Critical BUG - PC Shutdown - please help

First, Im not sure this is the right section of the forum. If so, please, point me out to the correct section.

Occasionally, I experience total PC shutdown (exactly like when you hold power-button for few sec) few seconds after lunching I:S. PC can run for hours or be freshly started, there can be lots other apps running or none.

OS: Win10 Pro (1809, b17763.529)
Drive: Patriot Scorch M2 SSD
CPU: Ryzen 1600 (6c12t, 3,2GHz)
RAM: 16GB DDR4
GPU: Radeon Rx480 8GB

Can anyone point me to the location of some kind of crash report so I can attach it here? Thanks...

last edited by mattea

Spontaneous system shutdowns, reboots and BSODs are always caused by hardware/driver/system failure.

The only thing that can do that in our game is anti-cheat driver, verify game files first (in case them install files are corrupted), then reinstall EAC using this installer:

..\steamapps\common\sandstorm\EasyAntiCheat\EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe

Thank you for you advice!
I've done exactly what you said and will monitor if this will happend again. If so, I'll type it down here.

@Arc So... Ive checked files via steam - no error. Ive reinstalled EasyAntiCheat and it has happend again. I dont know enough to be sure its insurgency-releated, even tho one of symptoms (looks like condition) is turing I:S on. It never happens without it.

EDIT: I am not so sure, but I often do alt+tab to another window. Might this affect this?

Any idea what to check/what to do next?

last edited by mattea

Like Arc said, these types of things are usually related to hardware or drivers. Most likely is that there is some issue with your system that Sandstorm is triggering. The trick is to figure out how and why. Unfortunately, that's rarely easy.

Is Sandstorm the only application that causes problems? Do you play other games or run any other programs that are resource intensive?

Have you gotten any BSOD errors? A total system shutdown is rather uncommon without the computer throwing a stop error first. It's possible you have a problem with your power supply or mother board.

Display drivers are a pretty common cause of weird behavior with games. You can try to do a complete uninstall and reinstall of your graphics drivers. I know Nvidia has a "clean install" option that makes this pretty simple, I don't know if AMD has a similar process.

You could look through the Windows Event Viewer, Windows may have logged an error with some clues to the cause. There will be a ton of things logged in there, most of them are totally benign, look for critical system errors or anything that mentions power.

Do you monitor system temperatures at all?

Adding on what was said above, the most common cause of a spontaneous system shutdown is faulty PSU, broken power cables or improperly seated ones.

So when you put a load on the hardware and it starts drawing more current, the PSU either fails to deliver needed power or triggers internal fuses/security checks (for overheating/over-current, etc.).

Reboots are typically caused by overheating of other components and BSODs are typical for driver/OS failure.

Hi, no BSOD code. No resource-heavy apps runs with sandstorm (except Vivaldi Brovser with about 50 tabs, but it still doesent go over RAM capacity). Sandstorm is unfortunately only app(or game) that causing death. MB error is possible, tho I dont know how to validate it.

Powersupply is big question. Theoretically, its a bit understrength (400W with some better effectivity rating, I thing its platinum or sth like that)...with 6c12t Ryzen and Rx480 on it... But measured max constumption of whole system never even spiked over 260W during long-term load - It ussualy keeps at 160-220W.

I've run RAM test recently, as well as SSD check, no error has been found.

Display drivers have been updated twice in last... 6 months? during which this error troubles me. Ill try to do clean instal of these.

Ad temperatures: no, i do not monitor temps on daily basis, tho i have set alarms at BIOS manually and i have been monitoring temperatures during short-term and long-term heavy loads last summer, which validated cooling system. That said, I do clean dust of it on regular basis.

I have checked Windows Event Viewer, there is lots of entries, but non mentioning power/surge.

In the house I live, there are rather old electical wires, one phase seemd to drop randomly every few weeks for few miliseconds... tho this should not affect PC as it is UPS-backed up now.

@mattea said in Critical BUG - PC Shutdown - please help:

Powersupply is big question. Theoretically, its a bit understrength (400W with some better effectivity rating, I thing its platinum or sth like that)

Yah, that would be my first guess. Looks like the RX-480 can spike up to 200W by itself, which is a hell of a draw on a 400W PSU. How much current does the PSU have available on the 12V rail? The 12V supply is going to get hit hardest while gaming, and even if there's still plenty of total output available on the PSU if it's hitting the max on the 12V rail it'll cause problems.

Everything you're saying makes it sound like the system is shutting itself down without giving Windows any indication there is a problem. That really points to a power supply issue.

Do you play other games on your computer, or is Sandstorm the most demanding thing you do with the PC?

I think it can be most demanding GAME. I'm more strategy player (Hearts of Iron IV, XCOM2, Company of Heroes II etc.) and strategies usualy aren't so demanding. Other then that, I run ArchiCAD 22, Lumion 9 and few other simmilar apps, that can draw a lot of CPU/GPU/RAM resources (especially when rendering), but more constantly then a game, I guess.

Ok... I think I'll need to borrow some stronger PSU to prove that its what cause the error, and if so, buy a new one for myself...

Thank you a lot for walking me trough! I needed another pair of eyes... 🙂
Will let you know here once finished with testing that PSU.

last edited by mattea