[SOLVED] Odd behavior: Occasional crashes only when waking?

jailhousews

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May 8, 2012
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So I've had three crashes, all of which occurred after leaving my computer idle for a while, just after waking it and logging back in from the lock screen within say 10 -30 sec. First time the screen displayed snow like on an old tv with no signal, then lock screen came up and I signed in, then screen went multi-colored and I had reboot.
Second and third times I woke computer, signed in, with no issue but then crashed with display showing a solid pastel pink color. First one of this kind I held ctrl-alt-del until reboot, second time it rebooting after about 10 sec on it's own.

I have a new PSU and GPU, but I ran into an issue where my new CPU isn't supported on my MB without BIOS update so I'm still running my old MB, CPU, RAM at the moment.

Yes, I have 7 GB of ram on this board. I had 4x2GB for 8GB total at the time, and at that point DDR2 was hard to get ahold of and I only found a 1GB stick for a reasonable price that matched my other ones, and it wasn't the same brand or frequency, but I made sure in the BIOS they were set to run at the lowest common denominator. Worked fine in this configuration for a couple years now.
EDIT Huh checked DDR2 and now there's plenty of options, but I swear for whatever reason when I was looking to replace my dead stick back then I could hardly find it anywhere, and what was available was 5x the normal price **

I did have the very rare occurrance of similar crashes with my old Radeon HD 6870 card before a fan died on it and I stopped using it. Never did figure it out then but it was like maybe 3-4 times it happened in 5 years or so.

Temperatures are ok, waiting on two more case fans for exhaust so I'm running it open with a fan pointed into the case ATM. GPU temp stays in 45-55 range when playing game Path of Exile for hours, CPU and MB temp can get up to low 60s though. Never crashed while under load so far, just when it had been sitting a went to sleep.

Summary
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 975 49 °C
Deneb 45nm Technology
RAM
7.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.LTD 785GT-E63(MS-7551) (CPU 1) 53 °C
Graphics
ASUS VH236H (1920x1080@60Hz)
8192MB ATI Radeon RX 590 Series (XFX Pine Group) 36 °C
Storage
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00WWPA0 ATA Device (SATA ) 34 °C
Optical Drives
HP DVD Writer 1270r ATA Device
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device
 
Last edited:
Solution
Disable all power saving, sleep states, hibernation, etc.. Just as a matter of elimination.

Reading back, I did not note any driver reinstalls per se. The driver may be "up-to-date" but that does not exclude a buggy or corrupted install.

Download the GPU drivers via the manufacturer's website. Manually reinstall and reconfigure.

Try the Windows built in troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

You can also run "sfc /scannow" (without quotes) via the Command Prompt as another means of finding and fixing some issue.

Reference:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161
PSU: make, model, wattage?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes and warnings that correspond with the problems you described.

One immediate thing you can do is to power off, unplug, and open the case.

Clean out dust and debris as necessary.

Ensure that all cards, cables, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place. Do so by visual inspection and by touch with gentle pressure and some wiggling.
 
PSU: make, model, wattage?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes and warnings that correspond with the problems you described.

One immediate thing you can do is to power off, unplug, and open the case.

Clean out dust and debris as necessary.

Ensure that all cards, cables, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place. Do so by visual inspection and by touch with gentle pressure and some wiggling.

PSU is EVGA SuperNOVA 850GA, 80+ Gold 850W, Fully Modular
Brand new, as is the GPU and case because I just bought all new parts for a complete build. So the only dust I would have is the MB, CPU, Ram that I'm still using from my old PC until I get a loaner CPU to update BIOS on my new board, all of which I took out and cleaned before putting in new case, as well as reseating CPU and cooler with new thermal paste. Have rechecked all connections.

Event log has a single critical error due to unexpected shut down entry for each occurrence, and that's it. No other warnings or errors leading up to it.

I don't think it'd be the GPU being faulty because then wouldn't it be more likely to happen when it's under load? I've only had crashes when waking from sleep state so far. Maybe a driver issue? just installed it though so driver is up to date.
Maybe the one original stick of RAM from the set where one went bad and had to be replaced is beginning to fail, but again it should happen just randomly then right?

Kinda just curious if anyone has every seen this type of thing before. Never in my life had I heard of a solid, pale pink screen crash before.
 
Disable all power saving, sleep states, hibernation, etc.. Just as a matter of elimination.

Reading back, I did not note any driver reinstalls per se. The driver may be "up-to-date" but that does not exclude a buggy or corrupted install.

Download the GPU drivers via the manufacturer's website. Manually reinstall and reconfigure.

Try the Windows built in troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

You can also run "sfc /scannow" (without quotes) via the Command Prompt as another means of finding and fixing some issue.

Reference:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161
 
Solution
Disable all power saving, sleep states, hibernation, etc.. Just as a matter of elimination.

Reading back, I did not note any driver reinstalls per se. The driver may be "up-to-date" but that does not exclude a buggy or corrupted install.

Download the GPU drivers via the manufacturer's website. Manually reinstall and reconfigure.

Try the Windows built in troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

You can also run "sfc /scannow" (without quotes) via the Command Prompt as another means of finding and fixing some issue.

Reference:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

So I never actually fixed this because I was able to get the new motherboard BIOS up to date and installed new CPU, RAM and Nvme drive with fresh install of Windows. What I ended up doing while I was waiting was just make it so it never went to sleep.
I'd say probably it was a driver issue.