Question The whole system crashes when the monitors go to sleep ?

[mpelley92]

Hi all. I usually can find the answer to any PC related issues I've had over the years, but this one genuinely has me stumped.

My girlfriend's PC started misbehaving after working fine for years. What happens is when I walk away from the computer and it is idling, as soon as 10 minutes goes by and the monitors go to sleep, the whole system crashes, fans pin to max, no response from the keyboard, power button, and both displays go black.

Here are the specifications:
Motherboard: MSI Z170X KRAIT GAMING 3X
Processor: Intel Core i5 - 6600K
GPU: ASUS ROG 1070 Ti
RAM: 2x 8GB GEIL DDR4-3000
SSD: Western Digital BLACK SN770
HDD: Western Digital RED 1TB
PSU: Corsair HX620
Additional: TP-Link 802.11n PCI-EX1 Wireless Networking Card
Additional: 2x 1080p ASUS monitors (one VG247, 60hz, the other VG248QE, 144hz)

What I've done so far:
- Tested the RAM, no issues
- Disabled the wireless card, no change
- Removed the video card, reseated
- Checked cabling, wires, anything that could be loose or shorting
- Reinstalled Windows (the issue was happening before and after)
- Ran OCCT, power supply test, ~280w at the wall, ran fine for 30 minutes.
- Games run great. She plays FFXIV and it was smooth as silk with the performance you'd expect for this setup.

Another curious event: I usually use NVidia Inspector with the Multiple Monitor Power Saver utility, in order to force the graphics card to idle with two monitors (drops the idle power usage from ~35w to ~10-12w). When I enabled it after reinstalling Windows, this also triggered the same thing to happen.

So what I've noticed is that while Windows is in safe mode, there's no issues, which leads me to believe it's GPU related - but before I assume anything (I don't have another card to put in her PC right now to test), I figured I'd ask here just in case somebody else has had this issue recently and fixed it.

Cheers and thank you in advanced

 

[rgd1101]

brand and model of the psu?

 

[mpelley92]

brand and model of the psu?

Corsair HX620.

 

[geofelt]

Remove the 1070ti and test using the integrated graphics and the motherboard monitor outputs.

 

[mpelley92]

Remove the 1070ti and test using the integrated graphics and the motherboard monitor outputs.

I suggested this, but because the computer can sleep normally, and the monitors just don't shut off until it does (after 30 minutes), the girlfriend has decided to just be okay with the way it is for now. I'll trade PC's with her for a while soon, then I can do some serious troubleshooting - and I agree, definitely try to use the PC like normal without the GPU.