Why does my PC crash?

[Buxtehudea]

How should I start troubleshooting my PC crashing? It happens seemingly at random, sometimes when I just booted up the computer and I'm only idling in Windows, and most often in the middle of playing a game.

 

The screen simply freezes, sounds stop playing, and the computer takes no input until it gets rebooted.

 

I would love to rule out a faulty graphics card, since that's the only part I've bought used. Also, it's totally possible I installed something wrong when building the PC.

 

CPU: Intel Core i9-10850K, LGA1200, 3.60 GHz, 20MB

CPU Cooler: Fractal Design Celsius+ S24 Prisma

Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z590-F GAMING WIFI

Memory: Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) HyperX FURY DDR4 RGB, 3600MHz, CL17

Storage: PNY 1TB XLR8 CS3030 M.2 NVMe SSD, PCIe Gen3 x4

Video Card: ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix OC

Power Supply: Asus ROG Strix 850W

[podkall]

Have you done any troubleshooting steps? (checking temps for example)

[Buxtehudea]

I've been trying to follow the temperatures (this has been happening for 1-2 years now so I haven't done much lately). I don't really know what to look for there, but as far as I remember the temperatures have been under 80 celsius, or at least under 90. And the freezing can happen at any time – sometimes without doing anything when the temps are low for sure, and other times when under a more heavy stress.

[Dedayog]

5 minutes ago, Buxtehudea said:

I've been trying to follow the temperatures (this has been happening for 1-2 years now so I haven't done much lately). I don't really know what to look for there, but as far as I remember the temperatures have been under 80 celsius, or at least under 90. And the freezing can happen at any time – sometimes without doing anything when the temps are low for sure, and other times when under a more heavy stress.

I'd probably start with:

 

1.  Update BIOS, Windows, all drivers.

2.  Reset BIOS to Defaults

3.  Memtest, or just run with 1 stick at time to rule out faulty module.

 

Start there, one at a time.  

[Buxtehudea]

On 4/22/2024 at 4:21 PM, Dedayog said:

I'd probably start with:

 

1.  Update BIOS, Windows, all drivers.

2.  Reset BIOS to Defaults

3.  Memtest, or just run with 1 stick at time to rule out faulty module.

 

Start there, one at a time.  

I did all that! Thanks. Memtest showed no errors, but the computer still crashed when I was updating some drivers.

 

However when reseting BIOS to Defaults I noticed I had changed some settings there back in the day to make the SSD work, since I had put it in the M.2_2 slot:

PTT [Enable]->[Disable]
CPU PCIE Configuration Mode [PCIEX16_1 + M.2_2]->[Auto]

 

According to the Manual, the M.2_2 slot should be for 10th Gen Intel, but now I moved the SSD to M.2_3 so I don't need to fiddle with the BIOS. I wonder if that can make any difference? Booting up the computer maybe felt bit slower, but if it can prevent the crashing I wouldn't mind.

 

Oh! And looking at the SSD with PNY PCIe ToolBox, shows Error Log Number/Count at 758. Is that normal?

[QuantumSingularity]

HDD Sentinel and check the health of the drive.