[SOLVED] Upgraded hardware, Houdini / computer crashes during simulation

[tanzola]

[SOLVED]

Hello. I just got a new motherboard, cpu and ram cards and now Houdini will crash when simulating. Sometimes it's just the program, sometimes I get the blue screen with error codes SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION and SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED. Everything was working fine with the old hardware and I could play the sim all the way through. The sim is much faster with the new hardware except it will crash eventually. The sim does slow down before crashing, but I'm only using about 40% of my total ram. Everything with the new hardware seems fine otherwise. Here are the hardware specs:

Motherboard: From ASUS Z87-K to ASUS Z370-A

CPU: i7 3770k to i7 8700k

RAM: XPG 16GB DDR3 to PNY 16GB DDR4

PSU: Seasonic M12II-750 Bronze

I have the latest drivers for my graphics card installed. I installed the hardware myself and am a total noob, FYI. I wouldn't know if my PSU is good enough for the hardware and I assumed it doesn't matter which slots each hard drive gets plugged into, so I plugged them in somewhat randomly, but it's all working.

There's not much else I can think of where I might have screwed up, other than plugging the fans into opposite ports from what they were before (CHA_FAN1 is now in CHA_FAN2) or using too little/too much thermal paste... and the new hardware isn't compatible with any of the old hardware and vise versa so I can't test it that way.

Thanks for reading and for any help.

Edited June 24, 2018 by tanzola

[malexander]

I would try adding a CPU temp monitoring app (might be one in the motherboard software package) to see if you temps are getting high (>80C under heavy load).  If it is high before it crashes (80-90C), try reseating the heatsink. With thermal paste you only want a tiny smear - you should still be able to see the copper beneath, looking slightly greyish.

Then, if the temp is okay, try testing your RAM. You might have got a bad stick. You can do this by pulling some RAM sticks  and retesting, and narrow it down to the bad stick, or use memtest86 (https://www.memtest86.com/). Also, you can try changing stuff in your EFI config (formerly known as BIOS):

• Disable memory EMP profiles
• Disable any CPU boost option, or overclocking

Good luck!

[tanzola]

Many thanks, malexander! I may have used to much thermal paste. I'll try cleaning some off and doing some of the other things you suggest if needed when I get home tonight and update with the results. Much appreciated!

[tanzola]

Got it working. I think I did use too much paste, but that didn't solve the problem. What worked was switching my CPU boost setting in BIOS from "extreme" to "fast." I could always hear my liquid coolant running before the program crashed, so I'm installing a temp monitor app like you suggested to check that out as well. I expect I'll be referring back to your comment in the future. Thanks a lot!!

Edit: For the sake of keywords, I also received error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL during troubleshooting.

Edited June 24, 2018 by tanzola

[lukeiamyourfather]

Try turning off overclocking completely and see if the system is stable. If the system is overclocked it's near impossible to get meaningful troubleshooting information because the overclocking itself might be the issue.

[tanzola]

Thanks, Luke, I'll remember to make that the first step. In this case the problem went away after reducing that setting, which is weird to me because the motherboard was made for the processor, so I'm wondering what it would take for that setting to remain stable.. Anyway, all good now  

Cheers!

[lukeiamyourfather]

Every processor is slightly different even within the same model line. Some come out better than others so there's no guarantee when it comes to overclocking. The guarantee you're buying is that the processor will run at the clock speed on the box.

[tanzola]

Aah. That's good to know. Thanks for the explanation.