DOCTOR
Troublesome Gear
Hi Doc, I have an issue with my PC, where its screen goes black and all its fans start spinning at maximum speed. The system stays like this and is unresponsive until I reset it. This seems to happen randomly; sometimes it goes black while I’m gaming, but I’ve also seen it act up at idle. I checked the CPU and GPU temperatures, and they look normal (low 30s C). I updated my graphics drivers, but to no avail.
Do you think this is a software issue, or related to hardware? I know the BIOS hasn’t been updated, but I’m worried about the system crashing mid-upgrade.
Otherwise, the PC ran great since I built it in 2014. The only upgrade I added was a GPU about one year ago, and the problem started about four months ago. Any suggestions are appreciated.
The system includes a Core i7-4790K, an Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard with BIOS 1008, an EVGA GeForce GTX 1080, a Samsung 840 EVO SSD, WDC Red hard drives in RAID 1, 16GB of Corsair DDR3, and Windows 10. – Chris THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: It sounds like this issue can be traced to your graphics card or the power it’s receiving. One spec you left out was your PSU. But since the problem happens under load and at idle, it’s probably not a lack of capacity.
In general, the Doc would advise double-checking the power connections to your GeForce GTX 1080 and motherboard, and ensure the PSU is connected to a quality surge protector or UPS. Worst case, try another power supply to see if the issue persists.
In this specific case, since you did mention owning an EVGA card, there’s another possibility to consider. Last year, the company confirmed that a small number of 1080 FTW cards suffer this exact problem. It’s caused by an ON Semiconductor VRM component operating out of spec, triggering over-current protection. If this turns out to be your culprit, EVGA should be willing to issue an RMA. Contact the company at support@evga.com to determine if your board might be one of the ones affected.
Should this clear up your stability issues, definitely update your motherboard’s BIOS. Version 1008 was released in May of 2014. Asus has something like 12 newer builds posted to its support site, the latest from April of 2016, most of which mention improving system stability.
New GPU
Dear Doc, my wife and I just bought a new LG OLED TV (model OLED65C7P). My kids have a PS4 Pro hooked up to it, and I built a home theater PC about four years ago that I’d like to connect as well.
It contains an older AMD FX-8350 processor on an Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard, with 16GB of DDR3-1866 memory. A Samsung 850 EVO SSD has Windows 10 on it, while a 2TB WD Blue mechanical hard drive handles bulk storage duties. My power supply is a Turbo-Cool 860W. Currently, there’s a Radeon HD 6950 graphics card installed, and I know it runs well at up to 1080p. I was hoping to reuse as much of that hardware as possible, but I know the GPU is going to be an issue.
I am a little confused about the TV’s refresh rate, which LG claims is 120Hz. Of course, I want to make sure I pick the right graphics card to go into this computer. I play World of Tanks, Fallout4, and Call of Duty: InfiniteWarfare, as well as online Steam games. I’m looking for the smoothest experience possible with all of the eye candy enabled. My budget is 800–1,000 bucks, so I don’t know whether I need one or even two graphics cards. Any advice you could give me, Doc, would be very much appreciated.
– Christopher Leach THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: Your TV natively supports 1920x1080 at 60/120Hz or 4K at 30/60Hz input. Regardless of whether you’re targeting the lower or higher resolution, though, a
substantial graphics upgrade over the Radeon HD 6950 is certainly warranted.
The latest generation of DirectX 12-based games and VR experiences have soured the Doc to multi-GPU configurations. He would rather buy the fastest singleGPU solution possible, and circumvent compatibility problems and issues with frame time variance altogether.
With that said, your budget leaves plenty of room for high-end graphics. GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards start around $720. And in the games you’re talking about, they should easily hit 60fps at 4K using crankedup detail settings. If you’d prefer a lower resolution and higher refresh rate, one or two steps down Nvidia’s hierarchy would probably be fine.
There’s something else to think about, though. While reusing old hardware is commendable, graphics cards intended for 4K gaming are meant to be paired with capable platforms. More than likely, an FX-8350 is going to bottleneck high-end GPUs from AMD or Nvidia. You’re better off diverting some of your budget toward a new Core i5 or Ryzenbased CPU, corresponding motherboard, and DDR4 memory. Then, snag something like a GeForce GTX 1070, 1070 Ti, or Radeon RX Vega 56 with what’s left. The resulting combination should be much more balanced, enabling you to set aside the old configuration for another purpose.
Stranger Things
Hi Doc, I have been trying to fix an issue with a friend’s computer, which came to me pretty much dead. So, I started troubleshooting. Since the power supply seemed fine, I pulled the RAM out and tried to turn the machine on. I got no response, not even a beep. I shut the system off and reinstalled its memory. Upon hitting the power switch, the PC booted up fine.
Please help me explain the cause of this issue, because it’s baffling me. I think the ASRock’s Fatal1ty X99X Killer is no longer top- of-the- line. Try an LGA 2066 platform instead. motherboard is to blame, but I’m not sure. – Jason Echelar THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: Although more information would certainly help the Doc narrow down your issue, this certainly sounds motherboard or memory-related.
Do you have the latest BIOS installed? It’s common for updates to include optimizations for memory compatibility. Make sure the memory isn’t overclocked from within the BIOS, which could cause it to exhibit intermittent stability problems. If you’re using a dual-channel memory kit, try running with one module installed to determine if there’s any difference between them. You might also want to try running MemTest86, which can help ferret out hard-toreplicate memory faults.
Building a Monster
Doc, I’ll start off with a bit of flattery. I’ve been a long-time subscriber, and I remember the good ol’ days when you had two versions of the publication (magazine alone, and another with an included software disc). But more importantly, I truly look forward to finding the magazine in my mailbox each month.
My question concerns a new rig I’m building. The components are coming together slowly, and currently include: an Intel Core i7-6900K, which I’d like to overclock to at least 4GHz, a Corsair H100i closed-loop liquid cooler, an ASRock X99X Killer motherboard, 64GB of G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-4000 (8x 8GB), a Crucial 512GB M.2-based SSD, a Crucial 525GB SSD for my operating system, a Crucial 1TB SSD for apps, two Toshiba 6TB hard drives in RAID 0 for user data, a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, a 1,000W power supply (haven’t decided on the brand yet), and Windows 10 64-bit.
That’s more or less the direction I want to go. I plan on getting back into video and photo editing, but am watching my money like everyone else. I did reach out to ASRock to see if the G.Skill memory kit would run at 4,000MT/s on my motherboard. But company representatives can only confirm a maximum of 3,400MT/s based on their internal testing. Overclocking the Core i7 to 4GHz should be easy, though.
I’m anticipating a price drop once the Skylake-X chips become available. Any possible info you can pass along would be appreciated and respected. If there’s any way for you or someone else to test that memory overclock, even better.
– George Cora
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: As you no doubt saw, George, Intel’s Skylake-X CPUs did have a big impact on pricing. This was almost certainly related to newfound competition from AMD and its Ryzen Threadripper models.
Today, you can get a 10-core Core i9-7900X for less money than the i7-6900K you were eyeballing. It’s not an overclocking beast by any means. Intel’s use of thermal paste between its heat spreader and die negatively affects thermal transfer performance, causing the CPU to run hot. But 4GHz shouldn’t be too much of a challenge under a capable all-in-one liquid cooler. Alternately, Core i7-7820X gives you
the same eight cores as the 6900K for $500 less. Regardless of the CPU, don’t worry too much about a 4GT/s memory transfer rate. Intel’s high-end desktop platforms employ quadchannel configurations. At 2,666MT/s, you’re looking at a theoretical peak in excess of 85GB/s. Jumping to a 128GB/s ceiling sounds huge, but your critical apps would need to be memory bandwidth-bound before you saw any advantage. Rock-solid stability is more important from a workstation, in the Doc’s opinion.
Two Antivirus Apps?
I have been told to never install two antivirus programs on the same computer at the same time. Could this be achieved without issues if you keep the one you’re not using zipped? I vaguely remember doing this years ago with a program I believe was called Oil Change. –Bob McElwain THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: Security professionals agree that it’s ill-advised to install any more than one antivirus utility at a time. Performance concerns are commonly cited. Even one security suite can tie up significant processing and memory resources. Worst case, they’d trip over each other’s efforts. Not only do two antivirus apps have their own policies for dealing with bugs they find on your computer, but they might also see each other as threats.
Modern A/ V apps typically get their hooks deep into your operating environment, and can’t simply be compressed into an archive and tucked away. There is a handful of portable antivirus/malware scanners, such as ClamWin Portable, that you can download and save on to a thumb drive for manual detection. You wouldn’t have them installed on your PC, though. Instead, they’d be part of an IT toolkit for diagnosing an infected machine.