# graphics card randomly spikes to 100% usage then crashes



## clinto (Sep 3, 2020)

so i built my new PC in January it was a 1660ti with a ryzen 5 3600. worked well for the first week but ever since then my GPU will randomly will hit 100% usage and crash my displays plus whatever programs i was running. it takes about 5 secs or so for the displays to turn back on. i originally thought i just had a faulty graphics card so i purchased a new 2070 as well as a ryzen 7 3700x and the problem persists. i have a 700 watt evga power supply, a b550 mother board, 16 gigs of ram at 3600mhz. all of my drivers are up to date and I have disabled any type of overclocking by selecting load optimized defaults in my bios. any ideas?


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## pavle (Sep 3, 2020)

Since PSU should be good, might be the AMD-nvidia combination that is not yet polished. Try updating the BIOS and load setup defaults.
Intel and NV work well together, AMD and NV - not always.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 3, 2020)

clinto said:


> so i built my new PC in January it was a 1660ti with a ryzen 5 3600. worked well for the first week but ever since then my GPU will randomly will hit 100% usage and crash my displays plus whatever programs i was running. it takes about 5 secs or so for the displays to turn back on. i originally thought i just had a faulty graphics card so i purchased a new 2070 as well as a ryzen 7 3700x and the problem persists. i have a 700 watt evga power supply, a b550 mother board, 16 gigs of ram at 3600mhz. all of my drivers are up to date and I have disabled any type of overclocking by selecting load optimized defaults in my bios. any ideas?


Try running your memory at defaults not Xmp.


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## Caring1 (Sep 3, 2020)

Run a Malwarebytes scan.


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## Chomiq (Sep 3, 2020)

You changed mobo, cpu and gpu. Psu and ram are the same? So it's one of the two.


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## Paganstomp (Sep 3, 2020)

Recommend doing a fresh install of your current O/S and drivers onto a different drive and then test without the PC being online.


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## clinto (Sep 3, 2020)

Chomiq said:


> You changed mobo, cpu and gpu. Psu and ram are the same? So it's one of the two.


the power supply is new aswell i had a 550 but i upgraded when i got the 2070/ryzen 7 3700x


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## DRDNA (Sep 3, 2020)

Did you scan


clinto said:


> the power supply is new aswell i had a 550 but i upgraded when i got the 2070/ryzen 7 3700x


Did you scan with malwarebytes to see if you have a miner that got installed unwantingly as Caring1 recommended? Also what error is in system logs when the crash happened? look in System and apps section of logs.



Caring1 said:


> Run a Malwarebytes scan.


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## clinto (Sep 3, 2020)

Ok so new problem I went into the bios and forced my ram to 3600 because I seen it was running at 2133 and now my system won't boot thishappend just now, is there a way I can just completely wipe and start anew with my pc


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 3, 2020)

clinto said:


> Ok so new problem I went into the bios and forced my ram to 3600 because I seen it was running at 2133 and now my system won't boot thishappend just now, is there a way I can just completely wipe and start anew with my pc


We could do with you filling out your system specs, what type, speed and timings are your ram's.
If you have the motherboard manual look up clearing CMOS in it, that or remove power leads and then open the pc up and remove the coin battery for ten minutes, refit the right way up.


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## clinto (Sep 3, 2020)

theoneandonlymrk said:


> We could do with you filling out your system specs, what type, speed and timings are your ram's.


I have 16gb of 3600 gskill ram


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## Chomiq (Sep 3, 2020)

Pro tip: 
Throwing money at the problem isn't always the best solution.

My bet is on memory timings, VDDP, VDDG issues, etc.


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## clinto (Sep 3, 2020)

theoneandonlymrk said:


> We could do with you filling out your system specs, what type, speed and timings are your ram's.
> If you have the motherboard manual look up clearing CMOS in it, that or remove power leads and then open the pc up and remove the coin battery for ten minutes, refit the right way up.


alright were back i cleared the cmos and i got here running again, and i have also set everything in my bios to defaults


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 3, 2020)

clinto said:


> alright were back i cleared the cmos and i got here running again, and i have also set everything in my bios to defaults


As a starting point your set, run it a bit see if the crash issues are resolved then move forward with increasing memory performance, over clocking the CPU is near pointless.
But do let us know if it's ok please.


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## Chomiq (Sep 3, 2020)

Typhoon burner + Dram calculator. Adjust your timings and voltages, validate stability with Memtest64 or something similar. If you need help, ask here, somebody will explain the process to you.

Fill in your specs here:


			https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/account/specs
		


Detailed systems specs, not just "B550 motherboard", provide brand and model. Same with ram, Gskill 3600 16gb doesn't say much, same as "2070"  or "700W EVGA psu". Click on "System Specs" below my account on the left side or @theoneandonlymrk account and you will get idea what sort of info should be included.


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## Rowsol (Sep 3, 2020)

It worked fine for a week. Did you change something after a week? How often does this happen?

I agree with Paganstomp. A fresh windows install is a surefire way of determining if it's a software or hardware issue. Really, you should have done that before buying more gear.


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## John Naylor (Sep 3, 2020)

1.   Did you follow the recommended procedure of formatting the boot drive and doing a  refresh install of Windows ?

2.  If not, did you at least uninstall all hardware drivers for the items being taken out, rebooted, shut down, remove the old hardware .... then install the new hatdware, set BIOS to defauilts, intsall the drivers for the new hardware ?

If not problems are to be expected, now that they are here, I wouldn't chance Option 2, Id do a fresh install.


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## DuxCro (Sep 3, 2020)

Hmmm. Something like that from title happens to my pen*s. Spikes to 100% usage, and then crashes. 


I'll let myself out.


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## clinto (Sep 3, 2020)

Paganstomp said:


> Recommend doing a fresh install of your current O/S and drivers onto a different drive and then test without the PC being online.


thats the plan if nothing else helps



Caring1 said:


> Run a Malwarebytes scan.


after running the scan there were a few problems found but after using the fix like the program said nothing seems to have changed



theoneandonlymrk said:


> As a starting point your set, run it a bit see if the crash issues are resolved then move forward with increasing memory performance, over clocking the CPU is near pointless.
> But do let us know if it's ok please.


so sadly the issue persists could you explain to me where i can start with increasing my memory performance



John Naylor said:


> 1.   Did you follow the recommended procedure of formatting the boot drive and doing a  refresh install of Windows ?
> 
> 2.  If not, did you at least uninstall all hardware drivers for the items being taken out, rebooted, shut down, remove the old hardware .... then install the new hatdware, set BIOS to defauilts, intsall the drivers for the new hardware ?
> 
> If not problems are to be expected, now that they are here, I wouldn't chance Option 2, Id do a fresh install.


do you mean when i first installed all my components back in January because i haven't done a windows install since the original one.



Rowsol said:


> It worked fine for a week. Did you change something after a week? How often does this happen?
> 
> I agree with Paganstomp. A fresh windows install is a surefire way of determining if it's a software or hardware issue. Really, you should have done that before buying more gear.


yeah that would have been the smart thing to do but i plan on doing that if none of the other fixes people suggest work for me



Chomiq said:


> Typhoon burner + Dram calculator. Adjust your timings and voltages, validate stability with Memtest64 or something similar. If you need help, ask here, somebody will explain the process to you.
> 
> Fill in your specs here:
> 
> ...


i have filled out the specs list : )


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 3, 2020)

clinto said:


> thats the plan if nothing else helps
> 
> 
> after running the scan there were a few problems found but after using the fix like the program said nothing seems to have changed
> ...


I would get it working first, you would just compound your issues , might well be worth a fresh install if the Is drive is a carry over.


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## yotano211 (Sep 3, 2020)

DuxCro said:


> Hmmm. Something like that from title happens to my pen*s. Spikes to 100% usage, and then crashes.
> 
> 
> I'll let myself out.


Usually happens to people that see other people of the same sex.


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## lionicampos (Nov 9, 2020)

@clinto you find the solution? I am with the same problem!


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## ar0m (Nov 17, 2020)

@clinto I have the same memory, and the same GPU. I am also experiencing this problem. Usually, I am able to get into task manager and see that the GPU 3D view spikes up to 100% and just stays there. I can't open or close any applications, and I must hard restart. Have you found a solution to this problem? I've been beating myself up over it for about a month. Thank you!


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## ArrowXIII (Nov 18, 2020)

I make an account just to say I have the same problem as you.
It was 5 months ago, the problem occured, so I tried serveral things:
- first I thought it was the game itself caused the problem so I tried to optimize it, but
- update/roll back/clean install with DDU the graphic driver - no help
- clean install windows (wipe out the SSD drive completely and install) - no help
- turn of X-AMP - no help
I had done everything in my narrowed knowledge and power so I brought my PC to the store (where bought it by the end of 2019). The technicians there saw the problem, took every part to check each of them for nearly a week - found nothing. In the end they put everything together, updated the BIOS, and the problem is gone. I've been using it for ~5 months now and it's coming back last night, I actually have no idea why and how to deal with this again.
If you find anything please let me know, thank you.


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## ar0m (Nov 18, 2020)

ArrowXIII said:


> I make an account just to say I have the same problem as you.
> It was 5 months ago, the problem occured, so I tried serveral things:
> - first I thought it was the game itself caused the problem so I tried to optimize it, but
> - update/roll back/clean install with DDU the graphic driver - no help
> ...



Hey ArrowXIII, take a look at this thread: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/rtx-2070-spikes-up-to-100-usage-and-freezes.274797/


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## Hayuf (Dec 20, 2020)

For Nvidia Graphic Cards ONLY. I found a work around this GPU spike to 100% then crash problem, mine used to happen every single game, but now it is flawless 4k gaming. No more crying... Finally.

My analogy is this... the GPU is like a person doing a tremendously heavy deadlift, wears itself down for a split second then quits. That same person then take steroids next time to help keep a constant pressure while enjoying a routine. In the case of a GPU, it is a software that can drive it's constant power without ever giving up. This is regardless of whether your drivers are up to date or not.

Go to https://www.evga.com/precisionx1/ and download a standalone version. Run it. type in 75 in the box that says "POWER" then hit your enter keyboard key. You can click the fan icon that turns it to auto.
Turn on the toggle switch called "BOOST LOCK" at the lower right of the screen. Press "SAVE" then "APPLY". You can adjust the other parameters to your liking later. Test your game or whatever graphic hungry programs you got.

If it works then good. If not, I believe not all problems are the same. Move on and find another way. Good luck! Hope you'll find relief just as I have.


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