Issue with Desktop PC

dio

Hey all,

Been having a bit of an issue with my old desktop at home, like 7/10 times when i open a game (dota2/csgo), as soon as im in a game, the PC will restart.

I used to get around this by changing the video to Windowed mode, but now that's not even working anymore. I ran Furmark for like 45 minutes via GPU stress, it was fine.

I tried installing the latest drivers, nothing helped.

Something strange also happened yesterday, I logged on to CSGO, i started the game, the monitor turned off and one of the fans in the PC just began to spin really fast and loud. I had to restart.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

vlatkozelka

Unrelated but ... don't use Furmark, it puts too much stress on your GPU, VRam and VRMs, it's basically a card killer. Run something like heaven, or some other realistic benchmark where you're rendering something similar to a game.

Is anything in your PC overclocked (manually not turbo boosted)? Syndromes are very similar to an unstable OC. Except usually with the gpu the driver crashes not the whole PC, and it usually recovers. I would like to point out that many online games, especially the ones you mentioned, "hate" overlays like Riva Tuner*. I'm assuming you have that since you have Furmark. If so try putting Riva Tuner in "Stealth mode".
The thing is these games "think" those overlays are for cheats, cause that's how many cheats work. I've had the same issues with the same games you mentioned. It drove me crazy for a while.

Another thing I'd suggest, is to plug in a speaker into your motherboard. It's right next to the front panel connectors usually. And it's extremely helpful with troubleshooting hardware. If it beeps, note the pattern, and google it.

Also can you please give full specs? It might just be an old (hopefully not) dying pc.

*If you have MSI afterburner installed, you probably have Riva Tuner. Do you have some sort of fps counter overlay?

yasamoka

dio wroteHey all,

Been having a bit of an issue with my old desktop at home, like 7/10 times when i open a game (dota2/csgo), as soon as im in a game, the PC will restart.

I used to get around this by changing the video to Windowed mode, but now that's not even working anymore. I ran Furmark for like 45 minutes via GPU stress, it was fine.

I tried installing the latest drivers, nothing helped.

Something strange also happened yesterday, I logged on to CSGO, i started the game, the monitor turned off and one of the fans in the PC just began to spin really fast and loud. I had to restart.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Changing to Windowed mode engages Windows DWM Triple-Buffered V-Sync, which limits the framerate your games are running at. When in Exclusive Fullscreen mode, I'm assuming you have V-Sync turned off, which means your framerate shoots up, your CPU utilization goes up, and your GPU utilization goes up.

Given these games probably do not come close to using enough power from your PSU on the CPU and GPU that it would exceed that drawn due to Furmark on the GPU solely, then running Furmark indicates that the GPU and PSU are not necessarily the issue - that is, your GPU core seems fine and your PSU is handling a higher power output fine.

Run a CPU stress test (e.g. Prime95). Your CPU sounds like the culprit.

vlatkozelka wroteUnrelated but ... don't use Furmark, it puts too much stress on your GPU, VRam and VRMs, it's basically a card killer. Run something like heaven, or some other realistic benchmark where you're rendering something similar to a game.

Drivers for modern GPUs detect when Furmark is running and proceed to limit power draw and possibly clockspeeds.

vlatkozelka

Ah that probably explains why Furmark never runs at the clocks I set, but at the base clocks + turbo.

yasamoka

vlatkozelka wroteAh that probably explains why Furmark never runs at the clocks I set, but at the base clocks + turbo.

There's no single clock you set with a 1080Ti but an offset along all points of the clock-voltage curve. You can see that curve by pressing the respective button in MSI Afterburner.

dio

Awesome stuff indeed. I'll check the CPU test and let you know.

Xsever

It could be a faulty RAM module as well. The same problem used to happen with my PC like 5 years ago and replacing a RAM module solved the problem. I remember doing all sort of stress tests for the CPU and GPU and the problem was only revealed when I did a RAM test.

dio

Xsever wroteIt could be a faulty RAM module as well. The same problem used to happen with my PC like 5 years ago and replacing a RAM module solved the problem. I remember doing all sort of stress tests for the CPU and GPU and the problem was only revealed when I did a RAM test.

Will run Memtest as well. I'll update you when I found out.

beezer

Could be an overheating CPU, open it up and see how much dust is collected inside on the heat sink fins and fan.

dio

beezer wroteCould be an overheating CPU, open it up and see how much dust is collected inside on the heat sink fins and fan.

I haven't gotten the chance to test the CPU using prime yet, but as for the dust, I cleaned it not too long ago and it was fairly clean already.

dio

yasamoka wrote
dio wroteHey all,

Been having a bit of an issue with my old desktop at home, like 7/10 times when i open a game (dota2/csgo), as soon as im in a game, the PC will restart.

I used to get around this by changing the video to Windowed mode, but now that's not even working anymore. I ran Furmark for like 45 minutes via GPU stress, it was fine.

I tried installing the latest drivers, nothing helped.

Something strange also happened yesterday, I logged on to CSGO, i started the game, the monitor turned off and one of the fans in the PC just began to spin really fast and loud. I had to restart.

Any suggestions would be helpful.
Changing to Windowed mode engages Windows DWM Triple-Buffered V-Sync, which limits the framerate your games are running at. When in Exclusive Fullscreen mode, I'm assuming you have V-Sync turned off, which means your framerate shoots up, your CPU utilization goes up, and your GPU utilization goes up.

Given these games probably do not come close to using enough power from your PSU on the CPU and GPU that it would exceed that drawn due to Furmark on the GPU solely, then running Furmark indicates that the GPU and PSU are not necessarily the issue - that is, your GPU core seems fine and your PSU is handling a higher power output fine.

Run a CPU stress test (e.g. Prime95). Your CPU sounds like the culprit.

vlatkozelka wroteUnrelated but ... don't use Furmark, it puts too much stress on your GPU, VRam and VRMs, it's basically a card killer. Run something like heaven, or some other realistic benchmark where you're rendering something similar to a game.
Drivers for modern GPUs detect when Furmark is running and proceed to limit power draw and possibly clockspeeds.

Alright, I ran Prime95 for 9 hours, and no errors came up. Does that eliminate my CPU as the culprit?

yasamoka

Mostly. What stress mode did you use? Tried Blend to test some memory as well? Try getting Memtest86+ onto a USB flash drive and boot from it.

dio

yasamoka wroteMostly. What stress mode did you use? Tried Blend to test some memory as well? Try getting Memtest86+ onto a USB flash drive and boot from it.

Yup, tried that too.

I will try memtest.

One thing though, I ran OCCT and the test stopped after 1 min cuz my Core 1 was over maximum temp. It was 87 or so.

beezer

Could be a bad psu, gfx + cpu usage puts stress on it. I had a bad psu once, my mother board light would flash instead of being stable and it sometimes wouldn't turn back on.

If you have a brand name mobo there should be some indicator.