Blue Screenshot - MSI Creator P100A 11TC Computer.

Joined
Jun 21, 2024
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8
Hello,
More and more frequently my computer "hangs"; the screen goes black and then blue, without any message. The monitor turns off, but the computer remains on and locked. I have to turn it off by pressing and holding the power button.

I suppose it is some new driver or program or some update to the Windows 11 operating system, but I don't know how to locate the causant.
I would like to install a tracker that tells me all the operations and activities of the machine until the moment of the blackout.
I would appreciate any help or suggestions.
 
Such a tracker is already in Windows, it's called Event Viewer: https://www.windowscentral.com/soft...o-get-started-with-event-viewer-on-windows-11

Does the PC only hang in certain situations, or always after a certain amount of time, or completely randomly?
Thank you very much for the tip. Now I visit the link.
Completely randomly. I have 3D design programs like Fusion 360 Autodesk that requires a lot of processing that does not cause problems. And yet, the Firefox browser or a photo viewer, or... small programs like Word cause chaos. :(
 
Often times, if Windows freezes, it also won't record much of use in the event logs, but you can surely check, maybe you can spot something.

If not, you would just do some good old methodical troubleshooting to find the culprit. First, the stuff you can do in Windows, for example, read out the SMART data of the SSD with CrystalDiskInfo. In the program's menu under "Function" -> Advanced Feature -> Raw Values, select "10 [DEC]" to have human-readable values, and you can press CTRL-S to save a screenshot.

Let us also check all the sensor data during a Cinebench run, using HWinfo64. Open "Sensors", then expand all sensors by clicking on the little <--> arrows on the bottom, also expand the columns of the sensors a bit so everything can be read. Make it three big columns of sensors (or four, if the screen resolution is high enough). In the end, it should be a screenshot with all the sensors visible at once, like this:

yes.png


Make sure the power plan in Windows is on "Balanced". Do nothing on the PC for a while (couple minutes), so the "minimum" baselines for the values are established. After that time in idle, then produce full CPU load with Cinebench, and after completing a 10 minute run, when the CPU temperatures have stabilized at the highest level, take a screenshot of the sensor window and tell me the Cinebench score. On this screenshot, we can see how it runs in idle, as well as with fully multithreaded CPU load, the highest normal load you can encounter in daily use without resorting to an artificial stress testing tool like Prime95.

With that squared away, if it doesn't give any indication of a problem, then - since you're saying it happens more and more frequently lately - i would start by testing with a different PSU. Why? Because in PSUs they use a lot of so-called electrolytic capacitors, which are known to deteriorate with age (and this is accelerated with higher temperatures, such as inside a PSU in a cramped PC). So with increasing instability/problems, we should try to rule out the PSU first. Try to borrow a different PSU, but it has to be known good, not too old, and of decent quality. Then you can connect it on-the-fly using its own cables (just put it next to the PC and hook up the cables instead of the original PSU's cables).

As you can see in this video, the small form factor of such a system has some downsides when it comes to working on the system for troubleshooting or upgrading. Although i've seen worse from MSI, this one is actually still somewhat accessible. Anyway, if you find that the problems disappear with a suitable PSU for testing, then you're done, you need to get a new PSU. Maybe take a photo of your old one and we see if there's a good replacement available. If the problems don't go away with a different PSU, you'd continue, trying to rule out more things.
 
Once again, thank you so much. It will take me a long time to try all the suggestions; After an attempt I must wait for the problem to occur to analyze what happened. But then I'll put the result here.
 
Okay. I'm here again. A few minutes ago it happened again. Suddenly turned off the image on the monitor; the computer continued to work, but the keyboard did not work; The hard drive LED was blinking a little. After 10 minutes I had to turn off the PC by pressing and holding the shutdown button.

I attach images of disk C: System and disk D: Data and a list of the Critical Event that occurred at the moment.

I don't know how to interpret it.:oops:
 

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SSD/HDD data looks good. No problem there. The event just says that Windows got the rug pulled from under it. So the last thing it "remembered" is that it was running, but then it just "came to", like a boxer waking up from a knockout, it didn't know how it got into that state, but it wasn't properly shut down before it got booted up again. So this doesn't tell us too much. This event log would be the same when you pulled the power plug for example, it doesn't give us insight as to why this happened.

When you say the keyboard doesn't work, do you mean the LEDs on it turn off or don't react anymore, for example when you activate NUMLOCK or CAPS LOCK?

Maybe now do the Cinebench run with HWinfo running in the background, as i described before. This will give us a good idea if there's overheating, voltage problems and so on.
 
Hello,

Sorry, I have not explained well.

During a BSOD your computer stops operations and displays this warning on a blue screen. Officially, it's called a "stop error." The warning informs you of a critical issue that is forcing Windows to restart.

On my PC, when the problem occurs, the video signal simply cuts out, but the computer continues to work; there is no reset; you can still hear the mechanical hard drive working; the hard drive LED flashes normally. But I don't see what the machine is doing; It doesn't stop, it doesn't restart if I don't stop it by pressing and holding the power button: the machine continues working for minutes and minutes. In this state, neither the keyboard (the keyboard LEDs are blocked), nor the mouse have any effect on the PC. I can't control the machine.

Now I'm going to try Cinebench with HWinfo. I will report here.
 
Hello,

Yesterday I tested two programs looking for software bugs:
Outbyte's RepairPC, which fixed many problems, and PC HelpSoft Driver Updater, which updated many drivers. Very useful but the problem remains.

So today I tested CineBench with HWiNFO64 version 8.04-5470.As you suggested, I run HWiNFO64; After 2 minutes, I make a screen copy and run Cinebench for 10 minutes, I let the PC rest for another 2 minutes and I make another screen copy.I attach the result in two files. Do you suggest anything?
In all probability it is the Power Source as You have predicted. But the computer is under warranty and I'm afraid I'll lose it if I open it...
 

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But the computer is under warranty and I'm afraid I'll lose it if I open it...

Then you should open a ticket with MSI and make use of the warranty, what are we even talking about here.

The cooling in this system is quite weak, the idle temperature is way up there at 57°C, and under load you are getting lots of thermal throttling due to excessive CPU temperatures (red text), at only ~106W peak CPU Package Power, that's laughably low. The System, MOSFET and PCH temperatures are also very high.

They set the Short Duration power limit to 105W and the Long Duration power limit to 65W, so the CPU can draw 105W for 28 seconds or less, then it gets restricted to 65W (and has to lower all the frequencies to achieve that). I don't know how this is a "Creator" system, the cooling seems to be completely undersized for the demands of the system. With the power limits alone, under fully multithreaded load (which is something a creator should have a bunch of), this CPU is losing up to a quarter of performance compared to a system with adequate cooling that has the CPU running "all-out". Of course 11th gen was still famously inefficient, and an 11700 without power limits can draw well over 200W, even >250W, so i can see why they had to set some limits. But even with your limits, the cooling system should be able to deal with it comfortably, otherwise what are they doing selling this a a creator system. Unless by now, everything is full of dust inside and that drives the temperatures up like this.

But yeah, if it's under warranty, there's no reason to mess with it too much, just let MSI tell you what to test, see what they reply.
 
I greatly appreciate the help you have given me.
I have filled out the ticket. And I will wait for a response.
I carefully guard the programs and instructions that you have left me in this Forum.

A cordial greeting.

P.S. Later, I will report the result of the MSI Technical Service.
 
The MSI house is deceptive with features. I was surprised that it had so much power in such a compact box, with a 450 watt power supply.

After my last message, the computer went to Technical Service and came back in seven days. They did not open the device (the warranty seals were intact). They told me there were no hardware problems.:oops:

So I bought the "Outbyte PC Repair" program: wasted money.

But I insisted and bought another program, Fortect Pro: Success! Since then, the screen has not locked! The critical error still appears, but I don't care, because the screen doesn't turn off. Maybe one day I'll find out what causes that error.

Thank you very much for your great help. I hope my experience can help someone else. Bye, Bye :biggthumbsup:
 
So I bought the "Outbyte PC Repair" program: wasted money.

Most of those programs are wasted money. They are from the Windows 98 era where it could really matter to optimize the registry and things like that, there was a real craze about it back then which sort of echoes through today's tools still. Nowadays there are a couple free tools that are good, like O&O Shutup10, and a lot of paid programs do mostly stuff that is not necessary. Plus, admittedly, maybe a couple good things too, which however are usually not worth a bunch of money, and especially not a yearly fee like they want you to pay now so they can milk you for the same software every year as if you're renting it. I hate that. Just like you don't need to pay for a commercial antivirus software.

Anyway, glad you got it solved, but the MSI service did not find anything, did you not describe the problem that well or something? I mean, if there's a problem that can be reproduced, how can they say it's all ok?
 
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