What went wrong? Mystery GPU(?) crashes on new PC build (i7-7700k, GTX 1070)

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bostonkris34

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Mar 9, 2017
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Hi everyone,

I've been impressed with the advice given on this forum for some time, and finally created my own account in hopes of solving a mystery that is driving me crazy on a new PC build. For starters, here are my components, all new out of the box:

MOBO - ASUS ROG Strix z270e Gaming
GPU - ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070
CPU - i7-7700k
PSU - EVGA Evo212 P2 (850W)
RAM - Corsair Dominator DDR4(3000), 16GB (2x8)
Dell 27" G-Sync monitor (1440p)
Samsung 1 TB SSD
Corsair tower fan
Windows 10 Home

The game I'm using for this benchmark (because it's the only one I play right now, sorry Overwatch) is The Witcher 3. Here are some of the details and mysterious problems:

- Everything worked fine for about a week (in fact it was great), then I was playing Witcher one day and suddenly I heard a noise from the case and my screen went black. Game music continued to play but computer was unusable (monitor entered power save mode). Had to do a hard reboot.
- Tried to play again and it worked for about half an hour, then it happened again, this time with no music continuing. I tried one more time to reboot and start the game, and it crashed instantly. At the same time, my CPU fan started going crazy - had to be maxed out despite nothing happening with the PC as far as I could tell.
- I rebooted and ran the UserBenchmarks tool. When it reached the 3D rendering sections, it played one or two, and then crashed to a BSOD.
- I removed the GTX 1070 thinking it may be a bad GPU and replaced it with my old GTX 960. I tested the UserBenchmarks and it completed several times without issue (once, Nvidia Sharing crashed, whatever that is, but otherwise stable). Now it came up saying my RAM was way below expectations, and my CPU wasn't so hot either. Suggested I OC the CPU.
- I tried Bios EZTuning for game optimization but this led to high levels of instability, with BSODs all over the place, as I've seen elsewhere on this forum as well. I followed Tom's advice and manually OC'd (I guess - not really sure I did much) simply by setting one of their profiles to ASUS Optimzed (high performance) and tweaking the ram to 3000. At next boot, I was OC'd by 9%.
- System seemed stable. UserBenchmarks showed progress. CPU was looking as expected, RAM was performing great.
- Then I tried the Witcher 3. Hard to look at after having been accustomed to the GTX 1070, but hey it was working at least. Played for about half an hour and it went to black again. I'm wondering if maybe the computer is going to sleep as I'm using an XBOX controller and not the mouse/keyboard, but in that case I should be able to wake it up, and I can't.

So I'm basically stumped and need to return my parts ASAP before the window closes. Here are the things I'm considering and testing...

- I believe CPU, PSU, SSD and RAM are ok. Taking the PSU on faith. Ran a RAM diagnostics tool and that checked out. I plan to stress-test the CPU and GPU (960 first as it's still installed) tonight.
- Mobo, I don't know how to test it, and I'm scared of it. Also kicking myself that I didn't get a Maximus Hero IX, though I am a fan of on-board WiFi and BT (or a Gigabyte Gaming K7)
- I think the 1070 might be junk, or it BECAME junk because of the MOBO. Either way I'm determined to return this and get a 1080ti third-party once available.
- What if it's none of this, what if it's my CPU overheating? I'm very much regretting not getting a liquid cooler. However, The Witcher 3 from what I understand is a very GPU intensive (not CPU intensive) game, and with the no/minimal OC'ing I'm doing, would this really be a factor?

So I'm a little bit lost in the woods and would appreciate any and all help. Thank you in advance. The dude abides!

 
Solution
The_Staplergun
Oh yes it has. My last build had a GTX 280 in it. Ha.

It was still dual cores at that point.

Yeah they have to all be perfectly aligned. This is always the first thing I recommend as with these boards for some reason that's the most common problem with them.
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The_Staplergun

The_Staplergun

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Jan 30, 2017
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What's the wattage on that psu?

The only thing in common for all those parts is the motherboard, cpu, or psu. Those things connect or control all three.

Were there any bent pins in the socket of your cpu on install, or even now?

I'm not sure why but I've seen some issues with DOA ROG boards lately. I had one that was DOA and I've seen quite a few posts. The board is amazing if it works.
 
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bostonkris34

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Mar 9, 2017
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10,535


 
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bostonkris34

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Mar 9, 2017
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Thanks for the fast response! Sorry, I meant to include that - its 850W. Think that's sufficient?

I did not notice any bent pins... I can check that tonight (just afraid I'll do damage when removing the tower fan). Either way, I may switch to liquid when I fix this build. Is that a good idea?

Like you, I'm starting to suspect the board as well. Great point about the three things that share a common thread with these crashes.
 
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The_Staplergun

The_Staplergun

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Removing the cooler won't do anything. When you're removing the cpu be extremely careful and then examine the pins. If any pins are out of place you need to RMA the board.

If not there's something else going on.

The wattage on that psu is great.

The board holds all the components, the cpu controls them all, and the PSU powers it all.
 
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bostonkris34

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Mar 9, 2017
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awesome. i'll do exactly that (and, just realized I'm basically trying to build the rig you already have haha). by "something else" do you mean if the pins are all as they should be, it's likely NOT the MOBO at fault? Perhaps I'll learn something from the CPU stress-test. I'm new to a lot of this stuff - last did a real build maybe 8 years ago, so some of this stuff has changed a lot since then!
 
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The_Staplergun

The_Staplergun

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Jan 30, 2017
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Oh yes it has. My last build had a GTX 280 in it. Ha.

It was still dual cores at that point.

Yeah they have to all be perfectly aligned. This is always the first thing I recommend as with these boards for some reason that's the most common problem with them.
 
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Solution
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bostonkris34

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Mar 9, 2017
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Good morning - thanks again for your help! Just wanted to provide a quick update and some new info. I'm not the fastest worker with hardware so I didn't have time after work to try pulling out the motherboard and processor. I'll do that tomorrow morning instead. But what I did do was run a few tests - 3DMark, Intel Processor test, Speedfan, MSI Afterburner, and Hot CPU. The 960 is still installed.

3DMark crashed the system when I tested FireStrike. On a hunch, I thought - what if it's the MONITOR? And set up another (1080p) monitor. I tested FireStrike and it worked fine - though it reported a score of 0 for some reason. I tried again on the Dell 1440p and it crashed. I repeated this series twice with the same results. On the third time, it worked fine on the Dell, and has worked fine every time since. Intel Processor crashed the first time, otherwise passed all tests. I also ran Hot CPU overnight, but have no idea how to interpret results from the log. I started another thread asking for help reading these results.

I booted up Witcher 3 and played for about an hour. At idle, my GPU temp is around 46 degrees. When running around as Geralt, it was consistently in the 70s, hitting as high as 76. Strangely, when I'd pause the game, the fans would spin faster and it would immediately drop into the mid-50s. CPU usage was only around 20-30%. GPU clock speed during active play was 1468Mhz and RAM was at 3505Mhz. Voltage was at 0mv the entire time - is that normal? The game did not crash as it usually did. The problem is, I don't really know what any of this means haha. Does it shed any light for you?

So it seems I had instability issues to start the test, and then everything seemed to go back to normal and work just fine. Of course, the entire system worked great for the first few days after I built it, so maybe there is an underlying problem that blips in and out. When it's out, everything works fine and when it doesn't, I post on Tom's Hardware begging for help :)

I'll check out the MOBO and processor tonight or tomorrow morning when I have a little more time. However, I guess I'm leaning toward returning them both and replacing them just in case. I don't want to assume everything is fine now, and then after my return window closes, it blows up again. Unless the above gives you any clues to narrow down the problem, so far I'm still stumped! THANKS again.
 
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bostonkris34

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Mar 9, 2017
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You were right - I replaced the motherboard (and CPU just to be safe, because MicroCenter amazingly let me) and re-installed Windows. I had one BSOD the very first boot-up, but once I updated drivers, it's been running beautifully since. Thanks!
 
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