[SOLVED] Strange (possibly GPU) problems, not entirely sure ?

[lukesuperstarfish]

Just starting these past few days or so I've been unable to play any actual games on my pc without everything freezing, audio hanging, and then my monitor losing connection to my pc. I can't even manage to understand what's causing the issue directly and whether or not any of it is a hardware or software issue.

First I was playing batman arkham knight, suddenly the game froze, audio started spazzing out, then all I saw was a black screen and my monitor telling me it had no signal. I had to hard reset holding the power button and everything powered back up normal.

Second time I was intentionally testing out the waters with nier automata to see if the crash or any issues would arise again. The game started to lag a little along with the audio about 15 to 20 minutes in and then suddenly froze, then a blue screen (which was new).
I checked the .dmp files and it was a watchdog.sys crash, which lead me to believe it was something to do with the gpu drivers. So I went through the whole process of cleanly uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and thought everything was back to normal, but sadly upon playing arkham knight again, the game instantly crashed without warning, my monitor lost connection for just a moment then I was back at the desktop, though strangely my refresh rate wasn't smooth at all, and I couldn't fix it without a restart.

After that I went through most of the day just using my pc and not playing any games, and not a single issue. I can browse and do anything else and you wouldn't think anything was wrong.
Then I decided to try and play witcher 3, upon playing the game for about 5 to 6 minutes, it started to lag and the audio spazzed out. i managed to close the game and did a system file check, and found some corrupted files in my pc. I then restarted and gave witcher 3 another run, upon which it properly crashed and I lost connection to my monitor again and had to restart my pc via power button.

I haven't done any other tests but I have no idea what's going on. I can't find any other similar situations online, or any actual helpful information for that matter. I don't want to make any assumptions and go buy parts I don't need, any help would be appreciated.

tldr; pc hangs then crashes when I play heavy gpu intensive games. Typically leaves monitor disconnected and have to restart with power button.


MY SPECS:
gpu: gtx 1660 ti
cpu: ryzen 5 2600
motherboard: ASRock A320M-HDV R4.0 (AM4)
psu: kratos m1-550B bronze plus

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

That rubbish PSU is most likely cause --- it's no good for gaming & probably no good for anything.

 

[RTX 2080]

I would have to agree about the PSU.

You should upgrade to a Corsair RM650x or similar.

 

[xtro99]

I have the exact opposite problem, system works amazing as long as there's a game running in the background but freezes and the sound spazzes out when doing menial, non resource-heavy tasks like browsing the internet. Sometimes my screen will go black and the whole system will restart. I'm going to try a different PSU since I've heard horror stories about the EVGA G5 units.

 

[rolli59]

Certainly can be PSU issue but could as well be that a low quality PSU has damaged the GPU. If possible check GPU in a different system and see if it takes issues with it.

 

[lukesuperstarfish]

I'm seeing a lot about the psu, which I also found to be rightly suspicious since it's the cheapest throwaway component in my pc that the people that premade the pc, definitely went cheap with. I was thinking that it could be the primary issue but had no way of being overly certain, it's either that or like rolli59 said, a possible GPU issue.

Certainly can be a PSU issue but could as well be that a low quality PSU has damaged the GPU. If possible check GPU in a different system and see if it takes issues with it.

I don't think I have any possible method at the moment to test this gpu outside of any pc but my own sadly. Is there a way to know if such damage to the gpu would be apparent outside of gaming?

 

[rolli59]

I'm seeing a lot about the psu, which I also found to be rightly suspicious since it's the cheapest throwaway component in my pc that the people that premade the pc, definitely went cheap with. I was thinking that it could be the primary issue but had no way of being overly certain, it's either that or like rolli59 said, a possible GPU issue.

I don't think I have any possible method at the moment to test this gpu outside of any pc but my own sadly. Is there a way to know if such damage to the gpu would be apparent outside of gaming?

I have in the past had GPU issues with your symptoms twice and it has come down to failing Vram on the GPU's. The issue would only show up under gaming and nothing else. In both cases I was still under warranty and did RMA with manufacturer.
My suggestion is get a better PSU and if that does not fix the issue RMA card if still in warranty.
If in the US this is the best deal at the moment on quality PSU https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017HA3SQ8?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

 

[lukesuperstarfish]

I have in the past had GPU issues with your symptoms twice and it has come down to failing Vram on the GPU's. The issue would only show up under gaming and nothing else. In both cases I was still under warranty and did RMA with manufacturer.
My suggestion is get a better PSU and if that does not fix the issue RMA card if still in warranty.
If in the US this is the best deal at the moment on quality PSU https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017HA3SQ8?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

I guess that would be the best course of action to take if any. i was thinking I would need to replace my psu anyway, and redo all the wiring (which was terribly done by the people who made it). I'll just have to cross my fingers that my gpu isn't actually having any major issues. It was working fine just the other day

 

[lukesuperstarfish]

I learned something new about the way my pc crashes. It seems to not only cause my monitor to lose signal to the graphics card, but also causes my keyboard and mouse and other externals to lose any sort of connection to the pc. Everything besides the fans and rgb on the case lose connection from the pc.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I have the exact opposite problem, system works amazing as long as there's a game running in the background but freezes and the sound spazzes out when doing menial, non resource-heavy tasks like browsing the internet. Sometimes my screen will go black and the whole system will restart. I'm going to try a different PSU since I've heard horror stories about the EVGA G5 units.

It is customary to start your own thread when you need help. We cannot deal with two different people on the same thread as it can get very confusing.

 

[Joseph_138]

Sounds like a serious power supply issue. Don't boot that computer again until you replace it, or you could end up replacing more than just the power supply. And make sure you get a good quality power supply, from a reputable manufacturer, that has an 80+ rating, preferably Gold or better. It's not worth risking your system to save a few dollars on a generic PSU of questionable quality.

 

[lukesuperstarfish]

Sounds like a serious power supply issue. Don't boot that computer again until you replace it, or you could end up replacing more than just the power supply. And make sure you get a good quality power supply, from a reputable manufacturer, that has an 80+ rating, preferably Gold or better. It's not worth risking your system to save a few dollars on a generic PSU of questionable quality.

well I got a power supply on the way. Hopefully I can get it replaced without issue (never changed a power supply before). I'll let you all know if it fixes the problem

 

[lukesuperstarfish]

an update. I replaced my psu and that seems to have fixed all issues. So everyone that was mentioning the psu were correct. Thank god i didn't just buy a new gpu