A tale of much troubleshooting

About a month ago my PC started exhibiting signs of instability. I started to get random crashes, especially when playing high demanding games like PUBG. I started the process of troubleshooting and if you've never done this before, here's a rough guide.

* Update drivers, BIOS and firmware.

* Try to isolate one component at a time.

* Each time you change out a component, run some high stress benchmarks to test the new component.

I started in the place where most issues occur, the RAM. I swapped my 2x 32GB 6400MT/s kit for a much slower (and hopefully more stable) kit, but that didn't seem to help. I then tried a different GPU, that also made no difference. So i discounted the RAM and the GPU. Then one day I smelt something like burning from my PC, put my hand near the back of the PSU and it was REALLY HOT! So I immediately turned off my PC at the mains and breathed a sigh of relief, it is clearly a faulty PSU.

I order a new PSU and in a couple of days it arrives and i install it. I boot up PUBG ready to kick some butt (not really, I suck!) and what happens? Instant crash. At this point I can't tell you how frustrated I am and I'm considering drastic action like, it might be the motherboard. This would be decidedly bad news as my PC has a full custom water loop and a faulty motherboard means taking the whole thing apart!

So I do a little more reading and find this one obscure comment saying 'PUBG is really sensitive to overclocked RAM'. I think, it can't be that as not only did i test other RAM but I also tested everything with the optimised BIOS settings, no overclocks. I try it anyway. It.....works? I haven't had a crash in PUBG or any other games for days.

It turns out I had not only a faulty PSU but also my super fast RAM just isn't friends with PUBG.

Troubleshooting isn't easy. I've been doing this for years now and it still throws many curve balls my way! Lesson learnt - it's not always one issue :)

Tarl