My gaming computer is only 18 months old and I've had no issues till about a month ago when I started having little mini lockups which got more and more frequent. Then early last week my computer just started to completely lock up while off line racing, requiring a reboot via the power switch in the back of the case. After the reboot it worked perfectly as long as I didn't race. Then by last Thursday it would lock up even sending an email. I was able to reinstall window 10 without loosing any of my data. Worked great for one day, and the next day I couldn't boot up without major issues. Right now it's running fine as I have the side panel off for extra air circulation. I clean it every few months with compressed air so there's not a build up of dust. I checked, and all the plugs are seated correctly as is the graphics Card and RAM. I'm 72 years old and not a computer wiz by any means. I'm thinking that my Graphics Card is dying. I'm on a limited retired person's budget, so I can't just go out and replace everything or even buy a new computer. And suggestions and ideas are more then welcome. Most likely I'll be selling my new Thrustmaster ST-PC and Fanatec CL Elite Pedals as it seems that my system just can't handle auto simming. Thanks, Joel PowerSpec G223 Gaming Desktop PC Intel Core i5+ 8400 Processor 2.80GHz; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5; 16GB DDR4-2666 RAM; 16GB Intel Optane
My thought was cooling of the processor, do you have a Cooler Master or similar type of CPU cooler? Are all fans working properly? I'm no computer wiz either but I would think heat first as most of the PC parts are usually go - no go when it comes to failure. Also some manufacturers have a diagnostic tool that can be run to test hardware. I did a quick look at the specs and another thing to look at may be disk space on the SSD as it may need to have programs moved to the main drive to free it up a bit. One thing I would suggest is use the SSD for gaming programs and the main drive for everything else. I hope this helps and stay well.
Thank you for your reply, it's greatly appreciated. The CPU fan is the stock one that came with the computer. I checked all the fans: CPU, single Graphic Card Fan, and the 3 case fans. All are working just fine. The SSD has 237GB of useable space of which has 139 GB of free space. Everything else is on the 1TB HD which has 839 GB of free space. Will check the manufacture's sites to see if they do have any tests I can use. Joel
Your system is good enough for simracing, maybe do a memory check first https://www.windowscentral.com/how-check-your-pc-memory-problems-windows-10
I would start by looking at the Windows System Event log and look for any errors accompanied by a Stop Sign. I have seen entries for power problems with graphics cards, but it sounds like your system is suffering total and complete lock up. When that happens, the system is no longer handling interrupts. It can be very hard to isolate. The fact that the symptoms got significantly worse to the point where it locks even with the light load of sending an email, would tend to take suspicion away from the video card, as that does not put a load on the GPU. It could be the power supply, but I gather from your description the power remains on, but the processing stops. But if the 5V is unstable, all manner of troubles can result. As Peter mentioned, it could be memory as well. It could be a host of things. Hopefully we can find some way to isolate what is failing. You should be racing not debugging
Thanks to all that have responded. I've been basically off line with my computer issues. And as a old timer this quickly over whelmed me. I did the RAM test and both sticks are fine. I have a local IT guy who has a part time computer business and he checked out my system. The only things he did find was the 650 watt power supply was starting to show signs of failure but not to the point of needing to be replaced asap. Which is a good thing as trying to find a Corsair 650 modular power supply these days isn't easy. The other was some Trojans that got past Maywarebytes Professsioal and Bitdefender. After removing them, he ran my computer for several hours and it never froze, so I had high hopes that all is well. The next day I followed my morning routine of coffee and online news via You Tube, and had one freeze. Then nothing for a hour or so, then when I went to reply to a dozen emails, I had a few mini lock ups then a major freeze. Each time I had to turn the power off as nothing else worked. After a phone call to him we agreed to replace the power supply but he only had a Corsair 550 watt unit and I really didn't want to step down. We also talked about disconnecting everything not needed for basic computer running so I disconnected my printer, changed from wireless mouse/keyboard to my old wired ones, and disconnected the speakers. The freezes just got worse. I was going to meet him at 1pm to replace the power supply as a last resort. Again I fired up my computer and was able to get through several emails and responses before the 1st freeze. At that point, I basically just threw in the towel. I disconnected the Cat 5 cable to the Router, and for some reason decided to see if that cable would make a difference. And boy did it ever. I was now on my wireless connection that I've never used since the Router and modem are right behind my monitor, so I've always been hard wired.That was at 12:30 pm today, and since then my computer has been running like the day I got it. Not a single freeze up. No nothing. Everything works perfectly. The sound while watching videos is now perfect again. Best we can figure is that either the very old cable is worn out, the motherboard connection went bad, or the connection in the Router is bad. So I'm now on a 3 day test. Today just run it as I always do, but no off line racing. Tomorrow more of the same with a heavy dose of You Tube, and by the afternoon if all is still well, hook up the new cable and see what happens as there is a slight lag that I've noticed. Then on Thursday run a few off line races ( I only run off line these days as I'm just not fast enough to run in multiplayer at 72 years old). Since I've gone for hours without any issues, I'm pretty confident that I found the issue, which was pure luck. Again thanks, Joel
Ragnar, Thank you for you detailed post, I was thrilled that you took the time to help me out. I do have one question as my brother insists that it's my sim racing that's putting an excess load on my computer components, causing these issues and eventually components failing. I keep on telling him it's heat that does the damage. My computer has 3 case fans, plenty of ventilation, and both the cpu, graphic card, and the power supply have their own decent fans. I've used the G Sync walk around and run at 144 refresh rate, as well as 100-120 fps rather then the standard 60 for both. Or is he right and that my love or sim racing is killing my computer as I'm constantly pushing it to the max? I've googled that several times but never have found a definitive answer. Joel
Hi the short answer is you are correct the Sim itself will not cause your PC to fail any earlier than any other high demand game, that said heat is the biggest issues just because you have x number of fans does not mean a lot, some very well known cases just do not flow air and create dead zones where heat is not dissipated fast enough, for piece of mind run some monitoring software,if there's a issue then that can be addressed without any real fuss, the chances are you will not find a issue, do monitor over at least a hour so it settles
Ragnar, Again, thanks so much for helping me out. Unfortunately, today I've had two freezes, so there is still an issue. At this point all I can think of is that the power supply is starting to go. Why it freezes while emailing makes no sense. other then that I'm at a complete loss. Joel
Process of elimination, it could be heat, it could be a software\hardware conflict or simply failed hardware. Try disabling the anti virus, ms office and anything else you have running at start up, ctrl alt del and open task manager, 4th tab along right click on anything in that list and select disable. You may have to disable the AV in the software itself, as in an option to disable start on boot. Restart the computer and see how you go. Go into bios and check your cpu and ram are set to auto, while there disable your onboard sound, btooth and your wireless internet or ethernet one or the other not both You can always switch them around. Disable Intel optane, how to https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/articles/000024626/memory-and-storage.html Try a different power plug to the gpu, same with the drives, switch the cables around My gut says heat, maybe thermal paste needs replacing or a worn fan, spinning, just not fast enough to move significant air. Are you racing in RR, this is single core and is possibly pushing your cpu to its thermal limit especially if the fan or paste are the issue, either a fan replacement or thermal paste try something like open hardware monitor https://openhardwaremonitor.org/ to monitor your temps and voltages while doing what you do. Download the latest drivers for everything you have installed direct from the manufacturers websites, nvidia, intel, msi and anything else you may have. Go to msi and look for a bios update and do it You have three sata devices attached and have at least 4 sata sockets, switch them around, in fact unplug all but your boot drive and test, here is where to try the different power cables. Elimination, so many permutations and possibilities. Did you reinstall from the factory supplied disc which then installs various other softwares, i.e. Antivirus, ms office and the like? Try a clean install with a fresh copy of win 10 home x64 which you can download for free from microsoft using their media creation tool. If you do a fresh install of windows dont install anything but the drivers you downloaded, let windows get up to date, play your fave game browse a little just do what you do without the superfluous extras, no avirus no msoffice or anything else just a clean install of windows and your needed extras, if all is good then you should be able to download the latest version of whatever software you pc was licensed to use, you have the license already A few suggestions, hope one helps.
If all your coolers are clean and the fans are well spinning, an overheating issue is quite unlikely - that is if you haven't taken off the coolers yourself and reinstalled them, maybe in a suboptimal way... A bad fan should make some unusual noise when the bearing wears out. A dying PSU on the other hand can actually cause severe issues. Modern CPUs and GPUs are very sensitive when it comes to a stable power supply. PSUs do get worse with time. And when the PSU is on the edge, a CPU might become unstable when i.e. voltage varies too much. Actually I've seen quite a few unstable PCs that got cured by a new PSU. A damaged capacitor around the CPU could cause such issues too. This is not always easy to spot. Sometimes a damaged capacitor can easily be recognized because liquid is leaking and it looks bloated, but sometimes it's quite subtle and not always very clear to see. But to be honest I've only seen something like this once in my life. If it turns out to be the PSU, there is really no need to buy the exact same model of PSU, not even the manufacturer needs to be the same. They're all compatible to each other. Cable management may be different, but ultimately it's all the same cables and plugs. But you should buy at least the same power as the old one. If the old one had 650 W, buy at least 650 W, maybe even a bit stronger. And buy a quality brand, not some cheap stuff - the heavier, the better. It really pays off in lifespan. Been there, done that...
I agree that it is not your sim racing causing the issue. While it is true that sim racing may push your PC harder than other tasks, if all the components are healthy, the software will not cause your PC to fail. That said, sim racing does put more of a load on the GPU than most other software. A flaky power supply, as others have so succinctly stated, is the worst, as it will manifest itself in any number of ways depending on how and under what conditions it is failing. It also gives very little indication that it is not performing well. I would tend to start with replacing the power supply with a reputable brand. I've had good luck with Corsair and Seasonic. As @Arthur Spooner said 'It really pays off in lifespan', and power supplies are one area that OEMs tend to cheap out on; not unlike car manufacturers only installing a 2 year battery on your new high end sedan. It is also prudent to confirm you are on the latest video driver from your video card manufacturer. These change often and are often updated to keep up with new game introductions. There are a number of other things it could be, but that's where I would start. Keep us posted on your progress. We want to see you on the track.
I've already disabled all the various programs that I've installed earlier so that they don't auto start up. The only ones that I haven't done so were my AV: bitdefender and Malwarebytes Professional, so I completely disabled my AV last night and for the hour I was online I had no issues. This morning I went online at 9am and for the 1st time no issues answering emails, I usually get a few freezes then. So far I've been online now 9 1/2 hours with no issues at all. I'm simply amazed. The only thing that I can think of is that there was a few updates of the last few weeks for my AV, and one or both could be the cause. If I have no issues tomorrow, then I want to watch a video on how to update my Bios as I've never done it before. The LAN drivers are also the original ones that came with the computer. The Graphics card has the latest Nvidia drivers. All three case fans sound about the same with no bearing type of noises. I also switched off G Sync thinking that for now less is better. Honestly, a lot of what you both suggested is over my head, but I'm going to try a little at a time. Thanks to both of you for all you help. It's greatly appreciated. Joel
Software, i`ll take that thanks Hope it sticks, easy test is to enable it again and see what happens, lets hope its not a false dawn! Software, it is nearly always software, replacing hardware is an expensive game when your not 100% sure it is at fault, eliminate all possibilities of software being the cause before throwing good money at an unknown fault\issue. And to add, the windows security suite should be more than adequate for your needs unless you are spending too much time on the porn hub or warez sites Malwarebytes, dont have it autostart, maybe run it once a week or on a daily schedule, on, run, off, same with your AV, if your not browsing suspect\dodgy sites then in reality the paranoia is high the risk is relatively low. Whatever, glad your sorted, hope it sticks.
@Joel Willstein These sorts of problems are difficult to solve even for an experienced computer technician! The worst part is sometimes the symptoms can appear to be one thing but symptom is just secondary to another issue I'd go through these steps 1. Eliminate the possibility it's a software/driver issue or a virus by reinstalling windows and nothing else. Then try the computer for a few days, brows the web, watch youtube and see if any lockups occur If a lockup occurs (even just one is not normal) then you can be pretty sure you have a hardware problem 2. Eliminate the possibility of a faulty RAM module as they can definitely cause these issues I can see you have 16GB of DDR Ram Does that mean you have 2x 8GB modules of RAM plugged into your motherboard? If you have two RAM modules than it's easy to test for a faulty module as usually if ram is faulty it's only one of modules of ram that is faulty. We can test this by removing one of the modules and just run your computer with 8GB of ram Just remember to run 1 module of ram that module must be plugged into the DIMMA2 slot on the motherboard So with one module installed try running the computer for a day or two to see if it locks up If it does lock up swap of the modules of ram and run the other for a couple of days to see if it locks up If BOTH lock up that doesn't mean both modules are faulty; it probably means it's something else is faulty as you'd be really unlucky to have two faulty modules. 3. ELIMINATE the possibility of a faulty Video Card Your motherboard has an onboard video card so you could remove your GTX graphics card and plug your monitor into the motherboards video card socket located at the back near where you plug in your ethernet cable You probably won't be able to game with it but you could watch youtube and check your emails etc and if your computer doesn't lock up then you can assume there is a chance your video card is faulty BUT this is where it gets tricky as it's definitely not guaranteed to be a faulty video card because it could be something else (like a faulty motherboard or power supply) that is causing your GTX graphics card to fail. All it means is that your next step should be to beg, borrow or steal another video card for a few days to see if you get lockups with the replacement card....if you don't get lockups then you know for sure it's your video card. If you do get lock ups with a replacement video card then you move onto eliminating the possibility that it's either the Power Supply or MotherBoard but these two components probably need to be replace/tested by a technician.
Matt, Thank you for your detailed reply. I've copied all of the posts for future reference, but I sure hope I don't need it any time soon. The Advice to disable everything but the bare bones including going wireless worked, and I didn't have any freezes for a 10 hour day. I turned on Malwarebyles Professional, and did a full day without any freezes. Today I switched back to a wired connection and still no issues. So I'm assuming that it was my AV as it did have a few updates right before all of this started. Tomorrow I'm going to test R3E for about 1 hour offline (as that's how I race these days), I have G sync turned on as I have a MSI 144hz monitor. I decided that maybe I should turn off the G sync option and go with just 60 hz to start and turn on V sync in the R3E just to go a little easier on my system. But somehow the Nvidia control panel is no longer there. I'm assuming it vanished after the last driver update, as I always stay current. I can't thank everyone enough for all your help. For someone of my age, computers car easily be over whelming. I guess I got lucky and found the issue so soon. Joel
Well, not a single freeze issue since I deleted Bitdefender, and just use Malwarebytes Professional and Window Defender's Fire Wall. I turned back on G Sync in the Nvidia Control panel that just magically showed up, and turned off V sync in R3E but haven't driven a lap since my short test. To be completely honest about it, I'm really leery about firing up the Sim and causing the Power Supply to cause more issues or even damage some of the hardware especially the CPU and or the motherboard. I do miss off line racing, and it's starting to get to me. I'm wondering if I should just take the hour + drive to Micro Center and buy a 650 watt semi modular Corsair power supply for $100 for piece of mind. Are my concerns justified, or am I over reacting? Thanks again to the community for all the help. Joel