These are the symptoms. What is the disease?

March 3, 2017 7:45 PM

I opened a photo (iPhone 6 resolution) in Photoshop CC on my desktop. As I was dragging some guides onto the canvas, my displays glitched and turned off. The computer's fans kept running until I manually powered down. This is the latest instance of a problem that has existed since I built this PC 14 months ago.

I'm not posting my full specs or a list of everything I've tried, since I don't want to get too bogged down in tech support filter, but maybe someone here can grok a pattern in my computer's behavior that points to a specific root cause.

Crashes happen when I'm streaming Netflix or amazon Video, when I'm editing photos or playing some games on Steam. They happen when all temperatures in my case read as normal (30-ish Celsius, except for my GPU which is usually around 44 Celsius at the time of a crash).

These "crashes" don't result in memory.dmp logs.

Crashes don't happen when I'm watching local video in media viewer, running stress tests on my cpu or GPU, but they have happened twice right after exiting the GPU test.

I've done a clean driver install, run MemTest, added a fan, upgraded my PSU to an 850... No dice.

Until now, I've strongly resisted any steps that would cost a lot of money or leave me without a working desktop for any amount of time. Many days basic internet browsing is all I need. But I'm frustrated, at the limit of my technical capabilities, and emotionally drained from struggling against this machine.

I'm running windows 10. Most of the key parts are still under warranty from NewEgg.

Do I...
- find a quality local shop ( Los Angeles) to take it to?
- bite the bullet and send the video card for RMA?
- call an exorcist?

posted by itesser to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

any clues in event viewer?
posted by juv3nal at 8:38 PM on March 3, 2017

Are you sure the video cards have their latest drivers and bios? It sounds like the GPU is glitching on some more of accelerated operation. Photoshop CC is pretty accelerated. So are stress tests. You can try latest drivers.

How many displays do you have, and are there all similar GPU's?
posted by nickggully at 8:43 PM on March 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think nickggully is on the right track. My first instinct was PSU, but you've already replaced that. And the symptom is "loss of video out" not "corrupted video out", which to me points to drivers or a bad GPU.
posted by ElGuapo at 2:52 AM on March 4, 2017

Most of PS's work is done by the video card's chips (GPUs), and when you started doing much more than just opening the image, your video card started working harder. Since the whole machine tipped over right then, I would concentrate on that component. Cracks? Loose parts? Bad solder? Old driver? Suboptimal setting? If the card's vendor has a diagnostic tool, give that a shot.

Good luck: this can be as maddening as working on a car with an electrical problem!
posted by wenestvedt at 4:18 AM on March 4, 2017

You could contact Photoshop tech support. If your gpu is crashing, and we've disabled it, there will be a log file written that tech support can help you retrieve which may offer more information (at a minimum, a certainty that the problem is with the GPU). We also have a list posted somewhere in the support area of GPUs that we know work and are supported. If yours isn't on it, there's a reason, most often flaky drivers.

Everything you've said sounds like the GPU is crashing, either from bad drivers or bad thermal (i.e. overheating).
posted by DaveP at 4:22 AM on March 4, 2017