System shuts down or becomes unresponsive during gameplay.
System shuts down or becomes unresponsive during gameplay.
My Hardware Overview: Asus PRIME B450-PLUS with Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Asus TUF RTX 3060 Ti, Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 2x16GB 3200Mhz. RAM included. An 850w PSU rated 80+ Bronze. About two weeks ago I swapped my CPU from Ryzen 5 1600X to the 5800X3D. After installation, I've faced restarting or freezing issues (system freezes and I must restart via case button). Before this upgrade, I updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest version. I also added a case fan hub because the original board lacked sufficient 4-pin connectors for all new fans, which I paired with the cooler. I performed a clean Windows 10 installation. It's worth mentioning these restarts and freezes consistently occur during gameplay—especially in Cyberpunk 2077, Star Citizen, and Monster Hunter: World. With Cyberpunk, opening the in-game map caused crashes either when loading or while scrolling after a short pause. The first crashes involved the PC shutting down completely, then restarting or freezing once the side panel was removed. Interestingly, many shutdowns happened after closing the game. I've tried several fixes, but the most significant was lowering the CPU voltage by -0.15. This reduced temperatures and resolved crashes in Cyberpunk and Star Citizen. It seems the motherboard's VRMs were overheating or unstable, while the CPU stayed within safe limits at standard voltage (monitored via HWinfo64). Even during stress tests, temps stayed below 80°C for Star Citizen, hovering around 70°C. Benchmarking showed no overheating, though. The issue persists with Monster Hunter: World—restarts only occurred when lowering graphics settings to minimum and then raising them again. So far, every restart or freeze starts with opening Event Viewer and checking logs. The system unexpectedly shut down. After many attempts at troubleshooting, my conclusion is it's either a motherboard or CPU problem. My next step is deciding whether to return the CPU for a refund or replacement, or if I should replace the motherboard.
You can request a refund and attempt to purchase a less powerful or older CPU—this is still preferable to your current one. It might perform better. Alternatively, if you opt for a replacement and receive an identical unit, you’ll have the chance to diagnose the issue. If the new CPU presents the same problems, it likely wasn’t defective.
Because the space wasn’t large, I removed some cables behind the motherboard and repositioned everything, including the RAM, while I was troubleshooting. In truth, I’m not aware of any other crash folders besides the minidump directory. Could you tell me if there are additional logs that record crashes? Since I’ve performed a fresh Windows reinstallation, all drivers should be up to date. One fix I tried was reinstalling my graphics drivers using DDU, and HWinfo has been my primary system monitor so far. If you’re interested, you can check the .cvs logs it produces, though even I couldn’t find anything unusual when shown them by more experienced users.
It's been on my to-do list, especially with New Year and bank holidays approaching. I considered selling my old 1060 6GB drive and using the funds for a new motherboard. Before diving in, I'm seeking more opinions to confirm my thoughts. My focus is mainly on the motherboard because it's the older part, but I'm also cautious about the CPU (60/40 risk).
You might consider using the previous CPU again. If it functions properly without issues, the motherboard isn't faulty. Still, compatibility between the new CPU and the board could be questionable, even if all manuals say otherwise. Problems with the old CPU might stem from an unstable BIOS version. Was the updated BIOS a beta release?