Experiencing PC issues while gaming and under stress? Let's troubleshoot together!
Experiencing PC issues while gaming and under stress? Let's troubleshoot together!
Hello everyone, over the past six months I’ve experienced frequent crashes, random reboots, and BSODs while gaming. At first, I suspected a memory issue after seeing warnings about large memory corruption during debugging. I ran Memtest86 overnight and everything passed. After that, things improved temporarily until my PC began showing repeated BSODs.
I eventually switched to a clean Windows installation and moved to Windows 11, thinking the problem might be in the registry. This resolved the issue for a few weeks, but then crashes started again during gameplay. I tried reinstalling drivers with DDU in safe mode and updating them, but the problem persisted.
Running the Heaven benchmark caused crashes and reboots. I suspected the power supply was faulty since voltage readings were consistently low—like 11.5V instead of the expected 12V. Upgrading the PSU didn’t help much. I also ran a stress test after replacing it with a higher wattage unit, but the PC still crashed.
I considered overclocking my CPU due to low temperatures and high wattage, but BIOS settings kept it at safe limits. After a Turbo Mode adjustment and a new 1000W PSU, the crashes continued. I tried booting into BIOS after a reboot, but the PC would freeze or crash repeatedly.
Other checks revealed error codes in Event Viewer: Kernel-Power Error ID 41, bugcheckcode 278, 0x116, 0x119, and 0xEF. These suggested hardware issues. I also noticed my CMOS battery was likely failing, as the system time didn’t match the actual time during reboots.
Some unusual signs: a revving sound during Heaven benchmark, intermittent white light on the motherboard, and the screen sometimes going black while trying to boot. The PC still boots into Windows, but the setup process is problematic.
I’ve tried updating BIOS, removing overclocks, cleaning up drivers, disabling Fast Startup, and checking system files. Still, I’m unsure what’s causing these issues. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
You may wish to review your CPU temperatures (cooling) and the new paste application.
Good voltage levels are confirmed (12V, 3V, 5V). Temperatures seem acceptable. Thermal pads for memory modules on the GPU might need adjustment—some GPUs don’t report them consistently. Crashes occur mainly when the GPU is under stress, not during normal CPU or memory pressure. It doesn’t happen during typical CPU load or memory issues.
Sorry for the delayed reply—I was busy at work. It looks like the PC shuts down when the GPU gets stressed, and my system also crashed during a CPU stress test using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. I’m not sure if the CPU crash was due to turbo mode overclocking, which can cause instability and restarts. I attempted another CPU test without turbo enabled, but it didn’t fail. The VRAM temperatures are consistently around 80°C. Notably, when running the CPU stress test in Extreme Tuning Utility, the software limits power after about 30 seconds, effectively lowering the core clock. This suggests a potential temperature-related issue rather than a CPU fault, since the GPU stays cool during gaming.
You're only using iCue? I've faced issues with it, causing programs and games to malfunction with incorrect data. At least try disabling it for now and install HWInfo—it tends to be more reliable and won’t trigger strange problems. Run HWInfo again and see if the results improve.
They probably made some updates. It runs very efficiently with only a small CPU impact, and I haven’t seen anything strange. However, third-party tools can sometimes cause problems. hwinfo64 works well overall but has drawbacks like high latency in certain situations and potential instability. That’s why I tend to avoid it and use it sparingly. A few years ago it performed much better. For monitoring, I still favor Afterburner because it generally has fewer issues. Note: hwinfo64 can create very high latency on the GPU and even more so on the PSU—monitoring had to be turned off completely. This effect is clear in games and overall performance. Problems disappear once I stop using hwinfo64, which is also mentioned in their forums.
I also utilized gpu-z, and the CPU temperatures matched across both programs.