Whole pc freezes

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
1

Hi,

Haven’t flown in a while, went back to try yesterday and found that literally every session ends eventually with my whole pc freezing up.

This isn’t the same as just ctd, or gpu error. When it happens, literally the whole pc freezes up, the screen doesn’t update, tight sound is stuck repeating the same micro second of audio on a loop so it sounds like a continuous buzzing sound, no controls or keyboard/ mouse responds… literally only way out is to pull the power and start boot up again.

Ive tried:-

Stock gpu/no oc
Stock cpu/no uv
Stock ram/no oc
Fresh windows install
Verify integrity of game files and then redownload entire game and add ons.

I have very little in community folder, i think only the air manager 4 plugins. All other add ons are in game store.

Tried changing my twitch setup so that I’m no longer trying to stream the main screen+2 cams+2 small screens (for pfd and mfd).

Even with JUST the main monitor streaming (and when i say streaming, at this stage i wasn’t even live, just had twitch open on preview, ready to stream), it still happens.

Not getting this with any other games.

Reduced settings down to the standard “ultra” setting instead of literally maxing out everything.

Stopped running littlenavmap

After downloading the whole 130gb odd base game, and then all but 1 of the world/ city updates… it then froze up again when downloading the new Zealand update…so not even in flight, just at the marketplace menus.

At a loss for how to fix this… it’s a totally fresh windows install (then updated with windows update), all the latest drivers etc.

I’ve invested a lot of time and money in this setup, it feels like nothing changed and yet suddenly the whole sim is unusable because it will always crash. Sometimes it’s hours into a flight sometimes it’s 15 minutes in. Seems completely random, so you might get lucky and have it work for your whole session, but at any moment, in the back of your mind, you know that it could be about the crash.

Ive seen a few posts about the last few Nvidia drivers causing the sim to crash, but this seems different, as the whole pc freezes and requires a hard reboot by switching power off at the wall.

My setup is:-

12700k
3080ti (2×8pin version)
850W corsair psu
Z690 pro a ddr5 mobo
2x16gb g.skill ddr5 6400cl32 ram (running at 4800cl40 though, still crashes).

Main monitor is lg c6 oled tv 55 inch

3x1080p touch screens (for pfd, mfd, twitch/littlenavmap).

Logitech yoke/ rudder/ extra throttle/ radio/ switch/ multi panel

2xknobsters for controlling g1000 air manager.

Tobii eye tracker.

Anyone have any clue what is happening?

Whole pc is not that old, like a year or two i think… can’t remember exactly when i built it.

Temps are all totally fine, cpu around 50-60 in game, gpu around 60-65.

I feel like I’ve tried resetting everything, but some things i feel are an absolute must for this sim… like air manager, my controls and screens, eye tracker, popout manager, etc.

Don’t understand why it’s been working for the best part of 2 years, and yet it’s now decided that im not allowed to fly anymore : (

2

Complete system freezes tend to be GPU related in my experience. I suggest trying to run MSFS at lower system power load to see if it survives a session and may help confirm whether the CPU, GPU or PSU is the issue.

For the CPU, I suggest you try temporarily switching Windows power plan to power saver, which disables turbo and hence lowers the CPU’s power use.

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For the GPU, I suggest you run MSI Afterburner and temporarily set a lower power limit and hence reduce the GPU’s power use.

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If your system does not survive with any combination of power reduction (ie. both, CPU only, GPU only), then I’d suspect your PSU. If it survives with all combinations of power reduction, just not at full load, it could still be the PSU not being able to deliver enough power under full load. If it survives but only when a particular component’s power is reduced, then the respective component that you reduced power is suspect.

Don’t forget to set your Windows power plan back to what it was before you started testing.

3

Humble suggestion: Re-seat your GPU in to its motherboard slot. Thanks. --Redeye

4

I agree his PSU is too weak for a 3080ti and a couple of years aging or a performance upgrade though a driver could easily tip the balance … BSODs would make it more obvious but don’t always happen and recent gpu’s can often recover themselves before that point is reached (but not necessarily). Easing load on cpu or gpu would usually help diagnosing power issues.

5

Just double checked, i bought the psu in December 2020, so it’s basically 2.5 years old.

Im really surprised if this is the problem though. It’s a corsair 850W gold psu. It’s not like it’s a cheap thing.

The gpu, although a 3080ti, is one of the ones with only 2x8pin power, so max of 300W from there, plus 75 from the pcie itself… so total limit of 375W. I also don’t get any problem like this with any other game, and it’s been working fine for this whole time.

I’ve never known a psu to just give up after 2 years.

I’ve always tried to keep temps nice and low too, gpu never runs above 65 on this setup, and cpu usually hovers around 55 in most games.

Im just shocked that such an expensive system could be falling to bits after such a short time?

6

I’ve run your spec through a power calculator including a couple of NVMes, memory, usual fan setup etc. but not your peripherals, 700 - 800 recommended, however we all know MSFS is a demanding beast beyond the usual sandboxed games. Throw in a few LEDs etc. and you could well be pushing the Corsair’s limits. If you have a Bluray/DVD drive try disconnecting it and see if things improve.

7

I don’t have a blu ray drive etc. Almost all my usb devices are plugged in to powered hubs. I do have a lot of fans, 8, plus a small fan on the ram.

Also though, the system can run stress tests for hours. Literally pushing the CPU, gpu and ram to the limits all at the same time… and i don’t get this behaviour of the whole pc freezing. Everything passes, and temps are all fine.

Surely, if it was the psu, I’d get the same problem when stress testing?

1 Like
8

That might depend on the program … I suggest AIDA64 trial version (in the tools menu) and tick all the boxes. Give it a couple of hours but I have known a fail after 12. Also when was the last time you tested? as mentioned, a simple driver update could cause a higher load on your system.

9

I usually use something like 3dmark for gpu stress testing (port royal on a loop), p95 for cpu and hci/kharu for ram. If the system can run all of that for a good few hours together, i can’t see how that would be the case if the psu is dying?

Also, separately, cpu test I’ve run before overnight, gpu I’ve run every stress test in a row in 3d mark, hci ram has passed to over 2000%, and kahru over 10000%.

So, system seems completely stable except for flight sim?

Im just trying a different stress test that ive seen recommended, occt? Not used it before, but so far it’s 20 minutes in and no errors. Cpu hitting around 70-78C , drawing around 140W, doesn’t seem to be testing anything other than cpu right now though, maybe there’s a setup i need to do to test other things at the same time? As where ive seen it recommended, they said it’s a whole system test?

10

Some stress tests tend to concentrate on running at fixed frequencies rather than pushing tdp so be sure to read up on the methodry.
PS. I also think it’s most likely the gpu that causes the lockup, you might try reddit or some of the tech forums to see what others say.

11

One thing ive just read on another forum (nothing related to msfs), is that the geforce overlay was causing their system to freeze while streaming.

I don’t think I’ve ever set up the overlay, in fact, last time i gave the pc a refresh, i didn’t even log in to geforce experience… is it possible that, without logging in, the overlay is automatically “active” by default?

Im just literally logging in now to make sure it’s switched off?

12

Not likely but a ddu should cure the possibility of any remnants from a previous install

13

When this happened to me a few years back, it turned out to be a failing SSD. I found this out using Crystaldisk which showed a shed load of bad blocks and sectors.

1 Like
14

That’s something i didn’t do… but mainly because I’d literally just fresh installed windows… as in totally format the drive, during install deleted all partition and started again from scratch.

15

Was it a fresh install from a download or just from a system image on your PC? If the latter the problem could be inherited. Also that’s not a bad suggestion from knight re. your drives although I would expect it to show an event other than kernel … maybe just a warning rather than error so check both

16

It was using the media creation tool, fresh download to a usb drive and installed from there.

Ive just run the “short scan” option in Samsung magician on all my ssd’s, it says good condition for them all.

Ive just read another thing somewhere that said running msfs/steam as admin caused their pc to freeze up? Never heard of that before, but i do normally start everything up using a batch file, which i run as admin. I’ll try launching separately.

17

Having a MS admin account is ok but running MSFS as admin is a bad idea, it is known to cause issues when purchasing in the marketplace and no doubt in other scenarios not yet discovered.
Surprised if it can lock up your whole PC but hey it’s microsoft so who knows :wink:

1 Like
18

Im also going to try switching to dx11. I switched to dx12 ages ago and it’s been fine for a long time… only switched because i pop out the g1000 screens, and dx11 used to have massive frame drops doing that… doesn’t seem to be the case now though. So I’ll try this and see.

19

That could be the performance boost hurting your PSU if it is that.
What’s happening with the OCCT psu test? is it still not testing gpu and cpu concurrently?

20

The occt test ran for 30 minutes and only stressed the cpu. It passed without any errors though.

Im actually just in a short flight right now from Gatwick to Luton (I’ve been using this to keep same route tested), but launching the game separately, not using the batch file, and running dx11 instead of dx12. Im about half way through the flight so far.

The thing that’s still really confusing me is that the system froze even just sat at the menu downloading updates… surely, dx11 vs dx12 shouldn’t make a difference there? But also, that shouldn’t be a particularly difficult situation for the hardware either?