[SOLVED] Pc constantly crashing

[doggeria]

I have had this pc for about a year and a half without any issues. Just recently I have had frequent crashes about once an hour. I don't really know how to troubleshoot this, but I can leave my specs here. I think it's probably an issue with my gpu, considering every couple crashes my left monitor boots without a signal, requiring me to turn off my pc and change the DVI port. Every time I do this everything goes back to normal until I have to switch the DVI port again. I am also monitoring my temps and nothing really looks off. The crashes are completely random, as I have had 2 crashes while writing this but didn't crash playing graphic intensive games earlier. I also do not get sent to the windows crash screen, my pc just restarts normally with one exception so far of windows not properly booting afterwards.

Specs:
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 7700K @ 4.20GHz 34 °C
Kaby Lake 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1066MHz (15-15-15-35)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME Z270-A (LGA1151) 32 °C
Graphics (monitor that shuts off not connected)
BenQ G2410HD (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 630 (ASUStek Computer Inc)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (ASUStek Computer Inc)
ForceWare version: 417.35
SLI Disabled
Storage
223GB KINGSTON SA400S37240G (SATA-2 (SSD)) 33 °C
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 (SATA ) 34 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

 

[K3se]

Do you get any errors when it crashes? Also if you can go into event viewer and see let me know the event ID you are getting when the computer crashes

 

[PC Tailor]

CPU: 7700K
MB: PRIME Z270-A
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 - what exact model? (just to cover all ground)
RAM: 16GB but what models?
Storage: SA400S37240G / WD10EZEX-08WN4A0
PSU: Make and model?

Do you have latest drivers installed (including MB/Chipset drivers) - NOT using a driver updater app?
Do you have latest BIOS installed?

Can you describe the crashes? Is it a system freeze? BSOD? Restart?
How do you overcome them or do they naturally pass?

 

[doggeria]

Do you get any errors when it crashes? Also if you can go into event viewer and see let me know the event ID you are getting when the computer crashes

I don't really know how to use event viewer but I think I found the log and it says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." with the source being "Kernal-Power"

 

[PC Tailor]

I don't really know how to use event viewer but I think I found the log and it says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." with the source being "Kernal-Power"

That's a kernel power 41 error, and can be ignored. It simply means that your PC shutdown/restarted unexpectedly. Which will occur when you say it freezes and you have to hard reset it by forcing a shut down.

Doesn't indicate anything about the problem, just that there was a shutdown the OS wasn't expecting.

 

[doggeria]

CPU: 7700K
MB: PRIME Z270-A
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 - what exact model? (just to cover all ground)
RAM: 16GB but what models?
Storage: SA400S37240G / WD10EZEX-08WN4A0
PSU: Make and model?

Do you have latest drivers installed (including MB/Chipset drivers) - NOT using a driver updater app?
Do you have latest BIOS installed?

Can you describe the crashes? Is it a system freeze? BSOD? Restart?
How do you overcome them or do they naturally pass?

My powersupply is an EVGA supernova 650 gold, my ram is 2 sticks of trident z rgb 2133 MHz speed, and my gpu is a strix gtx 1080. The crashes can best be described as a freeze for a unknown amount of time (typically 1-10 seconds) and then a normal restart. What sometimes occurs during the restart is my left monitor will not get a signal and I will need to restart and switch the port I have the monitor plugged into. Currently I am not even getting a signal anymore since last night so I am starting to assume it's an issue with my gpu.

 

[PC Tailor]

Do you have latest drivers installed (including MB/Chipset drivers) - NOT using a driver updater app?
Do you have latest BIOS installed?

A normal restart, does your PC literally just go through the restart process where it states it is restarting? Or does it just bluntly restart with no warning?

 

[doggeria]

Do you have latest drivers installed (including MB/Chipset drivers) - NOT using a driver updater app?
Do you have latest BIOS installed?

A normal restart, does your PC literally just go through the restart process where it states it is restarting? Or does it just bluntly restart with no warning?

I don't think I have the latest drivers installed for everything, but around 2ish weeks ago when this started occurring I downloaded new drivers along with a new system update, and it does not state it is restarting, it just shuts the system down but does not completely turn off my pc as nothing loses power in my pc, and then takes me to the sign in screen,

 

[doggeria]

Do you have latest drivers installed (including MB/Chipset drivers) - NOT using a driver updater app?
Do you have latest BIOS installed?

A normal restart, does your PC literally just go through the restart process where it states it is restarting? Or does it just bluntly restart with no warning?

Update: I installed new gpu drivers and this solved the problem yesterday and everything was going fine until this morning, where it just crashed 3 times in the timeframe of about an hour.

 

[PC Tailor]

And by crashing, you mean it goes black and then brings you to the sign in screen?
Have you got BSOD enabled?

 

[doggeria]

And by crashing, you mean it goes black and then brings you to the sign in screen?
Have you got BSOD enabled?

No, never checked if I did sorry haha I just enabled it and I will tell you what the error message says next time it crashes

 

[PC Tailor]

Make sure you also enable minidumps if so - it's all explained in the BSOD link in my signature below

 

[doggeria]

Make sure you also enable minidumps if so - it's all explained in the BSOD link in my signature below

I have enabled minidumps after the last crash about 5 minutes ago, but even after I turned off automatic restarts I still never got a bsod

 

[doggeria]

Make sure you also enable minidumps if so - it's all explained in the BSOD link in my signature below

Another update: No BSOD still. I left my pc without the other monitor after a crash for a while, came back and tried to do my trick of getting the other monitor to work and instead it froze on the signing in screen, so I turned it off and on and then I made it past the sign in and then I just got gpu artifacts "I think that's what it's called" all over my desktop so I just restarted and no longer using the other monitor even though its plugged in. Not once did I get a BSOD here though, even though I disabled the automatic restart and enabled the minidumps thing you told me to after following those steps.

 

[PC Tailor]

Another update: No BSOD still. I left my pc without the other monitor after a crash for a while, came back and tried to do my trick of getting the other monitor to work and instead it froze on the signing in screen, so I turned it off and on and then I made it past the sign in and then I just got gpu artifacts "I think that's what it's called" all over my desktop so I just restarted and no longer using the other monitor even though its plugged in. Not once did I get a BSOD here though, even though I disabled the automatic restart and enabled the minidumps thing you told me to after following those steps.

If you're also experiencing artefacts then I'd be tempted to remove the GPU and then try to recreate the issue if possible.

You may be right with thoughts that it could be GPU, but we'd like to eliminate software first.

 

[doggeria]

If you're also experiencing artefacts then I'd be tempted to remove the GPU and then try to recreate the issue if possible.

You may be right with thoughts that it could be GPU, but we'd like to eliminate software first.

what do you mean by remove the gpu and try to recreate the issue? I can't figure out how I could recreate the issue when it happens pretty much randomly. The only thing that happens similarly is it seems it mostly crashes when I have my other monitor plugged into my gpu. My monitor I'm using to type this is connected to my motherboard, and it never crashes and always gets a signal after a crash unlike the other.

 

[PC Tailor]

I left my pc without the other monitor after a crash for a while, came back and tried to do my trick of getting the other monitor to work and instead it froze on the signing in screen

This quote above led me to believe you might be able to recreate it. Apologies if I misunderstood. How often does the crash occur? If it is daily, it is still worth running on integrated and seeing if the issue does persist.
If you're getting artefacts then likely GPU could be the problem.

So you are running on both integrated and dedicated graphics?

 

[doggeria]

This quote above led me to believe you might be able to recreate it. Apologies if I misunderstood. How often does the crash occur? If it is daily, it is still worth running on integrated and seeing if the issue does persist.
If you're getting artefacts then likely GPU could be the problem.

So you are running on both integrated and dedicated graphics?

Yeah I'm not exactly sure if this is how it works, but I have one monitor ran to my motherboard and one ran to my gpu, and I assume that would mean one monitor is running on the cpu integrated graphics and my other monitor is running off of dedicated (my higher refresh rate monitor). The artifacts led me to believe the gpu was the issue because the artifacts only appeared on the screen that was ran off the gpu

 

[doggeria]

This quote above led me to believe you might be able to recreate it. Apologies if I misunderstood. How often does the crash occur? If it is daily, it is still worth running on integrated and seeing if the issue does persist.
If you're getting artefacts then likely GPU could be the problem.

So you are running on both integrated and dedicated graphics?

I'm pretty clueless on how to diagnose the problem and solve considering I installed new drivers and don't exactly know how to properly diagnose problems with hardware haha

 

[PC Tailor]

I'm pretty clueless on how to diagnose the problem and solve considering I installed new drivers and don't exactly know how to properly diagnose problems with hardware haha

I'll be honest, if you're not sure, I'd take it to a PC repair shop. They'll have spare parts to swap around and be able to test each component accordingly. However I would initially guess that you'd want to swap the GPU and see if the issue persists

 

[doggeria]

I'll be honest, if you're not sure, I'd take it to a PC repair shop. They'll have spare parts to swap around and be able to test each component accordingly. However I would initially guess that you'd want to swap the GPU and see if the issue persists

Yeah I'll try that this weekend. Thanks for your help!