Games crash, browser tabs crash, but no BSoDs or errors.

[MewingApollo]

So, I've been experiencing a bit of a confusing issue lately. I'm suspecting it's either RAM or GPU related. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been having browser tabs randomly crash on me in Firefox, had Twitch streams stop playing, saying "There was a problem decoding the video stream", had Discord lock up and/or outright crash on me, and also had games crashing on me. Seemingly no rhyme or reason, sometimes I go a full day with no issues, sometimes I try 10 times to get a game launched and it crashes every time until I give up. A friend of mine said this sounds like an out of memory issue, but I've got 32GB of RAM in my system. Surely that's not the case, right?

I'm leaning more towards GPU, because I'd say anywhere from a third to half of the times this happens, my screen will also "bug out", as in the windows I have open going half blank, or both of my screens going blank altogether for a few seconds. But I never get a notification about the driver crashing. I'm using a GTX 1660 Super, for reference. No blue screens, nothing of interest in event viewer. The only game that gives any sort of meaningful error message is Minecraft, and that usually says "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION", or "ERROR_STACK_OVERFLOW". How would I go about testing my GPU and RAM to see if they're "faulty"?

 

[Janus67]

Could still be memory, doesn't matter how much you have if there's an issue with it.

Try running memtest86 on your system (will need to make a bootable USB key)

 

[freeagent]

Sounds like bad mem settings to me, or just an general incompatibility.

 

[Kenrou]

Try disabling hardware/graphics acceleration in your browser and doing your normal 24/7 for a few hours beforehand, might just be your run-of-the-mill browser problem.

 

[shadowdr]

I would try removing and resetting the GPU cleaning up the contacts when you do. I had a very similar issue a while back where a portion or all my screen would just bug out. Even with the retention clip engaged it was heavy enough to wiggle out just a little over time. It also sounds like your browser needs some updates.

 

[JLK03F150]

Have you checked inside to PC to make sure it is free of dust and all the fans run as expected? Have you run software to verify component temperatures under load to make sure nothing is overheating?

 

[MewingApollo]

@Janus67 I will try that!

@shadowdr Very good point. Isopropyl alcohol works good for that, right?

@JLK03F150 I haven't kept an eye on anything with monitoring software, but I'll definitely do that tonight and tomorrow, to see if I notice anything out of the ordinary.

 

[shadowdr]

@Janus67 I will try that!

@shadowdr Very good point. Isopropyl alcohol works good for that, right?

@JLK03F150 I haven't kept an eye on anything with monitoring software, but I'll definitely do that tonight and tomorrow, to see if I notice anything out of the ordinary.

Another thought is that you might have an error or corrupted system file that needs fixing. Run sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt it will tell you if you had any and if it was able to fix it. The errors are very random and seems to happen after an Windows update or a program installation. Just in case it can't hurt.

 

[MewingApollo]

Haven't had much time to do any deep testing yet, it doesn't really have any issues as long as I'm not playing games, so haven't been able to justify taking time out of work to diagnose. What I have done is run my usual Minecraft modpacks, and a few games like God of War and PC Building Simulators 1 and 2 with HWMonitor and MSI Afterburner open. CPU temps are fine, but my GPU is getting HOT. 104c max on the hot spot, 90c whole die. Sprayed it out with a compressed air can, didn't see much gunk come out, and didn't make much of a difference. So, for now, I'm undoing the overclock and just running it stock. Not sure this is the whole issue, but when the GPU gets up to around 90 is when games tend to crash...and my temp limit in Afterburner is set to 90. Forgot that was a thing, honestly.

I would assume it needs a repasting, but since I'm on the cusp of getting my taxes back and replacing this system anyways, I think I'll just limp it along and then make a nice display of it on a shelf. Probably not worth the effort of selling it, and I just can't be bothered to tear it down and redo the paste. When work calms down a bit, I'll run Memtest just to double check it's not a RAM issue.

 

[JLK03F150]

You can use Afterburner to create a custom fan speed curve to see if that helps GPU temps at all.

 

[MewingApollo]

I just leave them on full tilt 24/7 because I don't mind the noise, personally. So that's why I'm thinking it'd probably be the paste.