PC Appears to Crash Whenever I start a Game

[Slyrelishman]

My Omen 30L has been great for the last year handling every game I through at it. About a week ago while playing Inscryption my monitor went to black and and said no signal and I had to hard reset my PC.  From that point on my PC would do the same after playing Inscryption for a minute or so. I assumed this was a glitch until I booted up Phasmaphobia which I've put dozens of hours into as well as New World. 

The PC runs fine whenever I'm browsing the internet but as soon as I start a game...black screen. Tower remains powered on but no communication to my monitor. Has anyone had similar issues? I updated all my PC drivers...even uninstalled and reinstalled and Nvidia drivers. Updated to Windows 11 hoping this would fix the issue too and no luck. 

Any thoughts?

System Specs:

OMEN 30L GT13
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor 3.59 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB

GeForce RTX 2060

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

Your PC easily exceeds the recommended system requirements to run this game as suggested at this site (Link).

 I would think you may have one or more of the following problems If all drivers are up to date :

1. System file corruption,

2. Heat problem

3. Possible hardware problem such as a failing power supply or a MB power delivery problem.

1. Run a check disk (Link to instructions).

2. Check for excessive dust and clean the internals if required. The CPU and/or the graphics card may be getting very hot.

I would then download the following software, HWiNFO Portable (Link), to check component temps when stressing each component. Run HWiNFO and each test to check temps when stressing each component:

CPU - Intel Burn Test (Link), this will also run on AMD

GPU- FurMark (Link)

System file or driver problems will migrate during an operating system update. Failing hardware will be present at all times. Don't know how far you want to go, and the following suggestion is time consuming, but you could back up data. Now do a factory reset or a clean W10 installation if you can't fix the problem.

I do periodic system disk backups using Macrium Reflect free when the operating system is running good. This greatly reduces the amount of time and effort needed to recover the OS when bad things happen.

Regards

[Slyrelishman]

Thank you for the tips! I'll definitely run through all these! The inside of the PC was pretty clean but I did go through with a can of air to get some dust out. I'm suspicious it's more of a GPU issue since when the monitor loses connection the tower itself is still on with all fans and light still on. 

But I'll go through all these tests tonight and if all else fails give it a factory reset. All better than trying to find a GPU in this market!

However, this has soured me on ever buying an HP Omen ever again. Especially since HP itself has been no help.

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

You're very welcome.

So the PC is running okay but you lose video. Yes, it could be a graphics card problem. Problem is you need a spare, known good, graphics card to test this part. Excessive heat or power delivery problems could cause the card to terminate abruptly. Are fans running on the graphics card after you lose video?

Can you try a different video cable to the monitor and a different monitor to eliminate those two components? 

HP should provide assistance if you are in warranty. Testing hardware is time consuming and you need spare parts, which is expensive.

I would have a local PC tech take a look if you are out of warranty. Techs have the parts so they can work their way down to the bad component.

Regards

[Slyrelishman]

Right. I do have access to an old graphics card I can probably test out. All these games worked fine before and didn't even kick the fans into high gear before either. Don't believe they were too taxing on the machine.

The sad part was that this issue happened with Inscryption literally on the day that my warranty expired.  However, I assumed it was a glitch with Inscryption in particular (at first I thought it was actually part of the game since I knew it has some weird Meta elements) then discovered it was a bigger issue the following day when trying to play Phasmaphobia.

However, HP only saw that the warranty was already expired. 

Both the CPU and GPU fans are still running and the lights on the GPU are still on when this occurs. 

Unfortunately I suspect I'm going to be left either a very expensive paperweight or just a internet machine when all is said and done thanks to cost of GPUs these days. But I plan on  a factory reset this evening.

[Slyrelishman]

Quick update...did a factory restore and no success. 

[Slyrelishman]

Ran the GPU test...and it did not crash...

[Slyrelishman]

So the CPU stress test did not crash my PC and the disc check came back with no errors....I'm truly stumped

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

Looks like your hardware is okay.

I don't game.

Maybe it's a Steam problem or a network problem. Network drivers or are you playing online games using WIFI?

Did you check Steam forums?

Regards

[Slyrelishman]

I don't think it's a problem directly related to Steam. I loaded up Disco Elysium that I own through the Epic Store and that had the same issue. 

I do have a wifi connection for my PC.

I'm leaning towards a RAM issue even though the ram diagnostics check found no issues. 

I'm also suspicious of my PSU but I'd figure the GPU and CPU stress tests would have affected this as well?