PC Crashes to black screen (Usually when gaming)

DReason479

Commendable
Aug 17, 2016
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1,530
When I play games on my PC, eventually my PC will crash to a black screen. The PC is still running, as is the monitor, but it just says "No Source" - so, I'm not getting an image, and I have to turn off my computer.

My Rig:
Dell Precision T3610
GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 SC
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 1TB
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1607 3.00 GHz
PSU: 675w
OS: Windows 10

I first bought my PC for Univeristy purposes as I was starting an Computer Animation course, and at that point I didn't intend to play games on it as I play most of my games on my Xbox/PS4. I bought the Dell Precision T3610 from the Dell website and it originally came with the Quadro K600 graphics crad, which was fine for my Univeristy course. It did originally come with a 500GB hard drive, but it wasn't working, so they then sent me a 1Tb hard drive instead.

As I have said, the PC will eventually crash no matter what game I play. At first, I thought it was just a gaming issue, but there have been times where it crashes when I'm not playing games and am just searching the web - although it does take much longer.

When I had my K600 installed, it never crashed when searching the web. I was able to play some games, like Rocket League, at quite low settings, but even then it wouldn't crash. I would then think that it's an issue with my Evga GTX 1060 Sc, but a couple of months ago I had an Evga GTX 970 Sc, and it used to crash then - so it can't be a GPU issue, right?

I've read/heard that the PSU that the computer came with originally, is more than enough for the GTX 1060 - The Nvidia geforce website says 400w is the minimum system requirement.

Things that I've tried:



  • Unistalling/Re-installing graphics drivers
    Updating drivers
    Trying old Graphics Drivers
    Unistalling/Re-installing GPU within the case itself
    Unparking CPU cores
    Unistalling un-necessary software
    Tweaking things on the system that will improve performance (E.g. Disabling animations)
    Changing things in the NVidia Control Panel
    Updating Bios
    Opening the PC Case (allowing for more heat to leave the PC - I also opened the windows in my room, so my room was quite cold)

 
Solution
The issue here is that you don't have a gaming PSU, plus the PSU isn't new. Prebuilt non-gaming computers often come with cheapo crappy PSU's that can't handle the demands of proper gaming components, even if they do meet the wattage requirements.

Are you sure the CPU is an E5-1607? I looked up your computer model and the datasheet says it comes with an E5-1600, and I can't find any E5-160X on PCPartPicker at all.

Exactly what RAM do you have? DDR3-1866? DDR3-1333? 2 sticks of 4GB? 1 stick of 8GB? 4 sticks of 2GB?

Edit:

Also, what's the motherboard's actual model name, if you know? I've found multiple sites that list the Dell Precision T3610's specs, but not a single one of them mentions the motherboard model.
The issue here is that you don't have a gaming PSU, plus the PSU isn't new. Prebuilt non-gaming computers often come with cheapo crappy PSU's that can't handle the demands of proper gaming components, even if they do meet the wattage requirements.

Are you sure the CPU is an E5-1607? I looked up your computer model and the datasheet says it comes with an E5-1600, and I can't find any E5-160X on PCPartPicker at all.

Exactly what RAM do you have? DDR3-1866? DDR3-1333? 2 sticks of 4GB? 1 stick of 8GB? 4 sticks of 2GB?

Edit:

Also, what's the motherboard's actual model name, if you know? I've found multiple sites that list the Dell Precision T3610's specs, but not a single one of them mentions the motherboard model.
 
Solution


I've checked the Device Manager and the Cpu is a "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1607 v2 @ 3.00GHz".
I downloaded a software called "CPU-Z", which gives more information about the hardware in the Pc and it says that:

The motherboard was manufactured by Dell and it's Model number is 09M8Y8 and the chipset says "Intel" - "Ivy Bridge-E"

The Ram is 8Gb and is DDR3, but it doesn't say whether it's DDR3-1866 or DDR3-1333 - It's DRM Frequency is roughly, 797.8 MHz. Based on what this software says, it's one stick of 8Gb ram. And the serial number is 2F14EDB5 . It also says that the Max bandwidth is PC3-12800 (800Mhz) - I don't know if this means anything.
 
PC3-12800 is the alternate way of writing DDR3-1600; I gave 1866 and 1333 just as examples.

Unfortunately, probably because it's an older prebuilt, hardly any of the components are showing up on PCPartPicker. I've put out a few feelers; hopefully I'll get some good info and can properly add up the wattage numbers.

Also, upon searching around, I've found that there are only two PSU's available for that model of Dell: a 425W and a 685W. I'm assuming you have the 685W, since you said 675 in your original post. That or your computer has a one-off PSU.
 


Yeah, it's a 685w - my mistake. Does that mean there are only two PSU that can fit into my PC or is it just that it is possible to buy a Dell Precision t3610 and have the choice of two psu' - the 425w and 685w?
 
Unfortunately, the person I contacted about the motherboard didn't know its power draw either; on the other hand, it turns out that Dell actually didn't cheap out and went with an 80+ Gold PSU. Problem is, apparently Dell decided to do their own thing yet again, meaning that neither the PSU's physical shape nor its motherboard connector conform to any regular form factor (ATX, BTX, mini-ATX, etc.). This in turn means that only those two PSU's will fit.

On the bright side, at least we've ruled out the possibility of a crappy PSU that just can't handle all the stuff your PC's doing.
 


Oh wow, thanks for the help. I took out the PSU in my computer and saw that it said 80+ Gold on it and that it has a different connection to all the PSU' that I see online. It connects to a seperate piece of "motherboard" (Only small and is probably not callled a motherboard, but I don't know much about these things) and that's where the leads are connected to - so those leads are already connected/built into other PSUs on the market.

Does this mean that I need to buy a new tower or something? I really don't have much money to do this. :S

And, if it's not a PSU what could it be? When I put my Quadro K600 GPU in, it doesn't crash.

 


I'll take a few photos later and upload them to a blog, and then send the link in another reply.

I've been considering whether I could get a gtx 1050 TI as that does not need to be connected to the PSU, unlike the GTX 1060? I still have a couple of weeks left to get a refund for my gtx 1060, so that wouldn't be an issue - but I don't want to do that and then it still crashes.
 


Yeah, the PSU already had two 6-Pin connectors attached to the small piece of motherboard, that I mentioned earlier. The 1060 only needs the one 6-pin connection. I've tried both 6-Pin cables - no difference. I think the problem must be here somehow though, considering that would be one of the main differences between having a 1060 connected compared to a K600 (Which doesn't need a PSU connection).

 


Oh sorry, the 6-pin cables were attached to both the GPU and extra board. The 1060 only needs the one connection - leaving one free.
 


I will upload some photos when I can, but it has basically got all the cables that any other PSU would have connected to it.

I don't want to tempt fate, but the other day I gave the PC a bit of a clean, and I removed those cables and plugged them all back in, and since then, my PC is yet to crash.
 


Ok, so I played my first game on PC since I noticed that it wasn't crashing. I had been on my PC for long periods of time both today and yesterday, and it didn't crash. I had also removed all the Autodesk software that I used when I was using when I was still doing my Univeristy course, and I thought that would help, as that always used a some RAM and storage/data, even when I wasn't using an Autodesk program (Autodesk Maya) - I thought this could have been the reasong for it no longer crashing, as well.

I was a little worried about playing a game because of how well it was doing, and didn't want to know that I still have this problem. I downloaded Forza Motorsport 6 Apex, and it crashed in the first lap of my second race.

I then decided to finally get those photos, and I made a quick blog and have uploaded those photos here (Let me know if you need anymore photos):

http://mydellt3610pc.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/dell-precision-t3610-inside-case.html
 
...Yarp, completely proprietary PSU. There's no replacing that with an EVGA or anything. WTF Dell.

So it's not crashing anymore? Let's cross our fingers and hope it stays that way...if it crashes again, c'mon back and we'll try some other things.
 


Unfortunately, no, it is still crashing. It hasn't yet crashed when I haven't been playing games, but when I did start playing Forza Motorsport 6 Apex, it crashed in the first lap of the second race.

UPDATE: Something that I never tried was restoring my PC. I did a full restore yesterday, was working fine - although was unable to download itunes. :/

I re-downloaded Steam, and started re-installing my games, but my PC did crash, without gaming, after about 2 hours of the PC being on.
 


That's right. There is a clear clicking noise. Similar to when putting a GPU into place.
 
And once again Dell prevents you from fixing the problem with a standard PSU. '-.-

I hate to say it, but your only option might be to buy or build a new computer. If you'd like, I could throw one together for you, if you provide a budget and perhaps a GPU chipset preference if you have one.
 


Hmm. That is annoying. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to buy/build a new computer at the moment.

If you wouldn't mind finding "putting together" a PC for around £250-£300, , that can do Ultra Quality at 60+fps, then that would be great.
 
Uhm. I threw one together for a guy recently who said his budget was £170, and the best I could come up with was around £280; it was definitely not capable of doing Ultra at 60+ FPS...you may just have to dial it back and hope that it stops crashing until you can save up for a new computer.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Athlon X2 340 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£28.18 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - A68HM-GRENADE Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£35.02 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£26.40 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.95 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon R7 250 2GB Core Edition Video Card (£56.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: BitFenix - Nova ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.40 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA - 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£58.50 @ Aria PC)
Total: £269.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-10 12:22 BST+0100

There's the build, for reference. The biggest bottleneck with that particular build is honestly probably the RAM; 4GB isn't enough these days. Plus that's all around worse than your current specs.

Y'know...I suppose you could get an ATX PSU and just kinda stick in in there and not move the case around much.

Edit: I'm gonna give MeesterYellow at least partial credit for this one, as he mentioned it in another thread. Download and run WhoCrashed; see what it says is causing your crashes. Hopefully it'll find something...
 


Oh wow. Thanks for doing all that. I aprreciate it.