Why is my pc crashing

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 08:54

Spec in sig.

Last night my pc started crashing intermittently - hard reset maybe 5 or 6 times over the course of two hours. Twice when opening a video in VLC player. The screen went solid yellow one of the times the other time the colours all inverted and it looked like a gpu bug.

My initial thought is it may be the PSU, however I only bought it in February this year. Its a EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 - could it be the PSU after only 6 months? Unfortunately I don't have another PSU to swap out to check.

This was a new build only a two months ago and its been working perfectly since. Vega 64 is only 6 months old too.

The IF and memory are overclocked but its been running solid for a week and passed memtest.

Any one any ideas how to debug or fix?

EssexBoy · 27 Sep 2019 at 08:56

Try stock clocks and see if it still crashes.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 08:58

EssexBoy said:
Try stock clocks and see if it still crashes.

Hi - I tried this. CPU isn't OC'd and I tried with stock memory (2400Mhz) and at XMP (4000Mhz) - same issues.

EssexBoy · 27 Sep 2019 at 09:07

Have you tried safe mode? If it happens there also could rule out software.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 09:12

EssexBoy said:
Have you tried safe mode? If it happens there also could rule out software.

That's a good idea - i'll try that tonight.

I think I'm going to order another PSU today for delivery tomorrow to rule that out (planning to build a second rig anyway where it will come in useful). Unfortunately really need my PC this weekend to do work.

EssexBoy · 27 Sep 2019 at 09:14

Yea i doubt it would be the psu unless it was crashing under heavy load but if you need one anyway it won't hurt trying.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 09:30

EssexBoy said:
Yea i doubt it would be the psu unless it was crashing under heavy load but if you need one anyway it won't hurt trying.

What else do you think it might be?

EssexBoy · 27 Sep 2019 at 09:32

Rule out software first before looking at the hardware side imo.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 09:56

I should add - the temps all seem normal as well.

Jason Rage · 27 Sep 2019 at 10:31

I had similar issues many years ago with whats called warm reboots on my psu.

Sometimes the 12v rail can be the culprit but normally you would have seen this sooner rather than later. I'm unsure if your gpu takes 2 plugs but if it does try splitting the load by using 2 different 12v rails to power it.

To rule out the psu, download FurMark here https://geeks3d.com/furmark/downloads/. If it crashes your system its the 12v rail on the psu. Try a different 12v, split the load between 2 rails if you can.

Another test you could try to rule out the 12v rail going to the cpu is Prime95 to put the system under sudden load here https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/prime95-download.html.

Failing this remove all the memory but 1 stick and test with memtest, replace with next stick and test & so on. Hopefully by the end of this you would have at least eliminated all the likely hardware causes before throwing £xxx at an unknown problem.

Lastly, have you plugged in any new peripherals recently? Try removing them if you have. I recently saved a friend from RMA a new laptop who thought it was a dud with repeated crashes. The actual culprit was a usb mouse!

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 10:34

Jason Rage said:
I had similar issues many years ago with whats called warm reboots on my psu.

Sometimes the 12v rail can be the culprit but normally you would have seen this sooner rather than later.

To rule out the PSU, download FurMark here https://geeks3d.com/furmark/downloads/. If it crashes your system its the 12v rail on the psu.

Another test you could try is Prime95 to put the system under sudden load here https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/prime95-download.html. You can tweak it to put more of the load onto cpu, ram, cpu & ram etc..

Lastly remove all the memory but 1 stick and test with memtest, replace with next stick and test & so on. Hopefully by the end of this you would have at least eliminated all the likely hardware causes before throwing £xxx at an unknown problem.

Lastly, try removing all peripherals.

Thanks, plenty to try there.

Just when you mention peripherals, over the past couple of months I've been having issues with my mouse and keyboard where I need to unplug them and replug them once at the windows log in screen to get them to be picked up. I'm not sure if that will have anything to do with it. Would seem unlikely.

Jason Rage · 27 Sep 2019 at 11:03

Oblivion007 said:
Thanks, plenty to try there.

Just when you mention peripherals, over the past couple of months I've been having issues with my mouse and keyboard where I need to unplug them and replug them once at the windows log in screen to get them to be picked up. I'm not sure if that will have anything to do with it. Would seem unlikely.

I updated my response with a tad more info for you and with better test parameters. But yes, believe it or not peripherals can cause this. I added a mention to my friend who was going to RMA a new laptop for similar behaviours of yours. Sudden crashes. The culprit was a usb mouse.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 13:06

Jason Rage said:
I updated my response with a tad more info for you and with better test parameters. But yes, believe it or not peripherals can cause this. I added a mention to my friend who was going to RMA a new laptop for similar behaviours of yours. Sudden crashes. The culprit was a usb mouse.

One of the things you never suspect I suppose. I don't think I've got a spare keyboard & mouse to test this with though ... doh!

Alan1969 · 27 Sep 2019 at 15:54

Oblivion007 said:
One of the things you never suspect I suppose. I don't think I've got a spare keyboard & mouse to test this with though ... doh!

years ago (probably early 90's my friends dad got a pc for gaming - probably something like a 486 25mhz).

As soon as he got it he tried to turn it on etc. and it wouldnot work. They call me round and after hours it turned out to be a duff brand new mouse that was supplied with the system!

It used to happen.

Bounce · 27 Sep 2019 at 15:56

Oblivion007 said:
Spec in sig.

Last night my pc started crashing intermittently - hard reset maybe 5 or 6 times over the course of two hours. Twice when opening a video in VLC player. The screen went solid yellow one of the times the other time the colours all inverted and it looked like a gpu bug.

My initial thought is it may be the PSU, however I only bought it in February this year. Its a EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 - could it be the PSU after only 6 months? Unfortunately I don't have another PSU to swap out to check.

This was a new build only a two months ago and its been working perfectly since. Vega 64 is only 6 months old too.

The IF and memory are overclocked but its been running solid for a week and passed memtest.

Any one any ideas how to debug or fix?

You have AMD thats the reason.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 16:05

Bounce said:
You have AMD thats the reason.

Useful ......

an0nym0us · 27 Sep 2019 at 16:08

Jason Rage said:
I'm unsure if your gpu takes 2 plugs but if it does try splitting the load by using 2 different 12v rails to power it.

The EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 only has a single 12V rail. Still worth trying 2 separate cables connecting GPU to PSU to see if it helps with the crashing though.

Oblivion007 · 27 Sep 2019 at 16:21

an0nym0us said:
The EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 only has a single 12V rail. Still worth trying 2 separate cables connecting GPU to PSU to see if it helps with the crashing though.

I already use two separate cables (on cable extenders) on my GPU.

an0nym0us · 28 Sep 2019 at 00:18

Oblivion007 said:
I already use two separate cables (on cable extenders) on my GPU.

It was a bit if a long shot, since your problems don't seem to be isolated to when the GPU is under load.

DoneADougalOnSofa · 28 Sep 2019 at 09:18

You could try locking p6 as minimum state in Wattman. Solved a couple of odd game crashes for me.