System instability while playing Helldivers 2

[the slunch]

Hello, I am experiencing an issue when trying to play Helldivers 2 and I am completely losing my mind trying to fix it. Essentially, the game is borderline unplayable. At some point, typically within 20-30 minutes, my computer will crash. The crash manifests as all of my monitors going black and then displaying no signal, while the fans in my system ramp to full speed. My computer continues to work in the background, as I can typically still communicate with my friends on Discord. I then have to manually shut down my computer, as it remains in this state for upwards of 10 minutes before restarting on its own.

Some additional background. I experienced this issue, but far more pervasively back in June/July. The crash mentioned above would happen at any time, during any game. I could be completely idle, or I could be gaming. Since then, I RMA'd my MSI RTX 4080 Ventus 3X OC. They sent it back after week, and I have used the card without issue since August. Recently, when attempting to play Helldivers 2, I discovered that almost immediately the crash became a problem. Below, I will list various things I have done to try and isolate, recreate, or solve the issue.
 

• RMA'd the card, as previously mentioned.
• Contacted Cablemod regarding the 3x8 to 16 pin PCIe cable I use for the graphics card. Their website mentions their new StealthSense cables being a fix to this specific problem. Problem Persisted.
• Checked the seating of the cable, ensuring I was within the guidelines and not making any abrupt bends or strange angles.
• Adjusted power/thermal limits of my card in Afterburner both up and down.
• Underclocked GPU.
• Tried running the game in Dx11.
• Playing with XMP turned off.
• Using DDU twice to completely remove all display drivers, and then reinstalling the most recent NVIDIA drivers.
• Reduced in game graphics settings.
• Ran multiple stress tests of different varieties. Hitting my computer with a simultaneous CPU-Z stress test and Furmark stress test showed absolutely no system instability. GPU did not rise above ~80C. 12900KF eventually throttled, but the computer did not crash. 3DMark Steel Nomad Stress test ran continuously for 20 minutes without issue.
• Ran 3DMark Timespy without issue.

This problem, despite my best efforts to cause it to happen somewhere else, seems confined to Helldivers 2. Despite this, everything about the crash screams that its a hardware problem, but surely if it were a hardware problem I would surely be able to recreate outside of the game. DxDiag file attached.

DxDiag.txt

[Guest]

What PSU do you have? And did you check all temps not just CPU and GPU (VRM, VRAM, SSD, Etc.).

CPU-Z stress test is on the weaker side, you should use prime95 set to small FFT for a better test.

[Mark Kaine]

stop using extension cables.

[the slunch]

8 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

stop using extension cables.

I'm not.

[the slunch]

12 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

What PSU do you have? And did you check all temps not just CPU and GPU (VRM, VRAM, SSD, Etc.).

CPU-Z stress test is on the weaker side, you should use prime95 set to small FFT for a better test.

PSU is a Corsair RM850X. I also just ran a prime95 stress test and a furmark stress test simultaneously for 30 minutes. GPU did not rise above 80. CPU throttled at 100 degrees, but system remained stable and completely usable even while both tests were running. Used HWiNFO to record a log while the test is running. VRM temps maxed at 73C. I have a handful of SSDs in my computer mounted in various locations, but the highest any of them got to was 70C. GPU hot spot temp hit ~110C, though some googling says that the limit for my card is 125. I can't find a readout for the VRAM temp, but the memory junction temp only got to 56C.

[Mark Kaine]

On 10/19/2024 at 4:32 AM, the slunch said:

Contacted Cablemod regarding the 3x8 to 16 pin PCIe cable I use for the graphics card

 

17 hours ago, the slunch said:

I'm not.

 

well... that cable... remove it, use the official gear that either came with your psu or gpu? 

[Mark Kaine]

16 hours ago, the slunch said:

but the highest any of them got to was 70C.

that's freaking hot... 

 

16 hours ago, the slunch said:

CPU throttled at 100 degrees

that's... very hot...

 

I'm sensing a pattern here, but anyways, are you using a riser per chance?

 

Mind giving us *full system specs* so we don't have to dissect the op every time to see what hw you may have? 

[the slunch]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

that's freaking hot... 

 

that's... very hot...

 

I'm sensing a pattern here, but anyways, are you using a riser per chance?

 

Mind giving us *full system specs* so we don't have to dissect the op every time to see what hw you may have? 

The drive that reached 70C is mounted near the graphics card. It also is not my boot drive and does not have anything installed to it other than games. If the temperature of the drive was somehow causing the crash I described, then it would happen outside of HD2. It does not happen when I play other games for far longer, and it does not happen when stress testing my computer. I am not using a riser either. The Cablemod cable is not an extension cable. It is one, single cable that goes directly from the PSU to my GPU. The DxDiag file is attached to the original post. The only other information not present there or in a reply is that my motherboard is an ASUS Z690-P WIFI.

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, the slunch said:

The drive that reached 70C is mounted near the graphics card. It also is not my boot drive and does not have anything installed to it other than games. If the temperature of the drive was somehow causing the crash I described, then it would happen outside of HD2. It does not happen when I play other games for far longer, and it does not happen when stress testing my computer. I am not using a riser either. The Cablemod cable is not an extension cable. It is one, single cable that goes directly from the PSU to my GPU. The DxDiag file is attached to the original post. The only other information not present there or in a reply is that my motherboard is an ASUS Z690-P WIFI.

this is always weird when people ask for help and you tell them possible causes and they just outright dismiss it... that's not how troubleshooting works.

 

the drive is too hot. way too hot.