New Games Consistently Crashing

[sargentchimera]

Recently new games have been crashing on me consistently and at certain moments in games. What would happen is the game will freeze and a few objects will become distorted with multi-colored lines and then crash to the desktop or force me to ctrl-alt-del out of the game and force close. I can hear the audio from the game when this happens aswell. I was playing Ghost Recon Future Soldier today and my computer actually crashed and left me this message upon start up...

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA801086F4E0
BCP2: FFFFF88010B671A4
BCP3: FFFFFFFFC000009A
BCP4: 0000000000000004
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\090312-22604-01.dmp
C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-82150-0.sysdata.xml

I have crashing problems in LA Noire, Crysis 2, and Ghost Recon Future Soldier, all of these games being through Steam, all recently bought. I know turning the visual fidelity down to minimum relieves the issue but I can not tolerate not useing my computer to its full potential. It seems the issue is only in new games but I have not tested this thouroughly enough to be certain. I have tried rolling back drivers and using 1 card to no avail. I woinder if the graphics card is failing me as I have had them for a year with no issues, I have also wondered if it was heat related but I believe it is not. I have no clue what to make of these issues so any help would be much appreciated!

 

[blakwidowrsa]

from a MS forum, and I agree with them.

"It's not a true crash, in the sense that the bluescreen was initiated only because the combination of video driver and video hardware was being unresponsive, and not because of any synchronous processing exception".

Since Vista, the "Timeout Detection and Recovery" (TDR) components of the OS video subsystem have been capable of doing some truly impressive things to try to recover from issues which would have caused earlier OSs like XP to crash.

As a last resort, the TDR subsystem sends the video driver a "please restart yourself now!" command and waits a few seconds.

If there's no response, the OS concludes that the video driver/hardware combo has truly collapsed in a heap, and it fires off that stop 0x116 BSOD.

If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating.

Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU.

Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference.

If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling.

I would download cpu-z and gpu-z (both free) and keep an eye on the video temps

I would uninstall the gfx drivers, reboot, shut down again, and then reinstall the gfx and mobo chipset drivers on 3rd boot. Maybe reinstall directx too.

 

[sargentchimera]

I took the cards out today and checked for dust buildup in them and the system and it was quite clean actually, especially for not being dusted in over a year! The air flow is nice in the case and it keeps dust down suprisingly well. I am fairly certain it is not a temperature problem, I checked the temps in Skyrim and was in the mid to high 80Cs. I will deffinitly try the driver uninstallation you suggested after I check all my options. Thanks so far!

 

[blakwidowrsa]

80C is hot... my notoriously hot 4890 OC ed. is hovering at around 40-50 under full load.

 

[sargentchimera]

mid 80s has always been normal for 580 SLI. All people with similiar systems on air report the same temps so I know that is not the issue.

 

[blakwidowrsa]

With the case open, let a desktop fan blow into the case. See if crashes take longer. We need to elminate a heat issue 100% before proceding...

 

[sargentchimera]

I have tried that, plus turning both system and card fans to max. It lowers the temp decently (65-77c) but crashes are the same. I switched the cards, top is now on bottum and vice versa, and Ghost Recon Future Soldier ran past previous crash points and ran for an hour or so until unfortunetly crashing. After each crash I check temps and they are always in acceptable ranges (never higher than 87c, usually top card being 77c ish and bottum being 84c ish) I may try calling alienware but I am out of warranty and they are very hard to get decent help from, having spent over 30 hours on the phone with then in a 6 month period (used to have 2 5970s, cards would be in the high 80Cs and low 90cs, eventually over heating at and crashing with 105C temps! I convinced them to exchange the 5970s for the 580s and have been happy for over a year until now.)

 

[yogy]

it could be a psu problem ,since new games require more of the gpu and gpu requires more power ,i had something very similar in the same games and it turned out that my psu was overheating and shuting down

 

[sargentchimera]

Wouldnt that cause the whole computer to crash as well? I have only had 1 true crash, the rest were crash to desktop but It just might be the PSU, how can i test the theory?

 

[blakwidowrsa]

Wouldnt that cause the whole computer to crash as well? I have only had 1 true crash, the rest were crash to desktop but It just might be the PSU, how can i test the theory?

Run a 3dmark/Cinebench on loop. see how long it lasts. The benchmarking stresses pc so to use more Ghz and ultimately power.

Then leave the pc idle and see how long that lasts

 

[sargentchimera]

I can try. I turned SLI off today and Ghost Recon Future Soldier lasted several hours until crashing but it did not affect the other games that are afflicted. LA Noire seems to crash at around 40 minutes and Crysis 2 is about the same and in specific places.

 

[blakwidowrsa]

If the games crash at about the same place in the game, it is probably a driver issue.

Most games have a crash/error log, check the windows logs too, if you just crash to the desktop there will be something in the event viewer. It might not always be a error but sometimes a Information/warning log. check first in system then applications then the rest.