General Discussions

[mikemklee]

Hello folks,

I've recently upgraded my CPU, and since then been experiencing random reboots. When they happen, the PC immediately shuts down completely, then restarts itself.

First, my PC spec:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• MOBO: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (BIOS updated to latest)
• RAM: 4 x 8GB DDR4
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 590
• Storage: 2 x 240GB SSD and 2 x 1TB HDD
• PSU: MasterWatt 650 Watt Semifanless Modular, 80 Plus Bronze

I've inspected the Event View application provided by Windows, and noticed that whenever this happens, 2 system events are emitted.

One is a Critical event:

• Source: Kernel-Power
• Event ID: 41
• Task Category: (63)
• Description:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first.
This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

And a Error event that follows immediately after:

• Source: WHEA-Logger
• Event ID: 18
• Task Category: None
• Description:

A fatal hardware error has occurred.
 
Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor APIC ID: 0
 
The details view of this entry contains further information.

Some notes

- According to google, the `Kernel-Power` critical event means that for whatever reason the power was abruptly cut off, which makes me wonder if this is a problem with there being not enough power for all the components?

- my previous CPU was a ryzen 2200g, and upgrading that to a 5800x would have caused a bump in my power consumption; however, the estimated power usage (according to pcpartspicker) appears to be still under the 650W provided by my PSU, so not sure if not-enough-juice is really the problem. Also, I ran OCCT's power stress test for 30 mins, and the crash did not happen during the test

- the CPU i got could be defective, but I think it's unlikely given that the reboot seems to be happening not randomly, but rather when there's some non-trivial workload on it

- interestingly, i am able to reproduce the crash by playing Disco Elysium in full-screen mode, with a XBOX controller connected via bluetooth. For some reason the reboot does not happen if I am playing the game in windowed mode, or without a controller lol

- This PC has occasionally had troubles with bluetooth previously, where the driver would go missing all of a sudden, or connections getting dropped abruptly and reconnecting. I wonder if these previous incidents, combined with the fact that the crash seems to be happening whenever I am using a XBOX controller over BT suggests that this could be some issue with my MOBO??

I would like to ask around for any other tips/advices/thoughts on what the cause of this issue might be, and whether I should consider returning the CPU in case it is defective.

[kingfish]

How old is the power supply?

[mikemklee]

@kingfish  Got it in Dec 2019, so it's just past 3 years now!

[mikemklee]

I did a bit more testing; super odd, but the crash doesn't seem to happen (or maybe it does but it's much much rarer), if I don't use my Xbox controller over bluetooth when gaming. 

For example, I had a few games where I was able to reproduce the crash at specific cutscenes when playing with the controller, but I tried playing again with my mouse instead after turning off bluetooth entirely, and the crash didn't occur during the first 30 mins in all of the games (would always crash 5-10mins in before)

What could this indicate?

[mikemklee]

Ok I take back my previous comment, I think this actually could be a power issue.
I used AMD Adrenaline's Frame Rate Target Control setting to cap the FPS to 60, and also disabled vsync from the games I've had crashes happen on.

This seem to have stabilized the system, and I am now able to play these games at least 30 mins without crashing. Even with the Xbox controller.

Could this then be an indication that the system was crashing because the power consumed by my system was greater than what is provided by the PSU?

The crashing games could have FPS that could peak up to 120hz, witch would have required more power; not sure about what happened with the Xbox controller though, would communicating with devices over Bluetooth also draw some more power?

[Zedsdead93]

This is the Adrenalin driver crashing. Extensive research has helped me narrow this down. I have exact same errors. I had to DDU my graphics driver and reinstall, keeping all settings at default to prevent further crashes. Hopefully this gets fixed asap now that AMD announced they will be rolling out a new driver targeting all Radeon 6000 series and older cards again