PC Hard Freezing During Gaming

[Ayziv]

Summary:

My PC has been consistantly hard freezing while gaming. The freeze is where no input to the PC works, it doesn't show a BSOD and needs to be hard reset by holding down the power button.

 

Hardware:

CPU: I7 10700K

Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100x (3 years old)

GPU: 2080TI

PSU: RM 850w Gold (8 Years old)

Mobo: MSI MPG Z490

 

Testing:

1. I have review the event logs after the crashes, it doesn't show any useful information as it appears to be happening at a more hardware level is my suspicion. 

2. Re-installed Windows. This happened after a hard reset required me to return to a previous checkpoint of windows. i then re-installed win 11 fully

3. CPU Cooling. I noticed when playing CyberPunk 2077 that my CPU temps were reaching 90+ Degrees C. I re-applied thermal paste, didn't change too much but did lower temps somewhat.

3. I have tested with different RAM

4. Checked my drives health and tried scanning the disks through CMD

5. Ran virus scans

6. Validated drivers

 

Observations:

1. The crashed on CyberPunk are consistantly when i reload a checkpoint (either from dying or manually re-loading).

2. The crashes began to appear slowly from around 5/6 months ago. Now being far more consistant

                a. Game crashes: Planet Coaster (frequent), FFXIV (infrequent), CyberPunk 2077 (Consistant), and 1 random freeze a while ago while just using Chrome

3. My PSU (Corsair RM 850w Gold) is appraching 8 years old

 

Next Steps:

I feel i've exhausted my less expensive troubleshooting options, now looking to start replacing components

1. New PSU. Looking at a 1000w Platinum PSU

2. New CPU/Mobo. My worry is that it's a capacitor issue on the mothorboard or something to that effect

3. Burn my PC to the ground and start a new :'(

 

Conclusion:

Any help here is appreciated before I start dropping a lot of money to troubleshoot. Any thoughts?

 

 

 

[Brian McKee]

While changing the psu would be fine I think hitting 90+ degrees in cyberpunk with an aio is something worth investigating. Have any other coolers to test?

[Ayziv]

5 hours ago, Brian McKee said:

While changing the psu would be fine I think hitting 90+ degrees in cyberpunk with an aio is something worth investigating. Have any other coolers to test?

Unfortunatly not  I do agree though it's definitly up there. Would there be any reason that less demanding games and basic PC use would yield normal temperatures and more intense gaming would go so hot? Could an AIO like this malfunction in a way where more intense use was the problem?

 

I ask because i've had an AIO in the past that, when failing, would barely cool the CPU at idle, let alone while gaming

[LogicalDrm]

Just from symptoms, I would blame drive which you have games installed first and foremost. Since freezes are across different loads and don't seem to be related on the amount of load on something (which you could verify with benchmarks or stress tests targeting CPU or GPU directly). Also not likely to be PSU issue as that would result as hard crash/reboot than just freezing.

[Ayziv]

2 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Just from symptoms, I would blame drive which you have games installed first and foremost. Since freezes are across different loads and don't seem to be related on the amount of load on something (which you could verify with benchmarks or stress tests targeting CPU or GPU directly). Also not likely to be PSU issue as that would result as hard crash/reboot than just freezing.

Interesting! That is surprising as the nvme SSD is fairly new. I'll experiment with running the same games from a different drive. Also, nothing seems to suggest the drive is faulty based on scans and "health" from windows settings

[LogicalDrm]

2 minutes ago, Ayziv said:

Interesting! That is surprising as the nvme SSD is fairly new. I'll experiment with running the same games from a different drive. Also, nothing seems to suggest the drive is faulty based on scans and "health" from windows settings

Could be RAM too. But you really should run some stress tests to rule out CPU and GPU. If you don't get similar freezes during hard stress, then its very unlikely to be the stressed component.

[Ayziv]

2 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Could be RAM too. But you really should run some stress tests to rule out CPU and GPU. If you don't get similar freezes during hard stress, then its very unlikely to be the stressed component.

I've already tested with different RAM and the same issue occured. Also already used the intel Processor Diagnostic Tool to test a load on the CPU with no hard freeze.

[Ayziv]

6 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Just from symptoms, I would blame drive which you have games installed first and foremost. Since freezes are across different loads and don't seem to be related on the amount of load on something (which you could verify with benchmarks or stress tests targeting CPU or GPU directly). Also not likely to be PSU issue as that would result as hard crash/reboot than just freezing.

I re-installed CyberPunk 2077 on a different SSD, played the game for 10 minuets, the CPU temps reached around 87-95 Degrees C, i reloaded a checkpoint and my PC hard froze again. I think this might rule out the drive issue. 

[vliktor]

You mentioned CPU temps but what about the GPU temps?

 

Have you tried upgrading/downgrading the GPU drivers? Any other background software that could be causing instability?

 

Other than the GPU temps and background software, an 8 year old PSU might be the culprit. 

[Ayziv]

On 8/11/2022 at 1:15 PM, vliktor said:

You mentioned CPU temps but what about the GPU temps?

 

Have you tried upgrading/downgrading the GPU drivers? Any other background software that could be causing instability?

 

Other than the GPU temps and background software, an 8 year old PSU might be the culprit. 

Hi! sorry for the late reply, I apreciate the response! The GPU temps are nothing above 75 under CyberPunk Load. Im planning to buy a new PSU and AIO cooler for my CPU next pay-day. Hopefully that will have some good results (fingers crossed).

[Ayziv]

Thanks to all who replied - I've now fixed the issue it seems.

 

I replaced the PSU and Cooler. My temps after the change drastically improved on the CPU under load and now no crashes are occuring in the places they did before (consistantly)