Strange problem with CPU (I think)

[Arel Sickler]

Before anything, here are my specs. I will try to explain everything in detail, sorry for the wall of text, I feel it's better to get all the info someone might need to help me out there.

Operating System- Windows 10
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Revision 3.
AMD FX-6300, not overclocked right now.
16gb 1600mhz DDR3 (G-Skill ripjaws)
2x MSI-7850 in crossfire, crossfire is enabled.
2x Western digital blue 1tb 7200rpm HDD's
Corsair GS-800w PSU (The non-modular version D: )
Voltage and LLC are stock.

The CPU is cooled by a Zalman LQ-310 AIO, which does it's job admirably and keeps the processor around 32c-38c~ even under heavy loads. Everything else is cooled by the 9 fans in my case.

Anyways, I built this computer about 3 years ago, and had my fair share of trouble shooting annoying problems, but generally speaking it has operated well. About a week ago, after shutting my computer down for the night, upon trying to turn it on the next morning, it would not turn on. I got nothing, no beep code, no flickering lights, simply nothing. After messing around with it all day (Disassembling and reassembling the entire computer to check for mistakes, etc) , as a last ditch effort to get the motherboard to post I jumped the CMOS_Reset pins and reset the BIOS. Afterwards it turned on immediately.

However, ever since then I have been plagued by a strange issue, my computer will randomly restart itself, but ONLY when I am playing games, specifically World of Warcraft and Fallout 4. I do not get any BSOD, I do not get any sort of dump file from windows, there is nothing in the event viewer, the computer simply restarts.

According to BIOS and my monitoring software (CPU-Z, GPU-Z, AIDA64), all voltages are stable, both idle and under load.

To try and fix the problem I:

Updated my BIOS to the most current version using Gigabyte's @Bios software, successfully.
Updated my Graphics drivers.
Updated my motherboard/Chipset drivers.
Tried changing BIOS settings relating to power consumption such as C6 to see if it was a throttling issue.

I have run virtually every benchmarking program I know of, to no avail. The computer passes every one with no issue, without being able to synthetically recreate the problem.

I have run:

Memtest86, 5 passes, all 13 tests.
Prime95 for 4 hours, Small FFT's, highest temperature achieved 44c, voltage stable.
AIDA64 full suite, three times consecutively, highest temperature 39c, voltage stable.
Unigine Heaven 1080p, no AA, top card achieved 73c max, lower card 68c max, voltages and frequencies on both were stable.
SMART tests on AIDA64 and speedfan both returned no issues with my hard-drives, they average 39c, but peak at 42c under heavy stress.
I tested all lines on my PSU with a multi-meter for continuity, and everything seems fine. Also in BIOS all voltage readings appear normal, when the computer is under stress they all seem normal as well. (12=12, 5=5, 3=3, etc)

What the hell could possibly be wrong? I've been trying to figure this out all day.

Update:

I've noticed that the problem most often occurs when the system is transitioning from low power consumption to high power consumption, or vice versa. I.E, it is most likely to crash when I first launch the game, or right after I close out if it and the components are winding down. Could it be a vdroop problem? Like I said, my LLC is set to auto.

 

[diegoneedhelp]

Hi,

I would think its a PSU problem, and change the PSU. According to what you said

"I've noticed that the problem most often occurs when the system is transitioning from low power consumption to high power consumption, or vice versa."

This might be a PSU problem because the PSU might not be able to handle all those volts changes. It might also be with your wall port. Try changing your computer to another place and plugin into another wall port. If the problem consists try changing of PSU. If its still rebooting try calling support from your Motherboard company, maybe they will help.

Hope this helped, and i hope you get this problem done (i have had some similar issues to this, and i understand how annoying it is)

 

[Arel Sickler]

Thanks for your advice, later today I will try and put a different PSU in there to see if that solves the issue and let you guys know what happens. I tested this PSU with a multi-meter and all the voltages are fine and stable but perhaps there is some kind of damage to the PSU PCB or some kind of capacitor leak or burnt traces that I can't see.

 

[diegoneedhelp]

Thanks for your advice, later today I will try and put a different PSU in there to see if that solves the issue and let you guys know what happens. I tested this PSU with a multi-meter and all the voltages are fine and stable but perhaps there is some kind of damage to the PSU PCB or some kind of capacitor leak or burnt traces that I can't see.

Yeh. What im thinking happened might be that when you turned down the pc, there was some kind of electrical discharge or something, making it kinda die. Hope this works dude! Update me ASAP

 

[Arel Sickler]

Hey, sorry for taking so long to reply, I had no computer! haha.


Anyways, I figured out the issue by taking each of my components out and testing them in a known working computer, I arrived at the conclusion I actually had two bad RAM modules. Two of my G-Skill Rip jaws sticks had gone bad, when I plugged the first one alone into the motherboard, it would not post, no display, nothing. The second bad stick took me into BIOS and was stable for perhaps 2 minutes before the computer reset itself in BIOS. After removing both of those bad sticks from the equation I have had no unexpected restarts.

I am so glad it wasn't something more expensive like the motherboard or CPU. Is this a known side-effect of bad RAM?

 

[diegoneedhelp]

Hey, sorry for taking so long to reply, I had no computer! haha.


Anyways, I figured out the issue by taking each of my components out and testing them in a known working computer, I arrived at the conclusion I actually had two bad RAM modules. Two of my G-Skill Rip jaws sticks had gone bad, when I plugged the first one alone into the motherboard, it would not post, no display, nothing. The second bad stick took me into BIOS and was stable for perhaps 2 minutes before the computer reset itself in BIOS. After removing both of those bad sticks from the equation I have had no unexpected restarts.

I am so glad it wasn't something more expensive like the motherboard or CPU. Is this a known side-effect of bad RAM?

Hi,

Well, yes. The computer itself cant run without ram. That why most people have to sticks of ram, meaning if one of them fails, the other one works until the other one starts to work again. This is a process i like to call "The Backup Memory". In this case, there wasn't any ram that could "Backup" the other ram. Plus the other ram stick was also kinda damaged, so it needed a backup memory but didn't have one. This is why it rebooted. Majorly because the ram stopped working for a second, making your computer shut down, and reboot. I had a problem with this on a laptop, but not on a desktop. Anyways, other then that, you should be golden. If you want, add me to skype, and we can talk about the new ram your buying, cuz i tend to buy some good ram 😉 (my skype is Astrogaming23)

I hope you add me, and i am glad your problem was found!