PC Crashing when gaming. How to figure out why?

Hammerbak

Commendable
Jul 13, 2016
9
0
1,510
Hi.

I have recently just upgraded my PC with a new Mobo, PCU and RAM. Since this upgrade I have started experiencing crashes. e.i. PC shutting down without a warning. I have tried a few things such as changing around the fans in the case to improve airflow, remove overclocking of PCU and RAM, running GPU stress tests with Valley Benchmarks and FurMark. However none of the tests or alike have given me the answers I've been looking for. So here goes. My PC Specs are as follows:

  • Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.00GHz (Skylake)
    HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 sticks @ 8 GB) DDR4, 2133 MHz
    Asus ROG Maximus VIII Ranger (LGA 1151) MOBO
    EVGA GeForce GTX 970
    XFX ProSeries XXX Edition 850W PSU
    2 SSDs (250 GB og 500 GB)
    2 HDDs (2 TB og 1 TB)
    2 monitors (DP og HDMI)
    Windows 10 Pro
The crashes have occurred when playing the following games:

  • Diablo 3 (+Expansion: RoS)
    Rocket League
    Tom Clancy's The Division
I am however not sure that it won't happen when playing other games. Originally I thought it had something to do with overheating, but after performing stress test I have not been able to either confirm or deny that this is the problem. I have tried moving around the fans to create a more consistent airflow, but it haven't seemed to have any effect.
My idle temperatures are as follows:

  • PCU -> 34-40 degrees C
    MOBO -> 28 degrees C
    GPU -> 40-43 degrees C
    SSD'er -> 30 og 33 degrees C
    HDD'er -> 31 and 35 degrees C
During stressing the system I have noticed the following temperatures:

  • CPU -> up to 60 degrees C
    MOBO -> up to 40 degrees C
    GPU -> up to 80 degrees C
    SSD og HDD -> practically unchanged
Both my GPU, CPU and RAMs are available for overclocking but since I started having these problems I have disabled that and even under clocked my GPU slightly. I have also tried downloading the newest drivers for GPU, Motherboard and SSDs. Without any success. I have yet to try and update the BIOS, which I might try later today.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find out what is causing these crashes?

EDIT:
Under critical events in the event viewer I find the following:
Event ID: 41, Source: Kernel-Power, Log: System.. followed by the amount of occurences.

It has in total happened 41 times and this is the XML Details:
- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>3</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-07-13T14:29:33.653076300Z" />
<EventRecordID>5723</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>HAMMERBAKHOME</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
<Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
 
First lets see what is really going on.

Hit the start button and immediately type "Event Viewer"
Hit return. This will open the event viewer window.

on the left, you want to have selected Event Viewer (local) this is selected by default.

Then after it loads, in the middle it will show a some events
Critical
Error
Warning
Information
We are after the Critical ones.
You should have entries in there, let us have them.

 

Hammerbak

Commendable
Jul 13, 2016
9
0
1,510


I updated the question with the event viewer log. Please tell me if you need more info.
 
Hm, alright so it is just shutting down on you. These are tough because it doesn't generate a report with much information.

The most common cause of this error is simply bad power.
Can you go through your PC, unplug all the power connections, and replug them nice and securely.
I know it seems redundant but intermittent power is the most likely cause.
After that if the problem remains i'd suggest trying out an alternate PSU, it is the easiest most obvious place to start when dealing with power issues.

 

Hammerbak

Commendable
Jul 13, 2016
9
0
1,510


So. I should unplug and replug all the connections to and from the MOBO and also make sure the adaptable cables from the PSU are connected properly?

I was wondering if it could have something to do with the fact that I'm powering all my 4 storage drives on one single cable from the PSU?
 
Yup exactly, basically pull out the PSU and put it back in, even give the plugs a quick visual check to make sure everything looks OK.

And don't worry about using the same wire. Using a different wire doesn't change the source - it is all connected to the same PSU, so no worries there.
 

Hammerbak

Commendable
Jul 13, 2016
9
0
1,510


Okay. I have now done this, and as of yet I have not experienced a similar crash. However I have only been playing for about 1 hour. I will have to do more testing tomorrow when I get home from work. I will let you know once I know more.
 


Nice. Hopefully that resolves it and we don't here back from you!
 

Hammerbak

Commendable
Jul 13, 2016
9
0
1,510


I have only had a little time to game recently and I found no crashes during those play sessions.

Then all of a sudden today when playing like 1 hour of "INSIDE" followed by 2 minutes of Rocket League my PC crashed again. Any new suggestions of what to do next? If not I remember wrong we were talking about the PSU and I have also read a little bit on the interwebz and some people reported having faulty RAM being the problem as well.

The weird part though, is that I used to have the same PSU, GPU and fans installed with my old MOBO, PCU and RAM (which I still have in storage) and on that setup I didn't experience any crashes.

Another problem however could be the connection of the fans, which has been changed due to the fact that my new MOBO doesn't have as many fan connections as my old one. I even remember connecting a fan to something that was not necessarily a fan slot but maybe more of a liquid cooling thing. Could either of the above be the reason?

The fan that is connected to the above explained slot seems to be running at full speed all the time.