Switching Off during mid-games

[SpyderTracks]

I asked about the external drives only because there is a host of "disk n has been surprise removed" warnings, indicating that a USB drive was removed before it was ready. You risk data loss doing this. You should either disable write caching on your USB device(s) or use the "safely remove hardware" system tray icon.

I think your son has a hardware problem. The System log runs from 16th July to 13th Nov (but the application log only runs from 11th Nov to 12th Nov - I wonder why?). In all that time (in the System log) there have been only two BSODs, the two you uploaded dumps for. I can see a whole host of critical error 41 messages indicating that Windows restarted without properly shutting down. These will be the "switching off" that your son complains about.

There don't appear to be any common problems that could account for all these error 41 messages, which strongly suggests a hardware failure. This is supported by several WHEA logger messages (WHEA is the Windows Hardware Error Architecture) reporting a hardware failure. Here's the most recent...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WHEA-Logger
Date:          30/10/2022 17:15:30
Event ID:      18
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:
User:          LOCAL SERVICE
Computer:      The-Beast
Description:
A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor APIC ID: 6

The details view of this entry contains further information.

The reason I suspect, why we don't see WHEA messages for every switch off is because the hardware error crashed the PC before WHEA could log the error.

The highlighted error reason of "cache hierarchy error" is a CPU detected error, as shown by the "processor core" as the reported by component. I don't think this is a CPU error however, I think this is a RAM error. Flaky RAM might explain the sudden switch off, but the problem might also be a PSU issue.

I'm no hardware expert so I'm going to flag @SpyderTracks (who is a hardware expert) and ask him whether that 650W PSU is big enough to drive the CPU/GPU hard in a demanding game like FlightSim. If he thinks the PSU is man enough for the job then I think we need to look at RAM.

We could run Memtest86 on your RAM, but I'm going to suggest you don't do that for a couple of reasons. The first is that to run two sets of 4 iterations of the tests would take many hours on your 64GB of RAM and I doubt your son would want to be without it for that long[!]. The second reason is that even Memtest86 cannot definitively prove that your RAM is good, it's just the best testing tool available.

A better, and 100% reliable, way of testing for bad RAM is to remove one of your RAM sticks and run on the remaining 3 for a few days. 48GB should be more than enough RAM, although you might see the odd paging slowdown if the system does page RAM, but I think that unlikely.

If you still see this sudden switching off then put that RAM stick back and remove one of the others.

Keep swapping RAM sticks until you have either tried will all four out at some point and you still get switching off (in which case it's not RAM), or until it's stable with only 3 sticks - and the one that's out is the flaky one.

Sincere apologies, I saw a notice about this yesterday and got totally sidetracked.

The 5700XT and 3800x would normally dictate a minimum PSU of around 600W with recommended of 700W, so it's really on the margins.

https://www.amd.com/system/files/documents/radeon-rx-5700-series-quick-start-guide-en.pdf

There is an outlier case with modern GPUs called Transient Spikes where they can require huge instant demands of around double the GPU TDP, the 5700XT's being around 225W so that would be a spike of around 550W JUST ON THE GPU, not factoring in the rest of the build.

But also, a very important factor is that it is MSFS which is probably the largest system load of any game on the planet and will max out the full system quite happily.

I would say PSU could well be a factor on such a demanding load like MSFS

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks @SpyderTracks, the PSU did concern me.

@StuAug, if the RAM sticks all check out ok then I would think the PSU is the most likely cause of these switch offs.

 

[StuAug]

Hey All,

I have been having an issue again with my PC as it is now turning to a black/blue screen randomly on games then forcing me to turn it off as none of the Windows Graphics Reset commands are working and it just doesn't respond to any inputs until i have restarted it. It happens mostly on MSFS but has happened on other games. It has only started happening recently and i'm not sure what has been causing it. I upgraded the PSU over christmas to a 1000W instead of the 650W in it before as that is what we thought were causing the earlier shut downs but they have since started to happen again. I have also repasted the GPU to see if that changes the temps which is slightly has. I have posted my specs below.

pc:
Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB Crucial M1 M.2 SSD
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
50cm ARGB LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hey All,

I have been having an issue again with my PC as it is now turning to a black/blue screen randomly on games then forcing me to turn it off as none of the Windows Graphics Reset commands are working and it just doesn't respond to any inputs until i have restarted it. It happens mostly on MSFS but has happened on other games. It has only started happening recently and i'm not sure what has been causing it. I upgraded the PSU over christmas to a 1000W instead of the 650W in it before as that is what we thought were causing the earlier shut downs but they have since started to happen again. I have also repasted the GPU to see if that changes the temps which is slightly has. I have posted my specs below.

pc:
Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB Crucial M1 M.2 SSD
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
50cm ARGB LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

You never came back after the previous suggested troubleshooting, what did that reveal? It's going to be very difficult to offer any advice if you don't respond with results.

When you say you repasted the GPU, what exactly do you mean? Did you remove the shroud on the GPU?

 

[StuAug]

You never came back after the previous suggested troubleshooting, what did that reveal? It's going to be very difficult to offer any advice if you don't respond with results.

When you say you repasted the GPU, what exactly do you mean? Did you remove the shroud on the GPU?

sorry, the new psu fixed the random turning off issues and the ram made no difference with the sticks being interchanged.
By repasting I meant taking the heatsink off, removing the old thermal paste and reapplying some new thermal paste. it reduced the temps by around 10° idling and it kept about 80°-90° under load. sorry, I probably should've explained better.

 

[SpyderTracks]

By repasting I meant taking the heatsink off, removing the old thermal paste and reapplying some new thermal paste.

You mean the CPU then? The GPU would never need repasting and doing so would require dismantling the entire card and would void any warranty?

 

[SpyderTracks]

By repasting I meant taking the heatsink off, removing the old thermal paste and reapplying some new thermal paste.

You mean the CPU then? The GPU would never need repasting and doing so would require dismantling the entire card and would void the warranty?

 

[StuAug]

You mean the CPU then? The GPU would never need repasting and doing so would require dismantling the entire card and would void the warranty?

sorry for the late reply, I do mean GPU, I took off the heat shield and repasted it