Question PC freezes under light load ?

Mar 1, 2021
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my pc has started freezing randomly when under minimal loads even when just using chrome, it happens about 2-3 times in like 4 hours. When the pc freezes i have to force restart it, it has also once made the entire main monitor yellow which is why i think it has something to do with my GPU?
I've had this PC for about 30 months.

spec list:
Motherboard: Asus TUF Z390 Plus
Ram: Corsair 16GB DDR4-3000 RGB PRO
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-9700K
GPU: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Dual 8GB GDDR6 CPU
Cooler: Corsair H100i Platinum RGB 240mm
SSD: Samsung 970EVO 500GB HDD:
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM010 1TB
PSU: Corsair TX650M 650W 80plus gold

from what i can see it doesnt overheat either.
 

geckovic02

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Try to use your iGPU. Remove your 2080 and plug in the HDMI into your motherboard. See if it still crashes. You may need to switch to the iGPU in the BIOS aswell (Try that, if you don't get a signal)

If it doesn't crash, your GPU is the problem.
 
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Mar 1, 2021
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Try to use your iGPU. Remove your 2080 and plug in the HDMI into your motherboard. See if it still crashes. You may need to switch to the iGPU in the BIOS aswell (Try that, if you don't get a signal)

If it doesn't crash, your GPU is the problem.

ill try it tomorrow thanks, mostly happens when im in class since i dont use the pc for much at that time of day
 
Mar 1, 2021
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Try to use your iGPU. Remove your 2080 and plug in the HDMI into your motherboard. See if it still crashes. You may need to switch to the iGPU in the BIOS aswell (Try that, if you don't get a signal)

If it doesn't crash, your GPU is the problem.

thought it was my GPU but found it it's either my watercooling or my CPU, i belive it might be my CPU since my temps are higher than normally where they are around 35 even when gaming, but they it now idles at 35-40 and goes to almost 50 when playing and my cpu when playing and opening programs goes up to almost stay at 100% usage when playing, so i feel like there is something wrong with the cpu and not the cooling?
i also put my cooler rpm to 3000 from 2000 where it normally sits

my GPU also never went past 50% usage and i didnt get any frame drops when playing
 
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Andrewbandrew05

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Any overclocks? I'd reset your CMOS to make sure you don't have any changes from previous OCs in there messing with something or another. Also, those temps should be perfectly fine. They may be high for water cooling but shouldn't cause it to crash.
 
Mar 1, 2021
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Any overclocks? I'd reset your CMOS to make sure you don't have any changes from previous OCs in there messing with something or another. Also, those temps should be perfectly fine. They may be high for water cooling but shouldn't cause it to crash.

i did also reset all my oc's and only put on xmp and sync cores which has always worked, and btw found out some more on league it doesnt lag or drop fps, it also doesnt lag or drop fps on Apex legends and goes to cpu maximum of like 75% and 45 on temp but on valorant it goes to almost always 100% and cpu temp almost 50 doesnt drop fps but gets big stutters, feels like my cpu has broken somehow and just overworks now
 

Andrewbandrew05

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i did also reset all my oc's and only put on xmp and sync cores which has always worked, and btw found out some more on league it doesnt lag or drop fps, it also doesnt lag or drop fps on Apex legends and goes to cpu maximum of like 75% and 45 on temp but on valorant it goes to almost always 100% and cpu temp almost 50 doesnt drop fps but gets big stutters, feels like my cpu has broken somehow and just overworks now
Did you reset your CMOS though? Just a few days ago I had a problem where my screen would go black. I remembered I had my ram oced and reset it to defaults. However, my problem still occurred. I reset my CMOS, set to SMP and boom problem solved.
 
Mar 1, 2021
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Did you reset your CMOS though? Just a few days ago I had a problem where my screen would go black. I remembered I had my ram oced and reset it to defaults. However, my problem still occurred. I reset my CMOS, set to SMP and boom problem solved.

what is the cmos and how do i reset it?

and i did reset all the oc's that i believe i actually had taken off 2 months ago, and ive always had cpu sync all cores and xmp on for like a year so shouldn't cause the problem
 

Andrewbandrew05

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what is the cmos and how do i reset it?

and i did reset all the oc's that i believe i actually had taken off 2 months ago, and ive always had cpu sync all cores and xmp on for like a year so shouldn't cause the problem
For all mobos you can remove the mobo battery for I think its 5 to 10 secs or something like that. For some, like mine, there are two pins that you can connect with a nail or a screwdriver or really anything metal for 5 to 10 seconds to reset it. I would also check out the link posted by rickypicky5 tho for further clarification.
 
Mar 1, 2021
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For all mobos you can remove the mobo battery for I think its 5 to 10 secs or something like that. For some, like mine, there are two pins that you can connect with a nail or a screwdriver or really anything metal for 5 to 10 seconds to reset it. I would also check out the link posted by rickypicky5 tho for further clarification.

ill try and update at some point when ive done it and gone with it for a bit, if that doesnt work ill try taking the GPU out and just use the cpu intergrated graphics
 
Mar 1, 2021
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For all mobos you can remove the mobo battery for I think its 5 to 10 secs or something like that. For some, like mine, there are two pins that you can connect with a nail or a screwdriver or really anything metal for 5 to 10 seconds to reset it. I would also check out the link posted by rickypicky5 tho for further clarification.

i weirdly haven't had any problems today and my cpu has stayed at 35-40 at idle all day, i didn't change anything form yesterday since my pc had startet running normally again, so now im like really confused as of what happened for the past few days, the only thing i did yesterday was reset my bios (not with the cmos battery thing) and just put on sync cores and xmp, and im pretty sure that also were the only things i had on before
 
Mar 1, 2021
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Sometimes it works that way. I assume you're problem will reoccur but we'll see

weirdly enough i haven't had any problems today either other than my cpu still goes to a 100% and lags when playing valorant even though it shouldn't im begining more and more to think somethings wrong with the cpu
 
Mar 1, 2021
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Try benching your cpu and see what types of results you get. Also may be worthwhile running prime 95 for a few hours to see if your pc crashes.
Try benching your cpu and see what types of results you get. Also may be worthwhile running prime 95 for a few hours to see if your pc crashes.

just reset my pc to since my second monitor doesn't show anything anymore doesn't say not connected just goes black with a small amount of light at the bottom, but resetting didn't fix it so im getting more and more worried something in the pc is just giving up?
 

Andrewbandrew05

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If your monitors going black I'd say we're looking at a GPU issue. Try disconnecting and reconnecting the cable going to the monitor from both the gpu and the monitor. If the problem still persists, try plugging the monitor cable into a different port on your GPU and/or monitor. If the problem still persists after that then try a completely different cable, as well as connecting your main monitor to the port the second monitor was connected to. (Basically shuffle cables around a ton) If none of this fixes your problem. Try running furmark and see if your PC crashes. (Do the same with Prime 95 as I said before.)

Ok this part is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

You are using a 650watt PSU
Your GPU has a TBP (Total Board Power) of 225W
Your CPU pulls up to 235W
(650-225)-235=190W
With that amount of wattage left over you should be fine, but you could very well not be. Disable any and all OCs you have (I assume you already did) and then follow these steps. (Written vaguely as I use AMD and am not 100% sure how to do it on NVIDIA)

Go into Nvidia Control Panel
Find the Power Settings
Lower the maximum power draw for your GPU by like 50%.
Run furmark to make sure your GPU won't outright crash due to changing this setting. (If it crashes do googling for how to reduce power draw 2080 and follow its instructions just to the extreme (you might have to decrease clocks too to make it run stable))
Use the PC like you normally would.

If your PC does not crash there are two possibilities.
  1. Your GPU is failing and cannot handle stock settings.
  2. Your PSU can't support your PC and you need a chonkier one.
I know this may sound ridiculous but let me share a story with you. (Feel free to skip this part if you aren't doubting my suggestion)

I built my first PC a year or two ago. I was really excited and ready to play some games. One minor problem tho. Whenever I tried to I'd get a kernel power system failure. I rmaed and/or replaced every single part of my PC minus the case until I eventually bought a 1200W PSU. After that my PC ran good as new. I guess its possible I've got a short somewhere or something like that, I dunno, but since my PC's been running fine for fairly close to a year now, I doubt that's the case.
 
Mar 1, 2021
17
0
10
If your monitors going black I'd say we're looking at a GPU issue. Try disconnecting and reconnecting the cable going to the monitor from both the gpu and the monitor. If the problem still persists, try plugging the monitor cable into a different port on your GPU and/or monitor. If the problem still persists after that then try a completely different cable, as well as connecting your main monitor to the port the second monitor was connected to. (Basically shuffle cables around a ton) If none of this fixes your problem. Try running furmark and see if your PC crashes. (Do the same with Prime 95 as I said before.)

Ok this part is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

You are using a 650watt PSU
Your GPU has a TBP (Total Board Power) of 225W
Your CPU pulls up to 235W
(650-225)-235=190W
With that amount of wattage left over you should be fine, but you could very well not be. Disable any and all OCs you have (I assume you already did) and then follow these steps. (Written vaguely as I use AMD and am not 100% sure how to do it on NVIDIA)

Go into Nvidia Control Panel
Find the Power Settings
Lower the maximum power draw for your GPU by like 50%.
Run furmark to make sure your GPU won't outright crash due to changing this setting. (If it crashes do googling for how to reduce power draw 2080 and follow its instructions just to the extreme (you might have to decrease clocks too to make it run stable))
Use the PC like you normally would.

If your PC does not crash there are two possibilities.
  1. Your GPU is failing and cannot handle stock settings.
  2. Your PSU can't support your PC and you need a chonkier one.
I know this may sound ridiculous but let me share a story with you. (Feel free to skip this part if you aren't doubting my suggestion)

I built my first PC a year or two ago. I was really excited and ready to play some games. One minor problem tho. Whenever I tried to I'd get a kernel power system failure. I rmaed and/or replaced every single part of my PC minus the case until I eventually bought a 1200W PSU. After that my PC ran good as new. I guess its possible I've got a short somewhere or something like that, I dunno, but since my PC's been running fine for fairly close to a year now, I doubt that's the case.

i reset my pc, valorant seems to have no problems anymore and i didnt see my cpu usage going over 70% at a random spike when playing. The monitor on the other hand though seems to just be dead since i tested it on my laptop and it does the same thing, the monitor doesnt give me the cant connect message it just goes black with a small amount of light coming through and like slim blue light strips going along the border of the monitor, so it might just have died at an unlucky timing
 
Mar 1, 2021
17
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If your monitors going black I'd say we're looking at a GPU issue. Try disconnecting and reconnecting the cable going to the monitor from both the gpu and the monitor. If the problem still persists, try plugging the monitor cable into a different port on your GPU and/or monitor. If the problem still persists after that then try a completely different cable, as well as connecting your main monitor to the port the second monitor was connected to. (Basically shuffle cables around a ton) If none of this fixes your problem. Try running furmark and see if your PC crashes. (Do the same with Prime 95 as I said before.)

Ok this part is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

You are using a 650watt PSU
Your GPU has a TBP (Total Board Power) of 225W
Your CPU pulls up to 235W
(650-225)-235=190W
With that amount of wattage left over you should be fine, but you could very well not be. Disable any and all OCs you have (I assume you already did) and then follow these steps. (Written vaguely as I use AMD and am not 100% sure how to do it on NVIDIA)

Go into Nvidia Control Panel
Find the Power Settings
Lower the maximum power draw for your GPU by like 50%.
Run furmark to make sure your GPU won't outright crash due to changing this setting. (If it crashes do googling for how to reduce power draw 2080 and follow its instructions just to the extreme (you might have to decrease clocks too to make it run stable))
Use the PC like you normally would.

If your PC does not crash there are two possibilities.
  1. Your GPU is failing and cannot handle stock settings.
  2. Your PSU can't support your PC and you need a chonkier one.
I know this may sound ridiculous but let me share a story with you. (Feel free to skip this part if you aren't doubting my suggestion)

I built my first PC a year or two ago. I was really excited and ready to play some games. One minor problem tho. Whenever I tried to I'd get a kernel power system failure. I rmaed and/or replaced every single part of my PC minus the case until I eventually bought a 1200W PSU. After that my PC ran good as new. I guess its possible I've got a short somewhere or something like that, I dunno, but since my PC's been running fine for fairly close to a year now, I doubt that's the case.

well my pc has started lagging and getting small freezes in apex legends now and has stop doing so in valorant, i put the power target to 50% on my gpu with gpu tweak 3 and ran the furmark it didn't crash so i tried it in both valorant and apex again, lagged a little more in apex than before and didnt change anything when playing valorant didn't lag or freeze.
im getting more and more confused as of what is going on
 

Andrewbandrew05

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So right now your problem is simply your PC lagging? Do you have valorant and apex installed on your HDD or SSD? I had a problem in D2 where my PC would lag, and I think having it installed on my hard drive partly had to do with it. What was your reported fps in apex? I guess its possible that the reduced power to your GPU simply reduced your frame rate enough that it caused your game to lag. Is your PC still crashing when just using it for google or whatever? Like, is it only lagging in games now? If so, try reducing graphics setting sin Apex and see if that fixes your lagging. If it does, I think you probably need a better PSU. Not 100% sure, but I think it would make sense
 
Mar 1, 2021
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So right now your problem is simply your PC lagging? Do you have valorant and apex installed on your HDD or SSD? I had a problem in D2 where my PC would lag, and I think having it installed on my hard drive partly had to do with it. What was your reported fps in apex? I guess its possible that the reduced power to your GPU simply reduced your frame rate enough that it caused your game to lag. Is your PC still crashing when just using it for google or whatever? Like, is it only lagging in games now? If so, try reducing graphics setting sin Apex and see if that fixes your lagging. If it does, I think you probably need a better PSU. Not 100% sure, but I think it would make sense

i have it installed on my ssd i uninstalled my hdd yesterday when resetting the pc. also apex doesn't drop any frames but has weird stutters and it doesnt matter if my gpu is on 50% or 100% its the same small/medium freezes or lags spikes
 

Andrewbandrew05

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Have you run memtest? I don't know if your ram could be the problem but we might as well check. Also did you ever run prime95 and furmark on your cpu and gpu before you decreased the power to the GPU? If not I'd suggest doing that.
 
Mar 1, 2021
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Have you run memtest? I don't know if your ram could be the problem but we might as well check. Also did you ever run prime95 and furmark on your cpu and gpu before you decreased the power to the GPU? If not I'd suggest doing that.

okay so i think it actually is my cpu that is the problem i ran prime95 twice, first time my worker 1 and 7 which i guess are core 1 and 7? said 1 error and on second test it gave me an error on core 5, 6 and 7 and on the third test i got an error on core 3, 7 and 8, and in all test the failed cores said 0 test completed, note i only let the tests run for like 10 min because they the cores failed on the first test so i restarted prime95 to try again.
also it said that the errors were hardware failures

screenshot from test 2: https://ibb.co/yYtwdhB

screenshot from test 3: https://ibb.co/fSB6Ntb
 

Andrewbandrew05

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I was under the impression that a crash in prime 95 signified a failed/failing part but those do look ominous. Can anyone else on the forum provide some insight? (Id also suggest just googling the errors and see what you find.) You could try reducing your cpu clocks and power by a bit to see if you can get it stable at a lower performance threshold