Solve : PC crashes randomly when graphic card is enabled?

1.	Solve : PC crashes randomly when graphic card is enabled?
Answer» I know there are other threads with a similar title, but I already tried everything suggested in these threads without solving anything. My situation is the following: my PC is an HP p71011-it with Windows 10. My BIOS is AMI 7.15 (10/13/2011), my motherboard is a Pegatron Corporation 2AB6 1.04 and I have a Nvidia GT 610 as graphic card. Since I had this PC (2014) it gave me some troubles: it sometimes freezes and reboots randomly. By "sometimes" I mean that there are periods in which it works just fine and periods in which I can't literally use it because it freezes before booting successfully. After more than one year of it WORKING well, this problem verified again when I tried to connect my TV as a monitor last week. Since then it won't stay turned on more than 5 minutes unless I disable my graphic card, switching back to the integrated one. When my graphic card is disabled my PC runs just fine without major problems or freezes; then after some time (e.g. a month) I switch the graphic card back on and pray it works; generally most of the times it does, but I'd like to solve this problem once for all. Here a list of information about the freezes: - Sometimes when the PC freezes my speakers emit white noise for 1-2 second and the PC reboots without any BS; - Sometimes it seems all external hardware stops working: my keyboard and mouse lights turn off, my screen goes black and the LED on my monitor (normally red) begins to blink, but without a "No signal" message (which is the standard message of my monitor - a Samsung SyncMaster S24B350 - when the, uhm, signal is missing). The PC doesn't turn off or reboot in this case. - Sometimes the PC freezes and displays a blue screen with a emoji and error code VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR. It reboots after 20 sec or so. Here a list of things I tried to do that didn't solve the problem: - Formatting PC. I did several times. - Changing OS (the original OS of this PC was Win7, then I installed Win10 and/or used Ubuntu Desktop. No luck.) - Changing monitor/HDMI cable. I also tried both of them with other PCs and they worked fine. - Changing graphic card: this was astonishing because I was certain it was its fault. This PC originally had a GT 530, i bought a GT 610 hoping to solve the problem. No luck. - Updating graphic card drivers. - Installing/uninstalling NVidia softwares like GEForce Experience. - Updating BIOS (it seems I have the last version). - Cleaning the tower. I did several times. - Running CCleaner or any antivirus. - Checking the internal cables: I thougth maybe some of them were a bit loose. That wasn't the case. - Using PC in Safe Mode: it freezes also there (provided it BOOTS successfully before entering it). It actually worked in Safe Mode with low graphics (I don't know the english name, it is a Safe mode in which PC uses the integrated graphic card instead of the NVidia one), and it is the way I discovered that disabling the GT610 makes the PC work. But I obviously am very limited with only the integrated card. - Asked for technical support (from an expert friend of mine, who tried some of these things listed above). I don't remember if there are other things I tried, in that case I'll update the list. Thank you in advance to everyone (just for having read all this post you deserve my gratitude).Thank you for such a comprehensive post. I would be checking the computer for bad capacitors on the motherboard and graphics card here is a wiki page of what to look for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Also if you can or know someone who can check the power supply it would be worth either doing that or fitting a new atx supply it's just a common atx supply in your HP. Quote from: Lisa_maree on January 13, 2020, 12:49:46 PM Thank you for such a comprehensive post. I would be checking the computer for bad capacitors on the motherboard and graphics card here is a wiki page of what to look for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Also if you can or know someone who can check the power supply it would be worth either doing that or fitting a new atx supply it's just a common atx supply in your HP. Thank you for your answer. Tomorrow (here is GMT+1) I will look for a MULTIMETER at home and if I do have it I will check the power supply and the capacitors too. I'll let you know.Here is my update: I don't have a multimeter at home, but a friend of mine is gonna lend me one next Friday. Meanwhile I checked the capacitors and they are fine (both on the motherboard and graphics cards). I also cleaned them a bit (gently, I was afraid to damage something) with a vacuum cleaner: motherboard, graphics cards and power supply were very dusty. Btw I discovered some things that may be interesting. My power supply has a maximum power of 300W, and on this page (https://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm) I found that GT530 has a recommended PSU Wattage of 330W, while GT610 has 300W. So I should be ok with GT610, but I'm not very sure 300W actually suffice. Here a pic of my power supply as it is seen inside the PC. Another thing I NOTICED is that I have only an HDMI port (no wonder, I know it for some time), but this port is on the graphics card: there is also a port on the motherboard, but it is shut and not usable (as in the pic). How is this even possible? I can use my HDMI monitor without problems (although at a lower resolution) even when my graphics card is disabled.Thanks for the info and the pictures. I have checked everything and still consider the power supply the likely cause of your problem. The multimeter will go someway to confirming this. with your case it would be best to replace the power supply with a 500 Watt unit with managed cables. The black plastic covers are there to stop owners plugging the monitor into the wrong connectors. Yesterday I was able to use the multimeter. The results are the following: The CPU port has two black cables and two yellow ones. Connecting different colours I obtained a current of 17.48V The motherboard port has 24 pins. I plugged a probe to a black cable and moved the other one, obtaining the following results: - Black: 0V (obviously) - Red: 7.84V - Blue: 17.05V - Orange: 5.12V - Yellow: 18.43V - Purple: 7.86V - GREY: 5.06V Different cables with same color yielded the same current. While I was measuring I noticed that current increased a bit after some minutes (e.g. initially red cables yielded 7.56V, then it stabilized at 7.84V) I did not measure the green cable since its pin was occupied by a paperclip to activate the power supply. DVD reader and SATA had a different type of port (the black one in the pic) and I'm not able to use the multitester with them, but I think that given the circumstances they aren't so important. Edit: I don't know if this can be relevant, but I also included data from Speccy about the motherboard (GT610 is disabled at the moment).Hi Either the Multimeter has a flat battery or the power supply is really stuffed. The voltages should be - Black: 0V (obviously) - Red: 5V - Blue: -12V - Orange: 3.3V - Yellow: 12V - Purple: +5V - Grey: 5.0V The fact the grey wire was close to right at 5.06 V seems it is not the Multimeter You really need to replace the power supply. Quote from: Lisa_maree on January 18, 2020, 01:11:15 PM Hi Either the Multimeter has a flat battery or the power supply is really stuffed. The voltages should be - Black: 0V (obviously) - Red: 5V - Blue: -12V - Orange: 3.3V - Yellow: 12V - Purple: +5V - Grey: 5.0V The fact the grey wire was close to right at 5.06 V seems it is not the Multimeter You really need to replace the power supply. Thank you for all your help so far. I tried to "test" the multimeter by measuring the voltage of an AA battery, obtaining 1.85V. Since it is a brand new battery I know it can be a bit higher than 1.5V, but I don't know if the output is actually correct. By the way, do you have any suggestion about a new power supply? You told before that a 500W should be fine; are 500W ATX power supplies all equivalent? Should I check for some sort of compatibility? Sorry to bother you, but I neither built a PC myself or replaced a power supply, so I'm not very sure about this.

Answer»

I know there are other threads with a similar title, but I already tried everything suggested in these threads without solving anything.
My situation is the following: my PC is an HP p71011-it with Windows 10. My BIOS is AMI 7.15 (10/13/2011), my motherboard is a Pegatron Corporation 2AB6 1.04 and I have a Nvidia GT 610 as graphic card. Since I had this PC (2014) it gave me some troubles: it sometimes freezes and reboots randomly. By "sometimes" I mean that there are periods in which it works just fine and periods in which I can't literally use it because it freezes before booting successfully. After more than one year of it WORKING well, this problem verified again when I tried to connect my TV as a monitor last week. Since then it won't stay turned on more than 5 minutes unless I disable my graphic card, switching back to the integrated one. When my graphic card is disabled my PC runs just fine without major problems or freezes; then after some time (e.g. a month) I switch the graphic card back on and pray it works; generally most of the times it does, but I'd like to solve this problem once for all. Here a list of information about the freezes:
- Sometimes when the PC freezes my speakers emit white noise for 1-2 second and the PC reboots without any BS;
- Sometimes it seems all external hardware stops working: my keyboard and mouse lights turn off, my screen goes black and the LED on my monitor (normally red) begins to blink, but without a "No signal" message (which is the standard message of my monitor - a Samsung SyncMaster S24B350 - when the, uhm, signal is missing). The PC doesn't turn off or reboot in this case.
- Sometimes the PC freezes and displays a blue screen with a emoji and error code VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR. It reboots after 20 sec or so.

Here a list of things I tried to do that didn't solve the problem:
- Formatting PC. I did several times.
- Changing OS (the original OS of this PC was Win7, then I installed Win10 and/or used Ubuntu Desktop. No luck.)
- Changing monitor/HDMI cable. I also tried both of them with other PCs and they worked fine.
- Changing graphic card: this was astonishing because I was certain it was its fault. This PC originally had a GT 530, i bought a GT 610 hoping to solve the problem. No luck.
- Updating graphic card drivers.
- Installing/uninstalling NVidia softwares like GEForce Experience.
- Updating BIOS (it seems I have the last version).
- Cleaning the tower. I did several times.
- Running CCleaner or any antivirus.
- Checking the internal cables: I thougth maybe some of them were a bit loose. That wasn't the case.
- Using PC in Safe Mode: it freezes also there (provided it BOOTS successfully before entering it). It actually worked in Safe Mode with low graphics (I don't know the english name, it is a Safe mode in which PC uses the integrated graphic card instead of the NVidia one), and it is the way I discovered that disabling the GT610 makes the PC work. But I obviously am very limited with only the integrated card.
- Asked for technical support (from an expert friend of mine, who tried some of these things listed above).

I don't remember if there are other things I tried, in that case I'll update the list. Thank you in advance to everyone (just for having read all this post you deserve my gratitude).Thank you for such a comprehensive post. I would be checking the computer for bad capacitors on the motherboard and graphics card here is a wiki page of what to look for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Also if you can or know someone who can check the power supply it would be worth either doing that or fitting a new atx supply it's just a common atx supply in your HP.

Quote from: Lisa_maree on January 13, 2020, 12:49:46 PM

Thank you for such a comprehensive post. I would be checking the computer for bad capacitors on the motherboard and graphics card here is a wiki page of what to look for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Also if you can or know someone who can check the power supply it would be worth either doing that or fitting a new atx supply it's just a common atx supply in your HP.

Thank you for your answer. Tomorrow (here is GMT+1) I will look for a MULTIMETER at home and if I do have it I will check the power supply and the capacitors too. I'll let you know.Here is my update: I don't have a multimeter at home, but a friend of mine is gonna lend me one next Friday. Meanwhile I checked the capacitors and they are fine (both on the motherboard and graphics cards). I also cleaned them a bit (gently, I was afraid to damage something) with a vacuum cleaner: motherboard, graphics cards and power supply were very dusty.
Btw I discovered some things that may be interesting. My power supply has a maximum power of 300W, and on this page (https://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm) I found that GT530 has a recommended PSU Wattage of 330W, while GT610 has 300W. So I should be ok with GT610, but I'm not very sure 300W actually suffice. Here a pic of my power supply as it is seen inside the PC.

Another thing I NOTICED is that I have only an HDMI port (no wonder, I know it for some time), but this port is on the graphics card: there is also a port on the motherboard, but it is shut and not usable (as in the pic). How is this even possible? I can use my HDMI monitor without problems (although at a lower resolution) even when my graphics card is disabled.Thanks for the info and the pictures.

I have checked everything and still consider the power supply the likely cause of your problem. The multimeter will go someway to confirming this. with your case it would be best to replace the power supply with a 500 Watt unit with managed cables.
The black plastic covers are there to stop owners plugging the monitor into the wrong connectors.

Yesterday I was able to use the multimeter. The results are the following:
The CPU port has two black cables and two yellow ones. Connecting different colours I obtained a current of 17.48V

The motherboard port has 24 pins. I plugged a probe to a black cable and moved the other one, obtaining the following results:
- Black: 0V (obviously)
- Red: 7.84V
- Blue: 17.05V
- Orange: 5.12V
- Yellow: 18.43V
- Purple: 7.86V
- GREY: 5.06V

Different cables with same color yielded the same current. While I was measuring I noticed that current increased a bit after some minutes (e.g. initially red cables yielded 7.56V, then it stabilized at 7.84V)
I did not measure the green cable since its pin was occupied by a paperclip to activate the power supply.

DVD reader and SATA had a different type of port (the black one in the pic) and I'm not able to use the multitester with them, but I think that given the circumstances they aren't so important.

Edit: I don't know if this can be relevant, but I also included data from Speccy about the motherboard (GT610 is disabled at the moment).Hi
Either the Multimeter has a flat battery or the power supply is really stuffed. The voltages should be

- Black: 0V (obviously)
- Red: 5V
- Blue: -12V
- Orange: 3.3V
- Yellow: 12V
- Purple: +5V
- Grey: 5.0V

The fact the grey wire was close to right at 5.06 V seems it is not the Multimeter
You really need to replace the power supply. Quote from: Lisa_maree on January 18, 2020, 01:11:15 PM

Hi
Either the Multimeter has a flat battery or the power supply is really stuffed. The voltages should be

- Black: 0V (obviously)
- Red: 5V
- Blue: -12V
- Orange: 3.3V
- Yellow: 12V
- Purple: +5V
- Grey: 5.0V

The fact the grey wire was close to right at 5.06 V seems it is not the Multimeter
You really need to replace the power supply.

Thank you for all your help so far. I tried to "test" the multimeter by measuring the voltage of an AA battery, obtaining 1.85V. Since it is a brand new battery I know it can be a bit higher than 1.5V, but I don't know if the output is actually correct.
By the way, do you have any suggestion about a new power supply? You told before that a 500W should be fine; are 500W ATX power supplies all equivalent? Should I check for some sort of compatibility? Sorry to bother you, but I neither built a PC myself or replaced a power supply, so I'm not very sure about this.

Solve : PC crashes randomly when graphic card is enabled?

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