Gaming and Content

DStall · 18 Feb 2022 at 14:41

Hello folks,

New to building PCs. Quickly out of my depth.

I built one last year - but I'm getting fatal hardware errors and I am going to replace the case and motherboard (from what I have read I'm pretty confident it's the motherboard).

I was hoping on some general advice on a setup for both occasional gaming and daily content creation (Adobe Suite, photographs, video, animation) - as well as general office work and the odd bit of streaming. Are there any good guides anyone would recommend for fairly high-performance machines that are a balance of content creation, gaming and other general use? I can find heaps on gaming only - probably looking in the wrong place.

Current setup

NZXT H1(will replace)
Windows 11
ASUS ROG Strix z490-i Gaming(will replace)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10900KF CPU @ 3.70GHz (intend to keep)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (considering replacing)
Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHz (intend to keep)
2x Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 (2280) (intend to keep)

Thanks for any advice!

VonScar · 18 Feb 2022 at 18:11

Have you tested the memory?

I recommend you run Memtest 86. I had fatal errors, I was pulling my hair out trying to solve issue.

I used Memtest and test exposed how faulty my Corsair Vengeance RAM was. The same RAM as YOURS.

And just look on YouTube how to use it.

DStall · 18 Feb 2022 at 18:18

VonScar said:
Have you tested the memory?

I recommend you run Memtest 86. I had fatal errors, I was pulling my hair out trying to solve issue.

I used Memtest and test exposed how faulty my Corsair Vengeance RAM was. The same RAM as YOURS.

The link. And just look on YouTube how to use it.

Ah, okay - thanks for the suggestion - I did use Windows 11 mem test, but I'll give it a go. It has been driving me mad... every time I think I've fixed it .....crash.

The weird thing is, even when I run torture stress tests it seems fine... it's like it wants to be tortured! Then I open a browser or cut and paste a word ... crash. No BSOD so no dump files. I've manually set voltages, removed any level of AI Overclocking, no XMP.... next step might be a hammer.

Thanks for the reply!

pastymuncher · 18 Feb 2022 at 19:37

What make and model psu are you using?

DStall · 18 Feb 2022 at 20:00

pastymuncher said:
What make and model psu are you using?

It is the NZXT integrated 650W 80+ Gold that came with the case.

pastymuncher · 18 Feb 2022 at 21:41

That should be more than enough power for your pc plus it's a fairly decent unit as well. Are you getting any error codes at all? If you download who crashed or bluescreen view they will give you some more information on what is causing the problems.

Are you running the latest motherboard bios (version 2403)? Version 2301 added Windows 11 support. Actually looking at your motherboards support page there are a whole load of new drivers for Windows 11 from this year.

DStall · 19 Feb 2022 at 19:30

pastymuncher said:
That should be more than enough power for your pc plus it's a fairly decent unit as well. Are you getting any error codes at all? If you download who crashed or bluescreen view they will give you some more information on what is causing the problems.

Are you running the latest motherboard bios (version 2403)? Version 2301 added Windows 11 support. Actually looking at your motherboards support page there are a whole load of new drivers for Windows 11 from this year.

Hello - no memory dumps, just generic hardware failure code 41 in eventvwr.

I ran memtest 86 and both sticks passed with zero errors.

I've updated the bios to latest version, manually set voltages and disabled XMP - honestly, I'm really not sure what I'm doing with either but various forums point to 'known issues' with voltages and XMP.

I have a suspicion that USB is involved somehow - I once had an instant crash when I inserted a USB drive (same drive never cased an issue before or since) and I use a Fujifilm X-T4 as a webcam and the machine sometimes seems to recognise it and sometimes not. I get 'the last usb device you connected was not recognised' errors - which I've never seen before the last few weeks - when the camera is plugged in.

DStall · 19 Feb 2022 at 19:32

VonScar said:
Have you tested the memory?

I recommend you run Memtest 86. I had fatal errors, I was pulling my hair out trying to solve issue.

I used Memtest and test exposed how faulty my Corsair Vengeance RAM was. The same RAM as YOURS.

And just look on YouTube how to use it.

Tested this weekend - it all passed (which I was slightly disappointed about as it would have least explained the issue).

pastymuncher · 20 Feb 2022 at 10:59

Have you updated all of the drivers from Asus website as there are loads of Windows 11 drivers from this year on there. I always get my drivers straight from the motherboard manufacturers website rather than relying on Windows to install them, in fact I have driver updates disabled from Windows. It does seem like it could be a driver issue.

VonScar · 20 Feb 2022 at 13:04

You could try Furmark. That's an old test, but it exposes faulty VRAM on the GPU. It really pushes the GPU and VRAM. I use it on my newly purchased GPU's and its caught at least one faulty GPU.

A long shot, but...If the image (Furmark burn-in test) has lots of dots and glitches then you have a faulty card.

Also what are CPU temps? While running games and Windows 11?

Oh and I hope you have checked event manager for fatal errors and done a search of the codes.

DStall · 21 Feb 2022 at 16:58

pastymuncher said:
Have you updated all of the drivers from Asus website as there are loads of Windows 11 drivers from this year on there. I always get my drivers straight from the motherboard manufacturers website rather than relying on Windows to install them, in fact I have driver updates disabled from Windows. It does seem like it could be a driver issue.

Thanks - I had done this - however, I think it needed to be updated drivers and the BIOS settings. I think I must have ended up doing one, but then reversing the others. Without wanting to tempt fate - it now seems stable, quite what combination of changes helped, I don't know. I'll definitely be updating drivers manually from now on , though.

Cheers.

DStall · 21 Feb 2022 at 17:00

VonScar said:
You could try Furmark. That's an old test, but it exposes faulty VRAM on the GPU. It really pushes the GPU and VRAM. I use it on my newly purchased GPU's and its caught at least one faulty GPU.

A long shot, but...If the image (Furmark burn-in test) has lots of dots and glitches then you have a faulty card.

Also what are CPU temps? While running games and Windows 11?

Oh and I hope you have checked event manager for fatal errors and done a search of the codes.

Hello - interesting tool, ta.

Yeah event viewer, unfortunately, just had a generic 'fatal hardware error'.

It seems I have somehow stumbled upon a specific set of BIOS and driver combinations that (at least for now) is stable. Thanks for the help.