PC freezing only while playing games

Can you run the prime95 CPU benchmark, if your computer is fine doing that then I believe your GPU is the problem, seeing as to how you crash when doing graphically demanding tasks.

You said temperatures were fine, did you check temps on both the CPU and GPU?

I don't have it right in front of me right now but when you open the program it should ask you what test you want to run, doesn't really matter which one you choose it will make your CPU run at 100% regardless. If it proves to be stable just make sure to close it out and turn the tests off so that they don't keep running in the background.

I'm sure you can find some how to videos on youtube as well.

"This is the HDTune, have no idea what that graf means though
http://postimg.org/image/klain4wwb/ "

Well when we compare this to the OFFICIAL spec sheet http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/barracuda-ds1737-1-1111us.pdf

We see SATA Transfer Rates Supported (Gb/s) 6.0/3.0/1.5
Seek Average, Read (ms) <8.5 Seek Average, Write (ms) <9.5

But HDTUNE Reports: from 40Ms initially (right side of chart) till the Cache kicks in then
the best you get is 15ms, so averaging I would say you're about 25ms but HDTune say 18ms which is
TWICE as SLOW as SPEC (Seek Average, Read (ms) <8.5 Seek Average, Write (ms) <9.5 ).

Average Data Rate, Read/Write (MB/s) 156 HDTune showed 143.6 so your in the ball park but stil...
Max Sustained Data Rate, OD Read (MB/s) 210 HDTune showing 197.4 again BELOW the spec but close.

How FULL is your drive? Have you defragged it? You might want to check the HEALTH tab then do a ERROR SCAN and see what they show. To me this is suspicious, and your Access Times are horrid

This could indicate A) HDD failure (as I suggested) or B) I/O issues which would be the Mobo itself. Considering the GPU issue your having (again potentially I/O) this has me suspicious if the HEALTH and ERROR SCANS come back normal as the Mobo may be failing / BIOS is messed up.

I would check as indicated, also check for BIOS updates to the MOBO. As for having only 1 PC, I understand but honestly seek out a friend, a co-worker, that geek guy, and see about borrowing hardware as we nail this down.

You NEVER said what happens when your using the ONBOARD VIDEO**** This is important!

What is your PSU model?

To use the onboard graphics you will need to physically remove your current graphics card and probably uninstall the drivers as well. After that you simply plug in your monitor to your motherboard.

Let windows search for updates to see if there is a driver update for the intel HD...graphics.

Why on earth do you have a 50GB partition? 15GB Free? If that is your OS Drive THIS IS A REASON YOUR CRASHING.
You have NO free space for temp folder / etc. Windows needs MINIMUM 20% of the drive free at all times (based on the normal 150GB drive as Windows PLUS Office alone consume up to 40GB of a drive just to 'type a letter').

Further that you used up 1TB out of 1.3TB available shows your drive is MAXED OUT in data and is needing A) a good cleaning of OLD UNNECESSARY data, or B) Replaced with a 2TB or larger drive to meet your data needs.

BTW splitting of OS and DATA/Programs on a single HDD has NOT been used since we hit the 260GB mark, as the larger drives still being on a SINGLE physical component are impacted negatively with such designs (as noted in the HDTune performance values YOU tested). The normal design is either SSD (C) plus a seperate HDD (D) drive or just ONE HDD drive (C only) is the best performance and least impactive (running out of room on the 'C' Partition as YOU ARE.




OP: Please stop for a moment here. "completely formated the system partition so everything was clean just with basic drivers and windows yet its still crashing" IS potentially the HDD, PSU OR GPU failing. See the 'clean Windows' with 'basic drivers' is still CODE first stored ON the HDD then loaded to Windows, if Windows has no 'room' to work in (which your telling us above!) then YES the data/code (drivers, windows fonts, a text file, the icons on your screen, etc.) becomes corrupted and thus errors, causing many of the same issues, hence why I asked what happens when we switch to just IGP.

Download either 3D Guru's Driver Sweeper or download Driver Fusion and really remove all the AMD/ATI elements. Reboot and be in VGA mode,

Download and run Slim Drivers, install all the latest updates for alot of the other things 'under the hood' including the video card interfaces with, but you don't need to reboot until you do the last update

I would push the hardware more, even if the game was 'unplayable' FPS wise, just to push the system and make sure under heavy load it isn't the PSU failing, just to be absolutely sure. But otherwise GLAD you got that resolved.



Ohhhh I am old school too, and I know SO much about what your talking about. And your right using that 10+ years ago was the way to 'do it'; but that is the thing, it isn't 10 years ago and we are dealing with something different now. Where as before the code would mostly if not totally put all of a program in it's directory (for example) now parts are strewn everywhere, including many different directories provided my Microsoft, so they 'save on development costs' by relying on Microsoft to have a specific file name/type/version. So just having the OS in it's own drive isn't much sense any more for that reason (away from the programs). Additionally since VISTA, the way the files are 'on' the drive you are no longer the GOD account, only the TrustedInstaller is GOD over your Windows, and if you don't behave according to that account's demands it screws Windows up. One of the things is, it should be just 'installed' to the C drive, won't matter if Windows Takes a dump anymore, because Windows will remove the folders when reinstalling (Windows.old folder) and so on since Windows 7, and is much easier to reinstall then it was before. Again, because of the new way the OSes are designed, which taught me to toss out EVERY old XP trick I knew and did. Just a bit of warning from a old hand whom seen with this new setup the reasons that will still cause issues and as I mentioned, Microsoft's demand for a 'minimum' space free.

Per http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/system-requirements
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit), which does not include the amount needed for Virtual RAM drive space, your Restore space, the temp space (constantly writing and erasing temp files for the OS), nevermind your profile that has its own temp directory, IE Temp folder, Google Cache, FF Cache, Outlook PST file, etc. etc. etc. Adding this all together you get a very large foot print needed to just 'run' the OS normally, even when you try to minimize all these down as best as possible you still need a much larger foot print for the 'temp' / Cache area for each individual program's needs.

Windows and key programs yes, GAMES NO. Because it won't increase anything for the game specifically except 'load screens' and will just eat up your space on your SSD very very fast. The other issue is when you exceed over 50% of a SSD performance starts to drop in proportion to what is left (smaller amount of free space smaller amount of performance). When the game asks Windows for things (as I mentioned before) Windows will respond almost instantly then having to 'search' for it, which does decrease the wait / lag / etc. for things to 'load' like for example a new weapon, new sound files, maps, etc. because they are coded (since Vista) to rely ALOT on what Microsoft already provides (.NET 4.5 Framework files for example translates the 'code' the game was originally created in - for example for PS4 - into Windows language).

One LARGE warning sign though; DO NOT CLICK 'THROUGH' Installations / updates. You need to 'retrain' yourself to 'slow down' and read each screen until you see the INSTALL PATH: C;\Program Files(x86)\NameOfProgram shows, so you can MANUALLY change the C: (SSD) to D: and ensure you don't chew through the SSD so fast.