Pc crashing/re-booting, no blue screen.

F

fst89lx

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 4, 2003
Messages
88
In the past 7 days, my pc has randomly crashed twice. Both times I was just watching a stream on twitch, the pc froze, audio gave a loud bzzzzzzzzzz and the screen went black. The first time, the screen stayed black, no audio from speakers, mouse and k/b lights dead, but motherboard showed qcode b2 and had a white LED illuminated (next to that LED says VGA). I had to reboot the system w/ the power button and its been all fine since then, until today. About 10 minutes ago, the exact same thing happened, except right after the screen froze and the audio buzzed, the pc rebooted itself normally. No qcode.

Neither times did I get a blue screen. In my manual, qcode b2 is - Legacy option ROM initialization.

a quick search brings this response in the asus rog forum from an asus service rep:
The B2 usually means Legacy ROM has an error or Graphic card problem
Try to remove the Sapphire Radeon 7850 or switch the iGPU , Let us know if this helps.

What is Legacy ROM?

Where should I go from here to test things to see what the problem is? Is there any other info you guys need that could help?

System is 8086k, maximus x hero motherboard, 16gb trident z ram, gtx 1070.

Thank you!

*edit* Wanted to add that this system was built in ~ September of 2018 and has actually had 0 issues so far, no new hardware has been installed either.
 
Last edited:
Is there a newer bios for your motherboard available? Is there anything in the windows event viewer relating to the crash? Crazy heat wave here could it be temperature related? Does the graphics card run benchmarks ok?
 
Yes there is a new bios update. Event viewer shows 1 critical error in the last 24 hours. Event id 41 kernal-power. General description tab for that says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

same error happened for the first crash as well.

I have central AC and the house is always at 68-71* F

I am not opposed to updating my bios, but why all of the sudden would this start to happen with no hardware changes being done?

I'm also on windows 10 ver 1803. Not really sure if that is up to date or not. Guess I'll run windows update and see.

I'm thinking I should stress the system... Maybe run a gpu benchmark for a while (I have heaven), run P95, run memtest, etc. Good idea? waste of time?
 
Last edited:
Just had another crash. Was gaming this time. No motherboard code, no windows message. Audio bzzzzzz, black screen pc restart.

One of the guys I game w/ said it sounds like a bad gpu, because he had the same issues in the past... That is also what the asus tech said above regarding the motherboard code I did get the first time. Where to go now? I have updated windows, and my audio drivers today. I can update my bios, but I'd rather not honestly, I don't see why a perfectly stable system would become unstable and require a bios update.

I unfortunately don't have a second gpu that I can throw in and test for a few days/week.
 
How can I go about testing these things? All that comes to mind is stress test each component like I mentioned above and try to induce a crash...
 
The motherboard code is where I got the bios thing from a google search on the error message. Sounds like a faulty GPU or PSU though but hard to say for sure without swapping out parts. I'd probably do a fresh install of the OS first just to rule out software issue then replace the GPU, then PSU.

If you can borrow a GPU or buy one from a store that has a nice return policy that would be ideal.
 
Last edited:
Go buy a new PSU and see if issue goes away. If it doesn't then take it back and buy a GPU etc.
 
No one says you HAVE to take it back. A spare PSU always comes in handy and you can start a second build for a server and use it for testing parts when needed.
 
In my experience these restarts are memory or power supply related 99% of the time....Since your instability came out of know where im more inclined to think its power supply related. Memory is usually stable or its not in most cases/
What is the exact name and make and model of the supply being used?
Also run some stress tests that max out power consumption...ITs should restart or turn off pretty quick if its the power supply.
 
primetime said:
In my experience these restarts are memory or power supply related 99% of the time....Since your instability came out of know where im more inclined to think its power supply related. Memory is usually stable or its not in most cases/
What is the exact name and make and model of the supply being used?
Also run some stress tests that max out power consumption...ITs should restart or turn off pretty quick if its the power supply.
Click to expand...

Power supply is EVGA supernova g3 750.
Ran unigine heaven for about 35-40 minutes last night, no crashing, gpu temp got up to 66* (gets up to 68* gaming but I assume the added heat from the cpu being dumped into the case causes that)
Ran prime95 newest version large FFT for 5 and a half hours last night, no crashes.
Ran prime95 newest version Small FFT for half an hour this morning no crashes

Gonna let memtest run while I am at work and check when I get home today. I'll report its findings after.

how would I max out power consumption? Run heaven and prime95 together?

DrLobotomy I understand what you're saying, and I may in fact have to buy parts and just swap them out to test, but I'm keeping that to a last resort. I use this pc for 90% gaming and web browsing, will never have a second build or a server, etc. The plan is to run this setup until the hardware is inadequate for what I want to do, then either overclock to squeeze a little more usefulness out of it, or just build a new one and repeat. Money is somewhat of an issue as well. I've got the money to spend, but it would be better served for other things right now.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I'll let you know what happens w/ memtest. Then I guess I'll re-install windows, update the vga driver and bios for the mobo, and go from there.
 
clownfish27 said:
Overheating, overclocked system, bad windows or software update?
Click to expand...

Don't think it is overheating. P95 newest version that I ran this morning small fft (avx on) got up to 75* large fft ran overnight stayed below 70* iirc. Every time I've checked temps while gaming I am in mid 60's.

Gpu gets to mid/high 60's while benching/gaming.

No Overclocks at all. Ram is a 3200 kit running at 3200 (manually entered xmp timings because xmp on my board wouldn't work properly). System has been like this since last sept.

Not sure about bad software, I would think I would get a blue screen or some sort of error message and not just a hard reboot, but re installing Windows is on the list.

Ran mem test this morning, system hung like 3 minutes in.... Was frustrated and just pressing keys trying to get it to reboot, esc, c(config in memtest) and Ctrl alt del. Not sure which did it, but it rebooted and began memtest again, was at 17 min when I left for work.
 
Perhaps it is memory instability then. Try bumping up the voltage to the memory by a little. You could set the ram to 2666Mhz as this is the fastest officially supported speed.
 
Last edited:
TheFlayedMan said:
Perhaps it is memory instability then. Try bumping up the voltage to the memory by a little. You could set the ram to 2666Mhz as this is the fastest officially supported speed.
Click to expand...
Yea, maybe. Curious to see if memtest is still running now after I restarted it and left for work.
I can put ram back to stock and see what happens. Gonna be a bit bummed if the sticks are going bad since I paid for the 3200 MHz kit.

if that is the issue, wonder if the sticks are covered at all by gskill, or is xmp speeds not guaranteed...?

I did have ram issues in my last PC but I would just get program crashes and error messages in Windows, no system crashes (i5 2500k Windows 7 on that machibe if it matters)
 
what gpu are you using? ive seen several people talking about issues with the newest nvidia drivers.
and I agree with the psu suggestion, start there then look at gpu. actually, do the bios update first.
 
Just got home and checked pc. Memtest completed with 0 errors. Also when it hung on memtest earlier today, there were no errors at that time. The whole thing was just frozen.

I am using a evga gtx 1070 ftw. I had been using the same driver for quite some time up until last friday when I had the first crash. After that first crash, I updated my driver.

So far what I have left to try are: Updage vga driver from asus website, set ram to default speed, re-install windows, update bios, swap parts. In my mind, I would like to do them in that order. I want to do bios last because in my mind it isnt a bios issue. Why would my current bios suddenly have a problem 9+ months later on a completely stable system? I am willing to do it, don't get me wrong, just doesn't make sense.

Is there any harm in running heaven and p95 together to cause higher power draw from the psu to try and test that?
 
I know I suggested re-installing WIndows but it doesn't sound like a software problem. I think I'm conditioned to suggest it from when I worked for a computer company the policy was no RMA's unless the system had been restored first lol It's not a bad idea before spending money to do it (depending on how much time/money you have lol) but I'm thinking PSU now.
 
pendragon1 said:
nope, use the one from nvidia but go back a version.

I'll try it. Can you tell me though, what is the "intel VGA driver" from asus for? I've never updated that as far as I can remember. Is that for if I am using the iGPU on my processor?


windows updates... i'd do the update.

Ok, I'll try it tonight. I need to make sure that I remember what I had my VCCSA and VCCIO voltages set to, there is a guy on the rog forum saying that the new bios set his to something crazy like 1.4v, mine are at like 1.14-1.19 or something.
nope
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
TheFlayedMan said:
I know I suggested re-installing WIndows but it doesn't sound like a software problem. I think I'm conditioned to suggest it from when I worked for a computer company the policy was no RMA's unless the system had been restored first lol It's not a bad idea before spending money to do it (depending on how much time/money you have lol) but I'm thinking PSU now.
Click to expand...

I get it man, it is funny to me that I see soooooooo many times people get suggested to re-install windows to try and fix things, I remember that I had my last pc since like 2011 or 2012 up until I built this one last year, and I never once re-installed windows to fix something. Except when my HDD took a shit, then I kinda had to. I really think it's a hardware issue not a software issue simply because of the lack of error messages. I will however be the first to admit that I am nowhere near knowledgeable enough to say that with any certainty.
 
Shortly after I read pendragon1 latest reply, I downloaded latest bios and dug out a flash drive. I formatted the drive and the second it finished, the system crashed lol. Exact same thing as the first crash I had last week except there was no buzzzzzz/audio stutter because I was not watching a video or listening to a stream. This time the b2 code was back and white vga led on motherboard was lit. System was unresponsive until I re-booted with power button. After that it booted right into windows. Figured before I update this bios, I'd run p95 and heaven together to get the most power draw and heat I could. Ran p95 small FFT w/ avx and unigine heaven together for 30 min and here is the result:

NO CRASH....
CPU max temp 79* on core 2
CPU package power 126 watts
GPU max temp 66*
GPU max power 155watts

I'll revert my nvidia driver and update my bios when I get back.
I do have another question, I am actually kinda nervous to update windows if the bios/driver don't fix anything because I'm worried the system will power off in the middle of the windows install..... Obviously that will corrupt the install right? Will I still be able to boot w/ the media creation tool and format the drive and try again or would I be screwed?

Thanks guys, appreciate all the help so far!
 
fst89lx said:
I do have another question, I am actually kinda nervous to update windows if the bios/driver don't fix anything because I'm worried the system will power off in the middle of the windows install..... Obviously that will corrupt the install right? Will I still be able to boot w/ the media creation tool and format the drive and try again or would I be screwed?
Click to expand...
no dont do windows updates. I meant that they might have introduced the problem. the newest windows update needs the latest bios and newer drivers to avoid issues, possibly like your situation.
 
pendragon1 said:
no dont do windows updates. I meant that they might have introduced the problem. the newest windows update needs the latest bios and newer drivers to avoid issues, possibly like your situation.
Click to expand...

Roger!

Got the bios updated. On Asus 2102 now. Have not reverted to an earlier nvidia driver yet. Going to see if this crashes. When/if it does, I'll roll back the nvidia driver.

Only updated bios a handful of times before, damn thats a scary process! Used the bios flashback port on the back of the motherboard to flash. First go round, I had my flash drive formatted to FAT and the update didn't work, luckily I didn't F anything up, got back to windows, reformatted to FAT32 and that did the trick. Then all the goddamn restarts after the flash is complete. Heart was in my stomach the whole time lol.

So anyway I'll let this thing roll for a while and see how everything goes. I definitely need to reset my fan profiles, they're going nuts every time I launch anything, up an down, up and down.
 
Haven't gotten a crash since the bios update on Friday. Hoping that has fixed it! Going to give it a few more days and take the ram back up to 3200. Thank everyone for the suggestions and help!
 
Put ram back on XMP this morning. Something to note, the new bios does seem to operate a little bit different from the bios I was running before. When I first build this system, I couldn't use XMP. Instead I had to enter the ram voltage/timing manually because enabling XMP made the system do weird things, see post here-----> https://hardforum.com/threads/enabl...it-and-throttle-down.1968366/#post-1043845054

This time around, XMP seems to work just fine except like in the last bios, the board cranked VCCIO to like 1.32. I put that down to 1.15v in bios, (shows anywhere from 1.176 to 1.184 in HWinfo). After I run this for a few days to ensure it is stable, I might take that down one more step.
 
Crashed again just a minute ago. Guess all I can do is leave XMP off. Worried that since the ram passed memtest, that the memory controller on the cpu is weak/dying :(
 
ill probably just stick to standard speed.

Is there anyway that the ram itself could still be the issue, or is it more likely that The cpu memory controller or motherboard is to blame?
 
So, I am at a total loss now. Pc just crashed again. Same shit, no error message, just rebooted it self out of the blue.
 
Evga g3 750 watt, bought new when I built the system (last September)
I put in a support ticket w/ evga for my video card to see if I can RMA it. The only clue I've gotten is the damn VGA light being lit on my mobo sometimes when the whole thing crashes/re-boots. But it's been suggested that it's GPU related, and my card has a lot of coil whine, and lastly one of the fans will spin super slow at idle while the other one is still. Guess I'll start there if they'll rma my card.
 
I would guess rebooting is power supply related as it what happens when the OCP gets tripped.
 
Yea, that's next on the list after I see how the rma on gpu goes.

Not sure what evga is gonna say if I try to rma the power supply after the gpu, but I'll give it a whirl if the gpu doesn't fix it.
 
So tonight, I had two more weird things happen. First, I was on youtube and twitch, my screen went black for a couple seconds, then came back and both areas where video would be playing were green. They fixed themselves with a reload of the page. Next, I was playing pubg and alt--tabbed to watch back a clip and the video froze on my screen. I could still see my mouse cursor moving, and hear the game/discord but the keyboard didn't seem responsive, and the guys in discord could not hear me when I spoke. Had to re start w/ power button.

Making me lean a lot more towards the GPU now. Need to hear back from EVGA on that still.
 
fst89lx said:
So tonight, I had two more weird things happen. First, I was on youtube and twitch, my screen went black for a couple seconds, then came back and both areas where video would be playing were green. They fixed themselves with a reload of the page. Next, I was playing pubg and alt--tabbed to watch back a clip and the video froze on my screen. I could still see my mouse cursor moving, and hear the game/discord but the keyboard didn't seem responsive, and the guys in discord could not hear me when I spoke. Had to re start w/ power button.

Making me lean a lot more towards the GPU now. Need to hear back from EVGA on that still.
Click to expand...

It's either one of two things, your GPU is bad or the power rail in your PSU that supplies PCI-E power to the GPU is failing.

Try running OCCT PSU stress test, this (IMHO) is better and more informative than running P95 and a Unigine product concurrently. Just make sure if you're running the GPU stress test in windowed mode you click ON the "fur donut" so it stresses the GPU (you'll see what I mean).

Also you can buy a pretty cheap PSU tester on amazon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top