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Posted here for new eyeballs:
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. (I had a similar issue around 5 years ago, but that was almost certainly CPU thermals, since the American Megatrends screen called out CPU overheating, and I've changed CPUs since then and don't get the same error)
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 just a few days back, 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 :(
What I've tried:
Switching GPUs with my brother's pc. Couldn't reproduce crashing.
Dusting pc
Repasting thermal paste
Checking for any OC (none)
Stress tests, which are unable to reliably cause crashes while games can.
Always grateful I buy prebuilt from Dell for expensive gaming PCs. Every four years I go to the Alienware website, get whatever the moderately good spec is (-80/i7 tier rather than -90/i9 tier), and pay the extra $200 for four years of whatever the ultra-premium Dell Support tier is. I also call them and haggle on the phone and can usually get the price down to the cost of parts on popular PC-parts websites, actually last time it was even cheaper because all the parts store were price-gouging on the 3080. So all I'm paying extra for is the warranty.
Whenever there's an issue, they're at my place the same or next day with a truck full of parts (including even replacement motherboards), I let the guy into my office room, go do something else, an hour or two later it's fixed. No endless diagnosis, no scouring hardware forums, no mountain of Indian youtube videos, trawling error messages, trying to resit my RAM, fiddling with the BIOS, downloading furmark, downloading and running memory testing software etc. Most importantly, absolutely zero RMA-ing. GPU fails? He puts a new one in, done, no waiting a month or whatever. The one time the whole PC was apparently FUBAR I got a new one a few days later. Apparently you can even use it abroad so if you move or buy one of their laptops they'll come to your hotel or holiday home and fix it there too.
You may be an exception given your comments on what Indian doctors get paid, but certainly for the average Western PMC unless you enjoy tinkering or building your own PC I can't see a major reason not just to buy the Dell because the hours you spend fixing it (even if breaks down only very occasionally) aren't worth it financially. 100% piece of mind and I never have to think about the Bios ever again.
Side note, I saw you liked my recommendation about Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium. Any other game recommendations you think are in a similar tier?
Only Red Dead 2. I had an emotional reaction to Prince of Persia 2008 but the DLC that provides the true ending is inaccessible because it was only released on console and iirc isn't downloadable anymore.
Is it the one with black goop? Loved it, found it fun how people complained about it being too easy even though the mechanic was functionally just a prettier autosave.
Yeah it was. I don’t mind the autosave system, it makes platforming smoother than Uncharted etc (which as you note have the same system). The casting was great, though, Nolan North is such a hit and miss actor but him and Kari Wahlgren have excellent chemistry.
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