PC Passes Stress Test But Shuts Down In Steam

[GunstarGizmo]

I'm trying to figure out the issue with my system randomly shutting down while gaming on Steam. I've run a 2hr stability test using AIDA64 and the CPU thermals were good. I've run a separate test for the GPU using Unigine Heaven and it was just under 80c after 20mins. What I suspect is that this is a software problem as the issue only arises when gaming on Steam. The game I'm currently having a problem with is Horizon Zero Dawn. The system runs fine during intense battles, but then while doing something simple like running to a location, it just crashes. I've also played the game without Steam and I didn't experience any problems over a 3hr duration. The only other time the system shuts down is when I encode a 4K video with extreme settings. This I suspect is heat related.

I'm going to clear the CMOS as a last resort, but if anyone has any suggestions for a solution, then I'd appreciate them. Honestly, after 20yrs on PC, I'm considering returning to console gaming. The hardware quality on premium products just seems to be dipping each year while price keeps rising. Below are my specs.

MB: Asus Strix Z490-I
CPU: Intel 10900K
RAM: GSkill Trident Z 32GB
GPU: Asus RTX 3060 12GB
PSU: Asus ROG Thor 850W

The PSU was tested with a PSU voltage tester and the currents are fine.

[_I_]

test at sane time?

psu, brand/model/age

[GunstarGizmo]

I built everything exactly 3yrs ago. Yes, I've also tested the GPU with the CPU. PSU added to post. Someone elsewhere said that it's Armoury Crate and another person suggested disabling or removing Nahimic Service as it has caused conflicts with their audio.

[Skkooomer Lord]

You need an RTX 4090 to run Steam.

[Ghost Robertson]

The main thing i see is the mismatch video card and cpu, You have a very fast cpu and a low end video card.

If that's a itx motherboard, Do you have sufficient airflow to keep a stable temp?

[[N]ebsun]

Check event logs to see exactly what happened

[GunstarGizmo]

Originally posted by Ghost Robertson:

The main thing i see is the mismatch video card and cpu, You have a very fast cpu and a low end video card.

If that's a itx motherboard, Do you have sufficient airflow to keep a stable temp?

I didn't want to put a large card inside the case, so I kept it minimal since most of my games are either undemanding or old. The airflow is good with 1x 140mm fan under with 2x 140mm on top and two 140mm on the rear cooler block for exhaust.

[GunstarGizmo]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

Check event logs to see exactly what happened

Event ID 41 - The device did not restart correctly using a clean shutdown first. This event could be caused if the computer stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

[_I_]

the asus software is just, just get all the drivers yourself, never windows update or other software that claims to do it for you

and disable windows hibernate, powercfg -h off
so it does a clean boot every time, not sleep/hibernate and wake

[GunstarGizmo]

Originally posted by _I_:

the asus software is just, just get all the drivers yourself, never windows update or other software that claims to do it for you

and disable windows hibernate, powercfg -h off
so it does a clean boot every time, not sleep/hibernate and wake

Aside from the Realtek drivers, I get all the drivers from the actual vendors. I can't find updated drivers from Realtek. The latest on their website is several years old. I'm thinking it may be audio related.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Unigene Heaven is a DX9 test; even at 4K it's not demanding enough for GPUs like GTX 1080 or later GPUs around that level of performance or higher; which a RTX 3060 clearly is.

Run Prime95 small FFTs looped test + Furmark at the same time; for around 20-30 mins

Overall I've seen this many times before and it can be hard to pin-point; as games can do some odd-ball stuff and just up and crash in ways, or because of various OS settings that I never seen most benchmarks do.

Honestly IDK why people are even looking at brands like Gigabyte, ASUS or MSI for a PSU. Why cause they put their name on a PSU, that make you want to buy it? Are we still so lame as a people that we need to have the same branded name on each product within the PC.

Stick to the brands who've been doing this a very long time and output well known rock-solid PSUs. BeQuiet, Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, FSP-Group. Those are really the ONLY ATX Power Supply brands to look at; period.

If you want to rule out the Motherboard audio as a culprit, go into the BIOS and disable it. Then go back into Windows and make your NVIDIA HDMI/DP audio the default; even if you don't have anything to output audio to for that source. Games and such will still drive the audio through that via your GPU.

You say you built it 3 years ago?
Then let's try a clean OS install on a clean drive.

I'm not even going to touch the voltage tester comment.

[DonMcK]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Unigene Heaven is a DX9 test

Heaven is a DX11 test.

[GunstarGizmo]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Unigene Heaven is a DX9 test; even at 4K it's not demanding enough for GPUs like GTX 1080 or later GPUs around that level of performance or higher; which a RTX 3060 clearly is.

Run Prime95 small FFTs looped test + Furmark at the same time; for around 20-30 mins

Overall I've seen this many times before and it can be hard to pin-point; as games can do some odd-ball stuff and just up and crash in ways, or because of various OS settings that I never seen most benchmarks do.

Honestly IDK why people are even looking at brands like Gigabyte, ASUS or MSI for a PSU. Why cause they put their name on a PSU, that make you want to buy it? Are we still so lame as a people that we need to have the same branded name on each product within the PC.

Stick to the brands who've been doing this a very long time and output well known rock-solid PSUs. BeQuiet, Corsair, EVGA, Seasonic, FSP-Group. Those are really the ONLY ATX Power Supply brands to look at; period.

If you want to rule out the Motherboard audio as a culprit, go into the BIOS and disable it. Then go back into Windows and make your NVIDIA HDMI/DP audio the default; even if you don't have anything to output audio to for that source. Games and such will still drive the audio through that via your GPU.

You say you built it 3 years ago?
Then let's try a clean OS install on a clean drive.

I'm not even going to touch the voltage tester comment.

My preferred brand of PSU is Enermax since they were exclusive to manufacturing power supplies, but I couldn't find any in my area and I prefer not to order PC components online. I think a product diverse company like Asus would have a better grasp at manufacturing a good PSU over a company that used to only make memory sticks.

The OS installation itself isn't 3yrs old. More like 4 months. I've done a CMOS reset and I'm going to try a few more stress tests even though the game doesn't push my system beyond what I've already tested.

Another thing is that these shutdowns often happens while repeating the same actions in the game. For example: I would get on a mount and ride towards a region and at a certain point it would shutdown.

[GunstarGizmo]

System passed Prime95 and Furmark tests.

I've left all the BIOS settings at default except for the fan settings. For the record, I don't overclock. The default performance provides more than enough for the games I play.

Going to play the game.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by DonMcK:

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Unigene Heaven is a DX9 test

Heaven is a DX11 test.

OK but it's not stressful enough.
It wasn't even stressful for an old Laptop with GTX 860M

At least use Unigine Superposition or latest version of 3DMark and PassMark

But also various loop tests from Prime95 while at the same time running Furmark or one of the stressful tests available via MSI Kombuster also works well.

[GunstarGizmo]

I played the game for 2hrs without issue. When I first played the game on Steam, I made it almost half way through before the system crashed and then from there it gradually increased in frequency. A drive image restore with an old save that automatically overwrote the cloud save is why I had to restart the game. Hopefully this was just a CMOS problem as it was with most of the problems I've had with this board in the past.