Question Random unexplainable crashes

[Mikeydikes]

Hey everyone. Been having this issue for a few weeks now and it’s driving me insane. Whenever I’m playing a game on my pc, I’ll get a ‘crash’ where my monitor will disconnect and all of the fans in my computer will spin at max RPMs, only way to stop it is to force shutdown the pc by holding the power button. There’s no issues rebooting and it runs fine for a while. This crash can happen 15 mins into gaming, or two hours into it. I’ve been to a repair shop and talking to others online and my repair guy said he ran tests and found no faulty hardware, but others say my GPU is dying. I have a hard time believing this is the case because it was fine for the almost two years since I built it, and also as I said, a professional repair guy said hardware was fine. I’ve run stress and torture tests on the pc multiple times for hours at a time with no crashes. I’ve noticed that my system is a lot more stable without Nvidias drivers installed. I’ve tried everything from taking everything out of the pc and cleaning it, re applying thermal paste, completely wiping it(multiple times) and clean installing windows 10 AND 11, installing older graphics drivers (evens ones I had before the crashing began) and as I said getting it physically diagnosed. There are no error logs in my event viewer regarding the crash, except one critical one stating the pc was shutdown unexpectedly. Just looking for any ideas before I start the long process of RMAing my card (and possibly having them send it back saying it isn’t faulty). Here are my specs
i9-9900k
Nvidia GeForce 2080 Super
Asus Z390-A motherboard
Thermaltake Smartseries 700w PSU
Any help is appreciated

 

[COLGeek]

How old is your PSU? That is where I suspect your issues may lie.

Are you overclocking anything (CPU, GPU, memory)?

 

[Mikeydikes]

Nothing is over locked, except my GPU which has a factor OC that I haven’t messed with. I’ve had the PSU since I built it almost two years ago. I ran tests and all of the voltages seem fine, my 12V rail seems to hang around 11.7 though which I can’t imagine is the problem. And as I said, my system has ran the longest (a full day of gaming with no crashing) when I don’t have graphics drivers installed.

 

[COLGeek]

Assuming you are using the basic Windows drivers, that means your GPU isn't using all of its features (less power).

Do you have access to another PSU to swap in for testing?

 

[Mikeydikes]

Not right now unfortunately. I’ve also had people tell me that the PSU I have is a pretty bad one, especially for my rig set up

 

[COLGeek]

Not right now unfortunately. I’ve also had people tell me that the PSU I have is a pretty bad one, especially for my rig set up

I certainly would NOT use it. There are much better options, for a reasonable price, available.

 

[Mikeydikes]

I certainly would NOT use it. There are much better options, for a reasonable price, available.

So you don’t believe the GPU is the issue?

 

[Mikeydikes]

I certainly would NOT use it. There are much better options, for a reasonable price, available.

Also, any recommendations? I believe a 850w would be a good fit for me, budget really isn’t an issue (less than $500 preferably (lol)) I just don’t wanna make the same mistake of buying a sub par one

 

[COLGeek]

From where do you purchase PC components?

 

[Mikeydikes]

I actually just ordered this one. Hopefully it’s compatible with my motherboard and GPU (and also fixes my issue) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08PDZQZN2/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It’s coming in Sunday, I will be SO happy if this is the solution to my problem. Trying to avoid going through an RMA process and/or buying a new GPU