Solved! Inconsistent computer crashes (restarts) when playing games.

[SimpinAintEasy]

The issue occurs when playing games, not necessarily under heavy load, but I believe it has always happened when playing games. I could be playing a game for hours multiple days in a row with no issues then suddenly it will shut down and restart, or i could be playing for 5 minutes after turning it on and it could happen. Sometimes when it restarts it will give the ASUS power surge protection message, sometimes it will just reboot with no message (outside of the event viewer). The build is about 6-7 years old, I've replaced the Mobo at one point a few years ago because I had an ASRock board whos PCI slot that had funky voltage and killed an old GPU I had (also since replaced).

My specs are:
CPU: 3570k (liquid cooled but not OC'd)
GPU: 980 ti (liquid cooled)
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V (Bios version: 2104)
RAM: 2 sticks of 4GB DDR3 @1600mhz
Storage: 2SSD, 1tb HDD
PSU: CoolMaster V850 80PLUS Gold (Original) and FOCUS Plus 750 Gold (Replacement)
Notes: I am running a dual monitor set up on some older monitors

I've had this issue for a few months and have spent the entire time trying to trouble shoot it, I'm at the point where I'm exhausted trying to figure out the issue and I don't have much money to keep replacing every single part in hopes that it fixes it. A list of some of the solutions I've tried (probably not all):

• Replacing the PSU
• Changing which socket on my surge protector the PSU is plugged into
• Memtest, CPU test, Stress tests (has never crashed during a stress test)
• Rearranging the radiators to reduce temps (reduced frequency of crashes at one point but still present)
• Disabling ASUS surge protection in bios
• Re-seating RAM
• Booting with one stick of RAM (tested both sticks, both still crash and at an increased frequency)
• Re-seating basically everything but the CPU
• Making sure all my drivers were up to date
• Touching the chipset/bridge while it was running to make sure it wasn't shorting out
• ASUS onboard MemOK! to test all RAM configurations
• Unplugging one of my monitors
• Yelling at it

I know it isn't temperature related (at least anymore) because I monitor the temps constantly now and they never reach within 20 degrees of the danger zone. When I first replaced the PSU I had a pretty bad issue that seemed to just go away for no real reason, when I first turned on it would the DRAM_Led would turn red then it would reboot, then it would get past that and go to the VGA_Led and reboot, then the Boot_Led and reboot and it would seem to randomly pick one that it could crash on. So I started re-seating the RAM again (a few times) and eventually it booted normally and was back to its normal state where it would crash inconsistently during games.
When I tested the ram and the sockets, I tried each stick individually and even tried running them in a different docket than I was using to make sure it wasn't just the socket and the crashes were much more frequent. I've obviously checked every power cord and double and triple checked them.
That's all I can think of right now, I'm sure I've tried more things, but like I said, it's been a few months I've been working on this issue. I'm at the point where I am exhausted just thinking about troubleshooting, the next step I have planned it to purchase some new RAM and try it out but from the prices I was looking on line they are much more expensive than when I bought them originally, and I'm dreading the chances it could be my mobo or my GPU. If it my mobo I almost feel like I might as well start a new build. But that's all, I feel pretty defeated so any new perspective, help or insight anybody could give me would be greatly appreciated as I can't really afford to just replace parts willy-nilly at this point.

 

[LTC8K6]

Try underclocking the ram and the GPU?

One at a time, of course.

Run the ram at 1333, for example.

 

[Ketchup]

Replaced my gtx 660 last month after going through issues that sound similar to yours and my crashes went away. The card wasn't overheating, and it seemed as though some stressful games would crash the computer, but not others. Been playing all the same games on a gtx 1060 for a month now and not a single crash. Hope that helps.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Try underclocking the ram and the GPU?

I believe that is what the onboard MemOK! button does on my motherboard which I already tried out, I haven't tried underclocking the GPU might give it a shot.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Replaced my gtx 660 last month after going through issues that sound similar to yours and my crashes went away. The card wasn't overheating, and it seemed as though some stressful games would crash the computer, but not others. Been playing all the same games on a gtx 1060 for a month now and not a single crash. Hope that helps.

Hey thanks for the reply, I've been thinking more and more lately it might be the GPU but I'm pretty scared that it is as I don't know if my warranty is up or not. Might just pick up a low end card and run it for a week or 2 and see if I get any crashes that way. But with the inconsistency of the crashes I'm concerned that even if the issue went away it might end up being something to do with the mobo and it would only come back if I upgraded the GPU.

 

[Furious_Styles]

I'd try (if you haven't already) removing the power from the motherboard and doing a cmos reset. It is normal for those boards to reset themselves on either the cpu, dram or vga led once but then it should boot the second time.

Sometimes the bios just gets corrupted but it could be the whole board is on its way out. If you think it's the GPU have you run a long loop of something like the heaven benchmark?

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

I'd try (if you haven't already) removing the power from the motherboard and doing a cmos reset. It is normal for those boards to reset themselves on either the cpu, dram or vga led once but then it should boot the second time.

Sometimes the bios just gets corrupted but it could be the whole board is on its way out. If you think it's the GPU have you run a long loop of something like the heaven benchmark?

I haven't run the heaven benchmark but that's something I can do tonight, is it a benchmark you would run for something like 8+ hours while I'm sleeping?

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Ran the Heaven benchmark on extreme and it crashed my computer and gave me the ASUS power surge protect message almost immediately (twice in a row). Feels like I lost a hundred pounds, I'm so relieved I finally have another direction to head in. Thank you, now it's time for me to learn how to underclock my GPU, thanks everybody I will return with updates probably tomorrow.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Ran the Heaven benchmark on extreme and it crashed my computer and gave me the ASUS power surge protect message almost immediately (twice in a row). Feels like I lost a hundred pounds, I'm so relieved I finally have another direction to head in. Thank you, now it's time for me to learn how to underclock my GPU, thanks everybody I will return with updates probably tomorrow.

Glad to have helped! Hope the gpu is still under warranty if it's failing.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Glad to have helped! Hope the gpu is still under warranty if it's failing.

It's a few months out of warranty unfortunately but at least I have a direction now

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Well this is a bit frustrating, I ran Heaven extreme benchmark again with GPU-z running so I could maybe catch what was happening and I've been running it for about and hour with no crashes now.

Edit: Nevermind it crashed about 60 seconds after making this post and I got a log

 

[Furious_Styles]

Also for testing purposes I recommend turning off the asus power surge option in the bios.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Also for testing purposes I recommend turning off the asus power surge option in the bios.

Already tried that, still got the crash reboots

 

[Furious_Styles]

If the PSU is new I'd say you've narrowed it down to either the GPU or the mobo.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

If the PSU is new I'd say you've narrowed it down to either the GPU or the mobo.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking right now but I've had these thoughts about certain parts a dozen times by now so I'm skeptical.

Here's a screen shot of GPU-Z while running Heaven benchmark. I've saved 3 different crash logs from it and nothing really pops out to me, but I'm also not the most knowledge person when it comes to this so maybe somebody will jump out to somebody else.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking right now but I've had these thoughts about certain parts a dozen times by now so I'm skeptical.

Here's a screen shot of GPU-Z while running Heaven benchmark. I've saved 3 different crash logs from it and nothing really pops out to me, but I'm also not the most knowledge person when it comes to this so maybe somebody will jump out to somebody else.

Nothing jumping out at me there.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Well update:

Under-clocked the core -89 (max I could do in PercisionX1): Crash/Reboot
Under-clocked the Vram -200 (Max I could do): Crash/Reboot
Under-clocked both at the same time: Crash/Reboot

Kind of running out of ideas that I could personally to do figure it out. I guess reduce the target power consumption but the crashes aren't happening at 100% power consumption as it is (they've happened at 86% power consumption from the last log I checked).

 

[LTC8K6]

So now boot without the 980ti and run some stress tests with the HD4000?

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

So now boot without the 980ti and run some stress tests with the HD4000?

Good Idea, also gave me the idea to run my 980 ti in the second PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16_2 slot which runs exclusively at x8 (despite being labeled as x16 to check to see if it's just specifically that socket that is messed up.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

Update: I moved my GPU to my 2nd PCIE slot and it crashed after about 2 hours of heaven benchmark so I ran heaven benchmark on my Intel HD graphics 4000 overnight and no crashes. Guessing that means its my GPU. Any suggestions on possible ways to fix it before I bin it?

 

[Furious_Styles]

Update: I moved my GPU to my 2nd PCIE slot and it crashed after about 2 hours of heaven benchmark so I ran heaven benchmark on my Intel HD graphics 4000 overnight and no crashes. Guessing that means its my GPU. Any suggestions on possible ways to fix it before I bin it?

What are you going to do with it? Glad you've got to the bottom of it.

 

[Ketchup]

My old 660 is in my Plex box and doing fine. No big stress = no crashes. We will see how long it lasts.

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

What are you going to do with it? Glad you've got to the bottom of it.

I'm not sure yet, going to try and find a way to fix it because I can't really afford to replace it right now, talking with EVGA to see if they have any solutions I haven't thought of

 

[SimpinAintEasy]

My old 660 is in my Plex box and doing fine. No big stress = no crashes. We will see how long it lasts.

Mine has been crashing when even under low stress, games I can run on my intel HD graphics 4000 would crash it sometimes, just less frequently.

 

[Shmee]

Pity about the 980Ti, sounds like that is the problem. If you can manage to afford a GTX 1660Ti, that would be a decent replacement with similar or better performance. They can be had for about $280 USD.