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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   2312 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 25, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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This is as good a place to ask for technical support as any I guess:

For the past few months, my pc has been consistently crashing under heavy load, in graphically demanding games like Escape from Tarkov, Warhammer 3 etc. In normal use and less intensive games like Rimworld, no issues.

After about 15-20 min of gameplay, I get a full crash to a black screen with the pc powered off, and it refuses to post for several minutes regardless of what I do, at which point it often restarts on its own. The American Megatrends screen doesn't usually show up unless I cycle power, at which point it doesn't tell me anything useful either.

The crash seems to be so total and abrupt that I can't find any useful logs to figure out wtf is going on.

I've run CPU and GPU stress tests on OCCT and furmark, and they only seem to cause issues unreliably.

It seems thermally related, since the problem is less severe when the AC is running, but unfortunately the AC is currently on the fritz exacerbating the issue, but fixing the AC isnt really a definitive solution is it?

I noticed >85° C temps on my Ryzen 5600x, so I changed the thermal paste, and while temps dropped by 5-10 degrees, the crashing hasn't abated.

GPU temps hover in the 50s-60s range in Tarkov, which seems quite reasonable. It's a 3070 for what that's worth.

The other potential culprit is my geriatric 600w power supply, over 10 years old at this point, but why would it be thermally related?

I'm not running any OCs, and I've maxxed out my fan curves to help, not that it's doing much. My case has two extra blowers, and I even took off the sides to help with airflow.

Anyone have any idea as to how I can figure out what exactly is wrong? I can't really afford to replace my GPU, but I could consider buying a new PSU if need be.

This issue didn't plague me when I first built this current setup with the same components, but it's been several months and I'm losing my mind :(

I'm no expert, but I would suspect the PSU? A bad PSU can cause all sorts of issues. When the PC is under heavy load it'll draw more power.

What about the reasonably robust association with ambient temperature? Do PSUs degrade like that?

Most AC-DC power supplies have a bank of filtering capacitors which can degrade with time. The electrolyte in the electrolytic capacitors can also have some temperature sensitivity. More likely the internals of the PSU are just coated with a layer of grime and dust at this point, and the heat sinks on the switching gear can't reject the waste heat from the conversion effectively. There may be a thermal fuse that trips if the PSU overheats. I would generally advise against opening up an PSU, as even unplugged there can be quite a bit of stored energy in the caps if you just go poking around. If you're fairly certain the PSU is the culprit you can always try blasting it with a can of compressed air, it wont make it any more broken. Immobilize the fans before you do so they don't over-speed.

Gotcha, I don't have any compressed air around, but I'll use a blow dryer. Static isn't really a concern where I live, it's far too humid.

Static isn't really a concern where I live, it's far too humid.

It's not static electricity, it's a bunch of energy stored in capacitors. It's real as you can see by unplugging the computer, then trying to switch it on -- the fans briefly start up, at least for me. But after that it should be mostly safe, if in doubt poke with a grounded screwdriver or something.

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