Issues with my new desktop (crashes, forced reboots, graphical glitches, possible coil whine)

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BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
I got my new build a couple of weeks ago, very happy with it at first, but now I've had to contact PCS about issues - they're still trying to get to the bottom of it, but I wondered if any of you had an opinion on it. I'll post as much as I can.

So in hindsight the first red flag was 1st of May, had a game crash which has never crashed through hours of playtime on my last PC which is much weaker. It's a sandbox game, so I figured I just overloaded the computer, but no, it definitely wasn't right. The game crashed, but this time, the PC didn't restart.

Another case of hindsight was when I installed the Last of Us (got it free with the build), I let the shaders build, then exited the game and when Steam's UI showed up, the screen was covered in artefacts (? lots of grey squares across the whole screen) for several seconds. For some stupid reason I blamed it on the game, but it happened when I exited Steelrising the other night - this time it was small brown rectangles flickering, again when it went back to Steam's main page. Haven't managed to screenshot it yet, I tried to screenshot the flickering one but I missed it. Haven't noticed any glitches in games yet. Drivers are up to date by the way.

Then when I next got chance to properly game the next weekend, I had two very bad crashes. It was playing the game Steelrising at a mix of high and ultra settings. Can attach a monitoring screenshot to show what kind of power it takes. After the first half hour, the screen froze, got the crash sound (I don't know, that loud buzzing sound that comes with a crash). That went on for a few seconds, then the computer restarted. Tried again, then after another half hour, the exact same thing happened again. Now since then, there's been maybe three hours gameplay with no crashes, but the fact is these crashes did happen...

When I restarted the game after the first crash, that's when I first noticed what I think is coil whine. I did record it for PCS, they said it sounded like the fans. The sound didn't really show up on my cheap tablet microphone. It's a distinct sound from the fans, kicks in when there's more demand and sounds like a high pitched buzzing noise.

I have got a couple of crash logs, daft question, is it safe to post them on here? There's no personal information or anything? I've attached a screenshot of the reliability indicator too. Everytime I start the PC I get a critical notification for ACPowerNotification stopping working, but I don't notice anything going wrong and PCS said it's just software I can get rid of. It's the Hardware errors that they're looking at.

If there's anything else I can do to help let me know.

Edit: I always forget something. Here's the specs:

CaseCORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Promotional ItemGet Last of Us: Part 1 when you buy select AMD Radeon™ RX graphic cards!
down_right_arrow.gif
Promotional Code
Processor (CPU)AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.0GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
MotherboardASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (DDR5, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6950 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY DriveNOT REQUIRED
Power SupplyCORSAIR 1200W HX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor CoolingPCS FrostFlow 100 V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
down_right_arrow.gif
Change to: CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal PasteSTANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound CardONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network CardNOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt OptionsMIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating SystemWindows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System LanguageUnited Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery MediaWindows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office SoftwareFREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-VirusNO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
BrowserFirefox™
Warranty3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
DeliverySTANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build TimeStandard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Welcome BookPCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
 

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BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
CountingDown said:
Dump files don't contain any PII, no.

Not sure which monitoring software is being used...not sure which of the 3 GPU figures corresponds to what but, if either of the 95 or 99 indicates a max temp reached, then I'd be questioning the GPU.

Edit: Okay, so, at a guess: 77 C is the current GPU temp, 95 C is the max reached and the 99 is % used. Even with 99% usage, 95 C is not a temperature any GPU should reach, even in a laptop.
Click to expand...
Sorry, should have explained them. From the software, 77C is the 'GPU temperature', 95C is 'GPU temperature 2'. From what I've read GPU temp 2 means the hotspot (?). The percent is just GPU utilisation I think... The 95C scared me too, but I read up on it, and apparantly for the hotspot it's normal for AMD cards... The heat coming from the top of the PC is insane though, really feels like a fan heater.

Edit: it's MSI afterburner that I used.
 
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BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
Okay, here's the zipped system and application events (system events have been sent to PCS Support - still waiting to hear back from them. They didn't ask for application events). And the system information and driver details too. I double checked for memory dumps, definitely none in the Windows folder.

Hope these help. I know PCS are looking into it, but I don't think having second opinions can hurt.

Edit: right, okay... it didn't attach the files, says they're unsupported. Thought it might let me. It's two .txt files and a .zip file. Any advice?
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
BendyG said:
Okay, here's the zipped system and application events (system events have been sent to PCS Support - still waiting to hear back from them. They didn't ask for application events). And the system information and driver details too. I double checked for memory dumps, definitely none in the Windows folder.

Hope these help. I know PCS are looking into it, but I don't think having second opinions can hurt.

Edit: right, okay... it didn't attach the files, says they're unsupported. Thought it might let me. It's two .txt files and a .zip file. Any advice?
Click to expand...
Just upload to cloud storage and post a link
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
There are no dumps because there were no bugchecks in the System log, so the crashes are not BSODs. There is nothing in the System log to indicate why it's been crashing, all seems fine and then we get a sudden restart.

In the application log there are many repeated errors for AcPowerNotification.exe, which is an Armory Crate tool I think?
Rich (BB code): 
Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          11/05/2023 21:03:14
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          S-1-5-21-263337158-3824088090-2153858583-1001
Computer:      DESKTOP-LGE9AT5
Description:
Faulting application name: AcPowerNotification.exe, version: 1.0.5.37, time stamp: 0x89fd4308
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.22621.1702, time stamp: 0x2c69ee68
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x00148412
Faulting process ID: 0x0x2aa0
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1d98432d9607aaa
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\ArmouryDevice\dll\AcPowerNotification\AcPowerNotification.exe
Faulting module path: C:\windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report ID: 47463d95-c068-45a4-b9e8-122c1774feb3
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Those errors are accompanied by a .NET runtime error, also reporting an AcPowerNotification.exe crash...
Rich (BB code): 
Log Name:      Application
Source:        .NET Runtime
Date:          11/05/2023 21:03:14
Event ID:      1026
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      DESKTOP-LGE9AT5
Description:
Application: AcPowerNotification.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.DllNotFoundException
   at AcPowerNotification.AcLogger.CreateLoggerObject()
   at AcPowerNotification.AcLogger.getInstance()
   at AcPowerNotification.MainWindow..ctor()
   at AcPowerNotification.App.Application_Startup(System.Object, System.Windows.StartupEventArgs)
   at System.Windows.Application.OnStartup(System.Windows.StartupEventArgs)
   at System.Windows.Application.<.ctor>b__1_0(System.Object)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(System.Object, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate)
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeInSecurityContext(System.Object)
   at MS.Internal.CulturePreservingExecutionContext.CallbackWrapper(System.Object)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object)
   at MS.Internal.CulturePreservingExecutionContext.Run(MS.Internal.CulturePreservingExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object)
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr, Boolean ByRef)
   at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr, Boolean ByRef)
   at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(System.Object)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(System.Object, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.LegacyInvokeImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority, System.TimeSpan, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32)
   at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr)
   at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(System.Windows.Interop.MSG ByRef)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherFrame)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrame(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherFrame)
   at System.Windows.Application.RunDispatcher(System.Object)
   at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(System.Windows.Window)
   at System.Windows.Application.Run(System.Windows.Window)
   at AcPowerNotification.App.Main()

That's the only real problem I can see in your logs and it doesn't seem to explain the problems you're having, though uninstalling Armory Crate in its entirety would be a useful test. From what you're experiencing and from the lack of anything concrete in the logs, I think this is most likely to be a hardware problem - and my money would be on the graphics card.
 
B

BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks so much for the help. I'm surprised there's nothing there... I hope it doesn't mean PCS support will say nothing can be done. I'm glad I've got a year warranty for collect and return, at least.

So the AcPowerNotification.exe error happens every single time I boot up the PC without fail, but I never see any problems, nothing observable. Will try uninstalling that and see what happens. I haven't disabled Expo or underclocked it or anything - I wonder if there's much point, would RAM problems definitely show up on logs.

PCS have so far suggested it's probably the PSU and offered to send a replacement (which I said I was a bit too uncomfortable with changing myself). That was before they've seen the logs. But from what you can tell, it's probably the GPU, but could be the PSU too? It would make sense with the graphical glitches I've been getting. And the coil whine. PCS suggested turning the fans up to full speed on AMD software and seeing if it was the fan - they thought it was. Well, it's not, could only hear the fans even when on 100% speed. As soon as there's demand to the GPU, the coil whine starts. PCS said that would be a big problem, but seems quite common from what I've read, so I don't know...

I should hear from PCS tomorrow, hope there's a solution... I did try gaming with the fans at full speed, and I managed to get the hottest spot of the graphics card to 85C, down from 95, which is something. Still coil whine though.

Thanks again for the help!
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
PCS are the experts so I would defer to them every time.

I didn't see anything in your logs to indicate why it might be crashing, nor is it blue screening, so it's not something that Windows has even seen. That means that it's a sudden and unexpected hardware problem. A RAM issue would almost certainly have caused BSODs and/or other failures that would show up in the logs. A PSU issue sounds entirely possible, I was going for the GPU based only on what you said in you first post.

I think the AcPowerNotification.exe error is probably a Red Herring, it's likely just a glitch in Armory Crate, but I would uninstall it in any case.
 
B

BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
ubuysa said:
PCS are the experts so I would defer to them every time.

I didn't see anything in your logs to indicate why it might be crashing, nor is it blue screening, so it's not something that Windows has even seen. That means that it's a sudden and unexpected hardware problem. A RAM issue would almost certainly have caused BSODs and/or other failures that would show up in the logs. A PSU issue sounds entirely possible, I was going for the GPU based only on what you said in you first post.

I think the AcPowerNotification.exe error is probably a Red Herring, it's likely just a glitch in Armory Crate, but I would uninstall it in any case.
Click to expand...

Well after seeing the logs, a different advisor got back to me and said they're concerned about my system and its hardware. So they said they're worried the graphics card has driver or hardware issues and that this message:

The description for Event ID 4127 from source Display cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.


If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

That usually means the system can't find or recognise the graphics solution. I've got instructions to use DDU to completely refresh the drivers to see if that works.

Problem is, I won't really know it's worked for potentially a few weeks, since I can only really game at weekends most of the time. And I'm definitely worried about putting heavy loads on the graphics card when that's probably where the fault is... But there's no other way, I'll have to put demand on it to know if it's been fixed.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
BendyG said:
Well after seeing the logs, a different advisor got back to me and said they're concerned about my system and its hardware. So they said they're worried the graphics card has driver or hardware issues and that this message:

The description for Event ID 4127 from source Display cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.


If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

That usually means the system can't find or recognise the graphics solution. I've got instructions to use DDU to completely refresh the drivers to see if that works.

Problem is, I won't really know it's worked for potentially a few weeks, since I can only really game at weekends most of the time. And I'm definitely worried about putting heavy loads on the graphics card when that's probably where the fault is... But there's no other way, I'll have to put demand on it to know if it's been fixed.
Click to expand...
No need to game, just run furmark for 10 minutes

FurMark Homepage

FurMark - GPU stress test and graphics card benchmark
geeks3d.com geeks3d.com

That will uncover any GPU issues
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Hmm....those messages are warnings and not errors...
Rich (BB code): 
Log Name:      System
Source:        Display
Date:          01/05/2023 01:32:57
Event ID:      4127
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      DESKTOP-LGE9AT5
Description:
The description for Event ID 4127 from source Display cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:


The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table
The bit I've highlighted is why this message was written to the log, IMO that's more of an administrative issue than an outright display failure. In any case, there are only four of these in your entire log. I don't know where "that usually means the system can't find or recognise the graphics solution" came from (or even what that's supposed to mean?), but what it really means is that there is no description available for this message.

I really don't believe that this is a driver error, Windows would have caught it if it was and you'd get a BSOD, but refreshing the graphics driver won't hurt. I'm still thinking it's the graphics card, and runnimng Furmark is the best next step. My bet is that phase 2 will be to send you a replacement card.....
 
B

BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
ubuysa said:
Hmm....those messages are warnings and not errors...
Rich (BB code): 
Log Name:      System
Source:        Display
Date:          01/05/2023 01:32:57
Event ID:      4127
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      DESKTOP-LGE9AT5
Description:
The description for Event ID 4127 from source Display cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:


The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table
The bit I've highlighted is why this message was written to the log, IMO that's more of an administrative issue than an outright display failure. In any case, there are only four of these in your entire log. I don't know where "that usually means the system can't find or recognise the graphics solution" came from (or even what that's supposed to mean?), but what it really means is that there is no description available for this message.

I really don't believe that this is a driver error, Windows would have caught it if it was and you'd get a BSOD, but refreshing the graphics driver won't hurt. I'm still thinking it's the graphics card, and runnimng Furmark is the best next step. My bet is that phase 2 will be to send you a replacement card.....
Click to expand...
I see what you mean. I just copied and pasted from the e-mail, I didn't quite understand it either. Figured they meant windows can't find the graphics card? Not sure.

Was going to run DDU tonight, but I'll get some clarification from them first. They didn't mention safe mode or disabling windows updates, other instructions I've found do, so I'll get more clarity. I know safe mode's the best bet, but there's no harm holding off a day.

Sorry I'm a day out, couldn't do much yesterday, in-law visited so the little one had to sleep in the main bedroom. Don't think reinstalling drivers and running Furmark would have gone down well.

Can hear bad coil whine when it's just idle. And (I don't know the technical word), if you know what crackly sound when you connect a monitor to the power supply? I can hear a bit of that every few seconds from the case. That can't be normal..?
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Safe Mode will load only the Windows basic display driver, which won't support your full resolution, but if it crashes in Safe Mode then it's almost certainly a hardware issue.

Note that other devices might not work properly in Safe Mode, because only Windows drivers are loaded (usually).
 
B

BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
Just to give a bit of an update, I've had time today to do things. Ran DDU, made sure to install the newest AMD driver before Windows Update did anything. That went well. Today I ran Furmark for around 15 minutes, no problems there, and played around half an hour of a demanding game (Dead Space - thank you, free trial!), with again no problems. This is with my fans set above the default. They shipped at around 70% max speed, that's when I got junction (hotspot?) temperatures of 95C, now it's 84-85C. Honestly, it's a bit noisey for my liking, but it could be helping the stability, and it means my computer doesn't feel like a convector heater in the room.

But I'm having trouble getting rid of that ACPowerNotification error. Tried uninstalling Armoury Crate, that didn't do anything. It's in the Armoury Device folder, which is all still there. Can't find a way of getting rid of it...

And, this might be normal, but the GPU's default core clock speed is 2629MHz, and everything I've found online seems to give the specs as lower than that. It's an ASRock Phantom Gaming 6950XT model. Probably a daft question, but does that mean it's factory overclocked? Am tempted to try lowering it if so, if it being overclocked might have caused problems? Not sure.

Overall though, at least there's been no more crashes.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Rename ACPowerNotification.exe to ACPowerNotification.old. That should stop it being loaded whilst still keeping it (just in case). You may get a different error from whatever is trying to run ACPowerNotification.exe of course....
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
CountingDown said:
If you uninstalled via Windows apps area, then maybe try using the Armoury Crate uninstall tool? No clue if it does anything more but worth a try:

Armoury Crate - Support

www.asus.com www.asus.com

Just under the installer entry, you will see a little "show all" bit...click that and it will expand the list to include the uninstall tool
Click to expand...
Absolutely, Armory Crate is so poorly designed, the aim is to not install it in the first place, otherwise you'll invariably have a borked windows.
 
B

BendyG

Bronze Level Poster
Think I'll try getting rid of it with the uninstall tool rather than renaming it. This reminds me of trying to remove Norton Antivirus from an old computer, even then I could never get rid of their own removal tool. When I mentioned Armoury Crate to PCS they said it's not important, not part of the Windows install and to uninstall it if it's causing problems. Like it just sprang out from somewhere.

Anyway, I jinxed it earlier, computer crashed again last night. Graphical glitches on Steam's UI when exiting Steelrising (caused the two big crashes in-game), then a big black square block on the screen, freeze, then restart. Didn't show up as a crash on reliability monitor though, just a notification that Windows didn't shut down properly.

After next week I've got some time off work, so I might hold off any more testing and troubleshooting until then. Honestly so fed up with it, just want to put it on pause for a few days...
 
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