Question Random Crashes During Gameplay
Question Random Crashes During Gameplay
I haven’t played other games much lately, but it seems the crashes only occur in Valorant. Although I’ve played in multiplayer lobbies for about 5 to 10 minutes—though results differ—I still experience sudden screen blackouts with the fans on and RGB lighting active. Until I manually restart or wait a long time (sometimes right after the blackout, sometimes after 30 minutes), my PC restarts itself automatically.
I’m unsure what’s causing this problem. I thought my Windows might be corrupted, as I faced input lag issues after about three hours of gaming and tried reinstalling it. Eventually, I replaced the hard drive and had someone install Windows 10 on it. I also moved Valorant to different drives to check if that was the cause. I adjusted drivers for my GPU, CPU, and motherboard, and even changed RAM—it seemed like that could be the issue. I swapped out my RAM temporarily, running only the 8GB stick, but the problem returned after a day. Then I tried using the 8GB stick with one 4GB stick at 2900Mhz on CL-20 for about half a day before it came back. This suggests the issue is likely related to memory.
Currently, I don’t have the funds to buy additional RAM sticks (since in Indonesia used RAM isn’t available below retail price), and I attempted to manually adjust the page file, which caused a BSOD with an error code. This reduced input lag in Valorant, but it’s unclear what exactly triggered the crashes. Despite testing, I haven’t found a definitive solution yet.
My system specs:
- Power Supply: EVGA Bronze 450W
- GPU: GTX 970 Strix
- CPU: R5 3600
- Motherboard: MSI B350-M Pro-VDH
- RAM: TeamGroup Elite+ (2x4GB 2400Mhz CL-16) + TeamGroup Elite+ Red (1x8GB 3200Mhz CL-22)
- Storage: 1 NVME SSD for games, Seagate Barracuda HDD for Windows
- Usage: 6 years in use, no major issues before this one
I’m finding it really frustrating and am starting to lose my mind because I can’t keep grinding ranked.
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
PSU: EVGA Bronze 450W
Your PSU is 6 years old.
RAM: TeamGroup Elite+ (2x4GB 2400Mhz CL-16) + TeamGroup Elite+ Red (1x8GB 3200Mhz CL-22)
Avoid mixing RAM types; stick to one kit for slots A1 and B2. This setup won’t give you the best performance with either of these RAM options. Consider using a DDR4-3200MHz or DDR4-3600MHz dual channel kit for Ryzen 3000 series processors.
Mobo: MSI B350-M Pro-VDH
BIOS version for your motherboard?
yes Ive had this pc for around 6 years and I havent changed the PSU since I got it but i have no feasible way of testing if thats the issue other than underclocking which didnt seem to do anything.
My ram is only running that way cause im on a ridiculous budget where i was willing to let go of some performance and stability for more memory. Also I just kept running it that way considering I never really had any major stability issues and performance difference was negligible at best considering I always hit my target FPS in valorant (382 fps I have it capped at)
I updated the bios just a few days ago with the latest drivers from MSIs page