Computer completely freezes during games

GandalffladnaG

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Oct 8, 2012
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My computer has been freezing during games, it just completely freezes and i have to hold the power button to turn it off. It freezes and i can't crtl-alt-del or anything, it even stops my media player. It first started when I was playing mass effect 3 and now it will do it during any game, mostly Eve Online.
Spec's
motherboard : Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 1.0
OS : windows 7 64-bit service pack 1
CPU : AMD FX-8120 8 core 3.1GHz
RAM : Crucial Ballistix 4GB x2 --8192MB (from dxdiag)
Graphic card : EVGA GTX 670 4GB SC (external exhaust)
PSU : Viotek Pro 850W (PS-VTK-850W-24PIN)
case : NZXT M59, it has 5 case fans
CPU fan : Coolermaster Hyper 101
recently changed the thermal paste and replaced with Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina Thermal Compound. (i saw someone else posted a similar problem with a similar rig and it stopped. he did other stuff too and i did that stuff except completely reinstall windows. )

I've updated BIOS, sound driver (realtek), got the newest Nvidia driver (clean install).
i run evga precision X and downclocked the graphic card a little bit since it's the superclocked edition. in CPUID hardware monitor the cpu runs max in the 70s C, and since when the computer freezes it gets shut off nothing will tell me what the last temp was before the freeze. I've check the event viewer thingy and it doesn't show anything for the freezes but it shows that i improperly shutoff the pc. I've noticed that when I have the game settings high the freeze is more likely to happen, Eve on low settings i can go a few days without one but everything on high at least once a day it freezes. Dualboxing did make it freeze faster a couple times. i can't even get through 1 multiplayer match in Mass Effect to the end, even if it's just by myself, so it will go about 15 minutes and freeze.

any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 

jsrudd

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Jan 16, 2009
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Maybe it's the RAM? When strange things like this are happening my first instinct is to lower the speed of the RAM and see if that fixes the problem. You can also run Memtest+ to check the RAM but I've had instances where RAM passes a couple rounds of memtest and still crashes under heavy load.
 

lt_dan_zsu

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May 3, 2012
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I just checked max temps for bulldozer. They are 61 degrees. So that could be the problem. Get mem check for ram and get intel burn test and prime 95 to check cpu.
 

GandalffladnaG

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Oct 8, 2012
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I've got a Coolermaster Hyper 101 fan on the CPU. The top 2 and back fans blow out and the front, side, and the psu fan on the bottom are sucking in. I had the side off the case and I put it back on and it's actually cooler with the side on, I think with it off the air from the external exhaust on the graphics card was getting sucked back in the side fan. I've seen that the psu might not be the best, I'm hoping that if anything needs to be replaced that it's that. I based the pc on a build that 3B Tech had on their website, the only real difference between it and mine was the graphics card (AMD vs Nvidia), an ssd on theirs, half the RAM on mine, and theirs was an FX-8150.

Thanks for all the fast responses, I'll do them and see what happens.
 

GandalffladnaG

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Oct 8, 2012
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I ran Memtest+ and it said no errors, the windows memory diagnostic tool and it said the same thing. I downclocked (again) the gpuclock -250 MHz and the mem clock -100 MHz. I ran EVGA OC scanner on the furry test. it froze after 2min 26 sec, the load was at 90%, the temp was in the 70's. I bought Dishonored and can play it without the freezing.
 

GandalffladnaG

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Oct 8, 2012
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Ok, I got fed up after the pc decided to freeze every two minutes of playing dishonored, so I decided I'd go into bios and just mess it up, if it died I'd just buy a new pc, and I found an 'amd cpu performance boost' or something like that. I decided that I'll try turning it off, then break the computer if that didn't work, and I guess that being on was trying to overclock my cpu and was causing all the trouble I was having. Since turning it off my cpu hasn't gotten over 65 degrees C, (it was really warm in my room that day) and has been cooler since then and hasn't frozen at all, and I can dual box eve on two monitors with highest settings now.
Thanks to everyone for the help.
 

GandalffladnaG

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Oct 8, 2012
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i didn't. don't know when it got turned on, may have been when the guys at 3b tech built it for me.