PC freezes when playing games on steam

mark holden 20 Reputation points
2026-09-07T19:56:52.2866667+00:00

Log Name: System

Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Hypervisor

Date: 07/09/2026 20:36:08

Event ID: 167

Task Category: None

Level: Warning

Keywords: (70368744177664)

User: SYSTEM

Computer: Mark-Holden

Description:

The hypervisor did not enable mitigations for side channel vulnerabilities for virtual machines because HyperThreading is enabled. To enable mitigations for virtual machines, disable HyperThreading.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

<System>

<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Hypervisor" Guid="{52fc89f8-995e-434c-a91e-199986449890}" />

<EventID>167</EventID>

<Version>0</Version>

<Level>3</Level>

<Task>0</Task>

<Opcode>0</Opcode>

<Keywords>0x8000400000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-09-07T19:36:08.7209462Z" />

<EventRecordID>13933</EventRecordID>

<Correlation />

<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />

<Channel>System</Channel>

<Computer>Mark-Holden</Computer>

<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />

</System>

<EventData>

</EventData>

</Event>

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures
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  1. AI answer

    2026-09-07T19:57:09.28+00:00

    That warning does not indicate the cause of game freezes on a Windows 11 home PC.

    Event ID 167 means Hyper-V did not enable side-channel vulnerability mitigations for virtual machines because Hyper-Threading is enabled. The guidance says this warning is about protection for Hyper-V virtual machines and, in some cases, VBS-protected security features.

    For systems on Windows 10 version 1607 / Windows Server 2016 and later:

    • If the system is not running Hyper-V and is not using VBS-protected security features, Hyper-Threading should not be disabled.
    • If the system is running Hyper-V with the Core Scheduler and is not using VBS-protected security features, Hyper-Threading should not be disabled.
    • The Hyper-V core scheduler mitigates these attack vectors for Hyper-V virtual machines while allowing Hyper-Threading to stay enabled.
    • The core scheduler does not mitigate the risk for VBS-protected security features.

    To check whether VBS is enabled:

    1. Open Start.
    2. Type MSINFO32 and open System Information.
    3. In Find what, type security.
    4. In the right pane, check whether Virtualization-based Security is enabled and which services are running.

    If Hyper-V is in use and the goal is to mitigate this warning for VMs:

    • On Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10 versions prior to 1809, the Hyper-V core scheduler can be enabled with: bcdedit /set HypervisorSchedulerType core
    • Then each VM can be configured with: Set-VMProcessor -VMName <VMName> -HwThreadCountPerCore 2
    • On Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 version 1809, the core scheduler is enabled by default.

    Important: disabling Hyper-Threading can reduce performance.

    For the freezing itself, collect system errors around the freeze time from Event Viewer or PowerShell. A supported PowerShell example is: get-winevent -logname system -maxevents 1 -filterxpath "*[System[Level=2]]" | more

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. Carl-L 21,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-09T09:15:56.53+00:00

    Hello mark holden,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

    May I know if the AI assistant suggestion works for you? As it said, event 167 is simply informational and not an error. So the error with Steam game freeze doesn't come from it. Before we proceed further, can you please check the event viewer again and also check if this happens in other gaming platforms?

    I'm waiting for your reply.

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