Serious locking-up issue

[Oniya]

I've been having an issue recently where my computer will hard-freeze, to the point where a power-cycle is the only cure. On a couple of occasions, this has caused some game config files to get damaged, and on two occasions, it has hung again during bootup, causing it to do a BIOS check before I could finally regain access.

Today was the second of those instances - and the machine actually wouldn't respond until I unplugged everything, took it to the table, opened it up, looked inside (didn't do anything), and then reversed the process - at which point it had decided it was August 15, 2023 and about 2 hours later than the local time.  (insert manual correction of this)

Also, my antivirus now claims that my virus definitions are out of date - despite also claiming that the last update was about two minutes ago.

I'm absolutely terrified that this is indicating a Huge Problem that won't be in my budget to fix.

[Evil Tim]

Well I'm no computer expert by any means but I know a little.  Starting with the most obvious cause for hard freezes and crashes, at least in my experience, does your computer have plenty of air flow to prevent overheating?

[RedPhoenix]

Overheating was my first guess too, assuming your drivers and os and all that are up to date and this isn't a virus or something.

I used a program called Speccy I think it was to check my computers temperature the last time this was the problem for me, and then I ended up having to reattach the heat sink and cpu since one of the attachments there had broken...and then I had to leave it in a weird position on its side because the attachment was still broken but hey at least it worked!

[Oniya]

Overheating could be a possibility.  The computer is in the footwell of my desk, which is really the only place that it can be, and the recent occurrence could coincide with the weather changes.  I had another machine ages ago that seemed to just power-cycle itself when it overheated (and of course, the computer shop couldn't replicate the problem in their air-conditioned workroom.)  I'll see if I can find that app (and if it'll even run on Old Mostly-Reliable).

I was able to manually trigger a virus definition update when I got started today, so that's comforting.

[TheTech]

If overheating, it would have shut down. Im pretty sure of that part. Its a safety feature(Of most electronics that build heat) where its going to power down so it doesnt get hot enough to splode the cpu. Check the ventilation for sure but if there isn't any dust, run it with its case open, remove the side so its getting air flow that way too. You said you have it down on the footwell? Is that place closed in and is it noticeably warmer?
freezing, system freeze but staying on, if you have a graphics card, does it have fans on it and are those fans working? Lastly, i might say, consider backing up all your data and then try to restore the OS on it. If its software related, everything above isn't going to be the issue at all. I am sure Vekseid has a lot more knowledge than i do cause mine's all about how to put a computer together from assorted parts. He might chime in here an agree or disagree. Either way I hope this gets resolved for you.