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Is my CPU the cause of my games crashes?

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I've been putting up with this for almost a year now, because it really is an on and off situation, but now I bough Left 4 Dead 2 it seems to be happening a bit more often, and it's starting to get on my nerves.
At first when it happened I was using Vista, and I thought it could possibly be an issue with the OS. But now that I have upgraded to Win 7 and it still occurs, I can rule that one out.
What happens is the game just freezes very suddenly, no warning signs such as slight lag or anything. When it freezes it plays the last sound that was heard over and over and over, and becomes quite painful to the ears.
Trying to Alt Tab or even Ctrl Ald Del out simply doesnt do anything, and I end up holding my power button down for a few seconds and just starting it all up again.
From memory, the games that have made this happen are; L4D2, Borderlands, Red Faction Guerrilla and Lord of the Rings Conquest. There may have been more but I just cannot remember.
I did a bit of temperature monitoring whilst playing Left 4 Dead 2 today and it didn't pass 62C.
Anyway, if anyone knows any ideas or solutions, I would greatly appreciate hearing them.
Specs below.


Intel i7 920 stock clocks (Stock cooler aswell, the issue maybe?)
Nvidia GTX285 black edition
Corsair 1000w PSU
EVGA X58 mobo
6GB 1333mhz Ram

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CPUs Master

Sounds like a gpu issue to me if it only happens while gaming. Might be a memory problem as well, but not as likely if no other programs are affected.

Try updating your gpu drivers, and monitor the gpu temps. You may also want to rum memtest on your memory.

Thanks for your replies.
Yeah I keep my GPU up to date as best as I can, it has happened on older drivers aswell though.
I have tried to monitor my GPU temps but I think the sensor is dodgy because it constantly says 0C.
Also i'll read up on how to do this memtest thing, thanks for your help.
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CPUs Expert

ryaneowww said:
Thanks for your replies.
Yeah I keep my GPU up to date as best as I can, it has happened on older drivers aswell though.
I have tried to monitor my GPU temps but I think the sensor is dodgy because it constantly says 0C.
Also i'll read up on how to do this memtest thing, thanks for your help.



When you say...."the sensor is dodgy because it constantly says OC." then I would certainly look in that direction. Do you have the graphics card OC'D?

arthurh said:
When you say...."the sensor is dodgy because it constantly says OC." then I would certainly look in that direction. Do you have the graphics card OC'D?


The graphics card came factory overclocked, it is the XFX GTX285 Black Edition model. But I dont really know how to go about troubleshooting it.

Thanks guys for the GPUZ suggestion, now my sensor is correctly working again.
I monitored my GPU temps and im getting about 50idle and 60 ish when gaming.
Please keep in mind that it's pretty hot here right now, room temp is about 30 - 32C.
Anonymous
CPUs Authority

How are your memory timings and voltages? I used to get crashes all the time while playing Bioshock. Turns out even though my ram was supposed to run at 1.5 V in actuality you needed to run at 1.7 V to ensure stability. I still use that ram and have had no issues since discovering that little gem (Patriot RAM is known for having to be over volted slightly)

Quote:
How are your memory timings and voltages? I used to get crashes all the time while playing Bioshock. Turns out even though my ram was supposed to run at 1.5 V in actuality you needed to run at 1.7 V to ensure stability. I still use that ram and have had no issues since discovering that little gem (Patriot RAM is known for having to be over volted slightly)


To tell you the truth, I dont know alot at all about memory and timings and such.
Had a few more crashes today though;
- Once playing NFS Shift.
- Once when I loaded up CoD2.
- And once (get ready for it) in the Steam menu.

First off, sorry I didn't just edit my post but it wouldn't let me.

Now, I did a little research of RAM prices from my local vendor and I found a review on some OCZ RAM saying the following.

"These replaced 2x2GB Corsair DDR3 10666 sticks, which I was having "freezing" problems with. So far this OCZ ram has caused no problems so I am happy with the lower price as compared to the high end market."

This is almost the same RAM as I have, except for the amount (I have 3x2GB) and the speed, mine is 1333Mhz.
I wonder if this memory could be the real issue here.
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