Windows freezing in games - Bad PSU?

[Salvinha]

Dears, hello.

Recently (August) I built a gaming machine, and below is the following configuration:

Asus ROG STRIX X470 F-Gaming
Ryzen 5 2600x (I did not choose superior because I was already targeting the next generation of Ryzen 3xxx)

EVGA GTX 1080 FTW (already has little more than a year of use, brought from another PC)

G Skill 16GB TridentZ 3600Mhz

Psu: Seventeam 750Z-AF (I already carry this psu with me for 8 years)

Since a few weeks after the assembly of the PC (which I made myself), I was having some problems, which gradually I discovered what it was (system settings), and then I solved.

However lately I have been having problems of freezing and crash in several games. And in these freezes I dont have to do a hard reset on the system, CTRL + ALT + DEL works, and then I can log out from the account and log in again.
The freezes happen in several games: AC Odyssey, Dota 2, Overwatch, Fallout 4 and others.

Here are the steps I've taken to try to solve the problem:

1- I have already updated Bios and all the drivers on the motherboard. The NVidia driver is the latest driver as well.
2- I already scanned the PC for threats with MalwareBytes and Eset 32, nothing was found.
3- I already looked at the event log, there were some permission errors (distributedcom 10016). But I've seen how to solve it and I've followed the steps. After a while the errors are gone. There were no others errors in the event log.
4- My PC is clean, is not dust.
5- I have already done steps like CHKDSK; sfc/scannow; and dism restorehealth.
6- Memtest86 did not find any erros in RAM.

I do not know if these might be drivers or Windows itself. But I think it isn't.
My gut feeling says it is the PSU.

I do not think it's any other component like cpu, gpu, memories and mobo, because 3 are new and one relatively new. And in the case of these, I think I would have to do a Hard Reset on the system, which is not the case.
OBS: I do not have blue screens.

And then folks, can you help me? At this point I think it might be the PSU.

This happens quite randomly, sometimes freezes, sometimes not. But it will freeze or crash at least 2 or 3 times a day, that I can be sure. I just do not know when.
NOTE: I did overclock CPU and memory, so I changed voltages too, but I'm familiar with that. Nothing aggressive, extremely recommended for the over I did.

OBS: In the last computer I was using this PSU, it had some strange behaviors like turn off computer with no apparent reason. But it was very rare.

 

[aquielisunari]

I'd agree with your assessment because a PSU that is almost a decade old may have experienced some degradation.

Have you gone into your BIOS and looked to see where your +12V is at? You could ALSO test with Hwmonitor which keeps min and max numbers for the resources it monitors. Seeing those numbers under load would be helpful.

Seasonic Focus Gold, EVGA G3 or G2, Corsair RM and the wattage should be at 650 or 750W.

 

[Salvinha]

Well, would It be good to put load with stress applications? Such as cinebench, AIDA64 and 3D Mark and see the voltages while these run? Or the monitoring should be done while gaming like day to day use?

Edit: One thing I didn't mention, around a month ago, I saw a spark with some noise inside my case (which has tempered glass), and it was around my VGA area. The moment I saw it, I unplugged the Pc from the power socket (It was like when two wires touch and get a shortcut, but the Pc continued working normally, I had to power off it as I mentioned).

Opened it and when I grabbed my VGA, I could "smell the spark" in it. But it was a very weak smell. And the rest of the computer didn't have any smell at all. As the computer was still running alright and the VGA had the same performance, I didn't give a lot of attention to that.
But now with these freezings and crash, I'm inclined to say it is the PSU.
VGA I don't think it is, because if it was, it would freeze the entire computer when it happened, which is not the case. Only the application freezes/crash.

It was like the VGA was defending itself with that spark.

 

[Salvinha]

Just formatted PC due to this. Now I'm sure is not driver/windows/software issues. It is a clean install and the problem still persists with game crashes.

Just bought a new PSU now (RM750x), waiting for it to arrive now. If the problem persists I know it's my gpu.
I had to buy a new PSU anyway, so I won't be so mad if it is the GPU. As I commented above, my gpu had a spark some 6 or 7 weeks back. But it is still running with no performance issues since then. But now I see my consent with my PSU might have costed my GPU.
OBS: My only friend who could test my GPU in other system lives far, so I can't test It.

By the way, voltages are normal. Saw that in BIOS and Hwmonitor (this one under stress tests). The voltages doesn't go below the minimum and above the maximum values.

But the problem with the PSU might be random and tests might not catch it.

Anyway, now what I need is wait to see.