Trying to find the cause of games crashing the system

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rookoo

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Jul 3, 2013
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10,510
I've been attempting to find out what is causing my games to crash. I've tried a bunch of stuff to do with drivers, and have tried to rule out temperature problems in the CPU etc. I partitioned off my hard drive and put a fresh install of windows 7 ultimate 64bit, with only the drivers and one game that seemed to be having the most trouble.

On the fresh install the game managed to last a few hours rather than 20 minutes before crashing in the same manner. This time I ran HWINFO 64 and set it to log the temperatures ect into a text file. However, the temperatures seem to me to be perfectly within normal parameters.

So basically, I'm trying to find what the variable is here. Less programs running on a fresh install likely mean less ram used, so is it possible that when the ram usage goes over a 4GB to require the use of the second (Faulty?) stick, it crashes?

Here is the logging file. I am guessing the values at the very bottom of the page are what the values were when the thing crashed again:

[ Temperature CSV Log ]

Can anyone take a peek at the thing and see if there are any abnormal trends or values? I've had this problem for months and I'm nearing my wits end with this thing. I'd like to see if any of the parts need sending back before the warranty runs out next month.

To begin with I assumed the graphics card was at fault, and sent it back, but the supplier tested it, and concluded nothing was wrong with it. So I'm leaning towards leaving that out.



Specs are:

Operating System:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1 (Used Ultimate for the test, somehow I don't think the operating system particularly matters)
CPU
Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3.40GHz
RAM
Corsair 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 668MHz (9-9-9-24) 2x4GB
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-M (LGA1155)
Graphics
DELL U2311H (1920x1080@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 7850 (Gigabyte)
Hard Drives
932GB Seagate ST1000DM005 HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA)

PSU
Corsair 600W CX Builder Series 80 Plus Bronze
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device


Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
 
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R

rookoo

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Jul 3, 2013
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10,510


The screen turns to a bunch of solid colour stripes and the sound stalls. The only way to recover is by holding the power button down and making it reboot this way. It doesn't respond to any keyboard commands. Upon getting back into the desktop it doesn't give me any error message or anything. I really am perplexed. Team fortress 2 can run for hours on end on the previous cluttered install of windows, but the game I'm trying, Metro last light, lasts only 10's of minutes (Except in the previous case where i ran it for a couple hours on a fresh install). Memtest 86 comes up fine, although looking at the log file, it seems the temperature jumps before the thing crashes, however, the jump is only to 60C, apparently a safe temperature for this cpu.
 
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R

rookoo

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Jul 3, 2013
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10,510
Examining the file HWinfo produced, the temperature never rises above 50 degrees. I have been told that this is fairly low, and I almost find it suspicious that the temperature will never rise above this. This is with the clocks set to max on CCC, and the fan set to 70%. Is it possible the temperature diode is incorrect somehow? How would I be able to determine this, and is it likely?

Thanks for the interest so far.
 
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R

rookoo

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Jul 3, 2013
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10,510


Okay, the test gets to about half way, the heat rises to 60 Degrees, and then it crashes.

Here is my PSU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-048-CS

 
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bdiddytampa

bdiddytampa

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Dec 2, 2012
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Sorry I should have checked your OP lol :p Ok, so temps aren't the problem, you sent your GPU to the manufacturer and they said it was fine, so I'm leaning towards your PSU. It seems that when you get into high workloads everything is cutting out, and that is when you are drawing the most power from your PSU. Do you have another power supply you can try?
 
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R

rookoo

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Jul 3, 2013
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10,510


It's cool :p

Well, I have a family member with a psu of similar specs, so I'll try to get the chance to try out his. That will take a few days though, so in the meantime, would this issue manifest itself in any of these readings, like, the vcore or whatever? I've captured all the info HWinfo64 gives me in these 2 images.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2a5d2s.png
http://i39.tinypic.com/2sb5sb9.png

I haven't the first idea if any of these apart from the temps are normal.
 
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R

rookoo

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
11
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10,510
Well, I don't want to speak too soon but it seems that the problem has dissapeared now that I set my graphics clocks to default. I thought that as long as my psu could handle it and the temps were reasonable that putting the clocks up in catalyst control settings would do no harm. Hopefully this isn't a fluke.
 
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