PC Crash When Gaming: Monitors go black, fans spin loudly, reboot required

[jay.adamsnz]

I upgraded to my pc the other day by putting in a 1080 ti and a all in one water cooling unit for the CPU and have since been having crashes whenever I try to play games.

PC build is as follows:

CPU: Ryzen 7 1700
GPU: Galax 1080 ti Exoc
RAM: G Skill DDR4 2400mhz 2x 8GB
MB: Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming
SSD: Sandisk Ultra Plus
PSU: EVGA 650 G2
CPU Cooler: EVGA CLC 120

When I try to run graphically intensive games the monitors will lose signal, the GPU fans will spin to 100% for a few second then slow down, and I have to reboot the system. Before all of this happens the fan on the CPU cooler will struggle to start, turning on and off until it eventually gets going. Additionally the lights on the cooler and GPU will flicker.

I have tried running the system with my old graphics card (RX 480 4GB) and the new cooler but I get a similar crash. The light on the cooler starts to flicker then the monitors die and I have to reboot the whole system. I additionally tried running the new GPU with the stock Ryzen cooler but the same crash happened. The light on the stock cooler started to flicker and then the monitors died. Currently the only stable build is with neither the new cooler or GPU.

I am wondering what the cause of this crash could be, even viewer was not very helpful. I am currently thinking that it might be the PSU at fault although I am unsure because it's a pretty good unit and my impression was that if a PSU is failing the whole system would shut down rather than just cutting off the monitors.

I have tried everything I can think of software related, cleaning out all drivers with tools and deleting anything that could interfere with the GPU. I guess it could be the GPU which is defective on arrival but then why would a similar crash happen when I use my old GPU which was functioning perfectly yesterday. It could also be the motherboard but that's working fine with the older parts.

I have also checked the memory to confirm that it is not the issue.

Any help or advice would be appreciated, as I've just spent a decent amount of money and would like to have a properly functioning PC.

 

[kevins4484]

I was having a somewhat similar issue. Are you using 2 PCIe power cables to connect to the PSU/GPU? That helped me.

 

[jay.adamsnz]

I think it might have been a connection to the PSU. I stripped the whole machine down and cleaned everything out with compressed air, then plugged it all back in and changed the port and cable for the GPU. All works fine now, I've been running FireStrike with no issues.