Random Game Disconects

[nanobot1]

RESOLVED: RAM too fast for mobo

 

Since I built my computer last year I've had issues running video games but applications like Microsoft Office and internet browsers work without any problems. Games will crash on me randomly, sometimes on boot-up, sometimes while I'm in the middle of it, and sometimes not at all. Some can be "forced" to work by rebooting them after they crash until they work. There seems to be no real correlation between the games either as anything from Borderlands 3 to Minecraft crashes. I've gone full Frankenstein on my PC, temporarily swapping equivalent or near equivalent components with friends to see if any of the hardware is the issue to no avail. I've brought my computer into a shop only for them to tell me it was my SSD, try to sell me a new one, and forget to put my GPU screws back in. I'm hesitant to go back to another shop after that experience.

Below is the list of components and a description of how tested each has been tested. All original components were reinstalled or set back to their base settings after each trial to reduce the number of changing variables. Friends would install my hardware into their computers when swapping parts and none of them had any issues.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 6-Core/12-Thread Processor Socket AM4 3.40GHz Base/3.90GHz Boost, Wraith Stealth cooler 65W
-> overclocked, swapped with AMD Ryzen 7 2600

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4) DDR4-3000 Memory
-> swapped out with 16GB (2x8GB)

Motherboard: ASRock B450M HDV R4.0 AMD
-> updated BIOS, cleared CMOS

Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD
-> swapped for a WD Black 1 TB HDD with original BIOS reflected and a clean install of BIOS

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 6GB AMP! Edition
-> overclocked, underclocked, increased fan speed, swapped with a different GeForce 1060 6GB

Power Supply: Corsair CXM 750 W 80+ Bronze Cert. Semi-mod ATX
-> nothing

Wi-Fi: TP-Link N300 300Mbs Wireless N PCI Express Adapter
-> nothing

Case: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow
-> nothing

I've tried doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of the drivers (DDU) for my GPU and CPU as well as a clean install of Windows 10 64bit on both the SSD and HDD. There's no error message that pops up when games crash either which has made this all the more frustrating. Some trouble shooting resulted in a functional PC for a week or so before they would go back to crashing. Games I have tried to play that either don't work or don't work consistently include: Borderlands 3, Minecraft, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Overcooked, Unrailed, League of Legends, SMITE, and Skyrim. Borderlands 3, Siege, and SMITE will crash entirely without delay or within seconds whereas League will crash but the application will not close for up to 5 minutes. Audio in Siege mostly works after the crash (stutters) and both that and League will still show the last frame before the application shuts. When the games crash there is also no way for me to manually close them via Alt+F4 and I cannot leave the application to open task manager and end the task through that, I'm stuck in the game. There are two games that do work consistently: Stardew Valley and Darkest Dungeon.

 

(Edited for grammar)

[bmx6454]

is there anything showing up in event viewer after the games crash?

 

edit: also, when you say you underclocked the gpu, how much did you underclock it? if you haven't tried this, try underclocking the vram and core to max, and voltage to 80%.

[Nathanpete]

Just strange. Also how in the world does Alt+F4, ctrl+alt+esc, or ctrl+shift+esc not work. Sure you can press them and it might take a while to do anything if your CPU is locked up (too hot, too high of usage, too many interrupt commands (you can't change this, it just depends on the hundreds of micro programs running in the background), but there is no reason for Win10 to not follow through with Alt+F4. 

 

Have you tried playing stuff like Minecraft and Skyrim offline? As in just pull the wi-fi card out, and disconnect ethernet. It is just one more test to add to the extensive testing u have done, and maybe, but not likely, it will prove something. 

 

There is clearly two or more components in the system that don't like each other. Or you have some sort of malicious program running that was never wiped in the clean win10 install. 

 

Also try running your games with xmp disabled. Like run your RAM at 2133 or 2400 MHz just for testing. The lockup could be caused by severe memory errors that are somehow not triggering a BSOD. 

 

Like @bmx6454 check event viewer for errors surrounding the timestamp of a crash and report back here with anything u find. 

 

Also the motherboard is sus, it never got changed out and u have never had a consistent experience. If you can borrow another B450 board for an open bench test (so that the form factor of the board isn't an issue) and it does seem to work, u should really just replace the motherboard. CMOS and BIOS flashes won't do anything to faulty silicon or copper. 

[Nathanpete]

To add to what I just said, yes only swapping one thing out is great for testing and benchmarking purposes, but this is troubleshooting, and u have exhausted pretty much everything but the mobo. If it isn't the mobo, go frankenstein and switch out two parts, rotating the combos until stability. Pulling one thing out at a time won't fix shit when there are two or more things that are bad. 

 

At least you gave way more information then illythekitty did on yt. She uploaded a rant about how her PC went to shit after a couple months and now she can't stream anymore. All she did was talk about her experience with local computer repair shops, talk about temps and scroll through event viewer. 

I put a comment on her video (she isn't big, like >50k subs) with some suggestions, and I am willing to bet she has three issues: Her GPU is actually damaged bc the SI did fuck up in building, it needs to be replaced; Her airflow and cooling is shit, give it an upgrade, and transfer all your SSD's content to a brand new SSD. 

 

Basically her pre built was good specs, but the build quality was atrocious, and after a while it went to shit, but she can't RMA it anymore. She was fucking pissed. 

 

IDK why I posted the bottom part, just my own experience with trying to troubleshoot in a comment section. 

[nanobot1]

I haven't even been looking at Event Viewer. This is my very first build and gaming PC, I'm incredibly new to all of this and have been learning programs as I go. Thank you for that tip @bmx6454, I'll leave that open in the background from now on and check it the next few crashes and post an update. 

 

The last time I underclocked it was back in November so I only vaguely remember how much it was underclocked by, 80% sounds right.

 

@Nathanpete: ctl+alt+del does work but loading task manager through that still doesn't work. A hard restart using the button on my case is the only thing that works in the case of games like LoL where I'm stuck in the game for minutes on end. I haven't tried playing them offline but if the internet connection was the issue would I not be able to play Stardew or Darkest? I have been considering just upgrading to a better mobo (maybe with 4 slots for RAM or with a USB C port) anyway but I've left it alone for this long because it's probably the most annoying part to install. 

 

I've done a little bit of streaming and OBS Studio has never crashed on me.

 

For all: in the future please try to keep any negativity about other people/their builds out of the thread. I understand that it can be frustrating in instances such as the one mentioned but I would like to keep this post positive for people who are like me and nervous about asking for help on forums.

[nanobot1]

Update: Today during a crash my PC went into Recovery "It looks like Windows didn't load correctly"

 

I'm going to pick up a new motherboard in the next few days and see what happens.