New PC Build all games crash during play

[citizensoldier]

Hi everyone. I recently built a gaming computer, the specs are

Windows 7 64-bit

Z68X-UD3-B3 GIGABYTE Motherboard

Intel i5-2500K CPU @ 3.3GHz

8 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) RAM

2x MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 in SLI

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM

Creative X-Fi Titanium 7.1 Sound Card

I think those are all the important components

Basically I built it about a month ago and it ran fine for a few days but then all my games started crashing to Windows after a random amount of time. I used a driver cleaner and uninstalled all my video drivers then reninstalled with lasted and still they crash. I can run all the games I play, Crysis 2, Portal 2, Metro 2033, ARMA 2, all on highest settings and while I play I have great framerate the performance does not seem to be lagging at all but after a while it will crash to windows and say "(gamename).exe has encountered a problem" what could be the problem? Hardware? Im at a loss. Any help would be great thank you.

 

[Outlander_04]

check in BIOS that the RAM timing and voltage is correct

if you have overclocked anything then return it to stock clock and see if that makes a difference

 

[IH8U]

One big item missing from your list. What brand is your PSU, and it's wattage?

Aside from that, what are your temps on those cards while you are playing? As outlander pointed out, try turning your OC down a bit. How often do you defrag?

 

[jerreddredd]

after checking the items Outlander_04 suggested.
set the ram to 1333 and try running the games.

then try running the game with SLI disabled and see if you get the same crashes. it may be just SLi. I had occasional crashes in Crisis 2 with SLi when I was running 2 x GTX 570's.

next remove you X-Fi card and install the on board sound and run the games.

 

[citizensoldier]

My PSU is an Antec High Current Gamer 750w. I tried disabling SLI but it didnt help the game still crashed, in fact I was playing portal 2 and it froze up instead of crashing and I had to Ctrl Alt Delete, also I forgot to mention that if I pause I game and leave it there for a while it will eventually freeze up, happened a lot with Crysis 2. I will try the other suggestions and get back to you thank you. ALSO! I had been getting a lot of BSOD as well with error messages such as driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and Nvlddmkm.sys as well as a few others. Its actually been a few days since my last BSOD but I would get them quite often while playing mainly Crysis 2. I also play Assassins Creed 2 and never have any crashes or BSOD with that game.

 

[Onus]

nVidia just released updated drivers. Download the latest ones from their web site.

 

[citizensoldier]

Already did

 

[jerreddredd]

My PSU is an Antec High Current Gamer 750w. I tried disabling SLI but it didnt help the game still crashed, in fact I was playing portal 2 and it froze up instead of crashing and I had to Ctrl Alt Delete, also I forgot to mention that if I pause I game and leave it there for a while it will eventually freeze up, happened a lot with Crysis 2. I will try the other suggestions and get back to you thank you. ALSO! I had been getting a lot of BSOD as well with error messages such as driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and Nvlddmkm.sys as well as a few others. Its actually been a few days since my last BSOD but I would get them quite often while playing mainly Crysis 2. I also play Assassins Creed 2 and never have any crashes or BSOD with that game.

are you running the latest MB Bios?

 

[citizensoldier]

I just updated them yesterday.

 

[Outlander_04]

This might help

http://forums.techarena.in/vista-hardware-devices/689444.htm

 

[citizensoldier]

Ok I just did a CPU temp and GPU temp test while playing portal 2. The max temp for GPU1 was 63C and GPU2 was 52C which seems fairly moderate nothing bad I would think. The max temp for my CPU however was between 90-100C!!!! What the heck is wrong with my processor? Idle my GPUs are about 30-36C and the processor is at 40-48C. While playing Crysis 2 My GPU 1 hit a max at 80C and my GPU 2 hit 64C while the CPU was about the same, in between 90-100

 

[jerreddredd]

Ok I just did a CPU temp and GPU temp test while playing portal 2. The max temp for GPU1 was 63C and GPU2 was 52C which seems fairly moderate nothing bad I would think. The max temp for my CPU however was between 90-100C!!!! What the heck is wrong with my processor? Idle my GPUs are about 30-36C and the processor is at 40-48C. While playing Crysis 2 My GPU 1 hit a max at 80C and my GPU 2 hit 64C while the CPU was about the same, in between 90-100

that would be bad... you running a stock HSF?

 

[citizensoldier]

Yes

 

[jerreddredd]

Yes

Time to re-seat it.

To do it right you'll need some thermal grease and I would remove the HSF and scrape (gently of course) off the thermal paste (both HSF and CPU). use some alcohol to clean any residue. then apply a BB size drop in middle of the CPU and mount the HSF. there are other methods (see article below)

this is a good article on applying thermal compound and how each tested out:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=12


if you can, you might as well upgrade to a 3rd party HSF at this time since you taking it apart any way.

 

[IH8U]

Here are a few HS options for you, depending on how much you can spend on them (all are better than stock btw). Also depends on the clearance within your case, as something like the Noctua, or Tuniq Tower (oldie but still good too) are huge.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9716/cpu-arc-22/Arctic_Cooling_Freezer_7_Pro_Rev_2_w_PWM_Fan_-_Sockets_1366_1156_775_AM3_AM2_AM2_939.html?tl=g40c14s1037
$37 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9624/cpu-noc-15/Noctua_NH-U12P_SE2_CPU_Heat_Sink_With_2_Noctua_Fans_-_Socket_AM2AM377513661156.html?tl=g40c14s1037
$70 Noctua NH-U12P (old, but still works great. Cheaper prices elsewhere, but Frozen ships anywhere)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
$29 COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus (this is the only one I'd recommend using seperate paste, what comes with it is crap)