Annoying crash problem

[Mr. President]

So I’ve been playing Stardew Valley on my PC recently and twice now I’ve had the game freeze on me and then the ”program has stopped working” popup shows up. And waiting for it to respond doesn’t work I have to close it down.

The strange thing is that the game works perfectly otherwise but after playing for an extended period, this most recent crash I was on day 11 of fall after start the session on day 2 of fall, the game just crashes. Last time it crashed it took probably about the same amount of time to happen. For seemingly no reason when I go to sleep the game freezes just as it’s about to save the day and i’m forced to restart.

Last time I verified my files when this happened but that didn’t work so now i’ve completely reinstalled it however I haven’t tried it again yet. I haven’t used my PC in a while but since I started again about 2 weeks ago I’ve also played a bit of Sleeping Dogs, in which the problem never arose, even though it’s much more intense.

I feel like I should note that for a year or so my PC has had a problem where every now and then, especially when playing games, it stutters for just a second then everything goes back to normal. To be clear this problem has seemingly not affected anything else on my PC as long as it’s been there so I’ve no idea if it’s connected, I just feel I should mention it.

Otherwise my PC works fine. GPU and CPU temperatures are normal when gaming and such and everything else works like it should. I just really have no idea what’s causing this and I really want to fix it. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Sunny]

My first question is related to Sleeping Dogs -- are you playing it for the same amount of time as you play SDV?

This sounds like a hardware issue based on your description. Given the stutters and minor weirdness, plus it happening on extended play at around the same amount of time put in -- do you have problems with your USB ports at all?

I don't think it's a GPU issue (it doesn't sound like it), and if you're monitoring the temperature it doesn't sound like it's overheating.

1) Dust it out. THOROUGHLY.
2) Unplug and replug all of the power supply cables in your box at their connection points to your components. If the cords can be unplugged from the power supply, unplug and plug those in too.
3) Dust it out. Oh wait I said that. Well, dust it again.

MOST LIKELY, it's your PSU going out+dust. When was the last time you replaced the surge protector you have it plugged into? Is the place you live relatively new, or is the electrical system ancient?

Everything you've described can be a result of components losing partial power briefly. It's not underpowered overall for your build (not those symptoms, though the stuttering indicates that there are moments where something is underpowered), which means it's just dying.

It is HIGHLY unlikely that SDV is causing these issues; instead, it is the canary in the coalmine for your hardware issue. Or more accurately, the extended sessions themselves that are the canary. If it's PSU it doesn't really matter intensity of the game, if you played Tetris for twenty hours straight it would probably do the same, it's more down to probability and time than heavy use.

You might be able to induce it for diagnosis by running something that DOES push your system hot, but I wouldn't recommend it because that could finish breaking whatever's started breaking.

The good news is a new PSU will not break the bank, compared to what could be wrong. But...start with dusting. Dusting might let you put off buying a new PSU for a year.

The better news is that you can probably take it to your local friendly computer repair shop and they'll diagnose it for like $45-$60 USD (unless you're somewhere super expensive). It's MUCH easier to figure out hardware issues with the tools to figure out hardware issues.

Also, to everyone reading this, not just OP: when was the last time YOU replaced your surge protector? You should consider it, especially if you live in an old building.
And DUST OUT YOUR PC.

[Mr. President]

So about Sleeping Dogs I’m not entirely sure. I have played it for at least 2 hours straight at one point but I don’t exactly know how long I’ve played Stardew before it busts. Just that it’s been about half an in-game month both times.

Secondly, I haven’t had any USB-port problems that I know of. My mouse is wireless, both my headphones and keyboard are wired but I haven’t had any problems there. I can try dusting it off but when I started playing on the PC again about 2 weeks ago I looked inside and it didn’t look that insanely dusty. I couldn’t get a look at the PSU though. My PC is an HP prebuilt I got for christmas 3 years ago so the PSU is in this metal box that I couldn’t get into without getting serious safety concerns. I could try again though. Thanks for the help though bro.