Gaming Citizen Gaming PC - Crashes and blue screens

Jaysaber · 24 Mar 2019 at 23:56

Hi all,

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place. This is my first time using the forums.

I bought the Gaming Citizen Gaming PC in January and have had some issues with it. I get a BSOD every few days, and several games have been crashing/refusing to launch. I did swap out the baseline graphics card with an RX Vega.

I've updated the drivers for everything, but I'm still getting the same issues.

Performance in games is dead on what it should be, so when it does work it works fine.

Has anyone got any advice on what could be going on?

Thanks in advance.

chrcoluk · 24 Mar 2019 at 23:58

Is the system configured with any manual overclocks or runs to OEM specifications?

Jaysaber · 25 Mar 2019 at 00:00

It's running at the base speeds. I haven't touched any of those kinds of settings.

chrcoluk · 25 Mar 2019 at 00:06

It could be one of many things, for sure i would contact OCUK as it be under warranty and isnt working properly.

But possibilities I think are.

1 - Memory errors, can be diagnosed by running something like karhu ram tester or hci memtest. Memtest86 will also work but isnt as effective as detecting errors.
2 - Storage medium errors. So e.g. defective boot drive with corrupt files could cause this.
3 - Unstable power delivery so defective or under spec'd PSU could cause it.
4 - Software problems can cause BSOD's. However I woudnt expect this to also cause random program crashes.

Test the ram as thats easy to do. Either way you probably want to contact OCUK anyway, as even if you cannot diagnose yourself, then maybe they can do it since they sold you the unit.

orbitalwalsh · 25 Mar 2019 at 08:30

Wonder what wattage Kolink PSU they install a the Vega upgrade :/

Jaysaber · 25 Mar 2019 at 13:36

600W. Shouldn't see there being any issues with it. The crashes happen during down time as well.

I've tried contacting them, to see what they say. Cheers guys.

tracertong · 4 Apr 2019 at 20:02

Hi jay - I just bought a gaming citizen with the vega upgrade , but the power supply they put in was a 850 watt kolink (£69.95 ) which striked me as being very cheap for an 850 watt psu. Anyway my pc arrived and when I fired up the division 2 ........BANG ! The power supply blew. Had to send the PC back to to OC and they kindly replaced it with a super flower psu at no extra cost.

Everything is running great now thankfully.

pastymuncher · 5 Apr 2019 at 09:08

Enough of this nonsense now. Despite their parent company being behind these garbage Kolink psu's OCUK need to stop using (stop selling them would be even better) them in their builds. There have been a few threads in the past few days about problems with pre-built pc's with these terrible psu's in them. I have been slating these psu's since they launched and despite promises from Kolink to get them properly reviewed we are still waiting. The problem I suspect is that they would be shown to be the garbage that they are and that wouldn't look good. The internal components are from the bottom of the cheapest parts bin they can find which is probably the reason for the very short warranties and the 12v rails are ridiculously weak. To put that into perspective that so called 600w psu only has a pathetic 450w on the 12v rail where it's needed. If anyone doesn't believe me look on the label on the side of the psu or click on the 2nd image on it's product page on OCUK's website and enlarge it. To make things worse underneath is a recommendation that 24/7 power is not to exceed a total of 500w so Even Kolink has no faith in it's supposedly 600w psu. The same applies to the 850w version although it's 12v rail is stronger at 748w. It still has the recommendation that total 24/7 power should not exceed 750w. Enough is enough, Kolink psu's should be consigned to history as a bad mistake. If OCUK wants to champion a psu brand then do a deal with Bitfenix, Antec, Seasonic or another quality psu brand.

vezna · 5 Apr 2019 at 11:38

tracertong said:
Hi jay - I just bought a gaming citizen with the vega upgrade , but the power supply they put in was a 850 watt kolink (£69.95 ) which striked me as being very cheap for an 850 watt psu. Anyway my pc arrived and when I fired up the division 2 ........BANG ! The power supply blew. Had to send the PC back to to OC and they kindly replaced it with a super flower psu at no extra cost.

Everything is running great now thankfully.

I bought a slightly different build. Basically had a 2700 rather than a 2600. I also specified a Vega 56. Mine has the 600 watt Kolink. I’ve had black screen shutdowns fairly frequently. It’s early days but dialling back WattMan in the Radeon settings to ‘Power Saver’ rather than ‘balanced’ seems to have everything running ok. So far anyway. Kolink and Super Flower are both owned by OCUK’s parent company.

Vidar · 6 Apr 2019 at 00:11

pastymuncher said:
Enough of this nonsense now. Despite their parent company being behind these garbage Kolink psu's OCUK need to stop using (stop selling them would be even better) them in their builds. There have been a few threads in the past few days about problems with pre-built pc's with these terrible psu's in them. I have been slating these psu's since they launched and despite promises from Kolink to get them properly reviewed we are still waiting. The problem I suspect is that they would be shown to be the garbage that they are and that wouldn't look good. The internal components are from the bottom of the cheapest parts bin they can find which is probably the reason for the very short warranties and the 12v rails are ridiculously weak. To put that into perspective that so called 600w psu only has a pathetic 450w on the 12v rail where it's needed. If anyone doesn't believe me look on the label on the side of the psu or click on the 2nd image on it's product page on OCUK's website and enlarge it. To make things worse underneath is a recommendation that 24/7 power is not to exceed a total of 500w so Even Kolink has no faith in it's supposedly 600w psu. The same applies to the 850w version although it's 12v rail is stronger at 748w. It still has the recommendation that total 24/7 power should not exceed 750w. Enough is enough, Kolink psu's should be consigned to history as a bad mistake. If OCUK wants to champion a psu brand then do a deal with Bitfenix, Antec, Seasonic or another quality psu brand.

Utterly agree with this, I'm on several other groups through facebook etc and the amount of people I hear complaining about Kolink PSU's is nuts! What's strange is some people defend them with bile and conviction because of the parent company despite the evidence.