Question PC hard rebooting seemingly randomly when GPU is under load ?

[gagglebox5]

Hi, I've had this problem for a few months now after years of flawless usage. The weird thing is, it went away for a month then came back. I cannot discern a certain trigger, because sometimes it can run for an hour or two under load, other times it won't last 10 minutes. By reboot, I mean a full reboot. Everything shuts off. No noise coming from a game, no motherboard lights, etc. The entire PC completely shuts down and reboots itself.

For example: I'll be watching a show with madVR (a GPU-utilizing video renderer for programs like MPC) and 10 minutes in, my PC might reboot. Other times, it might not- or it could be 40 minutes instead. After the reboot, I'll run FurMark for 10 minutes to an hour and sometimes the PC will reboot, other times it will not (a month ago, it would. Now, it seemingly won't.) I've even tried running Prime95 and FurMark together to no avail. It also sometimes happens when playing games.

I just started watching a show. 10 minutes in, my PC rebooted. This happened a few times. Even when I just open the show again and skip to where I was, the PC instantly rebooted. But after changing nothing, I was able to watch the rest of the episode (40 minutes) without issue. I then watched half of episode 2, then my PC rebooted. I did the aforementioned Prime95 + FurMark for 30 minutes and nothing happened.

This started happening after I replaced the fans in my GPU, though that could be a coincidence. The voltages match and the replacements look identical, just with a different part number. I highly doubt this is the cause, because as stated earlier, this problem just went away for a month then randomly came back.

Event Viewer shows nothing of interest. Reliability History shows that Windows unexpectedly shut down with no further details. There was something about Microsoft GameInput, but that turned out to be a huge (and annoying) coincidence.

• My temperatures are fine. CPU is a tiny bit high when stressed (80c max, 70c avg), but not when these crashes happen. GPU is only ever at a max of ~65c with the fans only going at ~60%.
• I crashed at 180W on the GPU on Minecraft, but never crashed at 190-200W on the GPU on FurMark.
• I have tried reinstalling graphics drivers (DDU),
• I've reseated the GPU in the PCIe slot.
• I've reseated the power connectors on both the GPU and PSU.
• I've reseated RAM.
• I've ran a MemTest86 that showed no errors.
• I've reset CMOS and used default BIOS settings
• All my drivers are up to date (I've even tried downgrading both times this has happened)
• My BIOS is up-to-date
• I've cleaned everything

I do not have any spare parts. I wish I did, because it would make troubleshooting this crap so much easier. I guess I'll RMA my PSU and hope that fixes the problem. If not, I guess I'll buy whatever other parts that may be the problem.

My system is as follows:

• Windows 10 Pro 22H2
• MOBO: MSI Z270 SLI Plus
• CPU: Intel 7700K
• GPU: EVGA Black RTX 2080
• RAM: G.Skill RIPJAWS V 2x8GB
• PSU: Corsair RM750x
• OS SSD: Intel SSDPEKKW512G7 512GB
• Secondary SSD: Micron 1100 MTFDDAK2T0TBN 2TB

My next steps are probably to, in order: Reinstall Windows > RMA my PSU > pull my hair out > buy new parts altogether.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Best guess would be the psu. However before changing out the psu I would use the cpu graphics if possible, to rule out a problem with your gpu. You could also go into device manager and check line by line for any updated drivers needed. You can check your bios version and update that also if you are comfortable installing bios. Good cleaning of motherboard and parts could also be in order as dust can cause shutdowns. Running sfc /scannow would be in order too.

 

[gagglebox5]

Best guess would be the psu. However before changing out the psu I would use the cpu graphics if possible, to rule out a problem with your gpu. You could also go into device manager and check line by line for any updated drivers needed. You can check your bios version and update that also if you are comfortable installing bios. Good cleaning of motherboard and parts could also be in order as dust can cause shutdowns. Running sfc /scannow would be in order too.

I used my integrated graphics for a week while thinking about what to do the first time this happened. No crashes. But what I don't understand is this: How does unplugging the graphics card rule anything out? Without the GPU, the PSU wouldn't be utilized nearly as much, correct?

And to everything else, I've done all that. I should've said so, sorry. My BIOS is as up-to-date as possible (still old).

 

[gagglebox5]

My PC just rebooted as I tried to play Minecraft, then again as I tried to watch a show. But now it's not happening anymore. I'm doing the same things I was doing, but now it just won't happen.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

My PC just rebooted as I tried to play Minecraft, then again as I tried to watch a show. But now it's not happening anymore. I'm doing the same things I was doing, but now it just won't happen.

So if you removed the gpu and you had no resets you could check deeper into the gpu being at fault, ie using it in another computer or using another gpu to see if that works well with the pc. I use the term rule out as to mean if you do one thing and it changes the outcome then you should check the thing that changed the outcome. Then you can move on to the next troubleshooting step. So I am a little confused at your last comment. You said your pc rebooted but that it is not doing it anymore. What configuration was the pc in? Was it with or without the gpu?

 

[gagglebox5]

So if you removed the gpu and you had no resets you could check deeper into the gpu being at fault, ie using it in another computer or using another gpu to see if that works well with the pc. I use the term rule out as to mean if you do one thing and it changes the outcome then you should check the thing that changed the outcome. Then you can move on to the next troubleshooting step. So I am a little confused at your last comment. You said your pc rebooted but that it is not doing it anymore. What configuration was the pc in? Was it with or without the gpu?

What I meant was: When my GPU is plugged in, sometimes it will crash under load and sometimes it will not- even when doing the same exact thing with everything the same. That time specifically, I tried to play Minecraft with my GPU plugged in. It crashed. Then, I tried using my GPU to watch a video file. It crashed. Then, once rebooted again (with the GPU still plugged in), it stopped crashing on the same workloads. Now it is happening again with the same workloads and the same configuration.

 

[gagglebox5]

Also not sure if this is useful or not, but I just did some tests and saw a crash the moment the GPU hit 180W on Minecraft, but it did not crash despite prolonged usage of 200W on FurMark.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Is there a friend that can loan you an old gpu, or one sitting in the closet that you test in your system?

 

[gagglebox5]

Is there a friend that can loan you an old gpu, or one sitting in the closet that you test in your system?

None. I would have to buy a new one.

 

[sitehostplus]

Before you do any of that, give Who Crashed a try and see if they can tell you what is going on.

It looks at all your windows logs, translates them into plain english, and with any luck you can pinpoint what is causing the crashes.

I've been using it to help debug my new Windows rig, and it's helped a ton.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

What about trying your gpu in a friends pc to see if it has the same behavior?