Computer shutdown during very specific load/activity
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
This one is stumping me.
@Mytch PC has been on my bench. I have tested it thoroughly, using Furmark, Burn-in Test, ran memtest, HD checks, and more, and the computer was stable for 20-30 minutes. Finally after opening a browser window during burn-in tests and doing even more things, I got Windows 8 to blue screen with a clean shut-down "Kernal Bad Pool Memory", during which it was able to write a memory dump to the system log and then reboot itself.
He can play some games; for example, Guild Wars 2 runs fine.
He can play WoW just fine EXCEPT for raiding: When he raids with us, and only in specific raid encounters, his computer will shut down.
It's maddening. He has reinstalled WoW, run it clean with no Add-ons, and updated all his drivers. and it still crashes.
I'm kind of at my wit's end. I would normally say "it's just wow" but the fact that I was able to get a blue screen from intense activity tells me that we're hitting some kind of wall on his system under heavy load/specific conditions.
Where do we start?
Comments
Power supply - brand, rating, etc.
How new is the PC? What chipset?
I'd start with the memory dump, but that's certainly not for everyone (I just have a lot of experience with that)
that Bad Pool Memory error means an internal kernel structure has been corrupted or misused, it's hard to say much about it without closer analysis.
It sounds like the RAM is borderline but will pass memtest - possibly it fails only sporadically at higher temperatures. These kinds of issues are the worst :\ To confirm, you could try coaxing a failure out of the ram at elevated temperatures with memtest + a hairdryer, or careful application of a heatgun (don't want to melt the solder) - Or try swapping out the ram set and see if the problem goes away.
Swapping out the ram might be an option but the problem is getting the issue to reproduce is so difficult. I benched the thing for almost 30 minutes and tried all kinds of stuff to get it to crash. I guess I could loan him some ram and have him raid with us on sunday or monday night and see what happens.
I forget brand. I believe Corsair and 700w? I don't remember specifically but I remember thinking it was totally adequate. This wasn't a home-built system. It was a Cyber Power from Best Buy. Four years old. Intel Z87 chipset. MSI motherboard: https://us.msi.com/product/motherboard/Z87-G41-PC-Mate.html#hero-overview
I'll second the RAM theory. What make is the RAM and what configuration is he using? Dual channel? How many sticks?
If I remember correctly, 2 sticks.
30 minutes is nothing on P67 and newer to weed out memory problems.
You need to run the Windows based memtest to like 1000% coverage for several hours to see if the memory could actually be the problem. Or just swap it.
The PC isn't just shutting down, you are always getting a BSOD, right?
I would pull a single stick, run memtest and see what happens. Then swap sticks to the same slot and repeat. If those check out, then proceed to move a single stick to the next slot and retest. It sounds like a memory issue to me with the worst case being a bad slot on the board.
@Ryder Nope no BSOD, computer screen just goes black and all sound slowly fades. The lights are still on but keyboard and mouse are unresponsive.
All the fans still run? Like the PC is still on, but you have no video and no sound?
I'm at the hospital with my gramps, but when I get home I'll take a look and give you guys specific makes and models etc.
@ryder I'd like to say the fans are still on but I've never paid attention to it specifically, I've always just gotten mad that it happened in the middle of raid so I'd restart it. But essentially it's like it's in sleep mode.
Hopefully not depending on windows based memtest since it was garbage for me.
http://www.memtest86.com/ all day, every day