Hey everyone! I'm facing some crashing issues with my Windows gaming PC, and for some reason, the Minidumps are not helping me pinpoint the cause. I also tried using Bazzite, but it crashed in the same way. I'm wondering about switching to a Linux distro for diagnosing these problems. How effective is Linux at identifying issues like this? I'm not too tech-savvy, so understanding crash dump files is a bit beyond me. Are there any tools in Linux that would make diagnosis easier? Should I stick with Windows for now or make the switch to Linux? I do want to switch fully eventually!
3 Answers
What does the crash look like? Is it happening during intense gaming or while idling? Also, what specs do you have, like your GPU and PSU wattage? If you have multiple RAM sticks, try booting with just one at a time to see if that changes anything!
Linux is definitely a solid choice for troubleshooting! It's much clearer when it comes to logs, and there are tons of online resources like wikis and forums that can help you identify issues easily. You’ll want to get comfy using the terminal since tools like journalctl and dmesg will give you detailed logs. As for hardware testing, consider using memtest86+ for RAM issues, and tools like smartctl to check disk health. It sounds like you're having a hardware failure, so switching to Linux might actually give you the insight you need! Plus, you can live boot a Linux ISO and run some tests without installing it, which is convenient.
I’m looking for logs too, since I don’t really understand them lol. Are there tools to help interpret them? My PC shuts down with a black screen and Windows won't generate a memory dump, so if Linux can do that, I’d be all for it. I mean, I’ve tried stress tests, but they're not consistently crashing.
Start off with memtest86+ if you haven't yet—memory issues can really mess up your PC's performance. If you're running two 8GB sticks, and one has a fault, the system might work fine until it hits the bad part. After that, check your disks using smartctl and keep an eye on temperatures. In my experience over 20 years with Linux, hardware failures due to overheating are rare, so it's worth a check!
I've already run memtest a few times, no errors. I've swapped out the motherboard and both drives and even changed the PSU recently. Temperatures are stable. Stress tests crash only during Burnintest for me, though. Just stuck at this point without spare parts to test further.
I upgraded to a Ryzen 5 5500 about a year and a half ago. Most crashes happen randomly, sometimes on idle, but can be replicated quickly with Burnintest. My GPU is a Radeon 5600XT, and I recently upgraded the PSU to a Cooler Master MWE Gold V2 650W. Before, the crashes were solid green screens, but changing to Bazzite now gives me black screens. It's a bit chaotic!