Random System Crash - BIOS Reset

[koala_1253]

I tried looking for the issue that I'm having, and I can't find anything that can remotely help me.

 

I'm having a particular issue with games. I can be playing them normally when out of nowhere, my PC crashes. Not the game, but the PC, I lose any video output and my fans turn off. Only thing that stays on is the LED on my RAM and the LED on the power button, nothing else. When I press the power button, the PC boots up normally, but takes a little more time doing so, I imagine because of the crash. If I go to my BIOS, I get a message:
 

Clear CMOS Information: "BIOS has been reset, make any necessary changes"

 

Something along those lines. As it says, my BIOS was reset so any overclock on the CPU, RAM and even fan settings are reset.

 

This issue first started when I installed The Forest (around a month ago), where it was unplayable from the start because every time I got into the game, my PC would crash and my BIOS would reset. After that, no other game showed the same behavior, until recently Call of Duty Cold War Zombies, the same thing happened twice. And today, playing BO3 Zombies my PC crashed. All crashes had the same behavior as I explained above. I have absolutely no idea what's causing this problem, and it worries me that some piece of hardware might be failing. I built this PC around February 2021, so it has a couple months already, but this is the first time I'm seeing this behavior.

 

My specs:

CPU: Ryzen 7 5800x @ 4.50Ghz @ 1.275V

CPU Cooler: EK AIO Basic 240mm

GPU: RTX 3080 -> Stock vBIOS -> 94.02.42.00.FB

RAM: G.SKIL Trident Z RGB 16gb 3600MHz C18 -> XMP

PSU: EVGA 750W Gold

MOBO: X570 Aorus Elite Wifi -> BIOS -> F34

 

I've tried these settings:

1. No overclock, but XMP yes (crashed)

2. Stock settings, it didnt crash for other games, but The Forest did crash. But still, the RAM was running at 2133MHz which is a real waste...

3. No overclock, RAM clock set at 3200MHz (crash)

 

These crashes have never happened while just browsing with my computer, watching videos, none of that. Only when playing videos games.

Could this be a hardware issue? Power issue? Should I update all of the versions for everything?

Thank you in advance for any help

[Bombastinator]

Most common problem with crash after boot is memory stuff.  Have you run tests on the memory? Sometimes memory just goes bad. The bits of it are reaaaly really tiny to the point they can be affected by cosmic rays and stuff.

[koala_1253]

Well, I haven't done any memory testing, which software do you recommend?
Also, when you say "crash after boot", does that mean that the BIOS reset is cause when the system boots after the crash? I thought the crash itself was causing the bios reset

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, koala_1253 said:

Well, I haven't done any memory testing, which software do you recommend?
Also, when you say "crash after boot", does that mean that the BIOS reset is cause when the system boots after the crash? I thought the crash itself was causing the bios reset

I understand there are two.  One is memtest86 which is the only one I have used.  It’s quite old.  Memory testing takes a long time but at least it’s free and you don’t have to Shepard the process. Bios reset could be a system shutdown which would be a PSU thing from not a big enough PSU.  That’s another common one.  Could be neither of those though. “Most common”!doesn’t even necessarily mean “a lot”

[koala_1253]

4 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I understand there are two.  One is memtest86 which is the only one I have used.  It’s quite old.  Memory testing takes a long time but at least it’s free and you don’t have to Shepard the process. Bios reset could be a system shutdown which would be a PSU thing from not a big enough PSU.  That’s another common one.  Could be neither of those though. “Most common”!doesn’t even necessarily mean “a lot”

Okay, thank you very much for the info! I'll try that memtest86 tonight and maybe have it run through the night. Hmm, I thought about the PSU yeah, but I am within spec to power everything in my PC safely, unless the GPU does a sudden spike... That might be something, but I'm not sure. I'll do the memtest first

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, koala_1253 said:

Okay, thank you very much for the info! I'll try that memtest86 tonight and maybe have it run through the night. Hmm, I thought about the PSU yeah, but I am within spec to power everything in my PC safely, unless the GPU does a sudden spike... That might be something, but I'm not sure. I'll do the memtest first

Takes a few hours generally though it depends on the amount of memory.  It’s not uncommon to run it a few times.  There is a more sensitive test which is older but takes much longer which is just putting one stick at a time in slot #1 and running things. Works off the concept that it’s unlikely for more than one stick to go bad.  If memtest86 shows nothing maybe look at the PSU before messing with the second test.  It’s only useful in cases of subtle problems and this one doesn’t sound super subtle.

[koala_1253]

So, I left memtest running and woke up to 0 errors. I’m running it again right now just in case.

 

I’ll take a look at the PSU, I also thought about taking it apart and re-building it again.