troubleshoot PC Randomly freezes and restarts during gaming/streaming

[impl3x]

Greetings all,

 

I've been having a very strange issue with my new build which I can't seem to fix, if you've got any advice or experience with how I can fix it, it would be much appreciated.
Basically what happens is during a gaming session my PC will randomly freeze at an unpredictable moment and restart itself.

 

Here's all the details,

 

The build:

 

Case: Thermaltake Core P1 Tempered Glass Edition Mini ITX

CPU: Intel BX80684I79700K Core i7-9700K

CPU Cooling: DEEPCOOL Gamer Storm CAPTAIN 240EX WHITE CPU Liquid Cooler

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming LGA1151 Mini ITX

RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE® RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit (CMR16GX4M2C3000C15W)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Super XC Gaming, 8GB GDDR6

Power Supply: EVGA 750 GQ 80+ GOLD 750W (Currently Swapped with a Corsair RM750x 750W Gold Certified)

Hard Drive: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB

Boot Drive: Crucial P1 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD - CT1000P1SSD8

Game Storage: Crucial MX300 1TB SSD

Some background,

I've been building custom PC's for over 10 years, many friends and family members turn to me for fixing all sorts of issues with their personal devices from BSOD, data recovery, troubleshooting etc.

So Iv'e come across a lot of issues and have a lot of experience fixing pc's. This one has got me puzzled. Usually, a PC shutting down or restarting during heavy load (Gaming, rendering, etc.) indicates it is a power issue, possibly other components failing such as RAM, or storage drives. With my case the PC freezes first before it prompts itself to a restart, indicating that there was some sort of error pointing towards OS, software or potentially hardware before the restart.

The issue primarily exists when gaming and is certain to exist when gaming and streaming, during regular use the freezing and restart issue does not exist.

Not all the parts listed are brand new, most came from my previous build which at the time did not have the same issue i'm currently experiencing. The new parts from the list above include the motherboard, processor and case.

Here's all the troubleshooting iv'e done so far. (In no particular order, even after all of this troubleshooting the issue still exists.)

1. Iv'e reinstalled windows. Twice.
2. Removed any overclocking done to the GPU and CPU.
3. Swapped out the RAM with 2x4GB DDR4 HyperX RAM.
4. Taken apart the entire PC, rebuilt ensuring all cables were correctly plugged in.
5. Checked the motherboard for any bent pins, ensuring the CPU was seated correctly.
6. Ran memtest64 test for 12 hours straight with the CORSAIR Vengeance RAM, PC did not crash, freeze or BSOD.
7. Removed the GPU from vertical mount bracket with a cable riser and directly connected to the motherboard PCIE slot.
8. Reinstalled GPU drivers using DDU in safe mode as the program recommends.
9. CMOS reset done on motherboard.
10. Ran tests on all the drives using CrystalDiskMark.
11. Ran multiple benchmarks, using Cinebench, 3DMark Time Spy, Heaven Benchmark and FurMark. (Could not recreate the crash or freeze even with long loops.)
12. Ran different command lines as admin in windows such as chkdsk, windows memory diagnostic tool, all tests passed.
13. Finally, on Saturday April 4th I visited my local Canada Computers shop and bought a new PSU. (Corsair RM750x 750W Gold Certified) which also did not fix the issue

 

Those are the troubleshoots that I have attempted which I can remember off the top of my head.

Any benchmarks or long session gaming done was monitored using HWMointor. Both CPU and GPU averaged about 75C under full load.

The freeze occurs on any game iv'e played. (COD, WoW, RB6, World War Z, Etc.)

As mentioned previously, it happens very randomly and unpredictable but definitively during gaming and streaming. There is no error code, no BSOD. The OS will freeze for about 5-8 seconds, screens turn black, and computer restarts.

 

I've ruled out that it could be the PSU because I replaced it with a new one. RAM could still be the potential suspect but I also did replace the corsair 16gb 8x2 kit with the 8GB 4x2 HyperX RAM and during the first hour of gaming the PC crashed.

The PCIE riser was a suspect as I could have gotten a bad cable riser with my Thermaltake core P1 case but that was ruled out since I mounted the GPU directly to the PCIE slot on the motherboard and the issue still exists.

The GPU itself could be the issue but less that a month ago, the same GPU was sitting in my previous build with no issues.

Could it possibly be the motherboard? Has anyone encountered the same problem i'm having and only after swapping the motherboard did they fix the issue?

 

This is my first time posting on the LTT forum and reaching out for help, sorry in advance if the post is long. Just trying to give as much detail as possible to isolate what the exact issue could be.

 

Help me save my build.

[Dedayog]

Have you game/stream with another GPU?  GPU may have voltage control module and PSU protections kick in, resulting in crashing.  The freezing could be attributed to that as well.

 

Something I had to deal with before, was a pain in the ass and not obvious.

 

Hope that helps.  

[impl3x]

Hey @jstudrawa thanks for the reply.

Not yet, but that is one option i am keeping open and will end up trying if needed. I have a friend who lives close by who has an RX 5700XT, maybe if we swapped GPU's and have him try my 2070 super in his build and recreate the problem, then that would solidify the issue being the GPU.