In my adventure with my pc in past four years I have another issue which just popped up yesterday and wondering if someone knows about similar issues and steps to take to figure out what is wrong:


So computer, which i did not use for four days during easter break, started normally.

Played Path of Exile and there was something weirdly different. like there was a delay in inputs or maybe im just imagining it.
after 20 min of gaming, back to desktop It then started to act weridly. every 30 seconds or something screen flashed black, few times and there was definitely now lag with mouse inputs and such. also windows (not the system) were crashing (like device manager)

okay restart.

did not want to do anything. the lag became even worse, finally managed to click the restart

and computer restarted, sortof.

leds light up, all fans spin, usb keyboard lights up but nothing. no posting, monitor does not see connection.

so restarted few times pc by holding power button and nothing.

power disconnection didnt work either until i left the computer disconnected for half an hour.

that fixed it and i played xcom 2 without issues.



and today it happened again. same issue and until i left power cord disconnected from my pc for half an hour i couldnt start the pc. fans, led, usb keyboard gets power but nothing else.


any recommendation on what to check first, what might be issue? or how to check what might be causing the problem?


im thinking checking if all cables are connected properly to PSU...

A wide array of issues, in theory. I can't pinpoint for sure, could be faulty RAM or HDD (in case you use one), damaged/loose cables, literally anything hardware related.
Extreme lag and crashes or hangs usually indicate something wrong with the disk itself.
Is the boot sequence running at least, do you get any sound?
Also, can you check Event viewer for errors?

Sounds bad but does not ring any specific bell.

Just start going through them all. MemTest, HDD & SSD self diagnostics (utility from the manufacturer) are easy as they take care of themselves after you have started them.

I think I had a similar problem on an old system long ago....iirc it was either the video card or the psu failing.
(the fact it works after being off for a period of time also seems to indicate that something is overheating, so you might want to use a HW scanning/monitoring program to check the temps of your HW when you have a chance to do so)

Good spotting.

Start computer with lid off and look at all the fans to determine whether they are spinning.


Also, if one comes to the conclusion that a hard drive is broken, it can as well be a cable or the slot on the motherboard.

I only have nvme ssd and sata ssd. i would assume faulty ssd would still post to at least bios.


in event viewer i had
Critical: zero
error: 9
warning: 14
information: 157
audit success 940
in last hour

but all seems to logged after i logged in to windows?

Any error indication for your motherboard? Lights? Beeps?

Yup, count the beeps at start up. If a piece of hardware is faulty, it should give you a beep-code.

I suggested checking Event viewer for clues into what might occur during freezes/lag. If explorer is to crash for instance, or any other window for that matter, you get to see the error in detail, which in turn could give a better understanding of the situation.
Try checking the RAM with MemTest, as Themken suggested. At least you can discard one possibility.
Also, check your drives for bad sectors. SSDs can fail as well, surprisingly so. Have a look with CrystalDiskMark and speccy.
As mentioned above, overheating can also be a cause.
You need to narrow the theories, step by step.

Unsure. i will pay attention. i did not see any lights being there when they were not before.

thx all for help.

just run temp tests:
prime 95 - max temp 89, hover around 86c, idle 40. run around 15min
Furmark - max 78c but fans at 70 percent. did not want to ramp up more after 10 min. gpu power at 97 percent

will do memtest tomorrow (did it ages ago and was fine)

samsung magician says all drives are good btw. but will check for bad sectors. I would assume that it would allow me to go to bios.

btw. keyboard gets power from usb but does not recognize pc being turned on. not sure how relevant that is.it normally flashes all leds when bios screen appears (when you have to press f2 or del to enter it) Dont remember exactly the time when i tried to restart pc yesterday
todays even log shows nothing of note
so if i am reading correctly yesterday logs
at 6:41:35pm
Fault bucket LKD_0x141_Tdr:6_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Pascal, type 0
Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 71e44254-35a2-4c8e-812d-2e29d9cf9744

again at 6:41.57
and before at 6:40:27, 6:38:02

so seems nvidia driver was causing a temporary crash of display...

after that i can see logs of computer being shut down and nothing until an hour later when i managed to start the system

My guess is that it is likely the video card.....as the OP said the monitor doesn't show a display as well at times.

=-=-=-=


Yeah, those temps seem a bit high.

I humbly suggest checking your video card's fan to make sure it's working right(not blocked, spinning right while powered up, etc). You might also try using your onboard/integrated video to see if it works.

If the video card, it could be as simple a fix as cleaning(or replacing) the fan on the card....or you might need to replace the card entirely.

I would say the PSU is the problem and those temperature are a little bit high, how often do you clean your computer? What Power Supply are you using and what are your specs?

Specs

1600 over clocked to 3700. Will drop the clock to standard. Stock cooler
1070 msi. No over clock
16gb 2933mhz corsair ram
Cooler Master 750w vanguard psu
970 nvme and 850 sata ssd both 500gb

Fans spin as normal. No whines.

Fairly clean pc inside. Not spotless but no dust build up.
Have 3 case fans

Built in 2017

That might have partly contributed to your issues.

Afaik people often replace the stock cooler with something better when OCing, as OCing can boost temps quite a bit.
(I replaced the stock cooler on a previous pc as it was running a bit hotter than I liked, and doing so dropped the temps a good deal)

Also you might want to make sure the thermal paste is still good and doesn't need replacing, if you have the means/time to do so.

Well, that explains the high temperatures in the processor, it's pretty good consider is overclooked, but still think is the PSU the problem, sometimes the PSU could drop the power generation, maybe an undervoltage or overvoltage that damaged the capacitors and the PSU is underperforming causing the problems, if somebody can bother you one to test your equipment would be a great help, in the meantime open the psu and check for some damage.