My PC Stops Working Randomly.

[StarBirds007]

I have a mid-range gaming PC, It started to crash randomly after a while of use, the fans still spin but the screen goes black. Then I started to see a pattern, it crashes when playing games (most of the time) and, let's say I play games on it for an hour and it crashes.... The next time I turn it on it will work for an extra hour or two, then it will crash (or don't, It's random, but mostly yes). And the biggest issue I have is that sometimes (once in a week or so...) it just won't boot up, the lights still turn on, the fans spin but the screen will remain black and the input devices won't work (i know because the keyboard lights don't work in this state) and it will stay like this for an hour or two, maybe even 2-3 days or sometimes even weeks! After which it eventually decides to boot. It not only does this after crashing, but even after i shut it down properly, the next time it may or may not boot. I have tried plugging it on a wall as well. My gpu power cables were initially 6 pin to 8 pin adapters, so i thought this might be the issue... But it still did not work even after i bought the proper cables. Please help!

 

These are the hardware specifications:

intel core i7  3770k

16 gb ddr3 RAM

AMD r9 280x 3gb

256 gb SSD (Windows 10 installed on it)

1 tb HDD

[dwm]

Temps??? are they below the rated?

[StarBirds007]

Yup... I even tried running it directly in front of an air conditioner, didn't work.

[Frizz]

On 3/23/2022 at 7:54 AM, StarBirds007 said:

I have a mid-range gaming PC, It started to crash randomly after a while of use, the fans still spin but the screen goes black. Then I started to see a pattern, it crashes when playing games (most of the time) and, let's say I play games on it for an hour and it crashes.... The next time I turn it on it will work for an extra hour or two, then it will crash (or don't, It's random, but mostly yes). And the biggest issue I have is that sometimes (once in a week or so...) it just won't boot up, the lights still turn on, the fans spin but the screen will remain black and the input devices won't work (i know because the keyboard lights don't work in this state) and it will stay like this for an hour or two, maybe even 2-3 days or sometimes even weeks! After which it eventually decides to boot. It not only does this after crashing, but even after i shut it down properly, the next time it may or may not boot. I have tried plugging it on a wall as well. My gpu power cables were initially 6 pin to 8 pin adapters, so i thought this might be the issue... But it still did not work even after i bought the proper cables. Please help!

 

These are the hardware specifications:

intel core i7  3770k

16 gb ddr3 RAM

AMD r9 280x 3gb

256 gb SSD (Windows 10 installed on it)

1 tb HDD

Go to event viewer -> windows logs -> system. Do you see any messages around the crash?
You can ignore any that say "The system did not shutdown cleanly", that's a given

Also a picture of your computer inside may help, just gives me a better idea of what you are working with

[StarBirds007]

On 3/25/2022 at 9:58 PM, Frizz said:

Go to event viewer -> windows logs -> system. Do you see any messages around the crash?
You can ignore any that say "The system did not shutdown cleanly", that's a given

Also a picture of your computer inside may help, just gives me a better idea of what you are working with

The PC still functions normally without the gpu. It did not boot up with the gpu, so i checked the logs without it. There is a critical message saying "The system has rebooted without properly shutting down ......... it could be caused if the system would have stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly" (I did pull the plug out though, or there would not have been any other way to reboot it, the fans keep spinning and the lights are on but the peripherals dont work bcz their lights do not turn on).

And here's the image of my system:

[v0id]

I'd bet my ridiculous government salary that somehow the PSU is involved

 

If you've already ruled out driver updates for all components, and your temps are within spec, I'd look into the PSU. It is from ~2013 based on a quick Google search, unless yours is newer, so perhaps it's failing?

[Frizz]

On 4/6/2022 at 2:46 PM, StarBirds007 said:

The PC still functions normally without the gpu. It did not boot up with the gpu, so i checked the logs without it. There is a critical message saying "The system has rebooted without properly shutting down ......... it could be caused if the system would have stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly" (I did pull the plug out though, or there would not have been any other way to reboot it, the fans keep spinning and the lights are on but the peripherals dont work bcz their lights do not turn on).

And here's the image of my system:

 

Have you tried DDU in safemode?

 

Do you have another GPU you can test say from a friend?

 

Otherwise I would agree with @v0id random crashes 9/10 are PSU issues, sometimes GPU issues.
 

Hard part is without a discrete GPU to help push the PSU, it makes it hard to have a definitive answer