[SOLVED] Please Help - computer restarts in cpu&gpu intensive games

[jrtarsoly]

Hi guys, whenever I play a cpu&gpu intensive game my pc restarts. For example I played DOOM and I didn't have any problems with that game, but when I installed Mad Max, my pc restarts right after the cinematic intro every time. Another game I've had problems with was Black Mesa - I managed to plough through most of the game, but there were certain areas in Xen where my pc would just restart and restart. Same thing in VR, some games I can just play without having any issues whatsoever, but with Arizona Sunshine in certain parts of the game - it just restarts, same thing with VTOL VR and some other VR games. One thing I found of particular interest was the fact that my pc tends to restart whenever certain events initiate ingame that I think are CPU bound - e.g. NPC's arriving from somewhere or loading a VTOL session with more NPC planes than usual.

I ran synthetic benchmarks, trying to figure out what the problem was. I first fully disassembled my pc, cleaned ALL the dust out, PSU included, changed thermal paste from both CPU and GPU - Arctic Mx4, installed a fresh copy of windows 10 with all the latest drivers & all that good stuff.

Here's the weird thing with my pc - when I only run Furmark to stress test the GPU, it never restarts or crashes, I've ran it up to 30 minutes 3 times without anything happening or glitching out. Afterwards, I ran Prime95 on all the cores for about thirty minutes 3 times - once again, nothing bad happened.

But when I load and start Prime95 and immediately start stress testing the GPU with Furmark, after 5 seconds - 2 minutes, my pc restarts. I did this experiment 4 times - same result. It never crashes or freezez - it always restarts.

The very weird thing about it is if I first start FurMark instead of Prime95, I can stress test the system without it crashing or restarting - tried this twice, once I ran the stress test for ten minutes before deciding to stop, and a second time it froze my pc - but it didn't restart. I then proceeded with an underclock on all cores of the CPU to 3000 Mhz, and apparently at this frequency there wasn't any problems when stress testing simultaneously of the cpu&gpu. Afterwards, I thought to go back to 4000Mhz, but deactivate one module of the CPU (Cores 7&8). In this particular configuration, when I stress test, the pc restarts. I always had HWMonitor on during all tests, the temps have been in check all the time.
I also ran memtest - there haven't been any errors reported.

My configuration is : Fx 8350 Stock clocks CPU cooled with a Hyper 212 EVO , 2x8 Gb 1866Mhz RAM, a R9 290 Tri-X stock clock, Asus m5A97 r2.0 motherboard with up-to-date BIOS, a 1TB WD 7200 rpm Hdd, and 2 120 gb SSDs, all powered by a Corsair semi-modular 750w bronze rated PSU. My computer is ~ 8 to 9 years old.

Can you guys give me a solution or a hint on what exactly is causing my system to behave like this ?
Thanks !

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

It's most likely your psu.

 

[jrtarsoly]

Damn, I suspected it was the PSU from day zero ... I was just hoping it might had to do with a faulty option selection in the BIOS that makes the system glitch, like the D.O.C.P. option for the ram, or anything .. I don't wanna change the PSU, changing an option in the BIOS is free, the PSU costs money, and the pc is old and also planning on a fresh upgrade some time later this year.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

Damn, I suspected it was the PSU from day zero ... I was just hoping it might had to do with a faulty option selection in the BIOS that makes the system glitch, like the D.O.C.P. option for the ram, or anything .. I don't wanna change the PSU, changing an option in the BIOS is free, the PSU costs money, and the pc is old and also planning on a fresh upgrade some time later this year.

If you want to hold out a bit, you could watch videos on lower power consumption of your gpu or cpu. but that's mainly a last resort, cause it can be a pain to fix if your pc decides not to boot.

 

[jrtarsoly]

If you want to hold out a bit, you could watch videos on lower power consumption of your gpu or cpu. but that's mainly a last resort, cause it can be a pain to fix if your pc decides not to boot.

Hey, thanks for the advice.

Long story short that's what I already did ... I underclocked my cpu to 3500 Mhz on all cores through the BIOS, did some stress testing and apparently it's stable now under simultaneous synthetic gpu&cpu loads.

I haven't managed to reinstall the games up to this point to do some 'real world' testing because I'm lazy, but I'm thinking if it's pretty stable under synthetic testing than gaming should be no problem.

I just hope my performance doesn't suffer too much, I mean the fx8350 ain't exactly a gaming king, it has pretty poor single core performance compared even with it's contemporary Intel counterparts.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

Hey, thanks for the advice.

Long story short that's what I already did ... I underclocked my cpu to 3500 Mhz on all cores through the BIOS, did some stress testing and apparently it's stable now under simultaneous synthetic gpu&cpu loads.

I haven't managed to reinstall the games up to this point to do some 'real world' testing because I'm lazy, but I'm thinking if it's pretty stable under synthetic testing than gaming should be no problem.

I just hope my performance doesn't suffer too much, I mean the fx8350 ain't exactly a gaming king, it has pretty poor single core performance compared even with it's contemporary Intel counterparts.

Yes, and if it still crashes while gaming. I'd recommend using lower settings in-game, reducing the load on the pc making it use less power.