PC Temporarily Freezes – Can’t Open New Apps, Existing Ones Keep Working

At random times (I can’t really pinpoint when), my PC suddenly freezes for about a second and then continues running. After that, I’m unable to launch any new programs. I also can’t switch between applications using ALT + TAB, open the Windows start menu, or use the taskbar.

However, programs that were already open continue to work fine. For example, if I’m playing League of Legends, the game runs without any problems. Discord also continues to work normally, and I can still talk to people.

I can open the Task Manager using CTRL + ALT + DEL and close programs from there. In the Task Manager, some programs are shown as “stopped.”

After restarting my PC, everything works perfectly again.

In the Event Viewer, the only thing I can find is an error report with signature 144.

My setup:

Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B850-Plus WiFi

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti

RAM: Patriot Viper Venom 32GB Kit DDR5-6000 CL30

SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB (with heatsink)

PSU: be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 1000W

Before this, I had a Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ installed, but it caused issues. I’d like to fix this current problem first before installing the new GPU.