[SOLVED] Weird driver or possibly PSU fault crashes GPU.

[vassilevmma]

I have a problem I've never encountered in my gaming builds before.

I'm experiencing weird crashes while browsing my computer or the Internet, but the weird part is they never happen during gaming,when the hardware is actually under heavy loas.

They are the sudden buzzing type crash, where the screen just goes black and the sound destroys your ears, but it never goes to bsod, everything just stops working and the computer is still running, so I have to slap the restart key.

Usually I would suspect a bad PSU right away but as I said it never happens during demanding games where everything is under stress.

I also concluded it doesn't happen if I just leave the computer idle, I have to be doing something for a crash to occur and it happens every other 15-20 minutes.

The most recent things I remember doing is a Java update, Windows update and installing the latest radeon drivers 19.2.2

I did a display driver wipe and installed the drivers fresh and it still isn't fixed.

 

[taeioum]

Does Event Manager tell you anything? Any warnings or errors that could clarify as to what causes this problem. I doubt it's a bad PSU right away, since I'm expecting it to stop working entirely, not be fine again upon hitting reset. You could try rolling Windows back to before your software updates.

But the screen goes black, it freezes and hitting the reset button fixes it? It's interesting either way that it only happens when your computer is under load, but not under heavy load...

 

[BobCharlie]

Maybe remove the JAVA stuff (do people even use that anymore?) as you might have a fake update or something, then might as well run a " sfc /scannow " and see if anything windows related is corrupt. I ran it once and it found all sorts of issues.

PSU problems can be intermittent, as can loose cables on the motherboard. A lot of cheaper PSU aren't listing the "continuous wattage rating" or the actual amperage they can handle "continuously", and are focusing on "max" values which are garbage. Usually you'll see erratic bench numbers with gpu scores fluctuating heavily as the psu struggles to keep up with the demand. It becomes more apparent after an upgrade though, like going with a bigger cpu or gpu. I ran into this myself, but it was obvious after benching. It wasn't actually crashing though. IF your psu's fan is caked in dust as is it's vent opening, that CAN cause odd things if it's overheating. Blowing them out can help, though once dust sets onto the blades (of any fan) it severely reduces the efficiency of the fan and airflow isn't great, and requires a manual wipe down of the blades on both sides. All fans should get this a couple times a year regardless. If prolonged overheating occurs, it'll bake the thermal paste on the outputs, which can occur on cpu/gpu coolers too, which as you might guess can cause erratic hardware-related crashes.

IF it was only happening with a browser, it could be a bug with the browser's update or sometimes with the video driver. If it's happening while opening stuff on your desktop, there should be logs detailing what program is having an issue. Bluescreenview might show something. Try and find out what is causing the crash from the logs.

I've had a couple issues lately with the most recent nvidia driver where it's dropping the connection to the TV, and unplugging then plugging back in the hdmi resets it and the tv auto connects again. Something like that, happens randomly.

Check your cables (inside the case and out) check for unwanted garbage or even a virus running in the background, maybe run sfc /scannow (doesn't hurt and might find something), try uninstalling java (I don't even have it on my computer), check for anything overheating, etc..

 

[vassilevmma]

I finally managed to get an actual blue screen from a crash and it says the reason is memory management.I don't know what to make of that.

I have also concluded that the crashes also happen on lower end games where the hardware isnt stressed too hard.The only real safe place is high-end games that take the near-max of the system.

Im still suspecting a PSU issue since its actually making some noises that change tone from time to time.

 

[vassilevmma]

Did a SRC scan and it found no faults,

Did also a memtest and it also found no issue.

Scanned for malware and none were found.

The event log shows a hardware error named LiveKernelEvent 144

Specs are:

Motherboard:MSI A320M GP
GPU:MSI R9 390 8G
CPU:Ryzen 3 1300X 10mb
RAM:16gb 2x8gb Crucial Ballistix Sport 2666mhz
PSU:Coolermaster Real Power M700(700w)
HDD: dont remember which but 1tb sata3 I think and it definitely wasn`t an expensive brand.

No optical drives of floppys or anything of the sort.

 

[vassilevmma]

I really hope I haven`t spoken too soon but I think I have fixed the problem.

For future unfortunate people who get the same symptoms:
The cause was the latest Adrenalin 19.2.2 Radeon driver.I wiped the new driver with DDU and installed the previous 19.1.1 and that seems to have fixed things.

Either there is some fault in Radeon's latest drivers for the R9 390 or my own system didn't get along with them very well,but I think I've pinned the solution,considering I could not go 20 minutes without a crash I have now been 3 hours trouble free watching Netflix and purposely clicking around to temp the GPU to crash again.

I will skip updating until the next driver version comes out to see if it works any better.