pc crash/restart - advice please

DereksDontRun · 9 Jul 2016 at 20:43

hi, I'm having a problem with my pc crashing (just turning off and hard resetting, no blue screen, no errors, just a sudden cut back to bios). I've not had any problems for years and suddenly last week when a group of us started to play Ark together, boom, reset after about 30mins. I've "played" about 4 hours of Ark and it's hard-reset about 5-6 times. I've not had a problem with anything else, so I put it down to Ark...

so, I tried removing my OC and using stock speeds/voltages and a clean install of my Nvidia drivers (with the latest 353.38) and windows update. still crashing in Ark.

so, I thought I'd give Evolve a go, with it now being f2p.

2mins into the tutorial and boom, back to bios...

So, I then did:
memtest (clear for an hour)
prime95 (clear for an hour)
^so, I think/hope this rules out cpu and memory
I even updated my bios
re-installed a load of drivers

pc works fine in Rust, Overwatch, Diablo, but not Ark or Evolve. But, I admit they're more gpu heavy. I know I've had driver problems for years with my out of date X-Fi soundcard, so to rule that out I tried FurMark and boom, crash... (so I'm guess that something with no sound rules out the soundcard?!?)

I've been trying to monitor temps and I don't think it's that, as nothing gets over about 72°C

Any advice where to look, or what to try next? (and how?)

I'm now wondering if my "bronze" level psu is starting to show its age and is worth changing to a "gold" rated one. But, apart from that, I can only think it's the GPU, which I got from Overclockers (order date 20 Jun 2015), so at least it's in warranty, i think...

spec:
i5 2500k (was oc'd to 4.3, but now back to stock) with 212 Evo cooler
Zotac GeForce GTX 980Ti AMP Edition
Cooler Master G750M 750W bronze psu
Soundblaster X-Fi Music
Gigabyte z68xp-ud3 motherboard
8gb Corsair Vengeance cml8gx3m2a1600c9
Win7 64bit

So, does it sound like PSU or GPU is the likely culprit? any idea how I can test (don't have either spare)?

cheers for any help

mickyflinn · 9 Jul 2016 at 20:57

Does any of your friends/family have a decent pc so you could test the gpu ?

Cheapest way without the above is a new psu.

How old are gpu and psu ?

DereksDontRun · 9 Jul 2016 at 21:10

gpu was bought last year - 20th Jun 2015
psu is, dunno, possibly up to 5 years if I got it with the 2500k... thus why I'm leaning towards that.

Dunno why, I just think that if it's temp or even gpu then I'd see artifacts, either all the time or before it resets. Is that logical? But, as it's a full power-down to bios, then it seems like a sudden trip of power, ie the psu???

Could I test that by running Evolve in a low resolution and settings (pauper-mode)? would that draw less power/demand?

I'm sure there's mates at work with decent pc's, but I wouldn't want them to either have to strip down their rigs to whip out a psu or gpu, or go without either (and their pc) for a night or 2... Unless I can borrow another 980Ti then a different gpu isn't a fair trial, as something with less power draw would presumably not crash, leaving me to think it's the gpu at fault, but it's still potentially the psu - if that makes any sense?!?

mickyflinn · 9 Jul 2016 at 22:07

DereksDontRun said:
gpu was bought last year - 20th Jun 2015
psu is, dunno, possibly up to 5 years if I got it with the 2500k... thus why I'm leaning towards that.

Dunno why, I just think that if it's temp or even gpu then I'd see artifacts, either all the time or before it resets. Is that logical? But, as it's a full power-down to bios, then it seems like a sudden trip of power, ie the psu???

Could I test that by running Evolve in a low resolution and settings (pauper-mode)? would that draw less power/demand?

I'm sure there's mates at work with decent pc's, but I wouldn't want them to either have to strip down their rigs to whip out a psu or gpu, or go without either (and their pc) for a night or 2... Unless I can borrow another 980Ti then a different gpu isn't a fair trial, as something with less power draw would presumably not crash, leaving me to think it's the gpu at fault, but it's still potentially the psu - if that makes any sense?!?

Gpu is the easiest to test on another computer at same res / settings without any cost, doesnt always have to be the traditional faults indication.

What are friends for ? but to help and a gpu test wont kill there computer like a faulty psu could.

If you test at different at lower settings then its not stressing the gpu and psu.

Choice is yours.

neodude · 11 Jul 2016 at 18:53

In my experience, random crashes or restarts with nothing showing in the error log or no BSODs usually turn out to be a faulty PSU.

mateusvbx · 13 Jul 2016 at 10:14

same case

Morg · 13 Jul 2016 at 11:06

Maybe try upping the voltage on the cpu a little. I had a 2500k which required more after 5 years