[SOLVED] PC Crashing when I try to play most games

[visqal]

I have had this problem for a while but it didn't really bother me much until now. (Take that how you will) Basically if I try to play some games like Fortnite or Phasmophobia, after playing the game for about 10 minutes, the game will freeze and so will the rest of my PC, and I have to hold my power button to turn off my PC. This is only for some games though, some games will run fine even if they are most intense, it's really weird. I don't get any BSOD's or anything. I have checked my PC temperatures when playing the games and they all seem to be fine running at very average temperatures, I have ran several virus checks and it comes back with nothing, I have checked to see if I have any corrupted windows files and again it all appears to be fine. When I boot my PC it will sometimes take longer to log in than usual, or it will put me in instantly. It's gotten to a point where I honestly want to sell my PC as I can't play any games that I want to at this point. My PC will sometimes be fine and let me play the games for as long as I want, but then other times I can play for 10 minutes then it will crash, I don't know what causes this but yeah.

Specs:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor,
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Gigabyte)
• Motherboard: GIGABYTE B450M Gaming
• PSU: 400W Be Quiet!
• RAM: 16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 2400MHz
• Storage: 238GB V Series SATA SSD 240GB (SATA (SSD)) - For Windows
  1863GB Hitachi HCS5C2020ALA632 (SATA ) - Unused
  931GB Samsung SSD 980 1TB (Unknown (SSD)) - For Games

I have tried a lot to fix the problem but they don't seem to work for me

Fixes I have tried

• A fresh reinstall of windows, this will work for a while but then it goes back to what it is like now. And it would be very annoying to reinstall windows everytime.
• Changing some settings in my BIOS.
• Buying a new drive to see if it is my drive that is causing my PC to crash.

It might seem like I am asking for a lot of help, I would really appreciate some sort of response as this has been going on for a very long time now and I gets to a point where I sell this PC due to how annoying it gets, and I can't buy a new PC at the moment as I make no source of income. Any help at all would help me a lot.

 

[GreyCatz]

2 areas you could investigate:

1. Your 400W PSU is not powerful enough to feed a GTX 2060 card and 3 drives. If the Hitachi drive is unused, then remove it. Gaming nowadays (always online and often multi-player) requires lots of components/peripherals that in turn require lots of PSU power. I would say 850W is the starting point for most gaming-oriented systems.

2. Have you checked the clock-speed of your RAM modules? 2400MHz is a bit on the low end for modern gaming; typically, we're talking about 3000 to 3200MHz, but at the very least you should make sure the modules are actually running at 2400MHz.

You mentioned Fortnite and Phasmophobia as games that will freeze your PC. Can you name some of the games that don't cause any trouble?

Finally, go through your system drive and game drive and make a note of how full they are. You should try to stay under 80 per cent. Above that even SSDs will tend to be slow to respond.

And before I forget: When was the last time you applied fresh thermal paste to your CPU?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Agree with @GreyCatz. PSU is not sufficient for your system . Which exact model is it? Not all are made equal. You're literally right on the limit of 400w usage, so that could be causing the hard freezes. Getting a decent 550-600w gold PSU like Corsair RMi/RMx/TXM, EVGA G2/G3/GA, Seasonic Focus Plus. They are quality and come with 7-10yr warranties. THey last because they are made well.

On the memory thing, whilst it's important it's actually running at 2400mhz, is almost beside the point. By having slow ram (subjective) you are holding back your CPU from it's best performance. The difference between 2400mhz and 3200mhz is approx 20% and that applies to gaming too.

The crashes could be caused by faulty or dying mem, but typically would manifest as a different issue. However, you can test your ram outside of Windows with memtest86+. Do this, and if you get any errors, you have faulty ram.

 

[visqal]

2 areas you could investigate:

1. Your 400W PSU is not powerful enough to feed a GTX 2060 card and 3 drives. If the Hitachi drive is unused, then remove it. Gaming nowadays (always online and often multi-player) requires lots of components/peripherals that in turn require lots of PSU power. I would say 850W is the starting point for most gaming-oriented systems.

2. Have you checked the clock-speed of your RAM modules? 2400MHz is a bit on the low end for modern gaming; typically, we're talking about 3000 to 3200MHz, but at the very least you should make sure the modules are actually running at 2400MHz.

You mentioned Fortnite and Phasmophobia as games that will freeze your PC. Can you name some of the games that don't cause any trouble?

Finally, go through your system drive and game drive and make a note of how full they are. You should try to stay under 80 per cent. Above that even SSDs will tend to be slow to respond.

And before I forget: When was the last time you applied fresh thermal paste to your CPU?

I will try look into buying a new PSU or removing that unused drive. I'm sure my ram is capable of reaching around 3200MHz, I'll look into that afterwards.

I think I got someone to apply some fresh thermal paste not too long ago maybe a few mothns ago if I am right but I am not too sure.