PC keeps crashing

[SrSosio]

Hello everyone.

My PC keeps crashing in DCS over and over again. It's not DCS crashes, it's the full PC crashes and reboots. I believe it's a BSD, but it's so quick I don't even have time to see it, and even though I disabled automatic rebooting, it just stays in a black screen in that case until I forcefully reboot it, so I can't even see the BSD error code.

It only happens when I play DCS, some times more often than others, but give it some time and it will always crash. I have not tested it on SP, only on Grayflag MP.

Since it only happens when I play DCS, and otherwise I can work normally with the PC, I assume it crashes when the system is pushed to the limits, so my main suspects are the PSU and the RAM (maybe a faulty one). I would like to avoid purchasing random new stuff if I can pinpoint the issue first and purchase just what I need. Does anyone know how could I troubleshoot the problem?

Here are some of my PC specs:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X

GPU: EVGA 3090 FTW

RAM: Corsair LPX 32GB x 2

PSU: Nfortec 850W

Thank you

[BIGNEWY]

hey can you attach your dcs log and dxdiag it should give us some clues 

 

also check windows error reporting for clues. 

 

[SrSosio]

I'm running an extended windows memory diagnostic atm, which I believe will take a few hours. As soon as the PC restarts I'll attach the files. I do mot think it's a DCS problem though. There's something wrong with my PC

[The_Nephilim]

1 hour ago, SrSosio said:

I'm running an extended windows memory diagnostic atm, which I believe will take a few hours. As soon as the PC restarts I'll attach the files. I do mot think it's a DCS problem though. There's something wrong with my PC

Well I would highly suggest running a stress test on your PC with OCCT or even Intel Burn Test or similar you could be having a heat issue or some sort of unstability in the PC and a stress test will point that out real quick..

[SrSosio]

it got stuck at 21% so I c ancelled it. Attached the dcs.log and dxdiag. I'll try the stress test that you mentioned, @The_Nephilim, as well as the RAM test from memtest.org, that I believe is better than the one from Windows

DxDiag.txt dcs.log

[SrSosio]

The memtest check didn't throw any error. I run the OCCT test and it crashed the computer just a few seconds after starting it, but how can I now look at what caused it?

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

thanks for the dxdiag and log, 

are you overclocking at all? 

Windows Error Reporting (WER)
Kernel Events
The following kernel-events have been detected:
VIDEO_ENGINE_TIMEOUT_DETECTED,VIDEO_DXGKRNL_LIVEDUMP,BUGCODE_USB3_DRIVER

 

Please also rename your dcs folder in saved games ( keep it as a backup )

restart dcs and login and test to see if it loads ok. 

 

[SrSosio]

I'm not overclocking anything, as far as I know. I may have set the gaming profile in the MSI bios, but I don't think that counts as overclocking.

[BIGNEWY]

try defaults just to be sure. 

Might be worth doing a DDU on the graphics driver and fresh driver instal. 

 

[SrSosio]

Did the DDU and run the OCCT again, and crashed it again. I think it may be my GPU, but I don't know how to validate it. Or maybe the PSU

Maybe I need to replace the thermal pads or something. They were done when I bought it, second hand, a couple of years or so ago

[SrSosio]

If I was to buy a new PSU, what would you recommend me buying? I thought 850W Gold should be enough for my setup, and it has certainly been for quite a while now, but maybe it's not. I'll also try different ports, since it's modular. Maybe some of the ports went bad.

[SrSosio]

I removed a PCI-e USB extender board and run the test again, and this time it didn't crash. The CPU got up to 91ºC but I guess that's the point of a stress test, and it didn't crash, I stopped the test. So maybe this cheap Amazon board was messing with the power consumption of the MOBO. I'll keep it out of the computer for a few days, see if that makes a difference with playing DCS.

[BIGNEWY]

Good to hear you may have found the issue, let us know how it goes. 

[SrSosio]

I spoke too fast. OCCT didn't crash, but when running DCS, it crashed again :_O

[BIGNEWY]

3 minutes ago, SrSosio said:

I spoke too fast. OCCT didn't crash, but when running DCS, it crashed again :_O

attach the new dcs log we can look for clues again

 

[SrSosio]

Attached, thank you.dcs.log

[BIGNEWY]

thanks can you remove all unofficial mods from saved games dcs mods folder. 

then run a slow repair of dcs 

Custom Mods
UH-60L,Hercules ver 6.8.2

Also go to dcs controls and disable hotplug, seeing some device warnings. 

[SrSosio]

Yeah, I got virpil pedals that for some reason don't like some USB ports, not sure what's wrong with them.

To remove mods, I only have to delete those folders, right?

can I re-install them after repair?

[BIGNEWY]

36 minutes ago, SrSosio said:

To remove mods, I only have to delete those folders, right?

can I re-install them after repair?

just remove the mods from the mods folder, test without them, and you can add them back after

[The_Nephilim]

17 hours ago, SrSosio said:

The memtest check didn't throw any error. I run the OCCT test and it crashed the computer just a few seconds after starting it, but how can I now look at what caused it?

which test did you run in OCCT? how long did you run the stress test for?

[The_Nephilim]

15 hours ago, SrSosio said:

I spoke too fast. OCCT didn't crash, but when running DCS, it crashed again :_O

This is the test I was asking how long you ran it for not the 1st test as you said your PC Crashed almost immedietely..

[SrSosio]

I'm running the CPU + RAM at the moment. Didn't run it too long before, because it was pretty obvious. It did shut down the first 5 to 10 seconds of starting it, so when it was at about 1,5 minutes I stopped it. I'm going to leave it a bit more, but it's been 8 minutes already without issues.

The OCCT doesn't seem to have a stress test for the GPU, does it? I suspect is either that or the PSU what's failing.

[SrSosio]

[The_Nephilim]

ok that looks good and yes OCCT has a GPU test it is the 3D adaptive test.  but before you run that what is the make and how many watts is your PSU and which GPU Do you have?

 

Try running the PSU test it will do both CPU and GPU at the same time and if tht Crashes try running just the GPU, and if the GPU test fine by itself you may have a PSU issue.

 

[SrSosio]

The GPU is an EVGA 3090 FTW. 

PSU an Nfortec 850W.

I'll do that and let you know.