I've been experiencing crashes with my computer while gaming, specifically during titles like PUBG and CP2077. Initially, the crashes were hard shutdowns, meaning no blue screen, just a sudden power-off. I've monitored temperatures, which haven't gone beyond about 80C, and I thought they might be a factor at first. I tried lowering the graphics settings and improving airflow, but the crashes still happen, typically during transitions like loading screens or exiting games.
I went through the usual steps of updating drivers and even did a fresh installation of Windows 11, but the problems persisted. Disabling XMP on my RAM seemed to help at first, with fewer crashes, but then I started experiencing issues when waking the computer from sleep. After some time, the crashes returned when exiting games.
Here are my specs: Ryzen 2600X on an MSI X-570A motherboard, 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws V RAM, EVGA RTX3060 GPU, multiple SSDs, and a Thermaltake 650W PSU. With my back currently out, I'm looking for a way to pinpoint which piece of hardware might be failing without spending too much time on hands-on fixes. Any help would be appreciated!
3 Answers
You might want to check the health of your SSDs using CrystalDiskInfo. If they're showing good health, that's a positive sign. For the RAM, running MemTest86+ is definitely the way to go. Also, I suggest running some commands like `sfc /scannow` in the command prompt just to rule out any OS issues, as sometimes software problems can appear hardware-related.
I already checked the SSDs, and they seem fine! I’ll look into the commands you mentioned.
It sounds like you've already done a lot of great troubleshooting! Since disabling XMP helped, I'd lean towards the RAM being a possible culprit. A straightforward way to test it is to use a USB flash drive to run MemTest86+. This tool will thoroughly check your RAM for any errors. Just boot from the USB and let it do its thing. If it finds any issues, it's likely that your RAM is at fault, but keep in mind, there could be other hardware problems too.
That makes sense! I’ll get MemTest86+ running. Do you think the motherboard could also be a factor?
Definitely, the motherboard can cause issues too, especially with RAM compatibility. Just make sure to test RAM first!
To really get to the bottom of these crashes, you should look at obtaining any dump files from when the crashes happen. You can find them in C:WindowsMinidump if you can access Windows. If you have any, you can zip them and upload to a file sharing site for analysis. Having multiple dump files would really help pinpoint the issue.
I checked, and it looks like there are no minidump files at all. What should I do if I can’t find any?
If there are no minidumps, there might be an issue with how your system is configured to log those events. Try adjusting your settings based on online guides to enable small memory dumps and get those logging properly.
Great! Those commands can help catch any potential OS corruption that might be causing weird crashes.