Update: Fixed it, sharing what worked for me.
The issue was not my PC or Windows. It turned out to be launch options causing Apex to freeze the whole system.
I had some old “FPS boost” launch options added before, like -high and cl_forcepreload. These can actually cause serious stability issues, especially with Easy Anti-Cheat and on laptops.
What fixed it for me was removing all old launch options and forcing Apex to run on DirectX 11 instead of DirectX 12, which is more stable on some systems.
What I did in Steam:
After restarting my PC and launching Apex, the freezing stopped completely, and the game works normally again.
If anyone is getting full system freezes in the lobby, I really recommend checking launch options and trying DX11. Hope this helps others.
