Computer crashes only while playing games.

Zealot7 · Aug 14, 2014

(Apologies if this is in the wrong forum)

Hello, my computer has recently started crashing (screens turn black, computer does not restart but stays in some sleepmode-like state until manually restarted) in the middle of playing any game. I've seen a lot of other threads about this subject and a lot of them end up being caused by bad/faulty PSUs. Before I come to that conclusion I was wondering if there's anything else I could try. Things I've already done:

-Monitored Temperatures/CPU usage
-Plugged computer directly into wall
-Disabled "Automatically Restart" in Startup and Recovery
-Disabled Overclock
-Reseated RAM and Video Card
-Updated video drivers
-Cleaned out dust

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions

Computer specs:
i7 4770k cpu
GTX 780 video card
16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3/1600 RAM
SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold 650w PSU
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H LGA Mobo

RaDiKaL_ · Aug 14, 2014

What temps is your GPU hitting before crashing? you can log temps into a file with gpu-z so you can review them after restarting your pc.

Bean007 · Aug 14, 2014

Zealot7 :

It is possible that it could be your PSU as well as the video card itself. Trying the video card on another system with the same game could knock out if the card is bad or not. Are you monitoring the GPU fan as well? Both visual with the side panel off and thru programs like Afterburner? You can go into your bios and look at your PSU voltages and see how they read but you need to do it for a descent amount of time to make sure it's not dropping below or going above certain numbers. I think there's a degree of + or - 3 I think on the 12v rail that's acceptable. Might be 2.

Zealot7 · Aug 14, 2014

RaDiKaL_ :

The highest it got to before the crash was 64c

Also, the problem has gotten progressively worse over the past few days. When this first started about a week ago, I could play a game for a while before my computer would crash. Today it's happening within minutes of starting a game.

Bean007 · Aug 14, 2014

Zealot7 :

You need to do some testing of your equipment on another system to see if it's hardware. That also includes your Ram.

Zealot7 · Aug 14, 2014

Bean007 :

Zealot7 :

You need to do some testing of your equipment on another system to see if it's hardware. That also includes your Ram.

Unfortunately I don't have access to another system to test it on

Bean007 · Aug 14, 2014

Zealot7 :

So you have no friends that can help you or there friends or even friends of parents. If not then it's either a computer repair shop and buy new parts. New parts might not solve the problem as we haven't found who is causing the problem. Even with returning stuff unless it's local you'll pay for shipping back and maybe a restock fee.

Zealot7 · Aug 14, 2014

No, unfortunately I don't know anyone near me that would be willing to let me test my hardware in their computer.

Also, specifically the game ArcheAge seems to be causing my computer to crash way often than any other game. I'm not sure if this helps to diagnose the issue but within minutes of starting ArcheAge my computer crashes

Bean007 · Aug 14, 2014

Zealot7 :

Like how much more are games crashing while playing ArcheAge vs other games. Don't forget ArcheAge is in Beta I think. How long while playing ArcheAge from the start you launch it till it crashes does it take? Try a cold boot. Shut it all down and turn your gear on and play ArcheAge and see how long it takes. Then turn off your gear and play some other games and see what happens.

Zealot7 · Aug 14, 2014

Bean007 :

It's taking about 3-10 minutes for ArcheAge to crash immediately after a restart. Trying with other games now, but in the past few days it usually takes at least a couple hours for it to crash with other games.

Bean007 · Aug 14, 2014

Zealot7 :

You might try a clean install of the video drivers maybe. Sometimes when updating to newer drivers leftovers can cause conflicts. If it's a nVidia card and you're using nVidia Experience then you can select Clean Install which is suppose to uninstall the old ones which will change your rez. back to I think 640x480 and then install the new ones. I only say suppose to cause you can never be to sure it's doing that. There use to be a program called nvidia inspector or something and it would look for leftovers. If you're using a AMD/ATI then I don't know what program to use.

It's possible that ArcheAge could have issues with your driver version. I know I was playing EQN Landmark Beta and got bad fps. I submitted a ticket and found out it was my current driver version which was the latest. I had to roll back and everything was fine. It was a issue that was known and needed to be worked out on nVidia's side.

Zealot7 · Aug 15, 2014

Did a clean install of video drivers, didn't help at all. I don't get low fps or anything in the games either.

Bean007 · Aug 15, 2014

Zealot7 :

Do a support ticket with ArcheAges and see if it's a known issue with your card or current drivers. There could be a known issue that is known but since you haven't submitted anything you'll never know.

Zealot7 · Aug 15, 2014

Well ArcheAge isn't the only game that is doing this. The other games that I'm playing (Smite and WildStar) are causing crashes as well. Although some other games that aren't as graphically intensive such as Counter Strike don't seem to be causing crashes

veljko023 · Aug 15, 2014

I dont know much about those Games you play but if you can get to the main menu lower the quality settings or anything that affects graphics and then try a test run, try every setting until it works, if it still crashes all i can say is that your hardware is faulty.

Zealot7 · Aug 15, 2014

veljko023 :

yea I already tried that. What is faulty then? GPU or PSU?

Bean007 · Aug 15, 2014

Zealot7 :

Just sent a ticket thru to ArcheAges. The longer you take the longer you will find any info if there's really a problem with the hardware or not. Just do it.

Zealot7 · Aug 15, 2014

It's starting to shut down quicker on other games as well. I can play WildStar for about 5 minutes before my computer dies.

Bean007 · Aug 15, 2014

Zealot7 :

Ok well both a PSU or GPU can be easy to test out to see which one it is assuming it's one of those 2. Either by a friend that you can ask or going to some place like BestBuy or WalMart that has a return policy. WalMart's Policy is only 15 days to return stuff so just be careful that you remember how many days you have left to return it. It's best to find a friend or friend of a friend and see if perhaps they can help. BTW what's your temp's on your CPU? There's a program called CoreTemp you can download to find out.

Zealot7 · Aug 16, 2014

So for some reason I just now got a windows error window when it restarted. This is the first time it's shown up of the bunch of times it has done this. Hopefully this can help to identify the problem

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 117
BCP1: FFFFFA8013FB30B0
BCP2: FFFFF8800F7CF93C
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\081614-6286-01.dmp
D:\TEMP\WER-38906-0.sysdata.xml

Bean007 · Aug 16, 2014

That won't help. We still need to test out the other 2 devices but seeing as you got a BSOD now there's one other thing we can test that won't require you to find somebody to help you. There's a program call MemTest and we need to test your ram. If you have more then 1 ram stick you'll need to take one out and test it and then take that one out and put the other one in. You'll need to make a bootable USB drive or CD\DVD and then put the memtest on the stick or disk and boot from there. You can do a search on google for it. Remember you need to test each one by itself.

veljko023 · Aug 17, 2014

Hey Bean, what if the games cant allocate any RAM (Like somethings is blocking RAM from entering the game), sometimes my game dies when i dont have enough memory for my game. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL, launch the game, minimize the game, check performance and see if any gpu or ram usage is near fully used.

Bean007 · Aug 17, 2014

veljko023 :

Windows will then turn part of your HD into virtual ram as it's needed, everything then slows downs as this happens and could end up crashing the game due to this. CTRL-ALT-DEL won't show gpu mem, you need something like Afterburner. However when you switch to the desktop your GPU is no longer pushing as you're now on the desktop and you'll see the resources change. Best way to see what's being used is the RivaTuner that's included with Afterburner. You can set it up so it shows the gpu ram being used and temps and so forth and can put it on the screen of the game you're playing. This way you'll be getting actual real time info on the resources but this of course is for the video card.

veljko023 · Aug 18, 2014

Yeah but That virtual RAM is very slow. Those physical RAM sticks are very fast but low capacity, while the hard drive is very slow but high capacity. and there is a performance tab in the task manager,
where i can see my gpu and RAM.

Bean007 · Aug 18, 2014

If you read what I said I told you where you can find your gpu's current ram usage.

Computer crashes only while playing games.

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