computer crashes unexplainably when playing Minecraft

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 16, 2013

Well, I'm having a problem with a computer I built 14 months ago. It has a core I5 @2.4 GHZ on an Intel DH55TC motherboard and a PowerColor Radeon HD 6750 low profile edition graphics card. The thing is when I play Minecraft just after the computer starts, it will have some artifacts and then it will show a brown screen. The computer is still alive in this state because it is still loading, but the only way to get it out is to press the reset button. Even weirder is if it does not crash, it will make the cursor in windows 7 all distorted, but the OS says nothing. When I look in reliability center, the glitch shows up as a video hardware error. it is not stress or heat related because i ran Furmark at it's hardest settings and it did not have any error and the temps never got higher than 60 degrees Celsius. I've tried changing all sorts of settings, updating the video driver, java, and Minecraft itself. the one thing that really dumbfounds me is I can play COD WaW for hours on end at the highest settings and NOTHING happens. Is it a bug, or is my graphics card dying? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I have screenshots of the glitches if they are needed. If there is any info you might need feel free to ask.

moulderhere · Mar 16, 2013

Run memtest

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 16, 2013

moulderhere :

I thought I did, I will run it for 30 minutes and report back.

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 16, 2013

OK, ran it for 38 minute, completed 1 1/2 passes on the 4 GB of kingston ram, no errors.

DiaSin · Mar 16, 2013

tysonwarrior2 :

You should run memtest overnight, let it do multiple passes.

lycros · Mar 17, 2013

Do you have another computer or any parts laying around for testing? Could be your card or PSU I'm thinking.

photonboy · Mar 17, 2013

Weird.
It seems unlikely that it's a hardware issue considering how much you can stress with other games and Furmark.
(FYI, Furmark can actually KILL graphics cards quite easily. Newer cards have much better protection but older cards will simply ramp up the fan to cool. Furmark can stress far beyond what a game would so the cooling solution even at 100% may be inadequate to prevent damage. Don't use Furmark anymore on that card. Newer cards like an NVidia GTX680 have protection features and will ramp down the frequency if needed if temperature is exceeded.)

It appears to be a Minecraft issue:
a) Try latest AMD drivers (if not up to date)
b) Google and/or read Minecraft forums about graphical issues
c) If possible, install and run the Minecraft DEMO instead of the newer, full Minecraft.

NJDEN · Mar 17, 2013

A good option would be updating Java, or reinstalling it if it is up to date.

Minecraft is based off Java, so any discrepancies with Java would cause Minecraft to experience issues, including crashing.

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 17, 2013

OK, ran memtest for 7 hours 45 minutes, 11 passes, no errors. I will check the graphics card by putting it in a different machine, and testing the psu by hooking a voltmeter to it then playing Minecraft. Agree?

DiaSin · Mar 17, 2013

Something else just occured to me. Are you trying to run an HD texture pack or any mods?

photonboy · Mar 18, 2013

tysonwarrior2 :

I don't see that it could be a hardware issue if you can successfully run other games and Furmark.

popatim · Mar 18, 2013

if you have more than 4gb of ram and 64bit windows, install jave 64bit. The default java install is onlly 32 bits and gave me grief on my i7.

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 22, 2013

To answer both your questions, yes I am running a texture pack mod for HD textures, but it makes no difference with the mod in or the stock .jar. And I have 4 GB RAM and I have 64 bit Java. I still need to test the card in a different machine, though. Unless the HD texture pack mod messes with something else when it installs, I still cannot make head or tails of this issue. BTW, the mod is MCPatcher. is there any known bugs with MCPatcher and minecraft 1.4.7? I didn't go to 1.5 because none of the new stuff is all that useful, and they appeared to of disabled texture packs for now.

DiaSin · Mar 22, 2013

tysonwarrior2 :

If you are using MC Patcher it should be fine. I had been thinking maybe it was a crash related to trying to run HD textures without adjusting the Java heap size. As for 1.5.. I havent played in awhile but it should be like the last few updates, you just need a new version of your texture pack and a new version of the MC Patcher.

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 22, 2013

Got a question: can an older/ buggy version of MCPatcher cause the ENTIRE computer to crash?

DiaSin · Mar 23, 2013

tysonwarrior2 :

I highly doubt it. Umm.. what size are the HD textures you are trying to run? If they are 128x or up you need to increase the java heap size on the 2nd tab of MCPatcher. Set it to 2048 just to be on the safe side. When I play minecraft, which is rare these days, I run 256x textures so I set the heap to 3096 just to be on the safe side. A low java heap size with too high res textures could cause the game to crash, which, if something is off with java, could take the rest of the computer with it.

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 23, 2013

Well, I swapped out the graphics card out with another one and it acted fine. while the card that was in the original system worked ok in another machine. Tried it with and without the textures. Now, my motherboard has the H55 express chipset in it. Rumor has it that they overheat easy. Is that true, and can that be cause my issues? Could it be the PSU? I have a slim case that originally came with a 275 watt PSU, which I upgraded to a 400 watt KDM PSU.

tysonwarrior2 · Mar 28, 2013

This thread got quiet all the sudden... If we know this is a software-side issue then why don't I eliminate the biggest variable: Windows. I'm going to get an external HDD and put Ubuntu on it and play Minecraft off that. If it acts fine then it is something to do with windows. If not it may be my card or Minecraft itself. Another detail is this started when I got a 32" led TV for Christmas and I hooked it up. Before it was hooked up to a 15" CRT monitor. When I was using it every few hours the screen would go blank (like it was changing resolutions) and would come back up like nothing happened. It was not the monitor, since I used the monitor with a totally different machine. Its not my TV, since I can play on my Xbox 360 for hours on end with no gripe. Could it be the converter chip on the output side of the card? This really sounds like a valid culprit to me. Thoughts, please?

computer crashes unexplainably when playing Minecraft

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