Open Forum > Computer Hardware
Mysterious PC Crashes
SPC McDougall:
Hey all,
I've been dealing with some strange PC crashing recently that I haven't quite been able to nail down.
Basically, when I launch certain games (the two in particular that have triggered it are The Witcher 3 and Jedi: Fallen Order), my entire PC sometimes crashes and immediately restarts. It has mainly happened when the games have been loading up, but it has also happened midway into a session of Witcher 3. It does not happen every time, sometimes the game boots up, loads and runs just fine for hours.
My specs are as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
SSD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5
Case: Corsair Carbide 200R ATX Case
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (OEM) (64-bit)
The troubleshooting information I have to this point is:
- It does not appear to be a temperature issue. I was having temperature issues causing crashing a few months ago but I changed the thermal paste and replaced the case fans, and now temperatures are in the normal range under load.
- Only some games appear to trigger it, it has never occurred during ArmA 3 gameplay and other games have worked fine.
- OS, GPU drivers and UEFI are all up to date.
- The Witcher 3, Jedi Fallen: Order and most other games (but not ArmA) are stored on my HDD.
Any and all help would be appreciated!
Capt (Ret) Avery:
I suggest taking a look at event viewer logs right after the crash happens, might give us a direction as to what is happening. My first guess would be that some hardware is overheating, but if it doesn't happen in ArmA but happens in other games, it sort of throws that theory out of the window. I would also go through your BIOS and see if there is an event log in there and see what that reports.
Edit: Question, do you do any overclocking on your CPU, GPU and/or RAM (anything beyond XMP profiles).
CPL Price:
I would call these 'mysterious crashes' as 'features' and be done with it.
But, this is my list of things to check:
- you said temperature isn't an issue, but I'd rather you check - are you monitoring it in real time? Are the fan inputs and outputs clear and not covered in a blanket of lints?
- are both your video-game copies purchased and up to date? If they are not purchased, that might be an issue
- how long has your system been installed for? How old is your system drive? How old is your storage (game) drive?
- did you try reinstalling the video-games? If you did and it persists, have you tried a different storage device?
I would love to give more insight but without being physically near it when it crashes, it's hard to hone in on the issue. Do you hear anything when you take your headphones off just after crashing? Can you foresee a crash a few seconds in advance?
CPL Price:
--- Quote from: 1st Lt Avery on April 18, 2020, 03:41:06 PM ---[...] but if it doesn't happen in ArmA but happens in other games [...]
--- End quote ---
It could still be GPU related, as Arma is foreign to that concept. But it can be a relation between the specific game and the hardware configuration, as well. Maybe they don't like one another.
SPC McDougall:
Thanks for the prompt replies, much appreciated!
- No overclocking of any sort.
- Yes, I've been monitoring with OpenHardwareMonitor. Fan inputs and outputs are clear, I replaced and upgraded the case fans only a couple of months ago. There is a CM Hyper 212 Evo on the CPU (it's been there about as long as I've had the system but I replaced the thermal paste a couple of months ago).
- Games are purchased and up to date.
- System has been installed since August 2014. I've had the SSD (system drive) since January 2019, HDD (games/storage drive) since August 2014. The GPU has been in since January 2019, I used to have a Gigabyte Windforce R9 280 from 2014-2019.
- Have not tried reinstalling the games.
Event viewer log reveals the following:
Details: Spoiler (click to show/hide)- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331c3b3a-2005-44c2-ac5e-77220c37d6b4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>6</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2020-04-18T19:13:53.847826200Z" />
<EventRecordID>25729</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Syracuse</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
<Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
<Data Name="Checkpoint">41</Data>
<Data Name="ConnectedStandbyInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="SystemSleepTransitionsToOn">2</Data>
<Data Name="CsEntryScenarioInstanceId">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckInfoFromEFI">false</Data>
<Data Name="CheckpointStatus">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
There are a bunch of instances of this, dating back to December when I got Fallen Order. Judging by the date/time codes this has been the event occurring for every one of these crashes (wasn't previously aware of Event Viewer).
I don't hear anything special when it crashes. The system just goes completely quiet, power LED turns off, then flashes back on and the system makes normal boot-up noises.
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