PC will randomly shut off occasionally

[Chiipo]

First off, sorry if this is a common issue. I have done some research, but I seem to only find posts about people who have laptops or generic "computer went bad" answers. Also, sorry if the answer is glaringly obvious and I am just naïve about it.

 

ISSUE

So, my computer has randomly started shutting off. It first happened about a month ago randomly, and the motherboard gave a q-code of "8", which correlates to some CPU problems (potential voltage drop, clear cmos or re-flash bios?). Since it only happened once I didn't think much of it. However, it has started to happen again. It will randomly freeze for a second, and then the screen turns black and pc will shutdown and reboot itself. Also, awhile ago my cpu fan randomly stopped spinning? I was doing homework and realized my case fans were unusually high, took a glance over at my case and the cpu fan was dead still. The temps were only around 50c so I just shut off the system and rebooted. That has not happened again since then, at least that I know of. While rebooting after a crash the case fans (4 noctua NF-A14s, and stock 2700x cooler) will ramp up and down repeatedly, and will give a code AA after booting back up (according to asus "Qcode AA means the system has transitioned to ACPI mode (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) and therefore handed over to the OS") which seems to be normal. The motherboard (Crosshair hero vii) does not give a q-code now as to why the system has crashed. Upon rebooting this most recent time I got an error code along the lines of "CPU FAN error too low",  or something (cpu temps stay below 65 even while gaming, usually 60s while gaming and 30s-mid 40s at idle, so I have no reason to believe the fan is failing other than the situation above. I was dumb and didn't take the time to snap a picture or really memorize what it said. The only other weird thing was when I opened a link in an email (It was from my college, so no fishy business there), and the google tabs that were open started to lag EXTREMELY bad. I could see the animation of the tabs at the top open and close. The blue shape when click-dragging around on the desktop was also laggy. I am unsure what could cause this, and would love any help in determining what could be happening. Also, sorry for the absolute wall of text, but I want to include anything that would be relevant to the person/people who take the time and try to help.

Other Stuff that may be relevant?

When I first built my PC (Around August 2019 I believe) I had to update my BIOS so that my Motherboard would be compatible with the ram. Since then I have not done anything else except for take the GPU out (friend wanted to try it in his build), and even that was many months ago. I have dabbled with OCing my cpu and ram, but nothing major. The furthest I went was 4.3-4.35 Ghz on cpu using a guide from an OC forum with the same mobo and CPU. It wasn't stable so I backed down to 4.2 Ghz which was completely stable in all applications, workloads, and games. I ran that for a few months until this started happening and I backed it down to 4.0 Ghz thinking maybe it was the culprit. I left the CPU voltages to "Auto" or "Default", and changed the ram speeds back to 3200 Mhz from 3400 Mhz.

 

For PC specs

(potentially most relevant)

CPU- Ryzen 7 2700x

Motherboard- Crosshair Hero vii (No wifi)

PSU- EVGA 750 supernova G3 (750W Gold)

 

(probably not relevant but don't want to leave it out in case it is important?)

GPU- RTX 2080 (MSI gaming x trio)

RAM- Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16gb (2x8) 3200 Mhz

Running Windows 10 Home from my Samsung 860 Evo

 

If there is anything else that would be of use to help trouble shoot this problem please let me know. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[bmx6454]

did you try clearing the cmos? do you have any custom fan curves? and do you have a spare cooler to try? also might be worth looking for any damage on the mobo around the cpu fan header.

 

a bios update might be worth doing as well.

[Dango]

Sounds like memory unstable. Try run memtest 1 pass to make sure it's stable in your current configuration.

[Chiipo]

4 hours ago, Dango said:

Sounds like memory unstable. Try run memtest 1 pass to make sure it's stable in your current configuration.

I downloaded and ran MemTest86. During the test it said there were 134 errors, however at the end of the test it said 100% Pass. I took pictures of the two screens showing a summary after. However, in the summary screen it said it only passed 2/12 tests, even though there are 13 tests and the in-progress screen reported 100% pass after they were all done. Sorry for the absolute potato pictures.

[Chiipo]

6 hours ago, bmx6454 said:

did you try clearing the cmos? do you have any custom fan curves? and do you have a spare cooler to try? also might be worth looking for any damage on the mobo around the cpu fan header.

 

a bios update might be worth doing as well.

I just reset the cmos, and I did use argus monitor for custom fan curves. I just bought a Corsair H150i to swap in case my cpu cooler was on its way out (I have been looking for a reason to upgrade anyway). I did not notice any damage anywhere on the motherboard at all. I am running completely default bios settings now, and my ram seemed to pass the memtest. Hopefully it was a wonky bios setting I changed? or possibly a faulty/dying wraith prism cooler? Unfortunately, the issue is (hopefully was) very sporadic and I will not be able to tell if it is fixed until it either crashes some day or I forget all about it.

[Chiipo]

1 hour ago, Chiipo said:

I just reset the cmos, and I did use argus monitor for custom fan curves. I just bought a Corsair H150i to swap in case my cpu cooler was on its way out (I have been looking for a reason to upgrade anyway). I did not notice any damage anywhere on the motherboard at all. I am running completely default bios settings now, and my ram seemed to pass the memtest. Hopefully it was a wonky bios setting I changed? or possibly a faulty/dying wraith prism cooler? Unfortunately, the issue is (hopefully was) very sporadic and I will not be able to tell if it is fixed until it either crashes some day or I forget all about it.

After further looking, it seems I was drastically mistaken about my memtest results. I have replicated the results (100+ fails) again and have decided to reach out to Corsair since their DRAM modules carry a lifetime warranty. Even if they are not the culprit, am I mistaken to think they are in a failing state? Would it be okay to continue to run them? The articles I found have claimed that any amount of fails is unacceptable, but I do not know how dated that information may or may not be. I am clearly a newbie based on my previous "ram seems to have passed the test" remark.