PC automatically restarts during the loading or playing of Arc Raiders?
PC automatically restarts during the loading or playing of Arc Raiders?
Hey Gamers, haven't needed to post for pc help for a while, but this issue has me stumped. This will be a more in depth one since there are many solutions I have tried, and things that may be conflicting and I have no idea which of these is the problem.
Build Specs:
7900 XT Sapphire Pulse
Ryzen 7 5800X
Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 850 W 80+ Gold
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE (I believe it's that model, but you get the gist)
MSI MPG B550 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard
Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHz 16-19-19-36
Lian-Li 011 Razer Case
Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB
WD-B SSD 1TB
Seagate 2TB HDD
(MISMATCH RAM) Crucial Ballistix 16GB 2x8 16-18-18-38
Issue:
I will start up Arc Raiders and essentially the PC black screens and fans ramp up fully, but I can still hear whoever is in my discord call for about 1-2 minutes before all audio cuts out. PC will stay in this mode, of no display and ramped up fans until I hold the power button forcing it to shut down. The longest I've let it do that for was about 2-3 minutes. Weirdly enough, as well, I hear the Windows USB unplugging sound about 5 seconds after the black screen. What I believe this is, is my pc disabling my GPU in Device Manager. Because everytime I get this black screen I have to force shut down via holding the case power button, then I load the pc back up and my Device Manager> Display Adapter> AMD Radeon RX 7900XT is disabled with the little black arrow pointing down, I re-enable it, it shows a exclamation mark yellow caution triangle, AMD's Crash report loads up and tells me there was a driver that couldn't start, and I have to reset my pc for the driver to start working again.
Important to note, I actually was able to fix this issue about a week or two back, but the issue has started up again, and is worse than before. What I did to fix it was remove this mismatch ram kit (noted in the specs) I also removed the "Try It!" memory settings that I enabled to force both ram sticks to run at 16-19-19-38. So now I just have these Corsair ram 2x8 in the PC, and I completely reset the bios via Fail-Safe Defaults in bios settings. Now, where these black screens will happen are completely random. I will split this up into Category 1 (Before extra ram was removed and bios was reset) and Category 2 (After extra ram was removed and bios was reset).
For Category 1 the game black screen sequence happened during/doing these which are divided with semicolons:
sitting in the main menu of Arc Raiders; joining a friends party and being in there for about 10-15 seconds; loading into a match at the intermission screen; playing in a match for about 2-3 minutes; playing in a match for about 5-10 minutes; playing a solo match for about 7 minutes then encountering one of the large AI bosses-- it locked onto me and my pc didn't like that so it black screened.
Assume after every crash I would DDU in safe mode, and reinstall AMD's Driver. Again this is Category 1, I listed the different times it would crash and as you can see there are different variations and instances of when it would crash, but hardware wise I didn't change anything. After every crash all I would do is DDU in safe mode, and reinstall AMD's "supposed" stable driver version of 'Adrenalin 25.9.2'. Since this game may have driver issues with Arc Raiders, at least that's what my research has shown, not sure if AMD or Embark Studios with Arc Raiders confirmed this, but whoever said it said to stay on those drivers for now.
Now for Category 2, after resetting bios settings and removing ram the game was running fine for about a week or two. Now though, just today, I have black screened about 5 times, almost instantly when running the game. I black screened during these moments which are divided with semicolons:
Loading up the game--not even past the initial cutscene which downloads shader cache; again after joining my brother's party it instantly happened; after loading in and staying in the main menu; after i reached the intermission screen of where you're about to deploy into a match; I was able to get in a game solo, I turned off Ray Tracing and some other intensive settings, can't remember, but I was able to play that match fine for 2-3 minutes before quitting to go back and play with my brother. But then, it black screened... again at the intermission screen of joining a match.
Assume after every crash I would DDU in safe mode and reinstall AMD's Driver. After these issues I have since stopped trying to load up the game because it's a hassle everytime I black screen to enable the driver, DDU, clean install, minimal install, driver only install, tried them all for installation preferences.
Troubleshooting:
I know how AMD drivers have been and will be, so all in all I've ddu'ed and reinstalled a different driver revision about 15 times or more, through different iterations and methods, I've tried to make sure the drivers aren't causing this. I even rolled back to a driver before the 25.9.2, as well as using the most recent driver of 25.12.1, still both of them have given me the same issue.
I tried messing with Xbox game bar settings since I own the game through Xbox and I know the game bar can cause issues. I disabled the gamebar, as well as turned off optimizations for windowed games. I tried updating my PC to the newest Windows Update, I also tried to rollback to a previous windows security update in the advanced options start up of Windows, when you hold shift while restarting the PC.
I've heard others are having disabled GPU drivers recently like how I have through Device Manager with AMD cards similar to my series. I also know Windows has been messing with drivers of specific AMD cards for the past year or so, as well as I had a horrible experience with the Xbox app and PC gaming in general so these 3 are huge conflicting burning balls of fire for my PC that I have no idea which specific one is being hurled at me.
Important to Note:
I have played games more intense than Arc Raiders, such as Modded GTA-V, and Cyberpunk 2077 with Ray Tracing at Ultra, I know my PC can get hot, but this doesn't feel like a thermal issue. My GPU maxes out at 65-70 degrees,
if that,
when it's getting fired up in my gaming sessions. I also stress tested my GPU and CPU and Ram with OCCT and also with Mprep, a browser benchmark system, and they ran just fine for 15 minutes or more under each of the different tests.
I also family share the game with my brother who I tried to play all of tonight with, we family share through the Xbox app. We normally never have issues with playing the game together, so it's definitely not a conflict there. But tonight, we just absolutely were unable to play a match together. But we have played the game together through family sharing multiple times when the game used to run correctly.
I did have PBO Limits that I set according to some threads I read online for my PC, I didn't push the limits far though I set them to very minimal changes something like -30 on all cores or something (I had no idea what I was doing) but those limits got wiped away with the BIOS settings reset I did at Category 2 mentioned above.
Miscellaneous:
So you probably think this issue started with Arc Raiders, weirdly enough it didn't. This issue VERY first happened when I had my Switched 2 plugged into a cheap off-brand $20 capture card, that was plugged into my PC. My Switch 2 was docked and I undocked it and the black screen thing happened, as well the driver was disabled in device management. I didn't list this near the top because this only happened once, and never again. But I since returned the Switch 2, so the problem won't even apply anymore. However, this black screen problem now haunts me in only Arc Raiders.
I do see some weird artifacting when browsing YouTube, and it's mainly in the GUI. I use Opera GX but whenever I would go to change the quality of the video, I would see weird graphical glitches in the GUI, even sometimes in the loading bar of the YouTube video. I also see these tiny graphical glitches on the Shorts section of YouTube, happening with Ads in the shorts area specifically. This may be able to be recreated, but I rarely see these graphical glitches after removing the ram and changing the timing/speeds back to default. But I still do see the graphical glitches on the Ads in the Shorts section of YouTube even after the ram/timings reset. Not sure if this could be of any use but I'll mention it, i just blamed it on a poor overclock/undervolt by me.
I've read up somewhere, someone with similar issues saying it could be a PSU issue/that a new PSU fixed the issue. My PSU is about 4-5 years old, I do have a replacement 750W that I got from work but I haven't wanted to test if this would fix it just because I know for my configuration a 750W minimum is stated, but I'm not opposed to it if that's what it seems my issue is.
Thank you for taking the time to read my issue, any help from a person more versed in this space would help a lot and be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
P.S. if I missed anything, or you would like to know more information just reply, I would like to help as much as possible.
I replaced the mismatched RAM module (as indicated in the specifications). Corsair is the sole provider that obtains RAM ICs from various suppliers such as Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix. This explains why their RAM kits include a PCB revision code. However, the installation process for your Vengeance RAM will differ from the Crucial kit, and slight temperature variations can affect the RAM's internal operation. Therefore, we recommend using compatible RAM modules only.
Rams should be inserted into slots A2 and B2, preferably.
MSI MPG B550 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard
What BIOS version are you currently running on your motherboard?
7900 XT Sapphire Pulse
Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 850 W 80+ Gold
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/sa...0-xt.b9967
You should be fine from a power delivery standpoint; however, it would be wise to obtain a more powerful PSU (preferably higher wattage) if you're concerned about potential issues. This unit is rated as Tier-A+ according to the reference list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Bm...=931697732
It also comes with a 10-year warranty.
I have a replacement 750W PSU I received from work.
What is the model and make of your PSU? If it has been in use, what was its power consumption during operation, and how old is the unit?
Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB
WD-B SSD 1TB
Thanks for the update on the ram IC situation. It was mainly because of the strange behavior the system started showing after installation.
The Vengeance kit is now placed in slots A2 and B2.
My current BIOS info looks like this:
BIOS Version/Date: American Megatrends International, LLC. 1.B2, 8/4/2022
I’m considering replacing the PSU but might have to wait for a newer model since I don’t have an immediate alternative.
The power supply I received from work is an MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750W, rated 80+ Gold. My colleagues mentioned it came from an upgrade ticket and they confirmed it worked after testing. They kept it as a test unit because they rarely see PCs around. It seems to be around 1 1/2 to 2 years old, as they didn’t recall much about it. It likely powered a 4060 or 4070 model.
I’m using Windows 11 and turned off Windows 10 about 2-3 years ago. While some users reported problems with SSDs and Windows, I haven’t experienced anything unusual myself. Even though I checked my drives with health apps, I still think updating the firmware is a good idea—whether it’s for both SSDs or just this one.
If you need anything else, feel free to ask. Thanks!
My bios details are: BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends International, LLC. 1.B2, 8/4/2022
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-B550...US/support
It seems the 1.B2 isn't listed on their support page for the motherboard. It's possible your BIOS is a Beta version that was removed because of stability or security issues, or simply because a better option exists. In your current setup, ensure you're using the latest chipset driver for your motherboard, update the BIOS to 7C56v1L1 (Beta version), reset the CMOS, and check if that resolves the problem.
Use the Dashboard app for your WD SSD and Samsung's Magician app for the Samsung drive. One app can't update firmware for all SSDs; if anyone is claiming otherwise, they're mistaken. I was focusing on the Samsung drive.
Are you reinstalling Windows 11 to switch from Windows 10?
lower the ram speed to 3200 might resolve problems, as the motherboard reacted negatively to 3600.
disable gpu acceleration in windows 11.
in display settings, turn off advanced graphics and hardware gpu scheduling.
this setting can lead to crashes in games such as hogwarts legacy.
Ram is faulty, performance remains inconsistent even at advertised 3600 mHz. I followed all steps suggested by @Lutfij, updating every chipset and BIOS. Before adjusting RAM speed, I tried @beyondlogic's advice. However, keeping the speed at 2133 worked smoothly, while lower speeds caused noticeable lag. After two successful games at stock speeds, I rebooted, went to BIOS, and enabled XMP to match advertised rates. The system crashed immediately upon loading a match. Then I fully followed @beyondlogic's suggestion, setting the speed to 3200, but it still crashed right away. This suggests the RAM has always been problematic since I purchased this Vengeance kit from Amazon, which caused graphical issues. I was surprised not realizing this earlier, as it falls outside Amazon’s return policy. I switched back to Crucial RAM sticks from my brother's old build, which performed well with XMP enabled. Thanks for your support—I appreciate you pointing out the BIOS version and helping me identify the issue. Keep it up!