Resolving Gaming Crashes: A Deep Dive Into Hardware Troubleshooting

Experiencing unexpected crashes during gaming sessions can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you’re eager to immerse yourself in your favorite titles. Recently, I faced this issue with my gaming PC and went through an extensive troubleshooting process to identify the root cause. Here’s a comprehensive look at my journey, along with the eventual resolution.

My System Specifications

To provide context, here are my PC specifications:

• Graphics Card: GIGABYTE GTX 1080
• Processor: Ryzen 5 2600
• RAM: Ripjaws 16 GB
• Power Supply: Cooler Master 625W PSU
• Motherboard: GIGABYTE B450M DS3H
• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit

The Crashing Dilemma

For several days, I experienced persistent crashes while gaming. Interestingly, these crashes occurred around the same points in different games. For instance, in The Witcher 3, the game consistently froze during a specific cutscene featuring Ciri training, and Dark Souls Remastered also crashed during its opening cutscene. Additionally, random crashes occurred during regular gameplay, resulting in a dark screen while the system remained powered on – the sounds and music continued in the background.

Initial Troubleshooting Steps

My first instinct was to suspect the graphics card. To address this, I took several measures:

1. Driver Management: I updated the GTX 1080 drivers, tested older versions, and even performed a complete clean of the card using compressed air.
2. Cable Connections: I ensured that all internal cables were securely connected.
3. Windows Diagnostics: I ran a diagnostic check on Windows 10 to eliminate the possibility of corrupted files.

Despite all efforts, the crashes persisted.

Reevaluating the Situation

It occurred to me that the issue might relate to power supply capabilities. The crashes seemed to happen more frequently at higher resolutions, with The Witcher 3 running at 1440p and Dark Souls at 4k. To see if lower settings helped, I switched both games to 1080p, and initially, it appeared the crashes had ceased during cutscenes. However, I quickly found that this was not the full solution.

I decided to conduct a stress test using the Heaven Benchmark with V-Sync disabled to push the graphics card to its limits.