My computer is crashing occasionally when playing taxing games

dildobaggins

Reputable
BANNED
Oct 18, 2014
20
0
4,510
Specs:
cpu - Intel i7-6700K - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117559
gpu - GTX 980TI 6GD5T OC - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127902
mobo - ASUS Z170-A - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132566
psu - EVGA 120-G2-1000-XR 80 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438010
Windows 10

The only games that have crashed my PC are Witcher 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition. Temps are fine I think, cpu gets to around 50 degrees and gpu gets around 80 degrees while in these games. I've played tons of games on this computer and it never crashes while playing any other games. Witcher 3 and DAI are also the hardest games to run that I play by a pretty fair margin so that's why I put it in the title, not sure if that's why my PC is crashing though. It did seem to crash a bit more often when I was playing Witcher 3, where my gpu would more consistently get to around 80+. In DAI, which I'm playing right now, it sits around 60 degrees min to high 70s and rarely low 80s max.

It started right after I build this computer about 6 months ago, and has been a reoccurring problem. My drivers are up to date and even though this was my first build I'm pretty confident I got it right as I followed a lot of advice from people much more experienced than me, and this being my only problem.

When it crashes it loses all functionality; both of my monitors freeze, and there's a quick screech from the audio giving out. The only way to get back to using my PC afterwards is a hard shut down with the button on the tower. In the most recent case though I saw a quick flash of the blue windows screen with a sad face before the computer restarted on its own, which it has never done before. Sometimes I play upwards of 10 hours straight with no crashes, other times it crashes after a couple of hours. Seemingly random as far as timing goes, except for today when it crashed twice in a row in quick succession, leading me to make this thread because I don't want to permanently damage my computer.
 
Solution
There have been tons of reported issues with Nvidia drivers and Windows 10
I did a quick search on reddit.com for you, there are plenty of threads to check out there.

https://goo.gl/beirZT

I personally had to switch back to Windows 7 because the drivers were causing my screen to lock up. Where I could still hear the sound coming from the game I was playing, there just was no response. A hard reset was needed.

fuzz0r

Commendable
Mar 14, 2016
13
0
1,520
There have been tons of reported issues with Nvidia drivers and Windows 10
I did a quick search on reddit.com for you, there are plenty of threads to check out there.

https://goo.gl/beirZT

I personally had to switch back to Windows 7 because the drivers were causing my screen to lock up. Where I could still hear the sound coming from the game I was playing, there just was no response. A hard reset was needed.
 
Solution