So, to begin explaining this issue I need to start from the very beginning.

In 2013 I built my first rig, a good mid range gaming PC, about a month and a half ago I decided it was time to upgrade.

I upgraded the GPU, CPU, MOBO, RAM, and purchased an SSD

The change is as follows

2013 Specs:

- i5 3570k @3.4ghz

- MSI GTX 670 OC Edition

- Asrock Z77 Extreme 4

- Corsair H80i

- 8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance (2x4)

- Seagate Barracuda 2TB + 1TB

- Corsair TX 750W

- Network Adapter (D-Link)


2018 Specs:

- i7 8700k @3.7ghz

- ASUS RTX 2080Ti OC Edition

- ASUS Prime Z370-A

- Same CPU cooling

- 16GB DDR4 Dominator Platinum (2x8)

- Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2

- Same HDD’s

- Same PSU (750W)

- Same Network Adapter

So, I INSTALLED the new parts with my friend and we started her up, upon checking the BIOS I noticed the RAM was only running at 2666mhz or something lower (around that figure). Seeing as it was advertised at 3200mhz I told my friend to set it to 3200mhz and we did. Now the computer was working fine. I played some games, ran totally fine.

About a week or two after rebuilding I was playing Witcher 3 for the first time and within a few days of playing this game the PC began to crash while running it. I will attach a video showing it happening. It would begin by the image freezing, sound still on, followed by this horrible stuttering noise that then turned into a blue screen.

On the bottom left I could read an Error Code saying BAD_POOL_CALLER/HEADER I forgot which error it said exactly but it was BAD_POOL something.

After being quite scared I shrugged it off and ignored the error (foolish). Rebooted my PC and tried Witcher 3 again, wondering if it was just something random. Well, it happened again, again, and again. Sometimes I could play Witcher 3 for a few hours before it would happen.

I could play Wolfenstein 2, Dota 2, Asetto Corsa, ProjectCARS, all fine without any notice of issue or interruption.

This made me think even less of the problem that was occurring. Until I played GTA 5 and noticed the same issues, same crashing. Making me restart my PC. The crashes were so random it was hard to see what was making it happen. Settings were all on maximum for each game I played so I didn’t know what to change.

Yesterday I stepped away from my computer for about 30 minutes while it was running. I came back to it, not remembering if I had a game on I noticed the screen had gone a dim black and my peripherals all without power. Just the PC remained on.

I tried rebooting it and it would take me to the windows startup repair page, where you can troubleshoot, reset PC, etc. I would click continue to Windows 10 since nothing else worked and nothing would happen. It would begin to load windows then the same thing would happen again, keyboard/mouse shut off, monitor displays nothing but a dim black
screen.

I connected that error message I had gotten days before to me switching the RAM to 3200mhz. I went into the BIOS and reverted it back to 2666mhz. The PC booted up windows and all seemed to be working perfectly now.

Even ran the free 3DMark benchmark test, all fine.

So at this point I was determined to test the Witcher 3 out and see if this problem occurred. Without even leaving the village I spawned in, it happened again. I was shook.

It went back to its regular cycle of not booting windows and giving me no display/power to my peripherals.

After trying 2-3 more times to boot it FEELING rather hopeless (even lowered the ram speed to 2600). On the last attempt I heard a popping sound that was loud enough to scare me. It sounded like the PSU.

Since that I have had it unplugged and shut off.

I’ll attach the videos/images I took to give you all a better understanding. I really hope someone can help me solve this issue. Thank you for reading this lengthy post.


Here: https://imgur.com/a/DWSEomu
Its most likely the power supply. Heavier games have more power demand to them. I was testing a system with a GTX 780 Ti video card with a benchmark and watching the power consumption through a Kill-a-Watt power meter and each NEWER version of Direct X that was tested with the benchmark pulled more power draw than the prior older Direct X test of the benchmark. My battery backup was screaming that too much power was being pulled through it which caused me to investigate this when gaming also Witcher 3 as well as Black Desert Online. The computer was pulling 460 watts through the outlet with latest Direct X 12 benchmark. My solution was to just install a LARGER battery backup that wasnt going to scream when 460 watts of power was being pulled through it.

However I have also had systems that their power supplies died and the systems became unstable before the snap-crackle-pops. One computers power supply even died in a way that the computer kept running but it let out white smoke like a party fogger that smelled like rotten fish as capacitors inside it burst and surprisingly its internal fuse didnt pop to shut it down. My wife hated coming home to the smell of roasted computer rotten fish power supply stench. This power supply was a cheap Chinese Golden Power that came with a $19.99 case that I picked up for an inexpensive build about 15 years ago.

I'd open your computer up and smell around the power supply. It should have a odd smell of say a capacitor or two that popped. Inspect the main board as well for damage as a failing power supply can also cook a main board if the voltages went too high before it shutdown with the snap-crackle-pop.

Install a new or known good power supply and see if the computer will boot ok or not. Corsair makes good power supplies but sometimes they wear out and fail. Getting 5 or 6 years of use out of a power supply is pretty good as well.

The upgrade you performed pulls more power and so the power supply may have been weak or tired under the prior build and the upgrade put it into territory that it wasn't able to keep up with the additional power demands of the newer build after upgrade.Second that re: PSU. Corsair outsources some models known to be dodgy but it might simply be age + new system. Five or six years seems when many replace, just to be safe.

If your mobo has popped a cap you might be able to get a shop to recap a few. There's a few sites that will do that inexpensively, I think a guy on ccl-la.com does it. If you're not covered by Asus...Thank you for the responses!

Currently I am about to run a stress test that someone from Nvidia Customer Care sent me to check for any faults in the hardware. I have been wondering if the GPU is faulty. The only issue now is after taking out my 670 and putting the 2080 I am getting a code 43 which is not allowing me to get a display when the HDMI from the GPU is connected (if things couldn’t get worse). So my goal is to fix this ASAP, run the stress test, send the results to Mr. Mansoor at Nvidia and see what he says. If he can’t seem to find an issue I have no choice but to get a new PSU. No hardware seems to be hurt since the night of the “pop” from the PSU.

I’m starting to think the PSU is slowly dying from age like you said, Dave.

PS.

I’ve tried a million things to fix this code 43 for the GPU, is it possible that can be related to a lack of power supply too? It just randomly came up after putting her back in an hour ago.