PoE makes my PC reboot - trying to find the source

Hi everyone,

Since roughly the start of Heist, i've been having hard reboots of my computer.

Things i've investigated:
- DX vs Vulkan: no change.
- Temperature of CPU/GPU: not the issue, doesn't go above 70°C.
- PSU glitching: i've changed PSU, no change.
- SSD glitching: changed the SSD PoE is installed on, no change.
- CPU glitching: ran 4 hours-ish of Prime95, no issue.
- GPU glitching: ran Cyberpunk (100hours of play), no reboot.
- RAM glitching: ran 4 hours-ish of Memtest, no issue.
- MTX glitching: unequipped all MTX, no change.
- Activated -swa in the launch options, no change.
- Swapped Hideouts, no change.
- Used the windows repairing tools described at https://support.microsoft.com/windows/using-system-file-checker-in-windows-10-365e0031-36b1-6031-f804-8fd86e0ef4ca (see Lisa_GGG post at the bottom of first page). No change.
- Updated windows (functionnal windows update or something) from 2004 to 20H2. No change.
- Tried the --nosound launch option, no change.

So, let's make a list of reboots starting now...

01 feb 2021
20:40ish, reboot going from DummyThicc (something else in charname, can't find it again though) to my HO on character YetAnotherArchmageHiero.
Dxdiag (first one before windows update):https://pastebin.com/hy03EL3S
DxDiag (second one after update): https://pastebin.com/fexGp4cz

02 feb 2021
00:13, reboot while reconnecting to my HO after a crash to desktop in a blight map. Char YetAnotherArchmageHiero.

02 feb 2021
15:54, reboot while loading the Eye of the Storm (awa6) from my HO on first portal. Character is ShouldaCouldaPlayInquis.

06 feb 2021
13:52, reboot while leaving Barrows for my HO. Character is YetAnotherArchmageHiero. I'll try swapping HO.

06 feb 2021
18:12, reboot while entering the rogue harbor from laboratory heist. Char ShouldaCouldaPlayInquis.

Hiya,

When you say hard reboot, do you have a BSOD or it just reboots instantly ? If you have BSODs, be ready to take a picture of your screen with your phone to be able to research the error code displayed. It might help to pinpoint something like a faulty driver.

By the way if you haven't (but it seems unlikely to me regarding all you already did), update all your drivers in Device Manager. If you have unused devices plugged in, you can also try to unplug them before playing (like a joystick or something). Just a wild guess.

If it just reboots with no error code, I've got nothing. Maybe in Windows event journal you can find some trace of what went wrong after a crash ?

Good luck !

Hi !

Thanks for your answer. Just in case, I tried to update everything, to no avail (all up to date).

Those are all instant reboot (meaning PC goes black screen, ventilation stops, PSU clicks, one second dark, then PC starts to go back online).

Windows events I tried too. Whocrashed doesn't detect the event when I reboot, so I guess it's too brutal for any event log to happen.

"

PSU clicks

Sounds like a faulty PSU then or you are shorting somewhere in a case. Maybe 6 pin of the GPU? Would explain no BSOD and event viewer log.

07 feb 2021
11:17, reboot just after launching the game, was going from Lioneye's Watch (A1) to my HO. Reboot happened just before the loading screen.

"

Sounds like a faulty PSU then or you are shorting somewhere in a case. Maybe 6 pin of the GPU? Would explain no BSOD and event viewer log.

PSU and cables are new, the old one had the same issue. I'll check the pins on the GPU though.

But I'd say that a material issue is unlikely as PoE is the only game that crashes this way (exhaustive list of games I've played since reboots started: PoE, DotA2, Among Us, Mechwarrior Online, Slay the Spire, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate 3, Vermintide 2, Counter-Strike GO, the Witcher 3, Total War Warhammer 2). It is (statistically speaking) very unlikely that this issue comes from only my hardware. It is quite likely that it comes from a combination of my hardware and PoE.

EDIT : I'm stupid, I can see you have a 1070 in your dxdiag, so my message is pointless... I don't seem to be able to delete this message so I'll leave it as it is for the generations to come.
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Hey,

I just thought of something. The last generation of GPUs was infamous at launch for causing huge power draw spikes causing crashes for some users who didn't have big enough "clearance" with their max power draw from their PSUs (my vocabulary is probably a bit wrong, but you get the idea). I also remember hearing that it would only happen on certain settings with certain titles.

That was especially common for RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 FE cards if I remember properly. I don't know if/how it was ever fixed since it's still pretty recent. If you use a last-gen GPU, especially RTX 3080/3090, you should probably look more into this being a possible cause. If not, well, just ignore this message :D

Good luck to you on your research !

15 feb 2021
16:51, reboot after joining the rogue harbour from a heist (agility with Karst in a bunker tileset).

Note that after changing hideouts (from Catarina's historic HO to Alpine) I haven't had another reboot linked to it.