Hi all, my first post here because I need some real help to solve a very odd issue, something that never happened to me before.
I'll start with my config
SSD Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" Reading 415MB/s Writing 95MB/s Sata3 CT064M4SSD2
RAM DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Low Profile CML8GX3M2A1600C9 1600MHz 8GB (2x4GB) CL9
PSU PC Modular Corsair Entusiast Series TX550M 550W 80plus Bronze
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 ATX
VGA XFX Ati Amd Radeon HD 7870 DoubleD Core 1GHz Memory GDDR5 4.8GHz 2GB DVI HDMI
CPU Intel Core i5-3450 3,1GHz Socket 1155 77W con GPU Ivy Bridge Boxed
Windows 7 64 SP1
All drivers and BIOS up to date.
The system is barely 6months~ old.
Now, to the point.
Everytime I use a 3d application my PC goes into a reboot loop with a very odd behaviour. No BSOD no errors plain shutdown and reboot.
I know it may sound easy but let me explain better.
When
The crash does not happen during the 3d app (be it a game, 3dmark, and so on) but after, or when the memory gets "cleaned" or refreshed.
Few exs: 3dmark. During the bechmark, no problem. As soon as the bechmark is done, pc crash > reboot loop.
Random MMO game. I load the first map, I can play no problem. I change world, crash. I minimize the game, crash.
League of Legends. During the game barely any problem (only when I switch focus and minimize), as soon as the match is finished, crash.
The reboot behaviour
The reboot behaviour is rather unpredictable... The system can either turn back on right after the crash, or it can enter into a reboot loop for up to 1 hour (no joke).
But even more unpredictable is when the next shutdown is going to happen. Sometimes it reboots at the mobo screen, sometimes at the windows logo, sometimes even after at full load 10min into windows. After 15min I can usually consider it "stable", even though as of lately it's getting worse.
The possible causes
VGA: since it happens only during/after 3d applications this was an easy guess. Sadly, it was wrong. Integrated VGA shows the same behaviour, reboot loop when clearing memory from 3d-related stuff.
PSU: one might think of a power failure but this is also not the case. I ran stresstest for whole nights at max cpu/HDD/fans consumption and nothing would happen, whereas even an old game run at min settings will reboot my pc once I close/minimize it.
Heat: PC crash, and the only way to let it revive is turning power off then wait 5-10min? It gotta be heat! Nope... Same as PSU explanation above: everything under stress, cpu 60-70° max load, system 60°, no problems whatsoever. Simple stupid game that barely makes my temp go up 3°? Crash upon closing.
CPU: ran prime95 and few others stability test as well as pure stress test, no issues found.
HDD: no problems.
We're down to 2 possible choices: memory and mother board.
Memtest reported no errors after a 10hours test (I know I should've ran it for 24 hours but I ruled memory out at first), yet, my pc rebooted after a 1 hour test just now as I'm writing this thread, odd. In this case not entering into a loop though.
Motherboard is what I thought at first. I mean the issue lies clearly into the graphic datas being cleaned or refreshed from the memory, which I believe is something done by the motherboard, am I wrong?
I will do more memory tests, that's for sure, but I'd like to know from more experienced ppl if they ever encountered similar behaviour.
In the memory case: why would it happen only with 3d apps? Why no rebooting when memory is being occupied and cleaned from, let's say, google chrome?
In the mobo case: why does it happen? Hoe does a motherboard manage 3d datas?
One thing I've noticed which may very well be a coincidence: 2 times my BIOS has been corrupted by those reboots, mobo has dual bios feature and while fixing the damaged one the PC would exit the reboot loop. I mean, I found it strange that it was stable during a 5min process while rebooting every min otherwise. Perhaps coincidence, perhaps not, at least I was lucky not to get a reboot during said process....
I'm sorry if I wrote too much and my grammar is not the best but this is driving me crazy, not due to the issue itself but not being able to understand what causes it :/
Thanks to anyone who will try to help or even read my wall of text ;p
I'll start with my config
SSD Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" Reading 415MB/s Writing 95MB/s Sata3 CT064M4SSD2
RAM DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Low Profile CML8GX3M2A1600C9 1600MHz 8GB (2x4GB) CL9
PSU PC Modular Corsair Entusiast Series TX550M 550W 80plus Bronze
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 ATX
VGA XFX Ati Amd Radeon HD 7870 DoubleD Core 1GHz Memory GDDR5 4.8GHz 2GB DVI HDMI
CPU Intel Core i5-3450 3,1GHz Socket 1155 77W con GPU Ivy Bridge Boxed
Windows 7 64 SP1
All drivers and BIOS up to date.
The system is barely 6months~ old.
Now, to the point.
Everytime I use a 3d application my PC goes into a reboot loop with a very odd behaviour. No BSOD no errors plain shutdown and reboot.
I know it may sound easy but let me explain better.
When
The crash does not happen during the 3d app (be it a game, 3dmark, and so on) but after, or when the memory gets "cleaned" or refreshed.
Few exs: 3dmark. During the bechmark, no problem. As soon as the bechmark is done, pc crash > reboot loop.
Random MMO game. I load the first map, I can play no problem. I change world, crash. I minimize the game, crash.
League of Legends. During the game barely any problem (only when I switch focus and minimize), as soon as the match is finished, crash.
The reboot behaviour
The reboot behaviour is rather unpredictable... The system can either turn back on right after the crash, or it can enter into a reboot loop for up to 1 hour (no joke).
But even more unpredictable is when the next shutdown is going to happen. Sometimes it reboots at the mobo screen, sometimes at the windows logo, sometimes even after at full load 10min into windows. After 15min I can usually consider it "stable", even though as of lately it's getting worse.
The possible causes
VGA: since it happens only during/after 3d applications this was an easy guess. Sadly, it was wrong. Integrated VGA shows the same behaviour, reboot loop when clearing memory from 3d-related stuff.
PSU: one might think of a power failure but this is also not the case. I ran stresstest for whole nights at max cpu/HDD/fans consumption and nothing would happen, whereas even an old game run at min settings will reboot my pc once I close/minimize it.
Heat: PC crash, and the only way to let it revive is turning power off then wait 5-10min? It gotta be heat! Nope... Same as PSU explanation above: everything under stress, cpu 60-70° max load, system 60°, no problems whatsoever. Simple stupid game that barely makes my temp go up 3°? Crash upon closing.
CPU: ran prime95 and few others stability test as well as pure stress test, no issues found.
HDD: no problems.
We're down to 2 possible choices: memory and mother board.
Memtest reported no errors after a 10hours test (I know I should've ran it for 24 hours but I ruled memory out at first), yet, my pc rebooted after a 1 hour test just now as I'm writing this thread, odd. In this case not entering into a loop though.
Motherboard is what I thought at first. I mean the issue lies clearly into the graphic datas being cleaned or refreshed from the memory, which I believe is something done by the motherboard, am I wrong?
I will do more memory tests, that's for sure, but I'd like to know from more experienced ppl if they ever encountered similar behaviour.
In the memory case: why would it happen only with 3d apps? Why no rebooting when memory is being occupied and cleaned from, let's say, google chrome?
In the mobo case: why does it happen? Hoe does a motherboard manage 3d datas?
One thing I've noticed which may very well be a coincidence: 2 times my BIOS has been corrupted by those reboots, mobo has dual bios feature and while fixing the damaged one the PC would exit the reboot loop. I mean, I found it strange that it was stable during a 5min process while rebooting every min otherwise. Perhaps coincidence, perhaps not, at least I was lucky not to get a reboot during said process....
I'm sorry if I wrote too much and my grammar is not the best but this is driving me crazy, not due to the issue itself but not being able to understand what causes it :/
Thanks to anyone who will try to help or even read my wall of text ;p
