from windows. dump file link: https://limewire.com/d/vt5Mj#EXlAuHNcVc

My laptop (Dell XPS with Windows 11) died in the middle of a meeting. Plugged it in, now its trying and failing to update. Any way to stop the process? This has happened to me before and I would love to know if there's a fix.

I have an old Realme phone with around 39000 notes in the default Realme Notes app. They contain years of my diary/journal, personal memories, and very important information that I absolutely cannot afford to lose.

The phone still works and I can access all the notes normally.

When I connect the phone to my PC using a USB cable and browse the phone's internal storage, I cannot find any "Notes" folder or anything that seems to contain the notes.

Because there are almost 39,000 notes, manually copying them one by one isn't realistic.

Is there a safe way to:

Export all the notes in bulk?

Find/extract the Notes database from the phone?

Back them up to a PC or cloud?

Transfer them to another Android/Realme phone?

Preserve the original dates, organization, formatting, and attachments?

I'm particularly worried about doing something that could corrupt or delete the original data.

Has anyone successfully extracted or backed up a large number of notes from a Realme phone? Where are the notes actually stored, and what is the safest way to copy them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. These notes are extremely important to me.

For context I was about to watch my friends stream in discord i click his screen then suddenly my 2nd monitor,where my discord is open, kinda freezes a bit like it was about to completely hang and lags hard , i cant cross my mouse to the other monitor , i can still interact like with taskbar and windows button on my keyboard and my mouse pointer became like the I beam pointer split in half then completely apart

This is rhe second time this happend and in both instances this happened after I interacted with discord

Do any of you here have experienced something similar or know what happened?

I really would appreciate it if any of you could give me some insights about this as im a bit parsnoie sbout this

Thank you

Sorry if this is not the place to ask this, but I couldn't find a satisfying answer when I googled this. The issue I run into is, when I start a game it can take up to 8 minutes (!) to load. After I close the game and reload it takes ~10 seconds. Specifically playing Victoria 3 or Factorio.

I build my PC myself with the following specs (in 2024):

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-core

ASRock AM5 Motherboard

32 GB DDR5-6000 RAM (2x 16 GB)

Radeon RX7900 16GB VRAM

1TB SSD

The games are not installed on an older HDD, I don't have any background programs running and my drivers are up to date. Also my pc specs should be more than sufficient to run these games. Did I mess up when building it or is there some other problem I haven't considered?

Edit: so I tried to add an exception to Avast, that didn't work. Then I removed Avast and added an exception to Windows Defender. That still doesn't work. I'm now considering doing a clean reinstall of the games to see if that helps. I don't understand why upon start up it briefly shoots up to >250MB/s reading from Disk, only to then take 6 minutes at ~20MB/s

I have a desktop PC with two internal SATA drives:

- 120GB SSD — I want to install Windows 11 on this

- 1T HDD — I don't need the data on it

I don't have a USB flash drive.

Can I use the internal 1T HDD itself as the Windows 11 installation media? My plan is to prepare the HDD with Ventoy, copy the Windows 11 ISO to it, boot from the internal HDD through UEFI/BIOS, and then install Windows 11 onto the separate 120GB SSD.

Has anyone actually done this successfully with an internal SATA HDD?

Are there any problems with UEFI booting or Windows Setup when the installation media is an internal HDD?

My laptop freezes after enabling it's integrated graphics.

(HP ELITEBOOK 745 G6)

(AMD Radeon (TM) Rx Vega 10 Graphics)

Please help I need this for school.

i recently moved into my college dorm and i’ve been having weird internet issues. i’m using ethernet and it says it’s connected, but any time i try to use a browser it cuts out. i’m on a clean boot and when nothing is running i get about 900 Mbps, but as soon as i open a browser i get nothing. i’ve registered my mac address with the school, tried several browsers, flushed dns, updated drivers, did a network reset, still nothing. i’ve had 2 IT people from the school look at it and they did everything they could and still didn’t figure it out. i’ve tried all the wifi networks, same issue. i’m completely at a loss. also online games work, but surfshark doesn’t??? i had issues in the past with slow speeds in browsers but here i get nothing at all. i’m very confused and looking for any help. thank you.