PC Crashing when loading/playing games

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:13

Hi all,

I built a PC a while back (Link to Thread - I was given some advice in the later part of the but the issues went away for a bit, but appear to be worse now), and had some great help from a few people on here to get me up and running etc as i'm a noob when it comes to building PC's.

I had the odd crash here and there but i only had the BSoD once, every other time my PC just restarted. The one game i have had trouble with is Planet Coaster, but this only really happened after an update of the game so i just avoided playing it. I have seen decided i'd like to play SCUM, a game my prehistoric £400 laptop played without any issues (albeit with the setting as low as they would go!) but my current PC will get to the loading screen and then restart the PC. I have managed to get to the part where i design my character once then it crashed. I tried once more and loaded up the game, i managed to play for 10/15 mins and then an error came up and the game crashed. The PC then restarted and now all i can do is get to the main menu of the game and it restarts the entire PC again.

I have looked about online for help and tried to run Memtest, but after booting to the USB i created i'm not sure what should happen after. It came up with a black screen asking me to change the boot drive, or something along those lines.

Any help on what i can check (and how to do it!) would be great.

Spec for my PC is below...

ryzen 3700x
scythe mugen 5 rev b
msi b450 tomahawk max
Ballistix LT 2x16gb 3200c16 BLS2K16G4D32AESB
Powercolor Radeon RX 5700 XT Dual Fan
sabrent rocket 1tb
corsair rm650

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:36

when you say the pc restarts does it switch off and then come back on by its self or the screen goes black and reboots, i'd have a look at cpu-z as that has a benchmark tool for the cpu, download hwmoniter and have that running as well to see what kind of temps your cpu is hitting.

gpu wise I'd say download unigine heaven and as before have hwmoniter in the background, run heaven bench mark in window mode and keep an eye on the gpu, if any part (cpu or gpu) suddenly spikes it's a temperature issue.

also a nifty feature of hwmoniter it should show what your psu voltages are under load, a sudden drop can cause restarts too, but for now focus on the cpu and gpu temps

links to all the software

https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven (247mb)
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html (download the zip version) (1.5mb)
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html (download the zip version) (2.9mb)

have a play and report back

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 16:57

Hi, thanks for the reply!

That's right, the screen will go black and then come back on at which point i need to log back into Windows and all my previous stuff has been closed (google/steam etc).

Obviously I've got no idea what I'm going on about (sadly), but in terms of temperature, would this be an issue straight away? As earlier today i turned the PC on after being off for days and loaded steam, followed by SCUM and it restarted straight away, so would it get that hot, that quickly?

If i open the Radeon software that i have installed the VRAM is showing as Amber and almost to the end of the bar, is this anything of concern?

I'll get the bits you recommended and see what i can find out.

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 17:06

3rd gen Ryzens if not cooled sufficiently can very quickly overheat, my 3900x past 100 degrees briefly, lucky caught it and pulled the plug, waited around 20min's to cool off and everything was ok when i powered on

you mention in the Radeon software that the vram, that's totally normal that's the ram frequency clock under load in 3d programs, it will drop back to 300mhz if sitting on the desktop (sorry got mixed up before

)

whats your case airflow like?

i know 5700's in general do have hot running ram, and can be the cause of weird problems (eventually the ram fails as it approaches 100+ degrees)
if you have a spare fan take the side panel off your case and direct the airflow on to the card and see what happens.

ps, gotta ask but you did remember to apply thermal paste between the cpu and the cooler?

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 17:15

I've just removed all the panels, front (as there is 3 fans mounted at the front) and side for the time being.

Should the GPU fans be running all the time, or only under strain on the GPU? (EDIT - Once i started the benchmark the fans fired up!)

The VRAM being amber was when the PC was idle.

The result from the benchmark was this...

I had the other items running and have the below info

Does any of this help at all?

Just noticed your last question, yes i added the paste... hopefully i put enough on though!? I can play Planet Zoo for hours with no issues normally.

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 17:26

regarding the panels,can you feel air from the front 3 fans if you put your hand in, (don't go too close say around 15cm away) replace the front pannel and repeat the process, hopefully you can still feel air.

the gpu fans spinning, that's properly normal behavior, not sure on amd cards but most have a fan stop below 50 degrees, if it goes higher than that the fans spin to cool the card down

lastly the vram running that fast at idle, I'd say you have something running in the background thats putting enough 3d load on the card, open task manager in the processes tab, hover over the gpu column, click it and it should tell you which program is using the gpu

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 17:33

SG666 said:
Does any of this help at all?

the package temp (cpu) is totally fine, plus voltages under load are all in the green too so its not that, i didn't see what the gpu hit under load, in hwmoniter the gpu aspect is near the bottom, try the test again with the panels off and report back.

If its all ok put all the panels back on and repeat the tests and see if the pc holds or restarts

"Just noticed your last question, yes i added the paste... hopefully i put enough on though!? I can play Planet Zoo for hours with no issues normally."

as above your cpu is running at a dam near perfect temp under load so thermal paste is defo working

just a thought with the side panel off try a game that would usually restart the pc and see what happens?

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 17:43

SG666 said:
(EDIT - Once i started the benchmark the fans fired up!)

thats totally normal behavior for all modern gpu's, default fan speeds can be loud under load so tinkering is needed to get the best cooling vs noise though

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 18:16

wookiee87 said:
regarding the panels,can you feel air from the front 3 fans if you put your hand in, (don't go too close say around 15cm away) replace the front pannel and repeat the process, hopefully you can still feel air.

the gpu fans spinning, that's properly normal behavior, not sure on amd cards but most have a fan stop below 50 degrees, if it goes higher than that the fans spin to cool the card down

lastly the vram running that fast at idle, I'd say you have something running in the background thats putting enough 3d load on the card, open task manager in the processes tab, hover over the gpu column, click it and it should tell you which program is using the gpu

I checked the fans with the front panel on and off, and once its back on the fan flow seems pretty good to me.

I haven't closed anything and you can see the GPU info here...

wookiee87 said:
the package temp (cpu) is totally fine, plus voltages under load are all in the green too so its not that, i didn't see what the gpu hit under load, in hwmoniter the gpu aspect is near the bottom, try the test again with the panels off and report back.

If its all ok put all the panels back on and repeat the tests and see if the pc holds or restarts.

"Just noticed your last question, yes i added the paste... hopefully i put enough on though!? I can play Planet Zoo for hours with no issues normally."

as above your cpu is running at a dam near perfect temp under load so thermal paste is defo working

just a thought with the side panel off try a game that would usually restart the pc and see what happens?

Here is the GPU section (this was taken just after i did the benchmark for the 2nd time)

I have ran the benchmark again with the panel off and got the following ( a bit better but nothing drastic)

going back tot eh VRAM being almost maxed out all the time, there seems to be a few posts across the net about issues with it although I've not found a solution yet... wonder if its related to this?

LINK

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 18:18

Right, I've managed to load SCUM and its running in the background now.

VRAM is running at 99/100% now.

EDIT - It last 30 seconds in the game and then crashed... :-(

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 18:38

SG666 said:
Right, I've managed to load SCUM and its running in the background now.

VRAM is running at 99/100% now.

EDIT - It last 30 seconds in the game and then crashed...

did the pc restart?

try setting manual tuning control in radeon control panel and select under volt gpu and see what happens, failing this have you or a friend got a spare gpu to try

EDIT what screen do you have is it gsync or freesync?

failing that with the games that do make the pc restart, have you tried them in window mode or fullscreen boarder-less to see if that makes any difference?

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 18:47

wookiee87 said:
did the pc restart?

try setting manual tuning control in radeon control panel and select under volt gpu and see what happens, failing this have you or a friend got a spare gpu to try

EDIT what screen do you have is it gsync or freesync?

Sorry wehn i say it crashed, i meant the PC itself rather than the game. It went to a black screen and rebooted windows.

Ok, i'll try that and see what happens.

The Screen is Freesync - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aoc-...reesync-widescreen-led-monitor-mo-04m-ao.html

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 18:52

if what i said above doesn't work then we may have to look at ram, just because it says the timing's on the side of the sticks doesn't mean it will always work, 90% of the time it will but occasionally it wont, but before this try the games in window or boarderless and see what happens.

do all your games make the pc restart of is it just scum, further more regarding to your games are they all steam related?, i only ask as if you've transferred the drive from your old pc to the new one its best to run the verify tool for each just to make sure they have all the files and non are corrupted.

its funny that the heaven benchmark passed as thats normally the worst case scenario for a computer, if it can pass that it should run everything fine no problem

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 19:00

Sadly it rebooted to windows again. I was already running it in a window as it was recommended for another game (think it was Rust - which plays fine, or did last time i played it) and it solved that issue so i tried it with SCUM but sadly its no help.

I have seen the below from someone elsewhere having similar issues to me and apparently solving it, although some of what he has done to sort his version out isn't applicable to me...

His issue....
Ok, I'm having several issues with this card and/or drivers. First, and most important thing is the "Radeon wattman settings has been restored due to an unexpected system failure" Which basically happens to me all the time from anything as simple as restarting the computer to opening the xbox app. The card also goes to black screen when playing games or even looking in the Xbox app. The card was also locked down to 27fps on Apex Legends before starting crazy screen flickering and crashing. Lastly, it seems that whenever HDR is turned on it just goes to black screen whenever putting anything on the screen that is even somewhat graphical. I have already done a fresh install of windows and all the drivers but still having issues.

His solution...
I did another fresh install of windows, uninstalled adrenaline in safe mode, again, reinstalled in airplane mode with DDU, removed MSI Afterburner, disabled enhanced sync, disabled Radeon overlay and put an aggressive fan curve on Wattman. The card is now very stable and burning through all games (Except GTAV for some reason, it won't even boot it, crashes on load). I'm getting nice performance in everything else I've played so far (Forza H4, Warframe, Dead Rising 4, Prey, and Apex Legends). I don't know if this will work for everyone else but try it.

Some of what he's done im not sure how to acheive, and some (like afterburner) arent applicable.

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 19:03

wookiee87 said:
if what i said above doesn't work then we may have to look at ram, just because it says the timing's on the side of the sticks doesn't mean it will always work, 90% of the time it will but occasionally it wont, but before this try the games in window or boarderless and see what happens.

do all your games make the pc restart of is it just scum, further more regarding to your games are they all steam related?, i only ask as if you've transferred the drive from your old pc to the new one its best to run the verify tool for each just to make sure they have all the files and non are corrupted.

its funny that the heaven benchmark passed as thats normally the worst case scenario for a computer, if it can pass that it should run everything fine no problem

Is there a test for the RAM? As like the GPU i dont have more to swap over.

SCUM & Planet Coaster at the moment. Rust used to as well but that stopped once i went to window mode

Agreed, i thought (hoped too i guess) that heaven would cause issues too

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 19:05

Yep all of them are Steam related, but they are all fresh installs and not taken from my old PC.

I carried out the verification on scum earlier today after googling my issues it was recommended.

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 19:08

SG666 said:
Is there a test for the RAM? As like the GPU i dont have more to swap over.

memtest 86 springs to mind but i don't know exactly how it works, never needed to run programs like that.

i don't suppose if you know, but have you enabled docp within the bios?, this setting will automatically set up your ram to the correct speed, voltage and timings, could be worth going in and changing it from docp to auto, your ram will run at 2133mhz afterwards but for testing it will be ok, hed back into windows and see if the games above cause the pc to restart.

edit have you checked msi's website lately to see if there are updated chipset drivers for your board?

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 20:58

wookiee87 said:
memtest 86 springs to mind but i don't know exactly how it works, never needed to run programs like that.

i don't suppose if you know, but have you enabled docp within the bios?, this setting will automatically set up your ram to the correct speed, voltage and timings, could be worth going in and changing it from docp to auto, your ram will run at 2133mhz afterwards but for testing it will be ok, hed back into windows and see if the games above cause the pc to restart.

edit have you checked msi's website lately to see if there are updated chipset drivers for your board?

I got memtest 86 when I had issues before but couldn’t get it to work, I’ve tried again and it’s currently running on my pc so we’ll see what that comes back with.

Before I started this test I checked in the bios but couldn’t see anything that wasn’t set to auto (I haven’t “played” with any of the setting as I’m really not sure what I’m doing!)

Yep, the gpu and motherboard are all up to date, along with windows too.

I really hope it’s ram related!

wookiee87 · 6 Apr 2020 at 21:02

SG666 said:
Before I started this test I checked in the bios but couldn’t see anything that wasn’t set to auto (I haven’t “played” with any of the setting as I’m really not sure what I’m doing!)

just load up cpu-z and select the memory tab, that will tell you and me what speed you have your kit at, if you say above you haven't looked at the settings chances are the ram is set to auto and not setup quite right

SG666 · 6 Apr 2020 at 21:07

wookiee87 said:
just load up cpu-z and select the memory tab, that will tell you and me what speed you have your kit at, if you say above you haven't looked at the settings chances are the ram is set to auto and not setup quite right

Ok no worries, once memtest has finished (takes ages it seems) I’ll look at that and let you know what both say

thanks for your help so far with this, it’s much appreciated