Random crashes occur when playing PC games, followed by a blackout.
Random crashes occur when playing PC games, followed by a blackout.
Last week I constructed a brand new high-end tower and everything seemed to function properly. During a few gaming sessions there were no problems. One evening the power suddenly failed because of a storm. I didn’t give it much thought, but after it came back on, I could only play for about 15 minutes before the game would crash and display some rendering errors. Clearly, only the games stopped working; the rest of the system stayed operational. At first I suspected a software glitch, so I reinstalled the drivers, then the games, and even after a hard reset of the SSD and a fresh Windows install, the issue remained unchanged. Eventually I replaced the power supply unit with a Corsair RM1000x, but the problem continued. I’m still puzzled—could it be the motherboard, CPU, or RAM? Might my circuit be failing to provide enough power to the PSU? I worry about a possible breaker issue and hope someone with experience can advise me on the next steps. Edited August 22, 2022 by janissary_films typo
It generally took my build around 2-3 weeks to begin behaving erratically because the RAM wasn’t listed on the QVL for the board and processor I used. I experienced a random blank screen during startup every 8-12 cold boots, though it worked normally otherwise. After repeatedly taking it down and partially taking it apart for troubleshooting over four months, I reported it to RMA with a fully functional board. It turned out my RAM wasn’t approved for that specific board. I’m uncertain if this caused the DIMMs to fail during testing. The build was moved to another case with approved RAM, and the problem appears resolved after about five days and several cold starts. While power loss might have contributed, I’d also consider whether component compatibility plays a role. It seems to affect some builds more than others. If it wasn’t an issue before, it’s likely becoming more common now.