Hi everyone,
I'm dealing with frustrating PC crashes that only occur while gaming, and the issue started after I upgraded several components. Here’s what I’m experiencing:
- **Crash Symptoms**: During gaming, the screen suddenly turns green, there's a distorted audio buzz, and then the PC restarts.
- **Frequency**: The crashes are inconsistent—sometimes the PC runs fine for days, and other times it crashes multiple times within an hour.
- **Observations**:
- Crashes are more likely if the PC has been on for a long time. Once the crashing begins, it doesn’t stop until I power down the PC and let it sit off for about an hour.
- The crashes are more frequent when the **AMD Adrenalin software** is installed for my GPU drivers. Installing the drivers manually (without Adrenalin) reduces the crash frequency but doesn't eliminate it entirely.
- The crashes only occur during gaming. When I'm not gaming, the PC is stable, even after being on for extended periods.
**Recent Changes**:
- **Hardware Upgrades**: The problem began after I swapped out several components in my PC. I upgraded to a new GPU, CPU, motherboard, PSU, and RAM. The only components I didn't replace are the storage drives.
- **Temperature Monitoring**: I've ruled out overheating as a cause. I've conducted stress tests on both the CPU and GPU at 100% load for extended periods, and the system remains stable with normal temperatures during these tests. The crashes only happen during gaming, not during stress tests.
- **Drivers and BIOS**: Everything is updated to the latest versions. I’ve also tried using older GPU drivers, but the problem persists.
**Event Viewer Error Details**:
Around the time of each crash, I see the following error in the Event Viewer (System tab):
```
A fatal hardware error has occurred.
Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor APIC ID: 8 [Varies]
Date: [timestamp of crash]
Source: WHEA-Logger
Event ID: 18
```
**System Specs**:
- **GPU**: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
- **CPU**: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
- **Motherboard**: Gigabyte A520M K
- **PSU**: 550W
- **RAM**: 16GB (2x8GB)
- **Storage**: 1TB HDD, 512GB SSD
- **OS**: Windows 10
**Request**:
Has anyone encountered similar issues or have any idea what might be causing these crashes during gaming? Could it be a hardware compatibility issue, or something else I'm missing? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your help!