PC keeps freezing up

So, about a year ago, I was dealing with this massive headache with my PC. Every time I tried to play a game or even just watch a video on YouTube or Facebook, the whole thing would just freeze up—complete system hang—with this nasty, distorted audio looping in the background. My only move was a hard reboot. At first, I figured it was just an overheating issue, so I swapped out the thermal paste, but no luck. Then I started digging through some forums and people suggested it might be a RAM issue. I actually borrowed a stick from a buddy to test it out, but the same thing kept happening. Eventually, someone mentioned it could be a faulty slot, so I started testing them one by one until I found the culprit. Turns out, there was one specific slot causing all the drama, so I just stopped using it. Everything ran fine for over a year after that, but lately, the freezing has started creeping back in. Is it possible that old slot is acting up again, or am I looking at a totally different problem?

It’s looking pretty likely that you’re running into the same issue again. Either that, or your motherboard is just starting to give up the ghost bit by bit... Which board are we talking about here? And what about the rest of your setup in general?

Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 210

CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 8

8GB RAM

Maybe give the motherboard a shot... Since that board is pretty old now—we're talking an LGA 1155 socket—you probably won't find one sitting on a shelf at Best Buy or Micro Center. You'd likely have to hunt one down used on eBay or maybe Craigslist.