Simple Question

[Hunched]

Is it possible for a GPU related software issue to cause a PC to restart or shut down? 

Or is that always a cause of something hardware related such as a dying GPU, PSU, or power cables?

 

I've only ever heard of and had GPU crashes where a game or benchmark would crash, and I'd get a display driver error notification in the notification tray and that it recovered. Everything else would continue functioning normally.

Now I've had a GPU related crash that caused my whole PC to reboot and another crash that had my monitor restart.

My monitor likely was turning off since there were active connected devices, I've never had my GPU crash in that way before.

 

I'll love you if you can confirm this, I'm trying to narrow down my problem and where to look.

 

 

[Howlingwolf101]

A good way to test this might be to use the integrated graphics and pull the gpu out seem if you still have a problem

[App4that]

Silly question but I've done it. Is the core plugged all the way into your PSU?

[Hunched]

4 minutes ago, Howlingwolf101 said:

A good way to test this might be to use the integrated graphics and pull the gpu out seem if you still have a problem

That wouldn't tell me if the issue with my GPU is hardware or software related. I know the GPU is the issue, it's what is crashing, but I don't know if that's because of a software issue or a hardware issue. All I want to know is if this type of crash is possible by a software related issue.

 

5 minutes ago, App4that said:

Silly question but I've done it. Is the core plugged all the way into your PSU?

Yes

[sushisharkjl]

6 minutes ago, Howlingwolf101 said:

A good way to test this might be to use the integrated graphics and pull the gpu out seem if you still have a problem

 

1 minute ago, Hunched said:

That wouldn't tell me if the issue with my GPU is hardware or software related. I know the GPU is the issue, it's what is crashing, but I don't know if that's because of a software issue or a hardware issue. All I want to know is if this type of crash is possible by a software related issue.

You could run DDU in Safe Mode to purge your graphics drivers then restart without them and test if the card works then, and then reinstall drivers and try again.

[App4that]

Are you sure you're not getting power usage spikes?

[Hunched]

7 minutes ago, sushisharkjl said:

 

You could run DDU in Safe Mode to purge your graphics drivers then restart without them and test if the card works then, and then reinstall drivers and try again.

Oh shit that's a great idea! I'd have to spend a day without drivers lol, since I can't replicate the crashes as they've been random.

This would rule out whether it's the drivers or not, though there still could be other software related conflicts with the GPU.

At least it's a start.

 

Then my question is though, has anyone ever had a graphics driver cause their PC to shut down or reboot?

I literally want to know if that's an actual thing that is possible or impossible lol. 

I am dumb, my question is as dumb as can that cause that.

 

I could jump to finding a solution with my hardware if I knew such an issue couldn't be caused otherwise, but I don't know.

Nobody else does either it seems, since I've never heard of a software issue with the GPU causing this and since nobody can confirm or deny, I just have to go off a guess.

 

5 minutes ago, App4that said:

Are you sure you're not getting power usage spikes?

I have no idea, would I not need a multimeter to test that? Also this happened both times at basically idle, if that's relevant.

[sushisharkjl]

Just now, Hunched said:

Oh shit that's a great idea! I'd have to spend a day without drivers lol, since I can't replicate the crashes as they've been random.

This would rule out whether it's the drivers or not, though there still could be other software related conflicts with the GPU.

At least it's a start.

 

Then my question is though, has anyone ever had a graphics driver cause their PC to shut down or reboot?

I literally want to know if that's an actual thing that is possible or impossible lol. 

I am dumb, my question is as dumb as can that cause that.

 

I could jump to finding a solution with my hardware if I knew such an issue couldn't be caused otherwise, but I don't know.

Nobody else does either it seems, since I've never heard of a software issue with the GPU causing this and since nobody can confirm or deny, I just have to go off a guess.

I personally have had a botched Catalyst update crash and fuck up my system, but that was one BSOD and that's it.

[App4that]

Nope, just have monitoring going. Watch your voltage.

[Hunched]

3 minutes ago, App4that said:

Nope, just have monitoring going. Watch your voltage.

My GPU core voltage is completely steady according to monitoring programs, but my understanding is that doesn't guarantee that my PSU is delivering power in a stable manner. It can still fluctuate around and monitoring won't pick that up I think. I don't fucking know, people use multimeter's to get information on what the system monitoring can't tell you.

7 minutes ago, sushisharkjl said:

I personally have had a botched Catalyst update crash and fuck up my system, but that was one BSOD and that's it.

Well that's something. I never did get a BSOD either time, which surprised me. No notifications or info of any sort, just a black screen.

Since the PC didn't completely shut down the second time and it was just the monitor, it logged in event viewer that the display driver crashed which is the only reason I know the GPU is the problem.

[App4that]

Multi meters sample at intervals then average out the reading. Cheaper the multi meter the longer between samplings. But what you're looking for is a jump in voltage with no task assigned to it. That could mean an intruder or Windows fucking up. Ether could cause a crash.

[Hunched]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

Multi meters sample at intervals then average out the reading. Cheaper the multi meter the longer between samplings. But what you're looking for is a jump in voltage with no task assigned to it. That could mean an intruder or Windows fucking up. Ether could cause a crash.

Or worst case it could mean the PSU is fucking up with supplying power properly. 

I highly doubt I have any kind of intruder, it could be Windows but I don't know why now, no updates or changes as of recent.

Everything looks stable, and everything runs stable, until out of nowhere shit just went off for no reason.

 

...I'm just so frustrated right now. Having a problem that I'm too fucking stupid to diagnose that my PC gives me no information to help with. 

Feeling helpless and confused really gets to me, I want to fix this but I can't figure out what to even fucking fix exactly.

 

It would help if the crashes weren't complete random, at least then if I could trigger them I could try change things and try triggering them again.

Fucking fuck.

 

I'll keep GPU-Z open and keep being observant I suppose, then if things happen again take sushi's suggestion and uninstall the drivers and spend a whole day like that I guess and see if it happens again. Drivers have been fine up until now so I'd think reinstalling them should fix whatever may have went wrong.

Other than that I may have some other power cables, I can try different slots on the PSU for the GPU. 

I could maybe do a system restore to before this was happening.

There's literally about 100 things I could do to no avail.

 

[App4that]

I had a SATA connection that had my HDD not showing up, thought I had lost my data. Been there. Hope it works out for you.