Games crash, computer shuts down, I'm stumped

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
W

weberdarren97

Glorious
Aug 10, 2015
8,137
6
45,615
Hello all,
I have a computer with the following components:
Intel Core i3 540 (stock clocks)
Dell Motherboard (I couldn't find a motherboard model, it's the one that comes with the Dell Inspiron 580)
8GB RAM (4x2GB kit)
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 240GB
WD Black 2TB
GTX 760 ti (basically a rebranded 670)
Seasonic M12ii 520w Bronze EVO Edition

Here's what's going on: When I start a game, all seems well. As I game, I hear fans ramping up a little bit (I have a rather aggressive fan curve set) and all still seems well. Once I've been gaming for about an hour, one of two things will happen.
1) The game locks up and I have to pop up Task Manager to close it. No video or audio stutter, it just freezes and it's only the game that freezes.
2) The whole computer locks up and whatever sound was playing from the game keeps repeating in the speakers. The system still responds to pressing and holding the power button and a Kernel-Power event is logged in Event Viewer.
There is no way to predict which of these two will happen. There is no change in system behavior before this happens.

Here's what I've done so far:
1) Stress tested with AIDA64 System Stability Test for three hours, no problems. CPU is below 55C and GPU is below 80C.
2) Ran other stress tests while AIDA64 was running and the GPU reached 83C for a moment before the fans sped up and cooled it back down. This cycle continued for two hours and no issues arose.
3) Uninstalled all games that caused this issue, restarted, hard booted, then installed them again. The issue persists.
4) Used DDU to remove Display Drivers, restarted, downloaded GeForce Experience for seamless driver installation, installed newest drivers. The issue persists.
5) Used a multimeter to test my power supply out of the system, voltages are as follows: 3.31V, 4.97V, 12.06V. These voltages were stable and did not fluctuate.
6) Used a multimeter to test my power supply while the system was stress testing, voltages are as follows: 3.28V, 5.02V, 12.03V. These voltages were stable and did not fluctuate.

I'm stumped.
 
Solution
James Mason
Well, if you haven't already, you should: https://www.malwarebytes.com/
Because you're right about #4 being a cause for concern: http://www.file.net/process/atieclxx.exe.html

And if you're willing a full clean reinstall of Windows to hopefully blow anything else out. (because trying to find the cause in these situations can take forever and reinstalling windows usually fixes whatever got broken)

80C may be too hot for your GPU, but a more aggressive fan profile may help, though if your case is designed kinda bad (which if it's a dell it probably is) You may not be able to do anything about it.
Sort by date Sort by votes
W

weberdarren97

Glorious
Aug 10, 2015
8,137
6
45,615
I've found the following in Event Viewer which may be relevant to the issue:

1) Kernel-Power, described as: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. Is this because I shut it down by holding the power button?

2) I have eight logs of failed update installations, all for Groove Music. This is probably unrelated but it's in the error category so I put it here anyway.

3) AppModel-Runtime, described as: Failed with 0x490 modifying AppModel Runtime status for package Microsoft.ZuneMusic_10.16112.10211.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe for user DESKTOP-VS4TEBQ\weber (current status = 0x0, desired status = 0x20).

4) There's a bunch of this one: Application Error, described as: Faulting application name: atieclxx.exe, version: 6.14.11.1199, time stamp: 0x563a76a9
Faulting module name: atieclxx.exe, version: 6.14.11.1199, time stamp: 0x563a76a9
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000000425c6
Faulting process id: 0xdac
Faulting application start time: 0x01d2565bb0ad080b
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\system32\atieclxx.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\atieclxx.exe
Report Id: 11d43e08-9498-40eb-a6e5-4df8d5c9751d
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Isn't number 4 an AMD executable? Why is that there? There is no AMD hardware in this machine. I have never tried to install any AMD drivers.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740
1. Yeah, that's most likely because you forced it to shut-down.

2. I have no idea whether that would be in any way related.

3. I've heard ot that application error, but never of a fix.

4. Yes, that's an ATI/AMD executable. I have no idea why it would be present.


Wow, this is an interesting situation. Temps could've been the result of the lock ups, with drivers potentially at fault for the audio on repeat....but you've addressed those/. Hmmmmm

After a freeze/lockup (either game only, or whole system), how long are you holding off before shutting down or force-closing the game(s)?

How does CPU/RAM utilization look? (Relatively) clean install of the OS?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
7
74,965
Well, if you haven't already, you should: https://www.malwarebytes.com/
Because you're right about #4 being a cause for concern: http://www.file.net/process/atieclxx.exe.html

And if you're willing a full clean reinstall of Windows to hopefully blow anything else out. (because trying to find the cause in these situations can take forever and reinstalling windows usually fixes whatever got broken)

80C may be too hot for your GPU, but a more aggressive fan profile may help, though if your case is designed kinda bad (which if it's a dell it probably is) You may not be able to do anything about it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
W

weberdarren97

Glorious
Aug 10, 2015
8,137
6
45,615


When the system locks up, I'm pressing the power button for about three seconds before it powers down. That's a pretty normal response time, isn't it?

When the games lock up, CPU utilization is usually about 3% and RAM usage is usually about 2GB. The game is no longer using system resources.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
W

weberdarren97

Glorious
Aug 10, 2015
8,137
6
45,615


I already have MalwareBytes free. I couple it with Avast as the active scanner. Neither of them found anything suspicious.

I'm going to do a clean installation whenever the download completes.

I thought anything under 85C was acceptable?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
7
74,965


Ehhh, sometimes you never know with temps, maybe your card/chip doesn't handle it that well. I'd try to see if it happens if you drop the load on the GPU as much as possible so it runs cooler. (or maybe limit it's power to do that as well)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740


I meant more, when it locks up, do you shut it down as soon as you realize it's locked up? Or have you left it for a period of time to see if it 'comes back'? I doubt it would, under the circumstances - more curious that anything else.

As much as reinstalling the OS seems to be a bit of a cop out, I agree, it's likely going to be quicker/easier to simply reinstall than finding the route cause.

I'm very perplexed by the ATI/AMD presence though.....
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
W

weberdarren97

Glorious
Aug 10, 2015
8,137
6
45,615
So I just reinstalled and finally got everything set back up the way I had it. I set file explorer to show hidden files and OS protected files for the sake of searching for the AMD file, it is not present. Yay!

I'll start the game in a few, hopefully the issue is solved now.

Update: Issue is solved.

Since all users agreed on the solution, I've selected the first (other than myself) that suggested a clean install. All the rest of you get voted up :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom