Diagnose and fix problems

[RedDragon49]

I'm working several diagnose and fix jobs right now, and I cannot seem to figure out what the problems are. The computers are all giving me the Blue Screen when I run 3D Mark, but I'm a bit hazy on what that means, specifically what parts need replacing. I've tried ripping some of the computers apart, but I still can't find anything that seems to need replacing. Help!!

[JamesJB]

Try replaceing memory one at a time,try moving or replaceing the video card,try replaceing the CPU and maybe the PSU. That's what I would do in real life. hmm not sure but maybe try the hard drives too.

I would say make sure stuff is seated well and plugged in tightly but not sure if the sim looks at that lol.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1402962803

Hopefully this can help you understand the blue screen issues better.

The short summary is: It can be cooling (not enough of it), it can be power supply (too small / not enough power). It can be heatsink (too small, not enough cooling), it can be no thermal paste, etc. Blue screens can be multiple things. That guide explains the most common ones and what causes them. Just because you're getting blue screens in-game in 3dmark does not actually mean any hardware is actually physically broken.

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Try replaceing memory one at a time,try moving or replaceing the video card,try replaceing the CPU and maybe the PSU. That's what I would do in real life. hmm not sure but maybe try the hard drives too.

I would say make sure stuff is seated well and plugged in tightly but not sure if the sim looks at that lol.

Few things to clarify. (also I use caps for emphasis, not shouting)
In game, there are very few instances where a BSOD is induced "naturally" from a job, and where you have to "solve it" as a repair.

When parts are broken, you don't get a BSOD, unless it's a broken CPU fan, which is easy to identify (unless a passive cooling), as the fan don't spin.

A HDD will NEVER give you a BSOD, there are no reasons for it in game's mechanics.

To OP :
The BSOD guide Aquafawks linked is a very good one. That should help you.

What I would love to hear is : Does the BSOD happens naturally from the PC where you HAVEN'T done anything ? or you have performed other tasks ?

What tasks have you performed ? What was asked ? Because depending on that info, we can maybe hep you pinpoint what to look at.

What follows are possible things if you HAVEN'T overclocked anything
- If you were requested to ADD a second GPU, you may indeed need a more powerful PSU (more Watts)
- If you have removed the CPU cooler, don't forget to apply thermal paste, and you need to aply thermal paste EVERYTIME you take out and plug back the CPU cooler.
- Do the PC you work on have a dual GPU, but not the exact same GPU ? If yes, you need to run GPU Tuner and OC the GPU's just by 1%. There is a combo in possible dual config that make the PC BSOD, until you "synchronize" the GPU's speeds.

Now if you OVERCLOCKED something :
- Use OCCT as a monitoring tool to find out why it BSOD, and run it on INFINITE mode, for a good minute.
OCCT will give you infos such as : temperatures / CPU throttling / you can monitor wattage build up to make sure PSU id powerful enough. If it reaches the wattage the PSU max output, that's why it BSOD, and you need a bigger PSU

- Revert back to factory settings, in BIOS and GPU tuner, and try again to overclock step by step. one thing at the time, and test your new OC with OCCT between every steps. When you are OC'ing the GPU, let OCCT run while you do it, so you can monitor heat and wattage use.

finally, you could share a screen of your BSOD, and your job's mails, that too could help us help you.

[steprime]

Once way I've found for diagnosing hardware issues is to take out parts one by one. After I take out a part, I look at my inventory for that specific part, if there is a new part with a post it note with that customer's details then It's clear that part is ok, if there is a new part marked as broken (I sell all broken parts as soon as possible) then you know what part to order and replace. For BSOD, the most common issue I've found is a lack of thermal paste (so far).

[JamesJB]

Originally posted by BonPadre:

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Try replaceing memory one at a time,try moving or replaceing the video card,try replaceing the CPU and maybe the PSU. That's what I would do in real life. hmm not sure but maybe try the hard drives too.

I would say make sure stuff is seated well and plugged in tightly but not sure if the sim looks at that lol.

Few things to clarify. (also I use caps for emphasis, not shouting)
In game, there are very few instances where a BSOD is induced "naturally" from a job, and where you have to "solve it" as a repair.

When parts are broken, you don't get a BSOD, unless it's a broken CPU fan, which is easy to identify (unless a passive cooling), as the fan don't spin.

A HDD will NEVER give you a BSOD, there are no reasons for it in game's mechanics.

To OP :
The BSOD guide Aquafawks linked is a very good one. That should help you.

What I would love to hear is : Does the BSOD happens naturally from the PC where you HAVEN'T done anything ? or you have performed other tasks ?

What tasks have you performed ? What was asked ? Because depending on that info, we can maybe hep you pinpoint what to look at.

What follows are possible things if you HAVEN'T overclocked anything
- If you were requested to ADD a second GPU, you may indeed need a more powerful PSU (more Watts)
- If you have removed the CPU cooler, don't forget to apply thermal paste, and you need to aply thermal paste EVERYTIME you take out and plug back the CPU cooler.
- Do the PC you work on have a dual GPU, but not the exact same GPU ? If yes, you need to run GPU Tuner and OC the GPU's just by 1%. There is a combo in possible dual config that make the PC BSOD, until you "synchronize" the GPU's speeds.

Now if you OVERCLOCKED something :
- Use OCCT as a monitoring tool to find out why it BSOD, and run it on INFINITE mode, for a good minute.
OCCT will give you infos such as : temperatures / CPU throttling / you can monitor wattage build up to make sure PSU id powerful enough. If it reaches the wattage the PSU max output, that's why it BSOD, and you need a bigger PSU

- Revert back to factory settings, in BIOS and GPU tuner, and try again to overclock step by step. one thing at the time, and test your new OC with OCCT between every steps. When you are OC'ing the GPU, let OCCT run while you do it, so you can monitor heat and wattage use.

finally, you could share a screen of your BSOD, and your job's mails, that too could help us help you.

Just wondering but wouldn't some sort of HDD malfunction cause a BSOD? I mean in real life or no? Maybe in the sim too? I'm just asking not being mean please don't take it that way :(

[RedDragon49]

I had to replace my hard drive once, and I never got a blue screen when that happened. My computer just slowed down drastically, and then when I tried booting it into recovery mode, it couldn’t find a hard drive at all.

[RedDragon49]

Now I’ve got a real head scratcher (at least for me). I’ve got a diagnose job where 3D Mark runs flawlessly, but I’m still being told to diagnose the problem. I’ve ripped everything out of the computer, and nothing is broken. What else could be the problem?

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Just wondering but wouldn't some sort of HDD malfunction cause a BSOD? I mean in real life or no? Maybe in the sim too? I'm just asking not being mean please don't take it that way :(

IRL maybe ? not sure. I know I had some sort of BIOS screen from a HDD that was starting to fail and having bad segments (is it called like that in english ?
But in game, it's a plain no.

In game you just either get a "No OS found" message in BIOS if booting storage is broken, and strictly no message if secondary storage device is broken.

And no worries, I don't take your message as a "mean" question. Sorry if I sounded harsh in my answer, I just wanted to claify for OP (and maybe you as well) what the in game mechanichs are, and dismiss any possible confusion of a BSOD from a storage device.

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by ejhaskel:

Now I’ve got a real head scratcher (at least for me). I’ve got a diagnose job where 3D Mark runs flawlessly, but I’m still being told to diagnose the problem. I’ve ripped everything out of the computer, and nothing is broken. What else could be the problem?

Usually a virus scan needed and virus cleaning.

Less likely, but possible too is dust cleaning. Please note that some cases have (or had, maybe it's fixed now) a visual glitch, not displaying dust while it was still a needed task to be performed.

And since we were talking about storage devices previously, make sure you also take out all storage devices to make sure none are broken. Case fans too can be broken, and usually peeps tend to not dismantle them, when they state they stripped out the entire PC.

Now if you removed storage devices and you had 2, make sure to understand what will follow. That's important in case of jobs with virus issues.

In game, when you have a HDD and a SSD the game ALWAYS makes the HDD as the booting device.
But when you assemble (or in your case put back) the parts, the booting device in BIOS is always the one you PHYSICALLY installed first in the case. Yes you do read that right. Not the cable connecting order, but really the part you physically install first.

And when you have viruses in case of a HDD and SSD config, in game the viruses will ALWAYS be on the HDD.
So make sure to set back in the BIOS the HDD as the booting one, before performing the virus scans, as the game does not perform virus scan on the secondary drive.

I know it's weird, I know IRL does not work like that, but that's what the game mechanics are.

Then if you have a M.2 and an other storage device, the M.2 is ALWAYS the booting device.
But if you have a broken MOBO and a virus issue, as you will remove the M.2 to be able to remove the MOBO, then the HDD / SSD will become in BIOS the booting device. So again make sure to set back in BIOS the M.2 as the booting device, and then perform virus scan.
(edited Typos)

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Just wondering but wouldn't some sort of HDD malfunction cause a BSOD? I mean in real life or no? Maybe in the sim too? I'm just asking not being mean please don't take it that way :(

That's sort of difficult to answer. In real life you could have a perfectly functional hard drive (we're speaking of mechanical drives here) that spins up, responds to the system, boots the operating system and everything.. but may have a bad sector (a portion of the physical platter with physical damage on it) that would cause a blue screen if the system tries to read or write from that spot on the physical rotating disc. So in real life yes, hard drives can sometimes cause blue screens. There may not be an indication that the drive is "Bad" or "Dying", but it could still have bad spots.

In-game in PCBS though: No hard drives, SSD's, or M.2 NVME drives do -NOT- cause blue screens in PCBS no matter what.

[JamesJB]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Just wondering but wouldn't some sort of HDD malfunction cause a BSOD? I mean in real life or no? Maybe in the sim too? I'm just asking not being mean please don't take it that way :(

That's sort of difficult to answer. In real life you could have a perfectly functional hard drive (we're speaking of mechanical drives here) that spins up, responds to the system, boots the operating system and everything.. but may have a bad sector (a portion of the physical platter with physical damage on it) that would cause a blue screen if the system tries to read or write from that spot on the physical rotating disc. So in real life yes, hard drives can sometimes cause blue screens. There may not be an indication that the drive is "Bad" or "Dying", but it could still have bad spots.

In-game in PCBS though: No hard drives, SSD's, or M.2 NVME drives do -NOT- cause blue screens in PCBS no matter what.

Yea sorry I meant the mechanical drives sorry.

Lol I learned something today that SSD's and the M.2's won't cause a BSOD so when those types are about to die do they give any sort of indicator? I have a SSD as the boot drive so was wondering about that.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Yea sorry I meant the mechanical drives sorry.

Lol I learned something today that SSD's and the M.2's won't cause a BSOD so when those types are about to die do they give any sort of indicator? I have a SSD as the boot drive so was wondering about that.

If you are referring to real life you can get a free copy of HDTune, select the drive, and read it's S.M.A.R.T. status (Health tab with a +), if an SSD is going to fail it will show yellow warnings in there before failing, usually. Although some people have reported SSD's suddenly dying without warning. I own multiple SSD's myself, even very old first generation Sata-I ones IRL and I have never seen one suddenly die without warning though.

[JamesJB]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Yea sorry I meant the mechanical drives sorry.

Lol I learned something today that SSD's and the M.2's won't cause a BSOD so when those types are about to die do they give any sort of indicator? I have a SSD as the boot drive so was wondering about that.

If you are referring to real life you can get a free copy of HDTune, select the drive, and read it's S.M.A.R.T. status (Health tab with a +), if an SSD is going to fail it will show yellow warnings in there before failing, usually. Although some people have reported SSD's suddenly dying without warning. I own multiple SSD's myself, even very old first generation Sata-I ones IRL and I have never seen one suddenly die without warning though.

Yea I meant real life this time sorry,I did get a program with the SSD I got and it does monitor that kind of stuff.

[Jackwyz22]

Originally posted by BonPadre:

Originally posted by JamesJB:

Try replaceing memory one at a time,try moving or replaceing the video card,try replaceing the CPU and maybe the PSU. That's what I would do in real life. hmm not sure but maybe try the hard drives too.

I would say make sure stuff is seated well and plugged in tightly but not sure if the sim looks at that lol.

Few things to clarify. (also I use caps for emphasis, not shouting)
In game, there are very few instances where a BSOD is induced "naturally" from a job, and where you have to "solve it" as a repair.

When parts are broken, you don't get a BSOD, unless it's a broken CPU fan, which is easy to identify (unless a passive cooling), as the fan don't spin.

A HDD will NEVER give you a BSOD, there are no reasons for it in game's mechanics.

To OP :
The BSOD guide Aquafawks linked is a very good one. That should help you.

What I would love to hear is : Does the BSOD happens naturally from the PC where you HAVEN'T done anything ? or you have performed other tasks ?

What tasks have you performed ? What was asked ? Because depending on that info, we can maybe hep you pinpoint what to look at.

What follows are possible things if you HAVEN'T overclocked anything
- If you were requested to ADD a second GPU, you may indeed need a more powerful PSU (more Watts)
- If you have removed the CPU cooler, don't forget to apply thermal paste, and you need to aply thermal paste EVERYTIME you take out and plug back the CPU cooler.
- Do the PC you work on have a dual GPU, but not the exact same GPU ? If yes, you need to run GPU Tuner and OC the GPU's just by 1%. There is a combo in possible dual config that make the PC BSOD, until you "synchronize" the GPU's speeds.

Now if you OVERCLOCKED something :
- Use OCCT as a monitoring tool to find out why it BSOD, and run it on INFINITE mode, for a good minute.
OCCT will give you infos such as : temperatures / CPU throttling / you can monitor wattage build up to make sure PSU id powerful enough. If it reaches the wattage the PSU max output, that's why it BSOD, and you need a bigger PSU

- Revert back to factory settings, in BIOS and GPU tuner, and try again to overclock step by step. one thing at the time, and test your new OC with OCCT between every steps. When you are OC'ing the GPU, let OCCT run while you do it, so you can monitor heat and wattage use.

finally, you could share a screen of your BSOD, and your job's mails, that too could help us help you.

I'm a little late to the party here but I would like to thank you! A diagnose and repair job came in with 2 different/mismatched card models of the same GPU (RX570) and the BSOD indicated a video driver crash. In the real world this would not be a problem as the GPU chip itself are both RX570s. Since the parts are locked to the customer I'll have to wait until I hit level 13 (level 9 rn) for the GPU tuner to be available :(

I also got the same model as one of them on PC bay to stay below budget to see if that can work. If not I hope that customer can wait for a month lol