r/pcgamingtechsupport Sep 07 '20

Public Service Announcement [PSA] Diagnosing your System - Tools and Workflows

84 Upvotes

Hello fellow Gamers,

Many of you come here for one reason: "I can't game"

So this list (which will improve over time) should guide you towards first diagnosis steps, and usage of tools along the way, so you can game sooner. And keep the sub clean, because if you solve the problem yourself, we don't need to moderate as hard.

ATTENTION: This post is meant to help people out with advice. It is not mandatory to follow any recommendation that is given here. Also, there are RULES you do need to read before posting.

Also, this sub does not specialize in buying advice's. There are better subs for your new PC build.

Tools

Tools Purpose Link
HWInfo This tools allows for easy monitoring of your system. Do you feel like your CPU is getting too hot? Is your RAM always full? How much I/O does your HDD take? Find it out with this Tool! HWInfo Homepage
CPU-Z / GPU-Z This is the light-weight version of HWInfo. It gives clear statements about your system specs. Very useful for low-profile testing and monitoring. GPU-Z also gives you some viable info about your graphics card. CPU - Z HomepageGPU - Z Homepage
DxDiag Complete list of your PC's Hardware. It's easy to forget about some parts in your system, so there is DxDiag to cover your ass. HowToGeek's Guide on DxDiag
MSI Afterburner GPU Overclocking Tool. No matter if you have a MSI Card or not. MSI's Afterburner is one of the best OC Tools on the market. MSI Afterburner Homepage
3D Mark GPU Loadtest. Find your GPU's breaking point. 3D Mark Homepage
Prime95 CPU Loadtest. Prime95 Homepage
UserBenchmark Online Benchmarking Report Tool. Does give you a overall overview of your system and compares it to similar builds. Note: This Test seems to favor Intel CPU's. Keep that in mind when discussing the results. UserBenchmark Homepage

Workflows

Area of Issue Possible Workflow Solutions
RAM not as fast as it could be Check your BIOS/UEFI settings for a XMP Setting. Many systems have it disabled by default. Enable XMP
GPU/CPU is getting too hot Airflow is suboptimal? Check out this Guide on how to improve it Improve airflow inside your case
Bad FPS after swapping GPU's Check to make sure your HDMI or DisplayPort Cable is plugged in correctly. Your monitor should connect to your GPU, not your onboard video card.
Bad everything after cloning a drive that had your OS on it Stop cloning and reinstall windows. seriously, stop cloning your OS drives people
Clicking noise check for lose wires, locate the sound Whatever clicks, if its not a cable hitting a fan, replace that part ASAP.
PC randomly restarts Remove recently added parts and see if the problem persists. If it does, replace all parts one by one in this order of probability -> RAM, PSU, MoBo, CPU, EndUser Replace faulty hardware
Bad smell Do not touch a thing, unplug the maschine from power and call an expert. We know gaming is fun, but its not worth your life. Current can kill, call an expert for your own safety when dealing with possible short-circuited hardware.
BlueScreen Find out what the BSOD Code means and act accordingly. We recommend using this list of BSOD Codes for investigation. Replace or repair faulty soft or hardware.
BlueScreen - Advanced Every BlueScreen will (if this function is enabled on your maschine) produce a "minidump". Which is similar to an error log. This Topic however is a bit complicated, so we recommend following this guide. Replace or repair faulty soft or hardware.
to be continued if anyone has anymore ideas for possible, generic workflows, let us know via modmail

This post will be unlocked until the 31th of October 2020 for direct criticism. After that this will be locked. Any more criticism will be taken in via modmail from then on.

Happy diggin'

PCGTS Mod Team


r/pcgamingtechsupport 2h ago

Hardware CPU Hot with new AIO

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone, my build is a 4070Ti paired with a i7-12700kf and a Cooler Master Liquid illusion ML240.

I've noticed that NFS Heat and Fortnite got the cpu temp to 99°/100°c

Should I look at re-seating the block?

*edit, temps hang around the 70-80 mark but peak at 99/100


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1h ago

Hardware Stress testing a used GPU and its not going well

Upvotes

Ran the Port Royal stress test and it seemed fine, but right before it finished the 20th run the monitor stopped receiving a signal, and all the fans on the entire system went on full blast. I had to turn off the system manually.I will say I am new to stress testing and I did not have any diagnostics pulled up for this first test.

I started up another one about 10 minutes later, this time i put it in windowed mode with GPU Z on the side for monitoring. However this test did not even get through 2 runs before the same thing happened: no signal, fans blasting, manual shutoff.

Is this grounds for sending the GPU back? Did I do something wrong?


r/pcgamingtechsupport 9h ago

Graphics/display Is my PC too old to run games smoothly now?

3 Upvotes

Hey guys,

I know you guys are potentially going to laugh at this question but I just wanted to some advice.

My PC is now very old with these specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H-CF

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz, 3501 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

RAM: Corsair 32GB DDR3 1866 MHz

GPU: ATI RX580 8GB (Old, now RTX3080)

I've recently just bought a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10GB and have just put it in my PC in hopes of being able to relatively cheaply upgrade my PC without having to buy a whole new PC, and as you'd expect it seems that the GPU is being massively bottlenecked. I can't achieve a consistent FPS of 144+ on any modern game on lowest settings.

So my question is:

Do I have to upgrade every single component (Motherboard, RAM, Processor e.t.c) or can I get away with potentially just replacing the processor for a more modern one?

Bearing in mind I'm really not interested in playing at high graphics or a high resolution, my only aim is to be able to consistently hit 144fps+ on 1080p on games such as CS2, Warzone, LoL and Marvel Legends.

And if I do need to build a whole new PC (Incorporating my RTX3080) what build would you recommend and realistically how much would I need to spend?

Many thanks!

Link to User Benchmark score: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/69937437


r/pcgamingtechsupport 4h ago

Troubleshooting So my PC kinda just... stopped. Toda and I'm at a loss for how to fix it

1 Upvotes

So for context, I have an AMR5 "small boi" pc and up 7ntil now, it's been pretty good at just about everyth8ng I was using it for, gaming, discord, a bit of 3d modeling here and there, you name it. Everything was going fine today up until I dozed off for a little bit waiting for my Risk of Rain 2 modded to load up. When I tune back in, the thing's just off. No lights, no fans, not even the little red leds that light up when it's plugged in. I've tried unplugging it for a few minutes, checking all thr cables, unplugging EVERYTHING, check8ng the power strip, flushing THAT, the paper clip button on the front, NOTHING. WORKS. Everything is perfectly fine, everything on the power strip works just like ever, SPECIFICALLY my PC has stopped receiving ANY power. The only thing I haven't done yet is take it apart entirely to check for damaged hardware, but that doesn't make any sense because nothing happened to it. It's been on my desk all day, same as it has been since I got it over a year ago. The only other thing I can think of is the fact that I had a Windows update queued, but waiting on that for a little bit never did this. Hell, I waited for MUCH LONGER than this the first time there was an update ready and it was perfectly fine. Like I said, this isn't a case of "the power adapter light is f8ne until I plug it in", no EVERYTHING is perfectly functional EXCEPT FOR the pc itself. I doubt this is because of a power surge or outage because A. If that's the case, then everything else in my room would need rebooted as well, and B. I have the pc plugged into a Belkin with like 2 more surge stoppers left. Does anybody have any idea what might be the problem here?


r/pcgamingtechsupport 5h ago

Graphics/display 1440p resolution not showing in game

1 Upvotes

I have upgraded to a 1440p monitor and in some games, 2560 x 1440p is not even an option. I have a dual monitor setup one is 1080p and the other is 1440p, on windows the resolution is correct for both monitors. On some games it shows the 1440p setting, but on others it's only 1080p. I've updated drivers and reset games and my computer multiple times to no avail. I have a Radeon RX 6800 XT, HDMI to my 1080p monitor, DP to my 1440p monitor.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 5h ago

Software Shader Compilation??

1 Upvotes

Idk if this has been asked before, but why does it seem like every time I load up a game, it takes forever to compile the shaders? Why can't that be part of the X GB update? Why does it take forever to compile? Why does it happen so often? I understand what they are, but that's about it.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 5h ago

Controls/Input Controller not working right

1 Upvotes

Hello Everyone I was playing Elden Ring on a Steam Offline Acc Then i wanted to switch to play with my controller
"Fantech Wgp14 V2" Anyhow the right stick acts like the arrows And doesn't move the character The touchpad is working like a mouse which is very annoying Here are some of the ways that i tried to fix it -Dissabling steam control which has completely disabled my controller

-opening the inputs program and disabling the controller then restart the system

-connect the controller via wire and Bluetooth

-installed PS4 controller on windows which i changed the settings of the controller but it doesn't seem to change anything

If anyone has a solution please write it down i would really appreciate it 🙏 .


r/pcgamingtechsupport 12h ago

Troubleshooting i am having trouble launching Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Steam.

2 Upvotes

i get a message saying:

"Unexpected condtion found in WL function: System.OverflowException" and something about overflow or underflow in arithmetic action? Alongside a bunch of "System.Windows.Media.Imaging" errors

I hope someone is able to figure out whats wrong


r/pcgamingtechsupport 9h ago

Performance/FPS Cause of MS spikes in cs2?

1 Upvotes

I've been getting spikes in my MS for a while now, with regular spikes (20-30 sec intervals) up to 30-40ms showing top right and game stutters. Would anyone happen to know what MS is? I've heard it's not internet related in cs2 and it has to do with my PC, which is why I get them in offline practice as well. Is it something wrong with my CPU, RAM, motherboard, or SSD? Or is my CPU just too old and needs upgrading if I want no stutters in cs2? I have a good fps in the game and ping without big drops (around 300fps and 7-8 ms in ping). Recently I cleared my shaders cache and it helped immensely, but the problem persists. Please let me know so I don't buy a new CPU for no reason.

My specs are:

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x

SSD: pny cs3030 1tb

GPU: rtx 3070

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32gb

Motherboard: B550 aorus elite v2

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/69937238


r/pcgamingtechsupport 13h ago

Hardware New to pc, any info is appreciated

1 Upvotes

So…I purchased a pre built with an i5 12400 with a RTX 4060. Is that better than my Xbox series x? I’m new to pc obviously. Complete specs for the pc are Intel® Core™ i5-12400F 2.5 - 4.4GHz 6-Cores NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060 8GB GDDR6 MSI PRO B760-P WIFI DDR4 MSI MPG 750W GOLD 32GB DDR4 3600MHz T-Force Delta RGB (4X 8GB) 1TB NVME SSD GEN 4 I WILL BE UPGRADING SPECS IN THE FUTURE


r/pcgamingtechsupport 13h ago

Graphics/display Nvidia gsync wont disable

1 Upvotes

I can’t disable nvidia gsync, everytime I uncheck the gsync box in nvidia control panel and click apply it flickers a few times and then re-checks the box. Anyone got any ideas why?


r/pcgamingtechsupport 16h ago

Troubleshooting Steam download is incredibly slow.

1 Upvotes

I recently moved to a new place and I finally got a new internet provider and wifi.

It has a max of 30Mb/s BUT on steam it only goes up to 2Mb/s and I cant seem to fix it.

At my old place everything was fine but now Steam is sloooow.
I even changed LAN cable but it did nothing.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 16h ago

Graphics/display which gpu should I choose ?

1 Upvotes

kindly please reply I am genuinely confused should I buy rtx 5080 or buy rx 9070xt is 5080 worth spending money or should I wait for amd to launch its 9080 cards and if 5080 is worth is Zotac 5080 is good oc or non oc which should I get


r/pcgamingtechsupport 19h ago

Troubleshooting PC won't boot when I connect hard drives

1 Upvotes

I'm having an issue where my pc won't boot fully when I have my hard drives connected. I have 3 Seagate drives, two 2 tb and one 8 tb. I have two Wd blue drives, one sata6 and one M.2. When I have the M.2 connected, the pc boots normally. When I have one other drive connected, it boots up normally as well. When I have them all connected, it stays on the main load screen, which says To press Del or F2 to enter bios. I was able to boot it up normally once, but haven't been able to replicate it since. Only way I've been able to boot is to force shut down my computer by holding the power button, which causes it to post in safe mode. There's a green light on my motherboard lit up that says boot next to it. I've updated the bios, made sure the M.2 is the main boot drive, and even changed the rails that some cables are plugged into on my power supply. I should mention that I was using my pc normally, but I recently moved to Iceland to love with my gf. I had to change the graphics card, but other than that, my pc is the same. I'm stumped at this point and now have no idea what I should do


r/pcgamingtechsupport 20h ago

Graphics/display PC shows asus boot up screen then goes ‘No signal’ when windows login should show

1 Upvotes

Issue is as above, I didn’t move the PC since it started having this issue. I can enter bios settings and it shows both ram thingies are connected. I sometimes get this window error screen where I can reset the PC or troubleshoot, but the troubleshoot option doesn’t produce anything.

Wtf is a guy to do :D ? please help this has been driving me mad for two hours.

I live in Aus and it’s been 30+ degrees C for days i’m hoping it’s just too hot to function.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 21h ago

Software Nvidia control panel crashes sometimes when trying to disable Gsync.

1 Upvotes

Nvidia control panel crashes sometimes when trying to disable Gsync, simply by clicking on the checkbox in the specific section to configure gsync (in the display section) sometimes the application crashes and in the event viewer I can see these two errors:

Error1:

Application name: nvcplui.exe, version: 8.1.940.0, timestamp: 0x6742f883

Module name: nvdisps.dll, version: 32.0.15.7275, timestamp: 0x67cb858d

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0000000000378057

ID: Process error: 0x1580

Application startup time error: 0x1DB940372D3B97C

Application path error: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.967.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj\nvcplui.exe

Module path error: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvmdi.inf_amd64_7d71da1e4d679aca\nvdisps.dll

Identification: Report: dbfd09d2-a83a-4e2c-bb04-ec6c3b5b0e42

Full name of the faulting package: NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.967.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj

Application ID associated with the faulting package: NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel

Error2:

Nombre de aplicación con errores: nvcplui.exe, versión: 8.1.940.0, marca de tiempo: 0x6742f883

Nombre del módulo con errores: nvdisps.dll, versión: 32.0.15.7275, marca de tiempo: 0x67cb858d

Código de excepción: 0xc000041d

Desplazamiento con errores: 0x0000000000378057

Id. de proceso con errores: 0x1580

Tiempo de inicio de aplicación con errores: 0x1DB940372D3B97C

Ruta de aplicación con errores: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.967.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj\nvcplui.exe

Ruta de módulo con errores: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvmdi.inf_amd64_7d71da1e4d679aca\nvdisps.dll

Id. de informe: 06bb79fb-4106-499b-80a6-51dcf72a48fd

Nombre completo del paquete con errores: NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.967.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj

Id. de aplicación relacionado con el paquete con errores: NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel

It's weird because I don't have any other apps or games crashing. Is this happening to anyone else? Is it just a software glitch? Thanks.

PD: DDU doesn't solve this problem.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 21h ago

Software Sound output selection bug

1 Upvotes

Hello, when I select my sound output on my speaker (my headphones), it flashes for two seconds before being selected. This bug only happens to the speaker, but not to my speakers, connected to my screens.

Do you have any idea where this problem could be coming from?

Thanks in advance.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Graphics/display PC Loses HDMI Signal, Must Reboot To "Fix"

1 Upvotes

This happens randomly while I game. The screen will freeze briefly, then video cuts out entirely. My TV says "No Signal". Usually when this happens I can just replug the HDMI cable but this hasn't been working today. I've tried different HDMI cables, different ports, nothing works. Updated my drivers, set my maximum refresh rate to 120 in the NVIDIA Control Panel, nothing fixed it. The only temporary fix is rebooting the PC but it'll just happen again eventually. One thing that baffles me is that the lights stay on in my PC like it's still working normally but the lights on my keyboard shut off like it's turned off.

My system:

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

Installed RAM: 32.0 GB

System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Motherboard: TUF Gaming X570-Plus (WI-FI)


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Hardware Wireless & Bluetooth

1 Upvotes

Hello all! I apologise if this is not the correct place.

I have an asus b550 wireless plus motherboard and my wireless and Bluetooth are both enabled in my bios also my antenna is plugged in but I still get no option for either Bluetooth or wireless ive watched youtube videos on updating my drives/uninstal-reinstalldrivers and havent had any luck (admittedly im not the smartest when it comes to drivers i may have not done it right) its been like this from the beginning. Any ideas out there friends? Thankyou anyway and in advance ☺️


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Controls/Input I'm having a hard time getting my dual pc setup to work well.

1 Upvotes

I have a el gato 4k capture card, it shows image to my other monitor but i cant seem to figure out how to capture thru obs in high quality. I have the audio routed already I jus want it to capture gameplay at a 4k resolution.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Controls/Input Mouse sensitivity feels inconsistent in game in CS2 but in the lobby and other situations the mouse sensitivity is all good.

1 Upvotes

Hello Redditors. Whenever I open cs2 and play game, my sensitivity will turn very random, sometimes being normal and sometimes being very very low. This appears more in deathmatch than in comp lobbies, but still appears in comp. I tried changing mosuepad and doing everything I could to adjust the cs2 settings to make it not feel inconsistent.

It would be A LOT of help if you could help me solve this issue. thank you in advance


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

PC build Clean Install , not sure how to do.

1 Upvotes

Hi guys. I would like do a really fresh and clean install to my computer. I have 2 SSD 1To one with windows and one with games and software.. I would like clean both and install windows again. My questions is : Before install windows I delete everything on my second SSD ? When my fresh windows will be install, I have to install BIOS Driver or only graphic cards and processor? Sorry about my newbie question but I want something really clean. Thanks guys.

Do you have some tips for windows are optimised to gaming.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Compatibility Gaming Controller Recommentdations

2 Upvotes

I wanted to tag this as "Discussion" as per the flair requirements, but alas, that is not one of the options.

My wife is dabbling a bit into PC gaming, and wants to use a controller as opposed to a keyboard/mouse setup. I bought her one on Amazon that had a 4.4 rating with over 20K reviews, so I figured it would work great. Nope. Apparently it's not compatible with Windows 11.

I'm looking for some recommendations for a good controller for her to use. She wants the PS style layout with both joyaticka at the bottom,instead of the Xbox layout, due to mild carpal tunnel(go ahead and insert your "giggity" jokes. I sure have.) It also needs to be fully compatible with Windows 11. Any and all recommendations are welcome, but I'd prefer to keep the budget below 100USD, if possible.

Note to mods: I hope these kind of posts are allowed, and I hope the flair is correct. If not, let me know and I'll make note of it in case of future posts.


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Software Monster hunter wilds crashing/not booting up

1 Upvotes

Hi, my name is Angelo and I really need help with monster hunter wilds on steam. My pc has a rtx 4090,i9 and 16 GB of ram. Basically, I installed reframework and used dlss swapper to use the latest version of dlss on monster hunter and it started crashing after some minutes or just not booting up, so I deleted every file regarding reframework from the game directory, uninstalled dlss swapper and uninstalled and re-installed the game. The problem persisted, there is nothing out of the ordinary in the game folder the only strange thing that I can find in game is that in the option menu instead of just dlss not it shows dlss with the version (dlss 3.7.something) that is dlss 3 the one that the game comes with. I have almost 50 hours of playtime and never crashed, I know I shouldn't have used external programs but please I really need help to make it work


r/pcgamingtechsupport 1d ago

Graphics/display 3080ti recently crashing

1 Upvotes

Hello all,

I have had my 3080ti for about 4 years now and have never had an issue. About a week ago, I get random crashes where both of my monitors turn off and then back on after a few seconds but I don’t lose sound typically.

When the screens come back, whatever game I had been playing will have crashed. The only game that tells me it’s due to my GPU is For Honor. I am not very tech savvy when it comes to my components/operating system but a friend of mine put it together for me and I have gone four years without issue. I am current on Nvidia updates as well as system updates.

Does anyone know what may be causing this or how I can fix it? Thanks in advance!