Scared to continue - hard reset button on computer case didn't reset PC 😱

[ilkikuinthadik]

I have about 6 hours worth of gameplay. First time player, very casual. I'll play it for a few hours every few weeks. I tried to run it this morning, and it crashed so badly that I don't think I'm going to run it again for fear of corrupting my windows install at the very least, and damaging my hardware at the most.

I've been PC gaming for over twenty years, so let me tell you it was a fearful moment when for the first moment in my life pressing the manual reset button on the computer case itself multiple times didn't do anything. The screen had semi-frozen at the CD PROJEKT RED screen (ironic). I eventually had to force shutdown by holding the power button, and actually breathed out a sigh of relief when I got the windows start screen on starting it up again. Can anyone here tell me everything will be ok? Is file corruption and damaged hardware on the menu at all? Because that was probably my biggest PC "oh sh*t!" moment in my entire life.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Can anyone here tell me everything will be ok? Is file corruption and damaged hardware on the menu at all?

I can't tell if everything will be ok
What I can say and I'm pretty confident, it's the game could trigger an issue on your PC but is likely not the cause.

Just an example, your GPU or CPU have a cooling issue that you're not aware of, because you play "light" games (like Minecraft). You can play all day long, nothing happen, everything is fine. But if you run Cyberpunk which is a way more demanding game, your GPU or CPU will probably overheating pretty quickly. The game is not the cause, it simply triggered an issue which is already here.

 

[GrimReaper801]

Frankly speaking, your Windows install getting corrupted from a hard crash is rather unlikely these days. Windows 10 and 11, which are the only two the game and MS support at this point, can repair the damage hard crashes typically cause.

With that said, no one can (or should) tell you that everything is going to be ok. The odds of you causing damage from that one crash is extremely low but not impossible. I wouldn't worry about that one crash BUT @LeKill3rFou is spot on when he says that the game isn't the cause, the issue was already there.

It can be quite a few things too. Could be overheating, could be faulty drivers or maybe even your hardware already is faulty. Could be a combination of a few things too. Without more details from you, it's rather hard to help out.

Overheating seems unlikely since you indicated it crashed at the CDPR logo which isn't exactly hard on your PC.

You also said this wasn't happening before so what changed? Something did if it just suddenly started. Was the last time you played prior to patch 2.12?

Do you remember the time at which you crashed? If you do, take a look at the even viewer for any warning and/or error/critical around the time of your crash. It could help pinpoint the issue.

Also, what are your system's specs?

 

[PCDania]

I can't guarantee your windows installation is not damaged, but you can run a check and repair of it by doing the following:

Open a command prompt (CMD) as administrator. - If you don't know how to do that, open Search and search for CMD, make sure to select Run as Administrator.

A Window will open

In the window type in "sfc /scannow" (without the quotes) and hit Enter. If errors are found in Windows, it will repair itself.

When it has finished, type in Exit and hit Enter.

 

[SigilFey]

Things like that happen with PCs. Very often, it can be as simple as something running in the background losing connection to the internet or encountering a bug. It likely had nothing to do with the game at all.

As for the "reset" button doing nothing -- many cases nowadays don't have one. Or, they jury-rig that button to control LED lighting or something. Holding the power button, like you did, is the new way to soft-power-down a system. That being said, if you encounter such hangs again, it's probably worth taking some time to figure out what's happening to cause it.

One should not hesitate to use a computer in the capacity for which it was designed.