Help with weird crashing!

Thanks for answering.
The crashing occurs with such a high ratio that I'm fairly certain that it is a problem with my rig. I have a few hundred hours on Civ VI and never had this issue before and now it is everytime after about 10-15 minutes of playing. The same thing with TW: Warhammer II and the Witcher 3.

The PSU looks OK, but given you are convinced it's hardware you have to guess which part to replace.

I would ask you to clean and replace heatsink compound but it worked on Furmark, etc.

If you decide you want to try settings, you have told enough for us to discuss that, but your choice is to go hardware.

I really have no idea where the problem is but I think the nature of it's occurrence kinda points to it not being a problem with the specific games but maybe the drivers are doing this. I've read some posts about the nvidia drivers being difficult to really get rid off and that even DDU(which I've used) doesn't work always.

XFX are willing to replace the psu, but it would take upp to 8 weeks and I would have to pay for the shipping and potential taxes myself, so it won't probably be worth it.

I'm willing to try whatever settings changes you might be able to advice me with. Thank you for the support!

Oh that's curious. It has been working fine for 2,5 years now before this issue, but I'll check it with them still. Thanks!

It might work but with Microsoft optimizing W10 and games eeking out more from CPUs you can run into where the CPU init code is incorrect and failing when it used to work.

Bob_B is quite the sleuth here and has nailed a few other odd problems tracing back to "CPU isn't on the list."

Some owners fight this but it's a losing battle as code is now changing to use more advanced CPU features where before they shied away from that.

-> This also explains why FURMARK works and GAMES FAIL. Furmark is not pressing the edges of all the CPU and GPU features and CPU/GPU instructions. It's fairly generic in its code so it can run on 99.99% of machines. If you happen to slip in a mickey like an unsupport CPU on motherboard then you can get into a situation where FURMARK and tests pass but games go down in flames.

Try this CPU on a supported board or a supported CPU on this board.

This is something I never would have thought of, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I've been considering moving up to an ATX-build anyway so maybe this is the time to make to move and get a new mobo which actually supports my processor.

I guess there is no real way of knowing for sure if this is the issue though, but I guess I have to start trying stuff out then.

Now that I have your ear though, is there anything else I should be updating at the same time? Purpose is mid-to-heavy gaming, mostly new games. Only fhd quality for now though, as I'm not eager to pay for a new gpu if I don't have to right now.

DDR4 ram not worth it I'm guessing? Also, will another about 100-130 dollar mobo be alright? Processor still OK?

Thank you!

I always give https://www.reddit.com/r/PCMasterRace/wiki/builds a read since they always look for the price+performance angle and folks have built these hundreds of times.

If msi tells you that cpu is not supported then shop for a new mobo.

Your cpu/gpu/ram are fine.

You don't want to shop for a gpu upgrade today.

Miners have pushed the price of high end gpu's to insane levels.

According to this website: http://processormatch.intel.com/MotherBoards/CompatibleBoards?componentName=I5-4690K

They should actually be compatible.

All I have to go by is what msi shows on their web site.

It does not show that cpu.

That's why I suggested you contact msi.

They will tell you yes or no and then you go from there.

Ah, OK. Well I contacted them yesterday so we'll see what they say on the matter hopefully!

"Regarding your concern, the MB supports 4690K CPU since the E7924IMS.220 BIOS version , and please don't worry about it if your current BIOS version is the latest one."

So I guess they do support it after all.

I have now ordered a new PSU, and will try that out.

We know that electrolytic capacitors age quickly under heat. If this machine is years old the motherboard caps could be less than new condition so I've had to replace PSU and motherboard in what we call "crashers."

There is no real test for the aging issue other than to swap in newer parts and re-test.

Reinstall the OS? I've rarely seen that help. But folk report it does but later they are back telling me it still crashes. My theory why is that the fresh install didn't get drivers for motherboard so that relaxed the load on the motherboard and didn't push it as hard.

The rig is only 2,5 years old. I was at least hoping it wouldn't be aging this fast.

Look, I can get all technical here as I am an electronics designer with PDFs, pointing to life curves on electrolytic parts. This is why some motherboard makers moved to solid caps.

We've been though a lot here and at this point I'm going with aging.

The hotter the box, the faster these age and 2.5 years is more than enough time for caps to wear out. It upsets folks that find out about this area. Usually these are 5 year designs but that's only if we keep the case temp near ambient.

There is one other area that can cause seemingly sporadic failures. I know you dismissed trying settings so I won't press you on that (but I still wonder why it's not an option to try.)

So let's see that Web Speccy so I can see if anything shows up there.

How is at https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web

English is not my first language and I'm guessing I've miscommunicated my thoughts somewhat. I'm willing to try anything to get this resolved, including trying settings!

I appreciate your help a lot by the way, thank you!

Here's the Web Speccy:
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/H0YxlmExoDAiLLlPzzTujkw

I noticed that I actually had the wrong mobo on the original listing, but all that has been said should also be correct with Z97 as opposed to H97 as I originally posted.

Incompatible parts.

You have changed mobo's.

Go back to msi and ask if this new mobo will support your cpu.

Don't assume that because they said yes for the H it means yes for the Z.

I actually realized this already yesterday, but forgot to mention it here.

I asked them about the correct mobo, the Z97 one. I'm sorry for the confusion

1. The UltraDMA CRC Error Count is troubling. It's low enough but high enough to be a possible BSOD or lockup source. Windows doesn't respond well to HDD transfer errors. It may BSOD or lockup.

Maybe move the clean SSD to the boot location and test with just that drive.
Can you explain this further to me, what do you need me to do? Maybe I should in any case make sure the sata cable to the crucial250 drive is fastened ok?

2. BIOS is current. Just noting it.

3. Java. Rarely used, you must know if you need it.
Uninstall till stable.
Uninstalled
4. There's an entire section missing on network connections. This means I can't look at other issues. Any idea why?
Found it. Most likely the VPN as I read more and see "You are not connected to the internet".
I was a bit hasty with the Speccy snd was just finishing yet another clean install of the Nvidia drivers, with the ethernet removed.
5. Many SVCHOST entries, and I see BITS running. Turn that off. Read how at
https://www.howtogeek.com/224981/how-to-stop-windows-10-from-uploading-updates-to-other-pcs-over-the-internet/
I followed the instructions but I already had "Allow downloads from other PC's" off. Can this be something else

6. VPN Unlimited Service
Not a bad thing but when we are crashing we head back to plain Windows.
Disabled this for now
7. It appears the Nvidia driver is not installed but you are running the one from Microsoft.
Why?
See above, was in the middle of updating, my bad

Here's a new Web Speccy: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/tyNWB3bLv5WFg4kxSSQaMVN

Item 1 about the disk read errors is trouble since it's high enough to make me think it can be the cause but low enough that it may not be a sign there are drive issues. I know this will be a confusing item. Hang in there.

I can not tell you exactly what to do here but my thought is to move the ERROR FREE drive and SATA cable to the boot position and run Windows from that since we know Windows will lock up, spew BSODs and act oddly on disk problems.

-> Let's say that's too much work. Try this. Put a shiny new SATA cable on the drives with errors.

Back later.

Thank you! The crashes seem to be history. I replaced the SATA cable. Speccy still shows the same amount of disk errors though. Weird.