Full system lock down
Title: PC Hard Lock Requiring PSU Power Cycle Madden 26 (Also Affects College Football 27)
Platform: PC
steam and EA app
Hardware:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT
- GPU: ASUS TUF GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER
- Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4
- RAM: 16 GB (2×8 GB)
- PSU: Corsair 750W gold
- Windows: 11
Issue Description:
Before a Madden 26 update, the game ran without any stability issues. Immediately after the update, the game began causing complete system lockups. Which randomly occur during load up or deep into gameplay (so basically completely random)
The issue has since also appeared in EA Sports College Football 27.
When the crash occurs:
- The screen goes completely black.
- Audio stops immediately.
- Keyboard lights turn off.
- The PC becomes completely unresponsive.
- Pressing the case power button does nothing.
- The only way to recover is to turn the PSU off using the switch on the back, wait a few seconds, turn it back on, and then start the PC.
Other demanding games run normally for extended periods without crashes.
Troubleshooting Already Performed:
- Clean NVIDIA driver installation using DDU.
- Tested multiple NVIDIA driver versions.
- Verified/repaired game files.
- Tested both Steam and the EA App.
- Disabled all overlays.
- Limited frame rate.
- Reduced GPU power limit.
- Updated motherboard BIOS (second newest version).
- Confirmed the issue began immediately after a Madden 26 update.
- OCCT graphics and power test
Expected Result:
The game should run without causing a complete system lock requiring a PSU power cycle.
Actual Result:
The game intermittently causes a full system lock that requires cycling the PSU switch before the PC can be powered on again.
Because the system is otherwise stable in other high performance demanding games, this appears to be related to changes introduced in a Madden 26 update and now also affects College Football 27.
