Question GPU causing random system freezes

[Dadrian Daedalus]

My pc has been freezing up unexpectedly and crashing over the last few weeks for no apparent reason.I tried reinstalling windows but the problem persists.

I decided to update my video card's driver and so i uninstalled the existing driver and ran the pc with the built in basic display drivers for a while-during that period i experienced no crashes of any sort.However as soon as i downloaded the latest display driver from nvidia and installed it the pc started freezing again.

The strange thing about it is that during these system crashes,no dump files are being generated and an entry is being created in event manager that says "dump file creation failed due to errors during dump file creation",which is really odd.

I have checked my hdd for errors and also tested my ram modules using memtest but found no problems.

To check whether the gpu was the culprit or not,i removed the gpu from the pc last night and have been running it with the built in igpu,but so far i haven't faced any crashes or system lockups.

So is the gpu really at fault?or is something else responsible for these problems?What can i do to resolve it for good?


Pc config: i5 3570s,Gigabyte b75m d3h,12gb ddr3,Corsair txm 550 psu,zotac 1050ti.
Os: win 10 v 1803.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

Can you TEST the GPU on some other rig, If possible ? How OLD is the card, and which Zotac Model number do you have for the GTX 1050 Ti ? Looks like some fault in your GPU, though I won't rule any possible issue underlying the PSU as well as MOBO.

But, if the GPU works flawlessly on some other system/rig, then we can safely rule out the PSU/MOBO here. After how much time your OS freezes ? During IDLE mode, or while doing some heavy workload (gaming, streaming etc.) ?

EDIT: One more thing....This is important. Kindly read this. But if you haven't updated your Win 10 OS copy, then you can skip this part.

There have been numerous reports this week claiming that the cumulative updates to Windows 7 and Windows 10 that were released on April 9 have caused serious performance issues for their users.

Windows 10 cumulative updates reportedly causing system slowdowns

The users are reporting that their Windows 10 devices have slowed down following the April 2019 cumulative updates. On Tuesday, Microsoft began rolling out the April 2019 cumulative updates to Windows 10, 8.1 and 7 PCs. As per the reports, the update causes various issues because of the...

www.windowslatest.com

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-10-7-updates-performance-issues,39059.html


Windows Latest rounded up conversations on several forums, including Reddit and Microsoft Answers, complaining about the recent updates. Numerous people claimed that it took several minutes for their systems to reach the login screen or provide access to the Task Manager--and those are the lucky ones. Others said their systems froze entirely during the startup process after they installed one of these cumulative updates.

The issue appears to affect systems running various antivirus tools. Avast and Avira separately confirmed in support documents that these cumulative updates have caused issues for their customers. The users are reporting that their Windows 10 devices have slowed down following the April 2019 cumulative updates. As per the reports, the update causes various issues because of the conflicts between the update and the antivirus software.

Following the installation of Windows 10 KB4493509 and other updates,users are reporting substantial slowdowns and system freezes.The update has reportedly made their computers unresponsive and some are also experiencing occasional freezes. The features like Task Manager also take a couple of minutes to show up on the desktop.

Many users who installed the latest patch for Windows 10 October 2018 Update are also hit with similar bugs. The patch has reportedly update made certain computers unresponsive on first boot after the install and there are occasional slowdowns as well.

 

[rolli59]

That it works without the drivers points to fault on the card.

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

^thanks to both of you for your inputs.

no I haven't updated my copy of windows for a while-this issue started quite a while ago,before april 9 in fact but its frequency seems to have increased a lot of late.Earlier the crashes occurred only once in a while,and so I dismissed them as some kind of software glitch.

Someone else suggested to me that the newer releases of nvidia's drivers are known to cause stability issues on certain configurations and systems.On his advice,i completely removed the newer driver and installed an older driver-v 385.28 to be precise.I also took the gpu out of my system earlier today and gave it a proper clean-up before putting it back.

Ever since I installed the older driver,i haven't faced any freezes -but they have a tendency to occur when they are the least expected and so I am keeping my fingers crossed.It remains to be seen how long its going to last like this.Is it true that newer drivers may cause stability issues on some systems?

The gpu that I am using is a Zotac 1050ti mini-its actually an used gpu that i bought in October last year from someone I know-the original owner of the card had purchased it in January '18 and so it isn't too old i'd say.

On the surface,the card looks ok-I haven't observed any telltale signs of gpu malfunction such as display artefacts,overheating etc.So will it be possible to RMA it in case it causes any more system crashes?As of now,i don't have access to any other system to test it properly.The OS freezes are random-and they tend to occur mostly when I am browsing or accessing various files/folders in windows explorer.

Also another thing that baffles me is why were no dump files generated during these crashes?

 

[Metal Messiah.]

The OS freezes are random-and they tend to occur mostly when I am browsing or accessing various files/folders in windows explorer.

Then that seems to be of some concern. If the PC is freezing randomly, then it is either related to the OS, or some underlying Hardware. Have you tried booting your system, with the MOBO's Integrated Graphics Processor/on-board graphics ?

If booting via the iGPU doesn't cause any system freeze, then we can at least narrow down the issue. Try to use the motherboard's integrated graphics processor, and then check the stability of your system, while browsing and doing other work, if possible.

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

as I've reported earlier,i did test my system with the igpu for a couple of hours recently but experienced no freezes or crashes.

Then I reinstalled my graphics card and reverted to an older nvidia driver(v 385.28) and I've been running the system for the last few hours but so far I've not experienced any more crashes.

If the gpu works fine with older drivers but crashes with newer drivers then does it indicate the gpu might be faulty?Is it possible that bugs in the latest drivers were causing such issues earlier?

Also can such problems occur if the gpu isn't properly seated in the mobo's pci-e slot?

 

[Metal Messiah.]

If the gpu works fine with older drivers but crashes with newer drivers then does it indicate the gpu might be faulty?Is it possible that bugs in the latest drivers were causing such issues earlier?

Also can such problems occur if the gpu isn't properly seated in the mobo's pci-e slot?

Nope, I don't think your GPU is faulty, just because your system crashes when using the latest drivers. Had there been an issue, then the GPU must behave in a similar fashion even with the older drivers, IMO.

It might be possible the latest drivers are causing this issue. You can try re-seating the GPU back in the PCI-e slot, if you wish. Just make sure to clean any dust settled on both the card and the pci-e slot.

 

[rolli59]

Agree with above faulty card is faulty on all drivers.

 

[Dadrian Daedalus]

i used it with v 385.28 last night and all morning today and so far its been a crash free experience.

now in order to experiment i have installed a slightly more updated nvidia driver-v 411.70.I read somewhere that this too was regarded as a stable release.

i wonder how this newer driver will play along with the gpu-i'll be relieved when there are no more crashes or freezes.