High gpu stress causes crash

[evokethunder]

Hi, I am posting this for a friend of mine in Trinidad.
He recently built a PC for the first time and his rig keeps crashing when he launches games. however it did not crash during a cinibench opengl test. sometimes it takes a few minutes in game and sometimes it is on launch. when it happens the monitor loses signal and the cpu fan spins to 100% then ther monitor either stays black (and during this skype can still be heard) or it crashes the pc completely. We tried updating gpu drivers, game updates and reseating the gpu and it fixed it temporarily for a few days. It has happened again now and he is having a hard time deciding on what to do because he buys his parts from the states and isn't sure if it's the motherboard slot causing the gpu issues or the gpu itself.
any help appreciated.
P.S. we also noted that temps are normal when this happens

CPU: i7-7700k @ stock
Motherboard: Asus Z270f Strix
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB PC24000 3000mhz
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080

 

[Danra]

You failed to mention what power supply he has.

This is a classic power supply problem, either defective, poor quality, or not enough amps.

Make sure all connections are attached from the power supply to the motherboard, including CPU, and all connections are properly attached to the video card.

However, I need to know exactly what power supply he is using. Name, model number, everything.

 

[evokethunder]

You failed to mention what power supply he has.

This is a classic power supply problem, either defective, poor quality, or not enough amps.

Make sure all connections are attached from the power supply to the motherboard, including CPU, and all connections are properly attached to the video card.

However, I need to know exactly what power supply he is using. Name, model number, everything.

Sorry you're right. He has a cs850m, and I also forgot to mention that we did check all the cables when we restated the gpu.

 

[Danra]

If that power supply is Gold rated it is fairly good, not the best, however it should be good enough quality. The CS series is far superior to the CX series. No PSU is perfect, and that is why warranties exist.

Looking away from the power supply, I am concerned about the drive [HHD or SSD]. You mentioned three things you did, "We tried updating gpu drivers, game updates and reseating the gpu and it fixed it temporarily for a few days." I wish you would have checked to see which individual task made a difference. Lumping them together, I cannot isolate the causal effect.

Also, "sometimes it takes a few minutes in game and sometimes it is on launch. when it happens the monitor loses signal and the cpu fan spins to 100%". I can understand the monitor losing signal, however, the CPU fan going to 100% at the same moment is highly unusual.

With all of the above taken into consideration:

1.) Did Windows 10 report anything?
2.) It is true, a nasty virus [worm or whatever] can cause this and I have not recently checked for this behavior as a result.
3.) It is highly likely that a piece of hardware is defective. Unfortunately, almost any component that has a short in it can cause extreme behavior, even a defective fan.

This is simply too difficult to say exactly what the problem is from a distance, I would need to get my hands on the computer.

Suggestions:

Disconnect everything that is not necessary, an optical drive or extra HHDs or SSDs, for example. Check to see if the problem persists. If it does, keep that or those devices disconnected until the following have been completed.

Take all covers off of the case. Use compressed air and thoroughly blow particles away [like a tiny piece of metal]. Make sure the bottom of the motherboard is not in contact with the case. Check all electrical wires for a nick in the plastic cover protection [around the cable] that can cause a ground with the exposed wire. Make sure nothing has or is pinching a wire. Check wire and cable routes and look for any place where there is sharp metal contacting a wire or cable [sometimes cases will be stamped and some edges not cleaned up or crimped]. If there are any places where a wire is near or on a sharp edge, cover that edge with two layers of black electrical tape.

Leave the case open. Turn the computer off after each test. Remove all connections to case fans and other fans except the CPU fan then check to see if the problem persists. Remove the CPU fan cable and do a short test. If the problem persists replace the fan cables.

Remove all sticks of RAM except one. If the problem persists, move that single stick of RAM to each remaining empty RAM slot. If the problem persists, do the same with all additional sticks of RAM, one at a time.

If the drive is not NVMe [M.2 and so on] replace the data cable, run a test, then replace the power cable with another, then test again.

NOTE: Doing one thing at a time and testing after each step is the only way a lay person can isolate a problem.

Once all the above is done and the problem persists begin swapping components, either from an older computer that your friend has or someone who will lend him a piece of hardware for a day or a few hours.

For example, swap out the video card then the power supply. [remember to leave as many things disconnected as possible while testing in order to keep the power draw as low as possible.]

If all the above fails your friend will need to find a reputable repair shop and take his computer in for diagnostic tests. Make sure the labor for such a diagnostic is not excessive.

 

[evokethunder]

If that power supply is Gold rated it is fairly good, not the best, however it should be good enough quality. The CS series is far superior to the CX series. No PSU is perfect, and that is why warranties exist.

Looking away from the power supply, I am concerned about the drive [HHD or SSD]. You mentioned three things you did, "We tried updating gpu drivers, game updates and reseating the gpu and it fixed it temporarily for a few days." I wish you would have checked to see which individual task made a difference. Lumping them together, I cannot isolate the causal effect.

Also, "sometimes it takes a few minutes in game and sometimes it is on launch. when it happens the monitor loses signal and the cpu fan spins to 100%". I can understand the monitor losing signal, however, the CPU fan going to 100% at the same moment is highly unusual.

With all of the above taken into consideration:

1.) Did Windows 10 report anything?
2.) It is true, a nasty virus [worm or whatever] can cause this and I have not recently checked for this behavior as a result.
3.) It is highly likely that a piece of hardware is defective. Unfortunately, almost any component that has a short in it can cause extreme behavior, even a defective fan.

This is simply too difficult to say exactly what the problem is from a distance, I would need to get my hands on the computer.

Suggestions:

Disconnect everything that is not necessary, an optical drive or extra HHDs or SSDs, for example. Check to see if the problem persists. If it does, keep that or those devices disconnected until the following have been completed.

Take all covers off of the case. Use compressed air and thoroughly blow particles away [like a tiny piece of metal]. Make sure the bottom of the motherboard is not in contact with the case. Check all electrical wires for a nick in the plastic cover protection [around the cable] that can cause a ground with the exposed wire. Make sure nothing has or is pinching a wire. Check wire and cable routes and look for any place where there is sharp metal contacting a wire or cable [sometimes cases will be stamped and some edges not cleaned up or crimped]. If there are any places where a wire is near or on a sharp edge, cover that edge with two layers of black electrical tape.

Leave the case open. Turn the computer off after each test. Remove all connections to case fans and other fans except the CPU fan then check to see if the problem persists. Remove the CPU fan cable and do a short test. If the problem persists replace the fan cables.

Remove all sticks of RAM except one. If the problem persists, move that single stick of RAM to each remaining empty RAM slot. If the problem persists, do the same with all additional sticks of RAM, one at a time.

If the drive is not NVMe [M.2 and so on] replace the data cable, run a test, then replace the power cable with another, then test again.

NOTE: Doing one thing at a time and testing after each step is the only way a lay person can isolate a problem.

Once all the above is done and the problem persists begin swapping components, either from an older computer that your friend has or someone who will lend him a piece of hardware for a day or a few hours.

For example, swap out the video card then the power supply. [remember to leave as many things disconnected as possible while testing in order to keep the power draw as low as possible.]

If all the above fails your friend will need to find a reputable repair shop and take his computer in for diagnostic tests. Make sure the labor for such a diagnostic is not excessive.

Ok firstly sorry for not providing more details, I've been super busy so I wrote my responses really fast.
I can confirm that when the problem fixed temporarily it was only after we restated the card and the pus cables.
My friend swapped the gpu for a known working card and the problem is still there. I told him to run a disk check on his drives, but ill make sure he did it. I'm pretty sure he has his os on an ssd and has a large hdd. I'll have him try as many of those tasks as he is comfortable doing, He's still pretty new. He has never had any drive issues before and the only error that is in the event viewer says kernel power failure, nothing specific.
He is deciding to either buy a mobo or pus. He doesn't really want to waste time testing stuff since destiny 2 is coming out lol. So he will probably buy a new motherboard and then if that fails he is also ordering extra ram so he can use that new set to test if it still crashes after the new mobo

EDIT: he told me he made a mistake and it is the gpu fan, not the CPU fan spinning to 100%
And thanks so much for your time with this by the way. Really appreciated.

He also said that he gets a blue screen saying windows has encountered an error and needs to restart. This happens randomly and isn't reliant on games.