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Random Hard Crashing & USB device dissconnects.

Anonymous
2025-03-20T08:30:31+00:00

Hi,

This one has a story. About 2 weeks ago I started having slight issues with my PC. I received an error from one of my mod managers saying that a file was not found or inaccessible and was likely an environment error and not the mod manger. However I was still able to play the game regardless of this error. A few days later I opened up my PC for routine cleaning without any issue. The following day I started to have major issues, with games crashing & PC BSODing. I figured it was just a minor issue so I updated all my drivers, bios, firmware, etc. but it was still crashing.

After some trouble shooting I decided it would be a decent idea to uninstall and reinstall Steam. However Steam started to nuke my entire program files folder causing me to use a system restore point. After this the issues went away for about half a day then came back, I dug into the files of the drive all the games were installed on and found out that almost every file was reporting an error of data loss. I tried chkdsk for the drive and it couldn't access the drive saying it wasn't NTFS file system type. I formatted the drive since there wasn't anything of value on it and it worked for about an hour before downloads started to fail and started to report data loss errors again. I figured this was just a corrupt drive so I removed it from my system.

However the next day my USB devices all at once started disconnecting, everything from audio to keyboard to VR tracking stations. Around the same time I started experiencing hard crashes instead of BSODs, my PC would just black screen but stay on and restart on it's own. While the issues does seam to happen more frequently when playing high intensity games my USB devices still randomly disconnect regardless of demand.

It's at the point where I cannot reliably play games anymore without the exception that my USB drops or I black screen. I still have my drive pulled from my system despite the issues and I'm at a complete loss. I've owned this PC for almost 4 years now with no internal hardware changes. I did add a VR headseat (BCB) and 2 controllers and 3 tracking stations and those have had their own set of connectivity issues. I bought a better Bluetooth 3.4 dongle to help with the issue but it didn't seam to work. The issues started before buying the dongle, as I bought it in response to the connectivity issues.

I should mention I have A LOT of lighting in my system and most USB slots are taken for said lighting & accessories. But it's weird how I'm only just now experiencing these issues despite having the VR headset for around 2 months with only the connectivity issues of the controllers. I also tried unplugging my base stations and headset and it didn't fix the issue.

I also performed Time Spy Extreme and watched thermals the entire time, no abnormalitys there. Nothing overheated, especially since it's freshly cleaned with new coolant. All drivers are up to date.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Specs:
AMD 5900X
MSI Ventus OC 3080
ROG Crosshair VIII motherboard
TridentZ 64gb 3200ghz
Hardline water cooled.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. DaveM121 885K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-03-20T16:21:20+00:00

    Glad to help!

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-20T16:10:06+00:00

    I have followed the instructions provided and will try to cause crashing when I get home from work. Considering it took me almost 2 days to get the second crash it might be a little while. But I will keep it running in the mean time and report my findings. Thanks for the help so far.

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  3. DaveM121 885K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-03-20T14:22:16+00:00

    Thank you, those minidump files will not be related to the current problem.

    To try to force Windows to create new minidump files and to show any faulting drivers, the best option would be to turn on Driver Verifier, let your PC crash 3 times, then you must turn off Driver Verifier, and finally, upload any newly created minidump files

    Before you run Driver Verifier, please create a new System Restore Point

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...


    Note, if you have any difficulty getting into Windows with Driver Verifier enabled:

    Start your PC, just as Windows attempts to load (spinning dots), press and hold Power Button for 5 - 10 seconds to perform a Hard Shut Down

    Do this twice

    On the third start Windows will boot into the Recovery Environment and from there you can access System Repair, Safe Mode, Command Prompt... etc.

    Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - Startup Settings and click Restart

    Upon restart, press 4 to enter Safe Mode

    Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run these two commands, then restart your PC.

    verifier /reset

    verifier /bootmode resetonbootfail

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-03-20T14:19:01+00:00

    Hi,

    It doesn't seem to have made any minidumps for this particular issue. The latest one made was from 2022, however I have still included them. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C5tNQJV6R7QVE1FcL9je3CJDl2boju2p/view?usp=sharing

    Thanks!

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  5. DaveM121 885K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-03-20T09:03:50+00:00

    Hi, I am Dave, I will help you with this.

    Please check to see if your PC is producing any minidump files, I will check those to see if they provide any insight into a potential cause of the system crashes.

    Open Windows File Explorer.

    Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidump

    Copy any minidump files onto your Desktop, then zip those up.

    Upload the zip file to the Cloud (OneDrive, DropBox... etc.), then choose to share those and get a share link.

    Then post the link here to the zip file, so we can take a look for you.

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