PC keeps crashing

[ChillCosby]

Hi, for some reason my pc has been crashing lately. It doesn't seem like it happens when doing a specific action like gaming, so im very confused. It could be all sorts of issues, and ive tried a lot of different things already. To explain the issue in more detail, I turn on my pc, and play or do other stuff for about half an hour to an hour, before my pc (without warning) suddenly crashes. When this happens I dont get a BSOD, and it also happens so fast that I haven't been able to get a minidump. My pc normally only crashes once, and then I can play or do other stuff (sometimes it even doesn't crash at all). I have tried running the memtest86, but it found no errors, so I assume my memory is ok. I have also tried running programs like ccleaner. I also updated my bios, but that did nothing. If anyone has any ideas on why this might happen, please let me know.

My pc specs:
Windows 10 home version 2004

CPU: Intel Xeon X5670 2.93GHz

Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4gb

RAM: 16 gb Gskill ripjaws ddr3 1600 mhz

PSU: Cooler Master | Masterwatt 600 lite 80plus white

250GB Samsung SSD

2 tb Seagate HDD

 

[Kshipper]

You have to think>>heat Issue.....does it need a good cleaning? Dust can cause problems for sure. Get a good light and peer inside around the CPU cooler and don't forget the PSU also draws air in. The 970 blows out the back so you have to from the back to clean it. Careful that fans don't spin freely as you blow air on them. Fans will make voltage as they spin quickly which is not good for motherboards. Speaking of motherboards, inspect that too for any swollen capacitors. A wonky power supply could do all this too so you would have to swap it out for a known-good PSU to see.

 

[ChillCosby]

You have to think>>heat Issue.....does it need a good cleaning? Dust can cause problems for sure. Get a good light and peer inside around the CPU cooler and don't forget the PSU also draws air in. The 970 blows out the back so you have to from the back to clean it. Careful that fans don't spin freely as you blow air on them. Fans will make voltage as they spin quickly which is not good for motherboards. Speaking of motherboards, inspect that too for any swollen capacitors. A wonky power supply could do all this too so you would have to swap it out for a known-good PSU to see.

Thanks for the reply!
I will definitely try clean my pc a bit more. I dont want to spend any money just yet, but if nothing works, I might have to.

 

[Kshipper]

I had a GTX 970 FTW go bad on me. It literally started smoking. Maybe this could be a GPU issue? Just thinkin'....

 

[ChillCosby]

I had a GTX 970 FTW go bad on me. It literally started smoking. Maybe this could be a GPU issue? Just thinkin'....

Yeah, could be. I havent noticed anything strange tho. I will try looking into it.

 

[ChillCosby]

I had a GTX 970 FTW go bad on me. It literally started smoking. Maybe this could be a GPU issue? Just thinkin'....

I forgot to mention, I have a water cooled cpu if that helps. I have also cleaned my radiator, and dusted the pc off as best as I could, so if it doesn't crash from here on out, then I know why.

 

[terrycyber]

Try much older GeForce drivers, I have a 960 build from 2015 that recently crashes out of nowhere, without bsod, until I reverted to older drivers.
9 series not be getting enough luv with latest drivers I guess?
not sure if it will help for u too, just give it a shot

 

[ChillCosby]

Try much older GeForce drivers, I have a 960 build from 2015 that recently crashes out of nowhere, without bsod, until I reverted to older drivers.
9 series not be getting enough luv with latest drivers I guess?
not sure if it will help for u too, just give it a shot

After cleaning my pc, the crashing seems to have stopped. I think it was because of overheating, but I don't know for sure. I was quite sure my pc wasn't overheating or anything, but I'm glad I cleaned it. If it starts to crash again, I will definitely try this.

 

[Kshipper]

A little known fact is that the dirt can be conductive, and cause shorts too!

 

[ChillCosby]

So, the problem of my pc randomly just shutting off has stopped. But now I have another problem. My screen freezes, and the audio and keyboard inputs seem to be working, but no matter how long I wait, the screen doesn't seem to unfreeze. I have to manually shut off the pc.

In the reliability monitor, I get 2 instances of desktop window manager stopped working, and I'm guessing these are for my 2 screens. After that I get a kernel 141 event. After that event there are 6 more instances of dwm stopped working, before I eventually shut off my pc.
Anyone know what could cause my pc to freeze?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Kshipper]

I would swap out the PSU for a new or known-good one and try it again. If it still fails then you try swapping out the graphics card for a new or known-good one. I have had a bad 970 or two around here. It must be an age thing.