Is this hardware error anything to worry about?

exampasser

I was loading up a game and the system crashed, upon reboot I checked Event Viewer and found this error message:
"A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Component: AMD Northbridge
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: HyperTransport Watchdog Timeout Error
Processor ID: 0"

Since then everything has been going well. I don't know if its just a random error or if its an indication of a problem.

Hyper-Me

It could be nothing. Typically when gaming and the system crashes you can look for 3 things that cause it

1. Heat
2. Sissy power supply
3. bad drivers (usually graphics card)

If its only ever happened once and hasnt happened again since, its likely a fluke. I'm sure if its a real issue you will see it again soon.

exampasser

Hyper-Me wrote: »

It could be nothing. Typically when gaming and the system crashes you can look for 3 things that cause it

1. Heat
2. Sissy power supply
3. bad drivers (usually graphics card)

If its only ever happened once and hasnt happened again since, its likely a fluke. I'm sure if its a real issue you will see it again soon.

Ok thanks. Just to be safe I ran a stress test for an hour using OCCT, I then ran my games and no errors, so it does appear to just be a fluke.

tiersten

A MCE is when the CPU detects a fault. If it happens again then you need to look into your hardware to see why it is doing it. You'd have to do swaps with known good hardware to isolate the exact cause but that would only be practical if the errors were fairly frequent or could be triggered on demand.

As Hyper-Me said it is generally caused by faulty hardware or insufficient cooling. If it is just a single isolated event then just ignore it and chalk it up to a cosmic ray hitting something important.