What's going on with my PC???

[Zeze]

Once in awhile (1-2x a day) my PC just suddenly crashes. It's not 'software / OS' crash, but the screen just turns all GRAY without a warning. And the sound is stuck in a loop. So it's totally kaput, absolutely irreversible.

I just have to press reset and reboot. The crash doesn't seem to be related to any particular application usage. It just craps out at any point.

This leads me to speculate it's some sort of a hardcore PC component problem? It's been happening for years, and I just tolerated it. But now it's happening more frequently.

Power Supply? CPU dying? GPU?

i3-2120
8 gigs RAM
HD6870
Windows 7

 

[LostPassword]

does that i3 have an integrated graphics? if it does you can take out the video card and see if it still crashes.
you have 1 stick or 2 sticks of ram? try different sticks on different slots.
if you are suspicious of your hardware components you gotta start removing pieces.
when i fixed my neighbor's computer, i found out he had a bad ram slot (the ram was ok, just the one slot was fubared).
i also have a spare power supply just to trouble shoot too. you might need a friend with spare parts to help you out.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, given that PC's relative age, it could be the power supply, or the GPU, or possibly RAM or even the mobo.

What PSU do you have, Zeze? You don't have it listed? And how old is it?

Edit: Also, web search "AMD grey screen crash". Yours is not the first that I've heard of that.

The HD6870 is pre-GCN, so not currently supported by newer drivers.

I would probably end up replacing it with an RX 550, even if it turns out to be the PSU and not the GPU.

Or, maybe the PSU is getting older and weaker, and causing the GPU to crash. That can happen, with a marginal PSU.

Heck, my Ryzen 5 1600 rigs, with mostly brand-new PSUs (been in storage for a while though), both of them shut down, when I tried mining on them with NiceHash. One has an RX 470 4GB, one has an RX 460 4GB. One particular mining program benchmark, seemed to make both of them crash hard.

I had to use the Radeon Settings Wattman and set the Power Target to like -15% or -20%.

Weird, too, since one of the PSUs was a 600W, it shouldn't have lead to a crash.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/tech/graphics/amd-confirms-grey-screen-crash/1/

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4180262

 

[Ketchup]

The best suggestion I have heard so far is pulling out the video card and see if the problem occurs with the Intel igpu.

 

[Zeze]

The best suggestion I have heard so far is pulling out the video card and see if the problem occurs with the Intel igpu.

How do I switch the display output? If I just stick the VGA into the igpu, it knows to send signal there to my monitor?

It's been so long I forgot it all- turn it on somewhere in Device Manager? I see nothing else except HD6870 under Display Adapters, not even an 'unknown display'.

 

[Ken g6]

There's usually a bios setting to select the video output if you don't pull the card. But if you don't pull the card it could still cause crashes.

 

[whm1974]

Just pull the card, the BIOS should switch automatically.

 

[kirbyrj]

Just pull the card, the BIOS should switch automatically.

Sometimes I've had this not happen like it should and I've had to reset the bios before the IGP will kick in. YMMV.

 

[Iron Woode]

possible causes:
PSU
GPU
hard drive failure
ram
motherboard esp. caps.

 

[whm1974]

Sometimes I've had this not happen like it should and I've had to reset the bios before the IGP will kick in. YMMV.

The last time I had to deal something like this is when I built my current system. But I just did the very basic build first, test it with the iGPU and after it passed I put in the rest. Just added the graphics card, plug in the display, and everything worked.

But yes you are right, YMMV.