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Windows 10 suddenly having freezing issues
Hello everyone. This is my first post.
I've had my Windows 10 on a PC I built running smoothly for a little over 5 years with no issues. Windows 10 version 2004 (OS Build 19041.804).
In the last 5 days or so, the screen will freeze and I'll need to do a soft restart (holding down the reset button). It happens with multiple applications running or with none at all. I've removed all but my essential programs and I'm still only having about 30mins - 2 hours of uptime before the system freezes again.
I'm thinking it is a hardware issue or an OS issue. To test, I'm planning on booting off of a USB stick with ubuntu and letting the PC run for a few hours. If the PC freezes, then I'll start to remove hardware, I suppose. If the ubuntu boot works for as long as I want (e.g. no freezing or locking of the PC), then I'll re-install windows 10.
Does this sound like a good strategy? I don't have extra componentry, so if it is a hardware issue I'm likely stuck and will need to build another PC, right?
Thanks for any and all advice!