What causing my PC crashes?

Meddling-Monk · 12 May 2021 at 15:29

Archii said:
That's great info, thank you. There multiple heat sinks, might be connected to one of those?

Looking on the asus site, it looks like it's situated under both of the large Heatsinks, above the CPU socket and the one to the left (under which is the rear IO panel). It may not be related, so nothing to be concerned with until you test and do find that it's skyrocketing before the system crashes, only then will you need to see about what can be done there.

Archii said:
Which VRM setting should I change in BIOS then?

In BIOS, it should be CPU Power Phase Control. T.Probe is the normal "safer" default option, there's no chance of accelerated wear on the VRM and no chance of damaging it from heat produced (hence why it throttles). You can switch it to Extreme, but you really need to keep an eye on the temps at that point.

I would suggest if this is an area of interest throughout your testing to change later on, that you get more info on the temps you're getting first on T.Probe setting so you know what the default temps Asus set as its considered "safe" zone. And try not to deviate too much afterwards from that when you switch to Extreme mode.

Archii · 12 May 2021 at 15:32

Meddling-Monk said:
Looking on the asus site, it looks like it's situated under both of the large Heatsinks, above the CPU socket and the one to the left (under which is the rear IO panel). It may not be related, so nothing to be concerned with until you test and do find that it's skyrocketing before the system crashes, only then will you need to see about what can be done there.

In BIOS, it should be CPU Power Phase Control. T.Probe is the normal "safer" default option, there's no chance of accelerated wear on the VRM and no chance of damaging it from heat produced (hence why it throttles). You can switch it to Extreme, but you really need to keep an eye on the temps at that point.

I would suggest if this is an area of interest throughout your testing to change later on, that you get more info on the temps you're getting first on T.Probe setting so you know what the default temps Asus set as its considered "safe" zone. And try not to deviate too much afterwards from that when you switch to Extreme mode.

Thank you. Appreciate your help.

I will monitor these temps and see what it says

Randomface74 · 12 May 2021 at 15:36

Archii said:
Just because something isn't easy doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Not very helpful.

It'll be the most helpful post in here when you break something. Suit yourself.

Archii · 12 May 2021 at 15:39

billysielu said:
It'll be the most helpful post in here when you break something. Suit yourself.

Most condescending*

Joxeon · 12 May 2021 at 15:44

Nothing wrong with a trying a bit overclocking, everyone starts somewhere.

Archii · 12 May 2021 at 15:46

Joxeon said:
Nothing wrong with a trying a bit overclocking, everyone starts somewhere.

Archii · 12 May 2021 at 19:22

Interestingly, I had my bios in default settings XMP on (4GHz) and it crashed. Turbo was turned off.

Edit: just crashed again.
Default bios, xmp disabled, turbo enabled.

2nd edit:
Just crashed with everything in bios on default.

Meddling-Monk · 13 May 2021 at 11:40

If it's crashing even with everything at default and stock, then there's something else that's terribly wrong then. When did you get that system?

Archii · 13 May 2021 at 11:47

Meddling-Monk said:
If it's crashing even with everything at default and stock, then there's something else that's terribly wrong then. When did you get that system?

It only crashed once with everything stock. After that it was ok.

I got the system about 4 months ago

foster grant · 13 May 2021 at 14:32

What sofware have you got runing in the background , and what make of PSU are you using?

Archii · 13 May 2021 at 14:39

foster grant said:
What sofware have you got runing in the background , and what make of PSU are you using?

When gaming, I'll have the game, plus Discord and sometimes a VPN such as Cyberghost.
Sometimes I'll also have OBS Studio running too to stream what I'm playing to Twitch. But not always.

PSU is a Corsair hx1050

foster grant · 13 May 2021 at 14:45

Archii said:
When gaming, I'll have the game, plus Discord and sometimes a VPN such as Cyberghost.
Sometimes I'll also have OBS Studio running too to stream what I'm playing to Twitch. But not always.

PSU is a Corsair hx1050

Hmm maybe its OBS ? or maybe game with none of that runing see what happens then game with just one bit of software then see what one is giving you crashing

Archii · 13 May 2021 at 14:47

foster grant said:
Hmm maybe its OBS ? or maybe game with none of that runing see what happens then game with just one bit of software then see what one is giving you crashing

I've tried that already last night and it does indeed crash with nothing open in the background

foster grant · 13 May 2021 at 15:02

If it was me ( not saying you should ) and it keeps crashing over and over I would look at some other options like getting your money back ( might not work if you've tried to OC ) or take the whole thing apart and check everything by eye cables , connectors the lot making sure something isnt touching somewhere it shouldnt be everything you can think of, could even be a connector that come loose or faulty hardware

Archii · 13 May 2021 at 15:05

foster grant said:
If it was me ( not saying you should ) and it keeps crashing over and over I would look at some other options like getting your money back ( might not work if you've tried to OC ) or take the whole thing apart and check everything by eye cables , connectors the lot making sure something isnt touching somewhere it shouldnt be everything you can think of, could even be a connector that come loose or faulty hardware

It's only started doing it recently though. I do completely understand what you mean and might try to do this.

Last night I inspected a minidump file from one of the crashes which pointed towards a memory fault.
So I ran the windows memory analysis tool, which found no issues

I gamed on the pc last night after that with no issues (default settings)

Meddling-Monk · 13 May 2021 at 18:06

Typically, if it really is memory related issues, the Windows Memory Analysis tool doesn't catch the memory errors you need to diagnose and locate. You'll probably need to use something like memtest86 and check individual memory sticks for errors, and if its not on the individual sticks, that would suggest a problem with one of the DIMM slots the memory fits into. And that's not fixable by users, so you'd need to RMA the board back (or whole system, depending on who/where you got it from).

Hakanese · 13 May 2021 at 21:46

Double check the cable connections from the Psu end and the motherboard end, make sure you have both cables for the cpu power plugged in as well as teh 24 pin by the ram

Archii · 16 May 2021 at 09:05

Update:

I reinstalled windows yesterday morning and have had no issues since.
Have been gaming with no OC without issue.
Then enabled xmp and continued to have no issues.

danoliver1 · 16 May 2021 at 11:11

Archii said:
Update:

I reinstalled windows yesterday morning and have had no issues since.
Have been gaming with no OC without issue.
Then enabled xmp and continued to have no issues.

Good news. Try running a benchmark say 3d mark timespy and monitor temps, CPU speed. Then report back.

Archii · 23 May 2021 at 21:25

Update:

My PC had been running normally and was very happy for about a week. I had XMP enabled, but nothing else changed in BIOS - completely default.

It's just started to crash again and I have absolutely no idea why. It sometimes happens straight after booting up and logging into my windows account! So it can't be temperature related.
Sometimes it happens when simply watching a Youtube video with nothing open in the background, sometimes when gaming, sometimes when idle even!

Is there a way I can create a log file for why the PC has crashed?

Edit: It literally just crashed as I was typing that :mad:

I might be ready to throw this thing out the window.