[SOLVED] PC crashing with black/green/grey flickering screen, occasionally blue screen only when playing games ?

[pixelvince]

Hey, I got a new pc this year in January. Since like a month ago, my pc keeps freezing when playing games. This is literally for any game. CSGO, Osu, Valorant, etc. It all happens in the middle of a game or so while playing. The screen would freeze, turn black or green or grey, have a BZZZZZZZZZZZ noise until I manually force shut down the pc. Sometimes, the audio of the game keeps going while the screen stays black and my monitor keeps detecting new output. Then it would be the blue screen of death. I've been searching for the problem for like forever and I just can't find a solution. I thought it was a gpu overheating problem but it really wasn't because I kept a fan on it to keep the degrees under 50. Still happens. I found that some people had problems with wallpaper engine but even though I don't use it, it still happens. I really don't know what to do since using the pc normally is completely fine. Only happens when I play games. I've manually restarted my pc like 40 times by now.

Here are my specs (this is my first time I had a pc so sorry if I give bad info):

CPU: Ryzen 5 2400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
GPU: Radeon RX 570 Series 8gb
Motherboard: Asrock B450 hdv
PSU: 400 Cougar 80plus
SSD: SSD 240gb smart
RAM: I couldn't find a name but it's 16gb

 

[The Idiot]

Hey, I got a new pc this year in January. Since like a month ago, my pc keeps freezing when playing games. This is literally for any game. CSGO, Osu, Valorant, etc. It all happens in the middle of a game or so while playing. The screen would freeze, turn black or green or grey, have a BZZZZZZZZZZZ noise until I manually force shut down the pc. Sometimes, the audio of the game keeps going while the screen stays black and my monitor keeps detecting new output. Then it would be the blue screen of death. I've been searching for the problem for like forever and I just can't find a solution. I thought it was a gpu overheating problem but it really wasn't because I kept a fan on it to keep the degrees under 50. Still happens. I found that some people had problems with wallpaper engine but even though I don't use it, it still happens. I really don't know what to do since using the pc normally is completely fine. Only happens when I play games. I've manually restarted my pc like 40 times by now.

Here are my specs (this is my first time I had a pc so sorry if I give bad info):

CPU: Ryzen 5 2400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
GPU: Radeon RX 570 Series 8gb
Motherboard: Asrock B450 hdv
PSU: 400 Cougar 80plus
SSD: SSD 240gb smart
RAM: I couldn't find a name but it's 16gb

I feel that the issue may be your psu. Use this tool https://www.ocbase.com/

 

[Johnwmel]

Sounds like something is gobbling up your resources, see what event viewer tells you.
This will help.
FullEventLogView
https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/FullEventLogView.shtml

Event Log Viewer for Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista

Simple tool for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista that displays in a table the details of all events from the event logs of Windows, including the event description

www.nirsoft.net

 

[pixelvince]

I feel that the issue may be your psu. Use this tool https://www.ocbase.com/

I ran both the normal and the power tests and nothing seems to be wrong. hmhmhm should I try running a test while having a game open?

 

[pixelvince]

Sounds like something is gobbling up your resources, see what event viewer tells you.
This will help.
FullEventLogView
https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/FullEventLogView.shtml

Event Log Viewer for Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista

Simple tool for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista that displays in a table the details of all events from the event logs of Windows, including the event description

www.nirsoft.net

I've ran the program and I have no idea what's going on. There are a few red ones but reading it didn't help me make much sense of it either

 

[pixelvince]

I feel that the issue may be your psu. Use this tool https://www.ocbase.com/

I was able to reproduce the crash using csgo. Even though I did the monitoring mode while I open a program option, there really isn't any information since my computer crashed and the program didn't save anything. I really have no idea how to find out the problem...

 

[pixelvince]

For reference, this is basically exactly what keeps happening to my pc:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ3yXpY5yoc

Except that it doesn't reboot or anything, just keeps going...

 

[dudio]

What you're describing sure sounds like a PSU issue failing under load. I'm not familiar with that make. Try to determine exactly which model 400 watt it is (there are at least a couple of 400 watt 80 bronze) and google some reviews. I'm thinking it's a so-so PSU combined with the fact that 400 watts is little on the low side for your system.

 

[The Idiot]

You can try testing ram https://www.memtest86.com/ As an aside you probably shouldn't keep your case open just to cool the gpu. The pc case fans cooling loop gets destroyed when when the case is open.

 

[pixelvince]

What you're describing sure sounds like a PSU issue failing under load. I'm not familiar with that make. Try to determine exactly which model 400 watt it is (there are at least a couple of 400 watt 80 bronze) and google some reviews. I'm thinking it's a so-so PSU combined with the fact that 400 watts is little on the low side for your system.

Cougar VTC400
CGR BC-400

It was brand new so I'm not too sure but, all the reviews are people with really low end components. Maybe it is a little too small? I was hoping that it isn't a psu problem since I can't really afford another one that's better. But by the looks of it, it seems to be a psu problem I guess.

 

[pixelvince]

As an aside you probably shouldn't keep your case open just to cool the gpu. The pc case fans cooling loop gets destroyed when when the case is open.

The problem is, I only have one fan leading air outside besides the cpu cooler. I had to cut a lot of things out like the fans because of my very limited budget (hence the really sucky components). When I keep the case closed, the weak fan does so little that my gpu went over 90C before.

 

[dudio]

That temp is high obviously, but typically the cpu and gpu throttle down in high temps, allowing them to be used while also trying to save themselves. I'm still leaning toward the psu not being able to deliver power (be nice if you could borrow a good quality, higher wattage one). Still, it'd be nice to fix your temp issue and also completely rule it out. Maybe try changing your fan from being rear exhaust to being front intake, aiming airflow half way between cpu and gpu. Also see if you can control that fan's speed in your bios settings, and crank it up. You could also look at software to allow you to adjust the fan curve on your gpu to be more aggressive

 

[pixelvince]

That temp is high obviously, but typically the cpu and gpu throttle down in high temps, allowing them to be used while also trying to save themselves. I'm still leaning toward the psu not being able to deliver power (be nice if you could borrow a good quality, higher wattage one). Still, it'd be nice to fix your temp issue and also completely rule it out. Maybe try changing your fan from being rear exhaust to being front intake, aiming airflow half way between cpu and gpu. Also see if you can control that fan's speed in your bios settings, and crank it up. You could also look at software to allow you to adjust the fan curve on your gpu to be more aggressive

Alright I guess I can try that. I didn't really think about how the airflow would be destroyed but I'll see what I can do.

 

[pixelvince]

Alright, I think I'll just leave this as solved for now. Thank you everyone who tried to help!