Pc Restarting When Im Gaming

[adamf154]

Hi, was looking for some advice i am currently playing 2 games at different times that keep restarting my pc unexpectedly, i could be playing for hours, then they crash and restart pc just a black screen and you know its restarted, both are 2/3 years old, i have 40gb ram (32 which is a few months old), gtx1660 6gb which is a few months old, my 850w psu is almost 2 years old, and a ryzen 7 1700 cpu, the heatsink isnt blocked and there isnt anything else running in the background, i done a furmark test earlier and a 1 hour occt test yesterday that checks everything and neither caused the pc to crash, and the psu seems to be running fine also, i have msi afterburner in the background, my graphics card isnt overheating and my cpu has been set to alarm if it goes over 80 degress and didnt before the restart, so im lost as to why this is happening everything is working fine and not overheating, the only other thing is ive been using a Fling trainer on both games which is running on each game when its crashed, but i use these quite alot and ive never had any problem with them before but see no reason as to why they would make pc restart after an a few hours of playing.

any other help or advice would be appreciated as ive run out of ideas

Thanks

[flashandpan007]

How can you have 40 GB RAM? Either 32, 64, 128, .. everything else doesn‘t make sense.
I don‘t know the GTX1600. Please be precise with the specs of your pc.

[flashandpan007]

There is a 1650, 1660 with or without Ti, with or without super, then there is the 1060, ... lots of possibilities.

[adamf154]

why cant i have 40 gb, 2x16 gb = 32gb and an 8gb = 40 gb and its actually a gtx1660

[DB83]

How is the memory installed ?


i.e. 1 32gb or 2*16gb. Same with the original 8gb.


And is the memory identically rated and installed in the slots in accordance with the mainboard instructions ?

[johns0]

Sounds like your ram has issues,take out the ram that is different and just use a matched pair(2x16gb).I tried using 2x16gb matched pair with a different set of 2x8gb match pair and my system would reset but not with either used separately.

[DB83]

So now reading your reply, you have 3 slots occupied ?

[adamf154]

ram is 2x16gb in first 2 slots and an 8gb in one of the other slots but its nothing to do with the ram, i have been playing other games before these 2 without any crashes and pc is running fine otherwise

[johns0]

You tested everything else and said your temps were good so just for testing take out the 8gb ram and see if you can run those 2 games without issues.

[flashandpan007]

Remove the 8 gb stick as a first step, this does not help at all.

[DB83]

Well you asked for advice and everyone suggests a memory mis-match. Those two games could be more memory intensive and would then explain why you have not had issues before.


So the solid test is to remove the single 8gb and, again, follow the mainboard guide as to how you install two sticks - sometimes they have to go into alternative slots and not adjacent ones.


If you then have no reboot you have your answer.

[aedipuss]

that ryzen uses dual channel memory that REQUIRES matched pairs of sticks in the proper slots.

[adamf154]

ok i took the memory out and its not a memory problem, im starting to think its the game trainer that im using, thats only the same thing left with both games crashing the same way

[DB83]

Well from a diagnostic viewpoint you could have eliminated that even before you started the thread.


And it appears that you ran that trainer before and with these games ?

[adamf154]

well not really it could take hours for it to crash, but this way i get other ideas that i havent thought of incase it might be something else and can keep playing and testing other things

[adamf154]

ok so ive found out its not the trainers that are crashing my pc, i was playing one of the games last night without the trainer and it crashed twice to the desktop, so i thought it might be that when the trainer was being used, but i restarted my pc this morning and as soon as it loaded i clicked firefox and it crashed again, so i started playing the game again today without the trainer and it restarted the pc, and when it loaded i clicked firefox again and the pc restarted again and thenagain after firefox was opened, so i left it until everything had loaded and it didnt crash, im not saying its firefox but im going to restart it a few times and see what happens, as a precaution im probably going to format my ssd and reinstall windows its a pain but i think its nearly a year since i got my ssd, that ssd is just for windows, all my files are on other ssd's

[DB83]

If a car has a flat tyre, you do not change the car. You change the tyre.


So here if you suspect a program is causing the issue you remove it and, if you need it, download it again and do a fresh install of that.


But surely Firefox was not running when you were playing those games, and surely you have been using that fine before, unless that is not your usual browser.


Of course a bad update is always a possibility.

[adamf154]

well if im not using the program it shouldnt be a problem, i downloaded a different copy of the game but it crashed to desktop aswell and i didnt use the trainer, the game is almost finished i think, so i wont download anty other versions to try it and firefox is always running, it only crashed 3 times when i restarted pc and selected it but firefox has just been updated, not sure if there was any crashes before that, but reinstalling windows will clean eveything up and i can start afresh and i can then see what happens when i start playing the games again

[aedipuss]

start thinking outside your little box. it may not be a program/game. heat or a bad memory stick is more likely. have you cleaned the dust bunnies out of the heat sink lately? is it an oem hsf which suck big time? have you run a full low level memory test on the ram?

[october262]

Hi, was looking for some advice i am currently playing 2 games at different times that keep restarting my pc unexpectedly, i could be playing for hours, then they crash and restart pc just a black screen and you know its restarted, both are 2/3 years old, i have 40gb ram (32 which is a few months old), gtx1660 6gb which is a few months old, my 850w psu is almost 2 years old, and a ryzen 7 1700 cpu, the heatsink isnt blocked and there isnt anything else running in the background, i done a furmark test earlier and a 1 hour occt test yesterday that checks everything and neither caused the pc to crash, and the psu seems to be running fine also, i have msi afterburner in the background, my graphics card isnt overheating and my cpu has been set to alarm if it goes over 80 degress and didnt before the restart, so im lost as to why this is happening everything is working fine and not overheating, the only other thing is ive been using a Fling trainer on both games which is running on each game when its crashed, but i use these quite alot and ive never had any problem with them before but see no reason as to why they would make pc restart after an a few hours of playing.

any other help or advice would be appreciated as ive run out of ideas

Thanks

check your computer to se if it has all the latest software & security updates
and the latest driver update for your computers graphics card.

[DB83]

Thinking 'out of the box' is , I guess, the hardest thing to do.


One gets an opinion that it is not 'A' so it must be B- Z. Trouble is that the issue could have been 'A' all along and one wildly test everything else.


And what-if that Windoze reinstall also results in the same result ?


Look. I am not talking randomly. I experienced crashes some years ago when I mixed memory. If you want me to link to the thread then I will. And similar to what Johns0 experienced.


Of course those games could be 'buggy'. People all the time revise them to 'improve' the experience.

[adamf154]

start thinking outside your little box. it may not be a program/game. heat or a bad memory stick is more likely. have you cleaned the dust bunnies out of the heat sink lately? is it an oem hsf which suck big time? have you run a full low level memory test on the ram?

the memory is only a few months old so shouldnt be faulty and i havent had any problems since it was installed, and the heatsink isnt dusty and nothing is overheating

ive reinstalled windows, dont think i had a virus, but maybe there was something that was causing a problem, ill be trying the games later and tomorrow and ill see what happens

[zing269]

the memory is only a few months old, and the heatsink isnt dusty

Memory is likely to fail either within a few months, or after many years. Considering that you have a large amount of memory you may not see a problem normally if the error is in a high address area. You should really try running something like memtest86 that fully test all areas.

[adamf154]

ive not had a chance to play the games that i was playing but i have reinstalled windows, it was def needing a reinstall but the pc has crashed 2 or 3 times since and it wasnt under any pressure or overheating, the latest crash made the screen go black but shouldve restarted but it didnt, the mouse and keyboard were off so i had to restart manually, so ive moved the graphics card into the other slot, i had alot of problems before with the screen going blank and funny colours so i had moved the graphics card i had then into the other slot and done loads of other checks, its seemed to work better in that slot, i suspected the card or the main graphics slot might be faulty then so ill see how it goes with that first, ram was checked with the windows diagnostic checks and was fine but ive moved the 2 16gb sticks into the other 2 slots, ill see how it goes for a couple of weeks or until it crashes again, if it does ill try one ram stick in each slot for a week or two or until it crashes again and just keep trying both ram sticks in the 4 slots, but this could potentially take weeks to figure out the problem, the motherboard and psu are only 2 years old so im hoping its neither of those

[DB83]

Thing is you are still 'throwing dice'. Almost as if you are expecting a fail sometime.


Simply moving the memory around is not going to prove (or disprove) anything. You were told at the start of the thread (not by me so I am not bleating here) that you install memory in the correctly designated slots and not simply 'the other two'. If you do not have a mainboard manual then do download one and read it carefully regards memory compatability and which slots you use - you may also have to check the manuf. data re memory compatability.


Yet I also sense you may be over-clocking your system - that test you did was surely for that. And you need a fully stable system before you attempt that.


And do NOT rely on Windows diagnostic checks. There are proper, and free, tools out there to report on memory.


Here is the thread I started some years ago when I had memory issues. It also discusses the tools available.


https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/361969-Upgrade-RAMifications

[adamf154]

the ram is in the right slots it doesnt start the pc if they are not in the proper slots and it will prove whether i have a ram problem or a ram slot problem or not, most are suggesting it is ram issues and are saying you have to check everything, so thats what im doing, the ram is compatible, i wouldnt have bought it otherwise and im not overclocking

[johns0]

Since you reinstalled windows and it still crashes means it's a hardware problem,ram,psu,video card,cpu and mother board are the main items so you gotta rule each one out.

[adamf154]

im pretty sure its not the video card as its only a few months old, ive ran a few stress test programs for psu, gpu and cpu and didnt have any problems and it didnt crash, ive ran a couple of ram test prgrams and no problems, im hoping it might be the main graphics card slot, as im using the 2nd one from today and i can use that for now, without replacing anything, i think if it was the psu it would be crashing alot more and quicker when a game was being played

[october262]

im pretty sure its not the video card as its only a few months old, ive ran a few stress test programs for psu, gpu and cpu and didnt have any problems and it didnt crash, ive ran a couple of ram test prgrams and no problems, im hoping it might be the main graphics card slot, as im using the 2nd one from today and i can use that for now, without replacing anything, i think if it was the psu it would be crashing alot more and quicker when a game was being played

what games are you playing ??
and does your computer meet the recommended / minimum system requirements
required to run the games.

[DB83]

When it comes down to diagnostics you ask yourself some logical questions and act on the honest answers. In this case I'll lead with a few.


1. When exactly did the issues start. When I first ran the games. When I installed the new memory etc.
2. Did the games play ok before I installed the new memory ?
3. What other, even some apparently inconsequential, change did I make to my system ?
4. Removing the new memory and just using the old, is my system stable. ?
5. Did I have issues before which I simply dismissed. ?
6. Am I using the correct drivers for my hardware and not relying on the ones from a Windows install.


Yes. Some of the above ask the same Q. but in a different way.