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Solved During Racing Sims, Inexplicable Crashes / CMOS Reset

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A

Alex_

PCHF Member
Feb 20, 2021
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#1
Good Morning,

My first build is about two years old now. Have had consistent crashes while running demanding racing sims. There aren't many symptoms besides the occasional "locked audio" when everything else is completely offline. I'll hear a frozen engine sound or tire scrubbing but my monitor is reading "no signal source." Upon restart I'll get five short beeps every time, take out the GPU and reset CMOS. Up and running. I recently updated my PSU to 750 watts as a forum suggested at least 600 and I was at 550. Helped for about four days but I'm back to daily crashes. I went to the Radeon app and set my max FPS at 63 to "save power" and my temps went way down.. for a day then back to normal and crashing. Actually starting to get concerned about wearing out physical connections with the number of times I've had to take out the GPU and perform the reset. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance o/

Specs:

Ryzen 5 2600
Radeon RX 580
ASRock B450M Pro4
PSU: Seasonic Focus GX-750
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 8gb X2
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.60, 11/5/2018 mode: Legacy
OS: Windows 10 Pro
 
#2
I should add that the GPU temps were dropping to mid 70s celcius after I changed the fps cap and when they went back to normal (still with the limiter on) it was at about 87-88c. My understanding is that those temps should not be affecting the hardware performance but I thought the shift was interesting and indicated something potentially useful in terms of power draw.
 
#3
Hello Alex,

Tip

If using a computer and not a mobile phone, please avoid adding multiple posts while waiting for us to reply to your OP, edit your last opening post to include anything that you wish to add, when viewing the boards members/staff will always check out an OP that has no replies, if you reply to your own OP it can appear to others that you are already being assisted and your request for help could be overlooked, which is something that none of us want.


Some information for you to read and some for you to provide;

So that you are aware that there is a difference between overheating, hardware failure and software crashing, see the below;

Software such as Windows can crash and when it does crash you get a BSOD and when enabled a crash dmp is generated, third party programs may on occasion close to the Windows desktop.

Hardware failure such as a weak power supply and/or overheating are not software related and when a computer freezes, restarts, suddenly turns off or the screen suddenly goes black or jumbled the behaviour should be described as the "computer shut down unexpectedly" etc and not as having crashed as the latter implies a software issue as opposed to an obvious hardware issue when described properly.

Having the correct info means that helpers will not be looking for a software issue when the problem is clearly hardware related.

To do;

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s.

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.

In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.

Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.
 
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#4
Thanks a lot @phillpower2 o/ ..I tried to edit in the OP but it said it timed out. Apologies. Your point makes sense. Thanks also for the clarification re: crashes vs. hardware failures. Very important distinction.

Here is the report.

Thank you,
Alex
 
Last edited by a moderator:
#5
Only seeing a couple of things amiss in Speccy;

Windows is months out of date and while it is you are completely wasting your time troubleshooting as any one of the many missing updates could be what is needed to correct this issue.

Question, after installing Windows did you then install the following drivers and in the exact same order, the chipset drivers for the MB, the storage drivers for the SATA ports and then the GPU drivers from XFX.

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Computer type: Desktop
Installation Date: 12/4/2020 2:48:30 PM

Power Profile
Active power scheme: High performance

Change the Windows Power Plan to Balanced, Ultra and High Performance are a form of overclocking that is known to cause stability and overheating issues and the setting should only be used for gaming type notebooks that have a discrete GPU that needs the extra power.
 
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#6
Thanks again,

To your question, unfortunately I cannot speak to the order in which the drivers were installed. As I was unaware that this order had significance I did not take note. I am quite new to all of this.

I will update Windows and set the power plan to balanced and report back. Your observations and assistance are greatly appreciated.

Best, A
 
#7
The chipset drivers are the most important as that is what enables the MB to be able to communicate with your hardware.

Regarding Windows updates, you are missing a raft of version 1909 updates, all of version 2004 and a few of version 20H2, go here and see if you are able to update to version 20H2 in one go, it will save you hours if you can.

You are welcome btw :)
 
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#8
phillpower2 said:
The chipset drivers are the most important as that is what enables the MB to be able to communicate with your hardware.

Regarding Windows updates, you are missing a raft of version 1909 updates, all of version 2004 and a few of version 20H2, go here and see if you are able to update to version 20H2 in one go, it will save you hours if you can.

You are welcome btw :)
Click to expand...
oh that's great thanks. ...yeah I just went to settings and updated Windows through there.. so I'm guessing that was just a perfunctory update and will still be missing the list of backlogged updates you mentioned. Following your link after this.

How can I tell if my chipset drivers are out of date or not properly configured? With my beyond minimal experience here, it would not surprise me at all if something was amiss there and with these "unexpected shutdowns" it seems like a strong contender for a potential source of my problems.

Thanks again!
 
#9
use the version 20H2 update at the link provided if you can, if you do as you have done Windows will only check for version 1909 updates until it gets to the one that prompts you to upgrade to 2004 etc.

We will check your drivers once you have installed 20H2 but just so you are aware Windows 10 uses a lot of generic drivers for modern hardware but you must get the chipset drivers from the maker of the MB/
 
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#10
phillpower2 said:
use the version 20H2 update at the link provided if you can, if you do as you have done Windows will only check for version 1909 updates until it gets to the one that prompts you to upgrade to 2004 etc.

We will check your drivers once you have installed 20H2 but just so you are aware Windows 10 uses a lot of generic drivers for modern hardware but you must get the chipset drivers from the maker of the MB/
Click to expand...
OK! Updated Windows to 20H2 via your link..
 
#13
Things are looking better now both for Windows and the temps, did you happen to notice the difference of the CPU, GPU and MB temps between the two Speccy reports.

Btw its almost 4pm here in the UK but good morning in any event.
 
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#16
I haven't tried to run the heavier programs since updating Windows.. I think I'd like to get the chipset drivers set up as you recommended as the crashing is so frequent. One thing I've noticed that might speak to what you refered to as Windows' generic drivers is when I woke up my PC this morning, it for about 5+ seconds had a scrambled screen which I had never seen before.

Anothr note perhaps worth mentioning is that my GPU software is seeing my CPU as the absolute minimum for more than one of the programs that has been running when the hardware failures occur. Maybe time for an upgrade?
 
#20
Sorry.. that was saved as a text. I meant *that was harder to look at, but tbh I think im not running it properly. Attaching a screenshot of what I see through the DriverView app. Is that the what I should be saving from? Look right?
 

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