Games crashing randomly

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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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Hello. While the title must not be the most interesting one the world, I must say I've been hitting my head against a wall for three days in a row now, just to come up with nothing.

I recently upgraded my computer to the following specs:

Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
8 GB MarkVision DDR3
ASUS M5A78L-M

Now, I've had this GTX 550 Ti for two years now, never had a problem with it so far. Before my upgrade, I used to run my games with a temperature of around 85ºC without a single problem (in case this is caused by overheating).

I used to have Blue Screens of Death because of my RAM's clock, so I changed it back to 1333GHz and it stopped; CPU and GPU clocks remain on Auto (changing the CPU clock to manual gave me a BSOD).

For no matter what game I play, it WILL crash - it's just a matter of minutes - from 5 minutes to 10 minutes (that's the average). I can hardly make it through 20 minutes.

The computer itself won't crash/freeze, it's just the process of the game.

Some people said PSU is not enough, GPU is dead/overheating, but I honestly have no idea what to do and would rather wait for someone to give me a light instead of roll more money into the play.

I did a memtest for the RAM, one complete pass of 100%, no errors found.

Anyone has any ideas?

-

EDIT:

By the way, I just noticed I have ONE driver that is not installed in my Device Manager:

PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_439D&SUBSYS_83891043&REV_00\3&267a616a&0&A3

Seems like it's an ATI something. Hell, I don't even remember having anything ATI in my PC. I'm still looking for these drivers, but it's been a pain to find them anywhere.

-

EDIT 2:

In case this is relevant, my idle temperatures:

CPU: ~49ºC
MOBO: ~48ºC
GPU: ~38ºC
 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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Exactly my thoughts. But in any case, I've been playing a nice little game called Quantum Conundrum for 20 minutes right now, no crash whatsover. Temps are:

CPU at 53, mobo at 51 and GPU at 71. Skyrim and Dead Island Riptide for example make the GPU reach its 80s (two major games in which I've been getting crashes).

The PSU is a Corsair CX430.

As for the "other things" I could be doing with my GPU, I can't really think of anything.

Also, no lags nor graphical issues, games run smoothly, they just stop responding/crash.
 
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Buzz247

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Mar 18, 2013
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heat causes voltage needs to be increased to overcome the thermal limiting - basic electrical engineering concept, more heat = need more voltage to compensate. So there is a couple of things likely going on here.
1) that psu is the bare minimum that you need to operate. Being that you have operated for so long like this, and including the nature of the above principle, it is very likely your PSU is starting to give out and not supply a consistent voltage to compensate for the heat anymore.
2) Your cooling can be drastically improved to lighten the load. Over time those kind of temps will damage components, and it is possible this has already occurred. Time to re visit your case cooling, fans and placement/direction etc.
3) in toying with BIOS, you may have inadvertently changed or left a setting incorrectly. To rule this out, unplug PSU, remove battery, cross CMOS CLR (clear) jumpers for 30sec, put battery back in and plug in PSU and reboot. This will reset to factory BIOS.

I am betting on a thermal issue at the root of this, but as with anything PC related, no one component is often at fault - usually a combination of little things causing one massive problem. If any one component is truly at fault, then the pc usually responds consistently in a bad way.
 
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Buzz247

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Mar 18, 2013
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80c+ is the edge of thermal limiting and throttling, so I disagree. GPUs of GTX 5xx,6xx and 7xx should be kept at sub 70 for normal use. 80+ is only expected during benchmarking

 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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I doubt I messed too much with the BIOS, to be honest. The only thing I changed was the boot order and the clock for the RAM.

As for the PSU, wouldn't it cause a complete system shutdown instead of just the program that is demanding "too much" from the computer? I understand the PSU might not be enough for the computer, but I don't know, I had problems with PSU under the voltage needed, it always caused the computer to shut down (not in this computer, an older one I had).

I agree with the cooling. I feel like it's all cluttered inside, even though I have four total fans inside (GPU, CPU, PSU and case).
 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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I use this computer mainly for games and movies. Only games show problems.



Temperature being normal or not, it's not uncommon to my GPU to be on its 85s when I had the older components (Athlon II X2, Pegatron god-knows-what model, 4gb RAM), but I never had a single problem/crash with it before.

Hell, my computer was crappier than this one before, but at least I could play my games without worrying about losing my progress or having to restart the game each 5 minutes.

-

EDIT:

Crap, my bad, forgot to edit my last post.
 
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Buzz247

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Mar 18, 2013
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just addressing the cooling part atm - 4 fans? that's all? PSU really doesn't qualify as a "fan" per se. CPU and GPU fans just move air around, not really affecting total case airflow. So that leaves you one fan feeding your entire cooling needs. Think we have a problem here lol. What case do you have? Have you tried seeing if you are more stable by taking the case side off and running the games? If so, it would indicate a definitive case cooling issue. Do you have an octopus nest instead of bundled and managed wires? This can inhibt case airflow too. It doesn't matter how amazing a cooler is - if it is not getting cool air fed to it it work work worth a squat.

edit all the above especially true with the gtx5xx - they are hot lil buggers
 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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Now that you mentioned, yeah, there's a freaking octopus inside of it. This was my first assemble (as I probably should have mentioned before but apparently forgot), and I just couldn't find how to fit the wires inside and in fear of screwing up the wires I just moved them as far as I could from the motherboard and let them sit there. I'll get a big fan, open the case and let the fan directly onto it. I'll be posting the results.
 
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Buzz247

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Mar 18, 2013
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if you can post your case model we can look and see how you might be able to improve things thru positive or negative pressure, proper flow/direction etc. Pics would be even more helpful if possible. couple zip ties can make a difference. But only a bit if the overall flow is suffering
 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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I have no idea what the model is, I just know it's from "Wise" (never even heard of it before).

About pics, I'll be proving some as soon as I finish with the fan on the opened case. Let's make a test and see how well it will do. No difference so far, about 5 minutes in.

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EDIT:

Ten minutes in with the case opened and the a giant body fan hitting the case and here are the results:

CPU: ~49ºC
MOBO: ~28ºC
GPU: ~38ºC

So apparently the CPU is overheating. But then again, why doesn't it shut the COMPUTER down instead of shutting the application?
 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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Not adequate, I suppose.

But the again, I've been playing Skyrim for 30 minutes while monitoring the temperatures frequently.

CPU remains from 52~54, MOBO didn't change much from 29 and the GPU is at 82~84. No problem as for now.

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EDIT:

Looks like overheating is the problem after all. I have no crashing for an hour of game.

Maybe I just need a new case after all. Seems like I'll have to keep my case opened with a fan from now on until I can buy another one, though...
 
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Buzz247

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Mar 18, 2013
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a new case maybe - of maybe just add a few fans, reposition, set flow properly - not familiar with any company named Wise. here is the basics of flow - front and bottom opening should have fans drawing air in. Top and back opening should have fans exhausting air out. ANY case I know of has at least 2 fan mounts - one in front, one in back. Some have mounts up top, on the side, or on the bottom as well
 
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Nathaniel Ourfali

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Jul 22, 2013
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My case itself only has one fan, and it's pretty small. I will invest in a new case in the future.

I'll keep this thread in stand-by for now, I'll keep testing the temperature and if anything, will post again.

For now, thanks everybody for the quick answers.
 
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