[SOLVED] Games causing entire system to crash ?

[Ethonodon]

About maybe 6 months ago, I encountered an issue while playing a game. Both of my monitors went black, my fans went crazy, and I had to restart my pc to use it again. Thinking it was just a one-time problem, I ignored it. It happened multiple times again (only with one game), so I started looking into the problem. I thought it was my CPU (at the time I was using a 2200G and thought it was bottlenecking my pc and causing the crashes), so I bought a 3700X to replace it. The game I was having issues in was only a closed beta, and in my time of replacing the CPU, I did not get to test whether or not it fixed the issue, as the beta was already over.

A month or two later, the same issue happened in another game. Obviously, my CPU had not been the problem, so I looked into it further. I thought it could be my PSU, as at the time I had a really old 550W bronze PSU that I thought could be causing the issue. So, I bought a new, 750W gold PSU to replace it. And for the past couple months, I thought that it fixed the problem. However, just today, I was playing Fallen Order, and it happened again, in the middle of a cutscene. I'm absolutely confounded. I have spent so much time and money troubleshooting this issue. If anyone has any idea what is causing these crashes, please let me know.

If it's helpful, here's information on the games I was playing during the crashes:

The first crash was caused by the closed beta of Century: Age of Ashes. I couldn't find any pattern or common cause.
The second crash incident was caused by Valheim, when fighting a certain enemy in a certain biome during a certain weather condition. Tested this a few times and it crashed consistently.
The third crash incident was caused by a game called Adapt. I could find no pattern to the crashes.
The fourth crash incident was just now, playing Fallen Order. It was during a cutscene. I should also add- Fallen Order never crashed my pc in the past. When I first played it back in December, I never experienced this problem.


My specs:
GPU - RX580 Armor 8G OC
CPU - R7 3700X
Mobo - Asus Prime B450-M
PSU - Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro EA750G
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX
Monitors - 2x 1080p LED Monitors
Case fans x 4

 

[Ethonodon]

Maybe using the manufacturer's UI if it has any. Otherwise, probably not.

Well, I guess I'll try just limiting the power by 15%. I'll play some more Fallen Order and see if it crashes.

 

[Ethonodon]

Something I've noticed while playing - though the temperature is 89c, the fans are operating at below 100% speed. Could I manually turn the fan speed up to lower the temps, or is that a bad thing to do?

https://ibb.co/xgMDY2m

 

[InvalidError]

Something I've noticed while playing - though the temperature is 89c, the fans are operating at below 100% speed. Could I manually turn the fan speed up to lower the temps, or is that a bad thing to do?

Running the fans on a steeper speed curve to reach 100% at something like 75-80C shouldn't hurt anything besides the fans' lifespan and possibly your ears.

 

[Ethonodon]

Running the fans on a steeper speed curve to reach 100% at something like 75-80C shouldn't hurt anything besides the fans' lifespan and possibly your ears.

Curiously enough, though I've raised the fan speed to maximum, the temperatures aren't dropping.

https://ibb.co/1QYFTcT

 

[Ethonodon]

Alright, I'll need to do more testing tomorrow, but so far, so good. Played maybe 2 hours of Fallen Order without a crash, however, I don't think that this is enough time to say that it's fixed. I'll test it some more tomorrow so I can hopefully tell if the problem is fixed or not.

 

[Ethonodon]

So- bit of an update. I believe I fixed the issue. Turns out, part of the heatsync was sagging slightly off the actual card of the gpu itself, and it was causing highly inefficient cooling. I bound a zip-tie around the heatsync and the back of the card, to keep it pressed up against it. Used this video as a reference:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soYVo24tJtw&ab_channel=HenlineBrigs


Anyways, I can't say for sure, as this issue was super inconsistent and uncommon, but it looks like I did fix it. On average, temps are 10-15 Celsius lower, performance is better, and I haven't experienced a single crash after maybe 5 hours of playing a very demanding game. Took me 6 months to finally fix this issue.

 

[Ethonodon]

So- bit of an update. I believe I fixed the issue. Turns out, part of the heatsync was sagging slightly off the actual card of the gpu itself, and it was causing highly inefficient cooling. I bound a zip-tie around the heatsync and the back of the card, to keep it pressed up against it. Used this video as a reference:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soYVo24tJtw&ab_channel=HenlineBrigs


Anyways, I can't say for sure, as this issue was super inconsistent and uncommon, but it looks like I did fix it. On average, temps are 10-15 Celsius lower, performance is better, and I haven't experienced a single crash after maybe 5 hours of playing a very demanding game. Took me 6 months to finally fix this issue.

update: it just <Mod Edit> crashed again lmao.
I suspect either the zip-tie came loose or it's some other problem, but I really think that the zip-tie had fixed it, considering my temps were 15c lower. I'll run more tests before coming to a conclusion.

 

[InvalidError]

Plastics stretch, especially when exposed to relatively high temperatures. I wouldn't be surprised at all if your ties need periodic tightening until they either reach the most elastic deformation they can have or break if they were loosening from plastic deformation.

 

[Ethonodon]

Plastics stretch, especially when exposed to relatively high temperatures. I wouldn't be surprised at all if your ties need periodic tightening until they either reach the most elastic deformation they can have or break if they were loosening from plastic deformation.

I might crack open my pc to check it out tomorrow - but today's crash was highly irregular. Not during a cutscene or even loading anything. And this time, the screen froze before it crashed. I'm thinking it could've been some other factor too but I'll still check the zip-ties anyways.

 

[The Idiot]

I thought the heatsync might be the issue but wanted to try other options first. You would probably be better off going some place to get the card re-pasted and the screws replaced. You might even be able to send it to someone here to get their help. And no this isn't me soliciting, sorry if it comes off that way.

 

[Ethonodon]

I thought the heatsync might be the issue but wanted to try other options first. You would probably be better off going some place to get the card re-pasted and the screws replaced. You might even be able to send it to someone here to get their help. And no this isn't me soliciting, sorry if it comes off that way.

If I need to get the thermal pads and paste replaced I might take it in to get that done. But I made some more changes to my fan settings so that they always run at 100% when temps top 75c, so I'm hoping that keeps my pc cool enough to avoid the crashes. But if the crashes happen again, I at least know for sure what the problem is and how to fix it.

Basically it was just my poorly manufactured gpu crashing every time the temps were above around 85 for an extended period of time.

 

[The Idiot]

If I need to get the thermal pads and paste replaced I might take it in to get that done. But I made some more changes to my fan settings so that they always run at 100% when temps top 75c, so I'm hoping that keeps my pc cool enough to avoid the crashes. But if the crashes happen again, I at least know for sure what the problem is and how to fix it.

Basically it was just my poorly manufactured gpu crashing every time the temps were above around 85 for an extended period of time.

Happy gaming!!