Recent PC perma-freezes

Hey,

Since 3.11 my PoE has started freezing my PC randomly. Usually doing gameplay, but today it froze in the main menu, so it's not a CPU load related problem. I thought it was linked to CPU temperatures due to the raised baseline on account of it being summer, so I downclocked my CPU from 5 GHz to the stock 4.2, but this happens regardless - and yeah, in the main menu. The freeze makes the PC completely unresponsive and requires a hard reset with the power button. The headphones start emitting a constant loud buzz at the moment of the crash, which lasts until the PC is reset.

Any ideas what this might be caused by? Been playing PoE on this PC for years and this is an absolute first, doesn't happen with other software either.

bumpness