Random crashes/reboots - PSU failling?

First of all, hi and thank you for your help in advance.
This forum's has been an invaluable resource all my life and this is the first time that I actually need to ask for help.

Windows 10 v1909
No hardware or software changes previous to the BSODs.
PSU: Sentey BRP700 (2012)

What happened:

• Playing a game (Hearts of Iron IV), screen flickered/image distorted, Windows rebooted. No BSOD.
• After reboot, Windows logged in fine. Opened internet browser, then, again: black screen, a few seconds later, Windows restarts. No BSOD or error messages.
• After that I was unable to log in in Windows again while my AMD video card driver was installed; only solution was to enter in safe mode, remove AMD driver and let Windows use it's "Basic Display Adapter".

On a personal note, I did face random reboots in the last year or so, but I didn't really pay any attention since well.... Windows sometimes behaves weird and system came back fine from those reboots. Reboots were sporadic, sometimes weeks or months in between. No recognizable reboot pattern.

What I did - #1:

• Reinstalled Windows 10 from zero (formatting including).
• Reinstalled AMD driver: same thing. As soon as the driver installation hit the driver activation sequence, black screen, and a few seconds later the POST *beep*. Computer restarts.
• Only way to access Windows was using the Basic Display Adapter and even so, I did face a couple of random reboots under low stress.

At this point I stopped blaming Windows 10 and started to think there was something hardware related.

What I did - #2:

• Tested different versions of Radeon drivers, from 19.x something up to the latest, removing them with DDU between each install. Same result.
• Tested driver installation removing one memory stick first, then the other. Same result.
• Removed video card and put a backup Geforce GTS 450 instead. Driver installation went fine but system also crashed randomly after some minutes of use, this time with a dif behavior: screen goes black but no automatic reboot. Just stays there forever, and a forced reboot is in order to regain control.
• Even so, after the reboot, I ran FurMark to stress the GPU. To my surprise, system didn't crash. Same thing with stressing the CPU. No crashes, no BSODs, no errors. But as soon as I closed FurMark and opened Opera to access this forum, system crashed. Weird.
• Checked voltages with CPUID and they all seem to be well steady. Voltages in BIOS report normal also.
• Visually inspected all the system -including PSU- for capacitors who might look out or order and -my untrained eye- couldn't find anything obviously wrong.

Here's the V2 log: DESKTOP-CM2UKSV-(2020-04-07_20-36-35).zip - Google Drive

Could the PSU be the having issues? Could it be a motherboard issue?
Thank you!

Berton said:

Based upon the release/introduction date of that AMD CPU a number of years ago and maybe age of the computer/motherboard my guess the problem/s may be related to the bulged and leaking capacitors issue, sudden explainable problems.
The problems stemmed from manufacturing plants for several years, I even lost a Custom computer I built to it. The power supplies usually just "blew up", the capacitors would blow apart leaving quite a mess inside the power supply as the parts are quite a bit larger, most times the rest of the machines were okay and the problem hit most brands.
bulged leaking capacitors at DuckDuckGo

Hey, thanks for replying!

All the hardware on this old -but very faithful- computer was produced between end-2011, begin-2012. It's been a few years, I know, but well away from the so-called "capacitor plague". Perhaps I'll have to sit down and check thoroughly for leaking/inflated capacitors. Also, it is my understanding that a well mantained CPU could almost last forever (not the case with motherboards), and I do keep mine neat and clean, so I really never considered CPU as the main cause of all this.

I suppose I'm in between the PSU and the motherboards as the culprit, or both!

Global and personal economy are not exactly ideal for purchasing electronics -they are VERY expensive here-, so, I'm try to pinpoint the issue to buy the minimum necessary

Thanks!

The logs displayed a BSOD on 4/5/2020.

For all steps / tests please make sure images are posted into the thread.


Take Screenshot in Windows 10

How to Upload and Post Screenshots and Files at Ten Forums



Please perform the following steps:

1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
2) sfc /scannow
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
4) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
5) sfc /scannow
6) chkdsk /scan
7) wmic recoveros set autoreboot = false
8) wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 7
9) wmic recoveros get autoreboot
10) wmic recoveros get DebugInfoType
11) bcdedit /enum {badmemory}

12) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

13) Make sure that there is no over clocking while troubleshooting

11) Sometimes there are problems in the bios that produce BSOD.

The BIOS: Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. FEa, 6/5/2015


12) This is a beta-BIOS
How come the computer has a beta-BIOS?
If there is no specific indication please use the most up to date non-beta BIOS
GA-F2A55M-S1 (rev. 3.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

13) To ensure that there are no improper bios settings please reset the bios


How to Clear Your Computers CMOS to Reset BIOS Settings:
How to Clear Your Computer’s CMOS to Reset BIOS Settings
3 Ways to Reset Your BIOS - wikiHow:
3 Ways to Reset Your BIOS - wikiHow
3 Easy Ways to Clear CMOS (Reset BIOS)
How to Clear CMOS (AKA Reset BIOS Settings)


14) In the left lower corner search type: system or system control > open system control panel > on the left pane click advanced system settings

a) > on the advanced tab under startup and recovery > click settings > post an image of the startup and recovery window into the thread

b) > on the advanced tab under performance > click on settings > on the performance options window > click on the advanced tab > under virtual memory > click on change > post an image of the virtual memory window into the thread

15) Read these links on Windows driver verifier : (learn how to use the reset and bootmode command to turn off the tool) (do not use the tool until it is communicated in the thread)

Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...3-c48669e4c983

Thanks for your reply!

Here's the first batch:


---------------------------------




Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.752]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


C:\Windows\system32>sfc /scannow


Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.


Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.


Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.


C:\Windows\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1


Image Version: 10.0.18363.752


[==========================100.0%==========================] No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.


C:\Windows\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1


Image Version: 10.0.18363.752


[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.


C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /scan
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is MAIN.


Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
290304 file records processed.
File verification completed.
6204 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
5450 reparse records processed.
433684 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
5450 reparse records processed.


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
71691 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35390240 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.


Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.


153007103 KB total disk space.
33522116 KB in 211911 files.
145556 KB in 71692 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
399079 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
118940352 KB available on disk.


4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
38251775 total allocation units on disk.
29735088 allocation units available on disk.


C:\Windows\system32>wmic recoveros set autoreboot = false
Updating property(s) of '\\DESKTOP-CM2UKSV\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_OSRecoveryConfiguration.Name="Microsoft Windows 10 Pro|C:\\Windows|\\Device\\Harddisk0\\Partition2"'
Property(s) update successful.


C:\Windows\system32>wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 7
Updating property(s) of '\\DESKTOP-CM2UKSV\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_OSRecoveryConfiguration.Name="Microsoft Windows 10 Pro|C:\\Windows|\\Device\\Harddisk0\\Partition2"'
Property(s) update successful.


C:\Windows\system32>wmic recoveros get autoreboot
AutoReboot
FALSE




C:\Windows\system32>wmic recoveros get DebugInfoType
DebugInfoType
7




C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /enum {badmemory}


RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

- - - Updated - - -

• No overclocking present -now or ever-;
• Downgraded BIOS to version to FD -latest, stable, non-beta-;
• Reset BIOS to it's optimized defaults;

- - - Updated - - -

Attachment 273645

- - - Updated - - -

Attachment 273646

C and D are the same SSD
E and F are the same HDD

Make a new restore point:

Create System Restore Point in Windows 10
Create System Restore Point in Windows 10

Windows driver verifier will stress test drivers.

Start the tool with the 3 customized test settings in the Ten Forums link.

Increase the customized test settings by 3 - 5 / hour up to the 19 customized test settings in the Microsoft link.

Plan to run the tool for 48 hours and an additional 36 hours after the last BSOD.

For any BSOD:

a) run the V2 log collector to collect new log files

b) open file explorer> this PC > C: > in the right upper corner search for: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
> if the file size is < 1.5 GB then zip > post a separate share link into the thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive


There can be performance problems and slow boot while using the tool.
If necessary the customized settings can be modified.

Make sure no Microsoft drivers are tested.
And make sure all non-Microsoft drivers are stress tested.


Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10
Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...3-c48669e4c983
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...9e4c983?auth=1

Everything's done, except the last step.
It is really necessary considering I still need to use the computer and it's already under quite a pressure for the lack of a properly configured GPU?

Only drivers I've installed are:

• AMD Chipset Drivers;
• Realted Audio (v 6.0.8874.1, downloaded from Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version [2] )
• Nvidia drivers (to test with secondary video), I will remove them now.

Issues happened before installed them also.
All the rest of the drivers are the ones that came with Windows 10.

There was a BSOD on 4/5/2020.

It was not detected while you were using the computer.

The tool should be able to stress drivers.

Misbehaving drivers should cause BSOD.

Debugging dump files typically finds the misbehaving driver.

I'm concluding that's not a software issue but a hardware one, most likely being the PSU the culprit.

• Power supply in my area has always been very inconsistent in summer time, even experiencing several low voltage situations system wide, with surges making my PC to reboot automatically. Despite PSU's got it's own protection methods, exposing it to several days -and years overall- of unstable electric flow could've inflicted some damage on it. PSU is not near top of the line and it has 8 years of continuous usage (Sentey BRP700).

• I did have random, sporadic reboots over time on my system for a while, even while doing basic tasks (watching a YT video). None prove to be catastrophic until the other day.

• Since the "mayor crash" I experienced the other day while playing a game, that rendered my system unable to install AMD Drivers even on a fresh new copy of a clean Windows 10 , I did experience several random reboots using Microsoft Basic Display Adapter performing basic tasks;
  
  • At the time of the "mayor crash" I had latest AMD drivers installed and they were working just fine and no mayor Windows 10 updates were installed that day.

• Removing video card (AMD R7 265) and replacing it a Geforce GTS 540 for testing purposes also triggered random crashes and system's lock up (different behavior, but same result nonetheless = system crash). Even while using the Geforce the computer suffered TWO system crashes just by clicking on the "refresh" button on TechPowerUp GPU-Z app. Yet, the third, fourth, ... times I clicked refresh, system did not reboot.
  
  • Attachment 273658

• Weirdly enough FurMark stress on my CPU and the testing video card -Geforce GTS 540 with Nvidia drivers installed- didn't make my system crash. Yet, opening Chrome afterwards triggered a crash.

I can't identify a system crash pattern.
The only pattern is that when I try to install AMD drives for my R7 265 the system does crash. The rest of the reboots are random and not logical based on the system stress at the moment.

Despite inspecting the PSU -and computer in general- for failed capacitors, I really lack the know-how to effectively detect a bad one unless it's very obviously damaged.

Bottom line: I'm purchasing a new PC overall -time to upgrade anyways- and I expect this to solve my issue once and for all.

I really appreciate time invested in trying to help me, guys!