Games Crash to Partially Loaded Desktop

sushia11

Honorable
Aug 29, 2012
24
0
10,510
I've experienced this problem for a while, and I'd greatly appreciate any advice. It's a bit long, so thank you for reading it.

Every time I try to play a game, my computer crashes to the desktop within minutes. At that point, I'm forced to restart my computer because of an odd issue. My screen is almost completely black, with a few exceptions. The outline on program windows is visible, along with the start menu button. I can even move windows around the screen. However, everything else doesn't seem to have loaded, including the wallpaper and program icons.

Strangely, I can still interact with things as if they were visible. I've tried pressing ctrl+alt+delete and a black screen appears, but if I click in the general area of the buttons, the task menu shows up, although for the most part it looks the same as the other windows I described. If I blindly navigate to the arrow near the shut down button, a menu appears but disappears an instant later. Still, if I memorize the location of the restart button, it works like normal.

The desktop error actually looks similar to when I start up the computer and it's still loading files.

Specs:
AMD 7870
A880G+ Motherboard
Phenom 2 960t CPU
Hitachi HDS721050CLA362 500.1 GB HDD
EVGA 600B PSU
One stick of 4GB DDR3 Ram
Windows 7 64 bit

Things I've tried:
RAM tested fine. I also tried changing the slot, but nothing happened.
Used Crystaldisk to test HDD. The reallocated sectors were the only thing found.
Current: 100 Worst: 100 Threshold: 5 It isn't perfect, but I don't think it's the cause.
Tested GPU in MSI Kombuster, but found no errors.
Ran games in windowed mode to check the temperature of my CPU, but it never rose above 60 degrees celsius.

I feel like it might be related to my memory. Beginning a game, textures seem to take slightly longer to load than they should, and I get small freezes when I look at a new area. The tiny freezes lessen as time goes on. This part may have been happening before the crashes, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning.

I've been meaning to upgrade my CPU for a while, and have a better motherboard in storage for that purpose. Could I kill two birds with one stone, or does my issue lie elsewhere?

Edit: I just got the error again. Only this time, I wasn't running any stressful programs. I was in my browser when the screen seemed to turn off. When it came back on, program windows were covered in black, although they still seemed to work like before. I believe this rules out overheating as a possible cause.

Again, I'm thankful for any help.
 
can be two issue...heat or power for right now. if it gpu heat issue use msi afterburner check that the gpu fan will spin up and then set a max fan at 50-60c see if the game will run longer and you hear the gpu fan. with power use 3 party tools like spacy (ccleaner) people make this for testing your pc. log your power supply voltages and check that the 12v line is holding to atx spec. if you think the unit is the issue start and rma with the vendor...most will do a cross ship with a cc info. one other issue is your gaming pc lack of ram. with pc you have the os that loaded and the game so with a 4g dimm and windows 32 bit there only 3.2g of usable ram for the os and the game.
 

sushia11

Honorable
Aug 29, 2012
24
0
10,510


Sorry, I forgot to mention I'm running Windows 7 64 bit.

I did a search, and by "spacy," can I assume you meant "speccy"? I downloaded that program, and looked at the information it gathered on the voltage for my motherboard. I don't know much about PSUs, so if somebody could help make sense of this, I'd be thankful.

Speccy:
+12V 12.467 V
+5V 5.103 V
CPU CORE 1.344 V
VIN3 1.668 V
VIN4 0.552 V
+3.3V 1.978 V
VIN6 1.212 V
VIN7 1.680 V
VIN8 1.728 V

These are my PSU voltage specs:
+5V@20A, +3.3V@24A, +12V@49A, -12V@0.3A, +5VSB@3A
Rated for >85% efficiency

Was this necessary? I apologize, I'm not sure if this is what you were talking about.
 

sushia11

Honorable
Aug 29, 2012
24
0
10,510
This is an update.

My computer hasn't worked since Sunday. I tried to run a test on the memory overnight, but I couldn't use it the next morning. I have a replacement motherboard, and have ordered new RAM and a CPU.

I had a bluescreen, and thought I could smell something coming from my computer. When I press the power button, the fans and LED lights on the top of the case activate, but I don't hear any POST beeps. Nothing changes even if a different PSU is used, I switch to onboard video, or the HDD is disconnected.