Games Crash in New Build

lionheart2243

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Feb 6, 2013
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Hey guys,
I just put together my first PC, a ~$1000 gaming build. It runs great, but I've had a lot of trouble with games crashing. When they crash, the games just freeze and I have to press ctrl+alt+delete to get out of them. It seems to happen the more pressure I'm putting on the computer to perform. For instance, if I disable AA, Alpha to Coverage, and SSAO, Far Cry 3 runs 60-80fps and tends to go longer without crashing. Battlefield 3 maxed runs about 80-100fps and only crashed once through the whole campaign. Far Cry 3 crashes anywhere from 1 minute (in the menus) to 2-3 hours. It seems to make it a little longer when I initially start playing, then it happens more constantly after the first crash when I try to play again, but that may just be my imagination.

Here's what I've tried:
- Passmark Performance Test, Furmark, and 3DMark11 all run fine
- Temperatures are fine
- Used current driver, beta driver, next previous driver, and Windows default driver for 7900 series. Made special care and used youtube videos to ensure I was uninstalling/reinstalling them correctly
- Returned my 7850 and got a 7950
- Removed 7950 factory overclock bringing it from 1000/1250 to 900/1250
- Removed my CPU overclock from 4.3ghz to 3.4-3.8ghz
- Completely wiped my HD and reinstalled the OS
- Ran Memtest86 overnight, 13 passes 0 errors

I really hoped Memtest would have errors so I'd know it was my RAM failing, but with that not showing anything I'm at a bit of a loss. Does anyone have any other ideas on what I should try to do to diagnose/fix the problem?

Here's the build:
Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX
CPU - i5-3570k
CPU Cooler - Hyper 212 EVO
Graphics Card - Gigabyte 7950 3gb, originally had an ASUS 7850 2gb
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8gb(2x4gb) 1600mhz
Power Supply - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650
 

Hazzacanary

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Feb 4, 2013
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Are you monitoring temps throughout gameplay? One of your components might be overheating, can you report back to us with some data? Also, do you have a friend who you can borrow a power supply off, and make sure it's not your power supply that's dodgy?
 

lionheart2243

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Feb 6, 2013
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Sure, I'll start playing fc3 now with gpu-z and cpu-z in the background and I'll screenshot the results once it crashes.

And I go to school for IT so I'll ask around tomorrow to see if anyone has a spare power supply I can try. However, it should be noted that the PSU is not one of the new parts. I've had it for about 2 years because I got a graphics card in my old Dell which needed a stronger PSU. That system ran fine, but this is def a way more demanding build.
 

lionheart2243

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Feb 6, 2013
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Here's the results. Played for a little over an hour with AA off, SSAO, Alpha off. Used HWMonitor since it shows all the hardware temp maxes. Took the screenshot about 15 seconds after crashing. Looks like the GPU got up to 60C, CPU got to 67. I don't think temperatures are the issue =/
Temps.jpg
 

lionheart2243

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Feb 6, 2013
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I don't, the HDD was also from my old system. The PSU, hard drive, and optical drive are all recycled from my Dell and worked fine before
 

Hazzacanary

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Feb 4, 2013
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You're right, it doesn't look like it. As you said in your OP that those settings are more stable, can you try to run them with more unstable settings, and then see if you get any different results. Well, with heat ticked off our list, we'd have a) the power supply, or some other component. You said you know other people with components, so it might be worth plugging one of your components at a time into another known-working system, to test each one individually.