PC Freezing while gaming... odd reason

jv0079

Honorable
Apr 15, 2012
3
0
10,510
Hey everyone,

Quick Background:
About a year ago I built a new PC gaming rig for medium to high range gaming/online gaming. Simple and decent power, no SLI or crossfire or anything like that. Stable.
Simple Specs: (I've done no overclocking what so ever to anything)
AMD Motherboard BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
2 x Rendition 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
2 x Rendition 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
2 x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V
EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 2GB

It works brilliantly, better than I expected when I was building it. Every game that I've wanted to play I can play at maxed out settings no issues (City of Heroes, Eve Online, Old Republic, Mass Effect 3, Skyrim, etc).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My issue is with Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto 4. With both games my PC will run at 40-50+ FPS no studders, anything no problem but as soon as an 'action' occurs, my entire PC locks up to were I have to reset the power. This 'action' in GTA for example could be a gunshot, a fist fight, a car crash, w/e. In Skyrim, this action could be casting a spell, swinging a sword, having a dragon land nearby, etc. (And yes, I'm well aware that GTA4 is ridiculously buggy.) Also, both games are unmodded.

I've emailed both Rockstar and Bethesda, but of course that can only get you so far. Neither offered any solutions to my problem. I've done everything I can think of to try and troubleshoot. I've cleaned my drives. I've checked for any and all updated drivers. I've ensured my CPU isn't overheating. (Stays between 29 and 57c). I'm seriously confused. Why would the PC run 100% except in those instances?

Has anyone has any clue why the computer freezes? Any information you could add would be helpful, and I'd appreciate it.
 

majorawsome

Distinguished
Jul 25, 2011
69
0
18,630
Are they all up to date? other than that the only thing I can think of is that your disc didnt copy correctly during install :/. (as in you scratched the disc and a certian file is wrong). Also try to turn off the power saving feature in Nvidia control panel
 

jv0079

Honorable
Apr 15, 2012
3
0
10,510
As far as I know all my drivers are up to date. I went over this extensively while emailed Rockstar support back and forth. It can't be the install since this issue affects both games separately. (Maybe more, but I don't play many PC games...) I just find it odd, that these two are the only games I play from a disc, so I was thinking perhaps my hard drive?

I'll try the power saving feature thing, but I doubt that would be it.

Any other guesses? @____@
 

majorawsome

Distinguished
Jul 25, 2011
69
0
18,630
Actually, I saw you using a controller in your video, and I assume you use a controller all the time. try playing without the controller and play with a keyboard and mouse instead. It could be the PSU... which I doubt. Honestly thats all I can think of, other than the problem could be your HDD, and try to see what tempature each component is getting, could possibly be an overheating problem too.