Computer Restarts Using DAZ
rustaj
Posts: 37
Wasn't sure where to put this question, so apologies. Recently (like within the last week), my computer has started pseudo-resetting when using DAZ (4.15). I say psuedo because it shuts off, the fan rachets up a few decimals, but doesn't run through the start up process so just sort of stays in limbo. I have Windows 10 and this seems to only occur while using Daz. I have stress-tested on some graphics heavy games, and I also develop video games in Unity, which I feel like is also pretty GPU heavy, and it hasn't done this. It's also not necessarily when I'm rendering either, sometimes it's just when the application is open, doesn't seem to matter how much is on the stage. I've tried having CPU on/off and GPU on/off, doesn't seem to make a difference.
Obviously if this is happening to anyone, I'd love to hear what they did, but I'm more wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to trouble shoot this type of problem in general. I must admit, I'm not particularly great with hardware stuff, so I'm a bit perplexed at where to even begin. I read another post about tracking CPU usage right before the blip happens. It's been a bit tricky to track because I haven't yet identified the triggers. But if there is a CPU spike before it resets, what might a next step be?
Any help or insight is greatly appreciated, thank you!
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Has anything changed recently, hardware/spec wise?
Seems odd it is doing both under and not under load though.
I have had the same issue under load, and it was my Corsair PSU being weird.. swapping that out cleared it right up. If you have a spare, maybe try that?
Since you're on W10, I'd strongly suggest that you first type in the search bar "Reliability", and you should see "Reliability History" pop up. Select that, and it will give you a nice summary of what's been going on with your computer hardware and software for the past days/weeks.
Aside from that, assuming you have a decent ATX power supply, it has internal logic circuitry that will sense if it's being overloaded past its ratings and can no longer supply good power to the motherboard and other components. If it can't, it turns off what's called a "Power Good" signal to the motherboard, which shuts everything down, and the PSU then shuts down in a fraction of a second to protect everything. So yeah, if the PSU is being overloaded or has an internal failure it might shut down, but other things can also cause the behaviour you're seeing. Which is why I suggest you check W10 to get more data as a first step. Computers are real complicated, and when stuff fails there's usually a list of many, many possible causes. So for me, data gathering is Step 1.
Press the windows button and type Event Viewer then press enter.
On the left side, double click Windows Logs then click System.
On the right side click Filter Current Log...
Put a check mark in the Critical and Error boxes and click OK.
Now your system log will show any major issues the computer has had in order from newest to oldest. Look for anything around the time time your computer crashed.
Okay, this I think pulled something from the weeds. It seems like there was a "LiveKernelEvent" error around the time that the system shut off. I don't think it's a power issue as I have a 850 watt power supple and this doesn't seem to happen even when I'm running VR games in Unity (which is not a quantifiable measurement I know).
I've gone through all of that. Both restarts (random) and, LiveKernelEvents (some when using Daz3D). My problems were linked with the hardware - HDD.
So it got replaced with an SSD, mainly because of Daz Studio (and other 3D stuff).
Apparently a LiveKernelEvent is associated with hardware, although that can include drivers apparently. And since the most difficult software challenge in the entire universe seems to be making NIVIDIA drivers that actually work, I guess I'd cross my fingers and download the latest drivers (or maybe some that are newer than what you have?).
But as NR Arts says, and my experience with many computers over many decades shows, the only hardware failure I ever recall having is failed hard drives. Never a power supply, never a motherboard, never a GPU. But I've had maybe 3 HDD failures over the years. So especially if your HDD is getting in the 5+ year old range I'd do some disk checks and hope those work.
What's crazy is I have an SSD and it's not even a year old. But it's a good place to start poking around, thank you!
It's almost certainly a video card driver bug. I've only had Windows 10 blue screens on AMD's MIStorage driver for their motherboard but the more common bluescreens are nVidia video card driver blue screens.
You should not install the 'Game Ready" nVidia drivers but the "Stable" video card drivers.
I've recently been getting VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR BSODs sometimes when waking up the system from hibernate so it reboots instead (have not seen it with cold boot yet). There seem to be many possible reasons for this error, including driver problems.
Interestingly enough, I had similar symptoms that recurred randomly many times but became more frequent over a period of several weeks. After extensive testing of all other conceivable options short of reinstalling Windows and my softwares, my problem turned out to be a wonky power supply.
I replaced the 10 year old low quality HP 500W power supply with a slightly smaller one of better quality and my problems went away completely.
Just sayin'...
Diagnostic proceedures included, one-by-one removing non-essential circuit cards, testing all cables, playing musical chairs with RAM chips, wacking the side of the cabinet, etc. Eventually the problem started happening in processes outside of DAZ Studio so by time I was down to the problem being either motherboard, CPU, or power supply, I ordered a new Corsair 450W power supply and voila! Problem solved.
I didn't measure the voltages on the old PS but I suspect they were weak or shaky, when under load due to age. Just like me, the older I get the more I ask my neighbor to heft the air-conditioner into my window in spring.
I had some of the same issues and stress tested the system several different times several different ways with no issues. Its a custom build so I wanted to make sure but the only time it would shut down was with DS. Finally a friend suggested just switching the power supply out and the problem when away. So I upgraded the PSU. It took me forever to figure out what is was because I didn't suspect the hardware because of the stress tests. I had also check all the error messages the system generated, none was helpful.
Hope you figure it out.
I feel like I need to have a HUGE knock on wood moment before I say this, but it seems like my problem was stemming from the fact that my power cable was being pinched. Once I straightened it out, it has not restarted again. So for anyone who might come across this thread in the future, take a look at your cords, sometimes its something as ridiculous at that.
To everyone in the thread to helped me, thank you so much. This was driving me crazy, and it did end up being an issue with the PSU, just not quite the issue I imagined!