Nosferatu Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 My new PC built in February is now shutting down randomly after working perfectly. Anybody know good methods for identifying the culprit? Wondering whether it’s RAM, mobo, or CPU. Suspect the latter, but after various tests with different apps I’m confused. This was my first build running an overclocked i7-8770, 2x 3200 Corsair Ram, and Z390 Pro WiFi. One of the things I tried was a system diagnostic. Received multiple warnings on memory, cpu, graphics. I have a post over at XPlane forum too with screenshots (link below). Also did memory check and got some fails. Right now I’m lost. The PC works fine in non-taxing situations, but in VR during flight everything eventually freezes. Each time I’ve kept an eye on CPU temps and they seemed fine in 60s. There are no sudden spikes before it happens either. I’m lost. https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/186109-hardware-issues/&tab=comments#comment-1709351 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Hello, we don't really offer hardware support, however, you will see that I have put your topic into the hardware forum in case any of your fellow customers have some useful ideas. Fails in a memory check cannot be good news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosferatu Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 Appreciate that. I realise it’s the wrong place, but no response yet on XPlane forum and stuck for ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dow Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 THe generl advice for your situation would be to go back to stock settings and establish whether it's stable. If not, the likely culprit might be RAM. I doubt CPU, as in my experience a CPU generally works or it doesn't. If it's stable at stock settings then I imagine you're trying to get too much out of the CPU by going to 4.9GHz. However, on my rig, the BIOS then resets to stock settings, so that can be diagnostic. If you're getting RAM errors, try taking out the second stick, run tests and then swap. If there are no errors, maybe it's the motherboard. From the look of it those reports you got are essentially useless. If you post your specs including brand names of components it might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosferatu Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 Hope it is the RAM. I’ll try the swaps over the weekend when I have more time. Would be far easier to fix as still under warranty, unlike the overclocked CPU. Anyway, cheers for taking the time to offer some advice. Appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosferatu Posted July 26, 2019 Author Share Posted July 26, 2019 I removed one RAM and seems to have worked. So far no issues after three flights in fairly demanding scenery. Will switch to the other stick tomorrow hoping to see crashes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Saw your last post at the X-Plane forum and, yes, it's no problem to continue running with just the one stick installed............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dow Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 To truly sus out RAM issues download Memtest64. It will accurately report RAM errors. It's a bit of a pain, it runs from the BIOS so you need to set the computer to boot up with a thumb drive and it can take several minutes to actually load but if you can get it to run there's no better program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnkH Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Random and "strange" shutdowns can also be related to a bad PSU. Had that once, it took me months to finally check the PSU and replacing it, afterwards never had any issue anymore. Then, some years later, I suffered again from random crashes and shutdowns. This time, it was a SATA power connector to the C:\ drive that was not entirely plugged into the PSU (might have gotten loose when I was working inside the computer to replace the GPU). As soon as I double-checked all internal power connectors, the problems never reappeared. Means: if it turns out that the RAM is OK, I would certainly check the PSU... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 I agree with John, Memtest is a necessary test when trouble shooting RAM errors, it runs in isolation from a bootable thumbdrive where number of tests are performed. Its a little fiddly and can take a while to run but will confirm the integrity of your RAM. The OS memory test is not as reliable, I had some Corsair Memory go bad a while ago where the OS Memory test reported no memory errors, Memtest revealed the true state of my RAM, many thousands of errors on one DIMM & a few hundred on the other. Both modules RMA'd for warranty replacement. When you run Memtest it best to test one module at a time from the Single channel slot, don't run the test while Overclocked, run at least 10 passes or a full test on each module individually. (Red means bad) be sure to jot down the total errors on each module, and present these results to your RAM supplier for warranty RMA. It is also a good idea to confirm the integrity of your PSU, does it have enough wattage to supply all the hardware with some safety overhead, Gold 80+ with 200 watts more than your systems total max power burden. Check all hardware and cable connections on your MOBO, reseat where necessary. It is not unheard for a modular PSU to have a PCI /24 / 8 /6 pin cable not properly seated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paj Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 On 7/26/2019 at 7:08 PM, Nosferatu said: So far no issues after three flights in fairly demanding scenery I recommend you shouldn't test the stability of your computer using P3D. It is too slow at revealing issues and doesn't fully test components. You need to download an actual stress test utility. I recommend RealBench. But Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, CineBench and the venerable Prime95 are all much better choices than P3D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosferatu Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 This morning I swapped RAM back to the suspect stick and pretty much immediately a shutdown, then on restart, and 2 minutes into a flight, another. Now swapped back, and running smoothly, so definitely looks like bad RAM is the cause. As for P3D, I’m not using it, as XP11 is my sim of choice these days. Since I’ve experienced shutdowns in XP11 VR flights, it seemed like a logical place to compare performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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