Computer crashing while gaming after fresh install.

[stevenhuby]

Ok, so I'm having a really annoying and I think unique problem judging by the fact I cannot find any posts anywhere of others experiencing this problem.

So I built my PC in 2016 and roughly 2 months after building it, I started to experience frequent crashing while playing games. I mainly played WoW but it was happening also on Battlefield 1, Forza Horizon 3 and basically any other game I played.

I dealt ith this until about October 2017 when I spoke to my friend who works with PC's and because I had an overclock on my CPU at the time, he recommended taking that off and it kind of worked in the sense that it didn't crash anywhere near as frequently but still had crashes.

Then all of a sudden it just stopped crashing full stop and all was well until the last month, I had to do a fresh install of Windows 10 cause I was stupid and ended up with a virus. Anyway, since doing that fresh install it has begun to crash again in the same way. At first I thought maybe this time it was my PSU as it was coming up to its 6th birthday so I swapped it out and still the crashing occured.

I'll explain what occurs with the crash:

Screen completely freezes, the lights on my K70 and Polaris mat just freeze, and then the strangest part, whatever my default device is for audio at the time of the crash will output a horrible, buzzing, screeching sound for about 5 seconds and then will just stop. Then I have no choice but to hard shut down my PC.

My specs are:

ASUS Z170-A
Intel Core i5 6600k @ 3.5GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Gigabyte G1 Gaming
120GB KINGSTON SV300S37A120G SSD for OS Windows 10 64 bit
2x 1TB Western Digital HDD's

I have monitored the temps of all my components and none of them go higher than around 67 celsius so I don't think it's a heat issue. I've run memtest for hours along with furmark and unigine heaven with no crashes and I have re-seated every component. I have also tested games using the onboard graphics and it still crashes. I removed all the old graphics drivers and reinstalled using DDU+.

The noise coming from the default audio device is the puzzling thing for me, I don't understand why it's happening, I'm pretty sure I've tried everything and have reached the end of my tether. The warranty is still valid on all of my components so my last resort would be to just RMA them and hope it fixes the issue.

I appreciate this is a lot of reading but I wanted to explain the issue as clearly as possible. If anyone can help, any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

SH

 

[polis_putrus]

Ok so when it does that there is no blue screen?

 

[polis_putrus]

Dont waste your money on replacing parts like your PSU, the problem is most likely your ram, remove it carefully, clean all the dust, from the ram and from the ram slot, using a tooth brush, the put it back in, the same problem happened to me right after I swapped my 3GB of ram from my computer with my moms 8GB ram then I started having the same issue at first I though the ram was corrupt but it was just dust, after cleaning it the screen never froze and did the buzzing sound. Oh and dont worry too much about the buzzing sound, it just normally happenes when a blue screen occurs, if cleaning the ram doesnt work, just turn the computer off, slightly wiggle the ram turn it on, if it doesnt work turn it off wiggle and repeat. Hope this works worked for me had this problem with about 4 computers fixed them all doing what I explained above.

 

[luckymatt42]

What's your current PSU? Make/model/wattage?

 

[stevenhuby]

Dont waste your money on replacing parts like your PSU, the problem is most likely your ram, remove it carefully, clean all the dust, from the ram and from the ram slot, using a tooth brush, the put it back in, the same problem happened to me right after I swapped my 3GB of ram from my computer with my moms 8GB ram then I started having the same issue at first I though the ram was corrupt but it was just dust, after cleaning it the screen never froze and did the buzzing sound. Oh and dont worry too much about the buzzing sound, it just normally happenes when a blue screen occurs, if cleaning the ram doesnt work, just turn the computer off, slightly wiggle the ram turn it on, if it doesnt work turn it off wiggle and repeat. Hope this works worked for me had this problem with about 4 computers fixed them all doing what I explained above.

 

[stevenhuby]

There is no blue screen no, it just freezes completely. I've never even thought about cleaning the ram or the ram slot tbh, I've obviously tried re-seating it but that's it. I'll give these things a try today and get back to you. Thanks a lot

 

[polis_putrus]

I freezes completely for me too without a blue screen, basically its a failed blue screen, it was suppose to be a blue screen error but it failed to do so, it happens to me too, just freezes and I have to turn it off and back on, BUT after Ive upgraded my graphics card I HAVE NEVER had a blue screen or a computer freeze EVER Im very surprised, I used to think it was my ram, It kind of was, but after the upgrade never had errors, sad to say it may be your 1070, not sure what to do to fix it, are the drivers up to date, did you install 32 bit drivers or 64 bit?

 

[polis_putrus]

It may be because your using Windows 10, would it be ok if you installed Windows 7? it is much more simple than 10, and more stable.

 

[luckymatt42]

It may be because your using Windows 10, would it be ok if you installed Windows 7? it is much more simple than 10, and more stable.

NO, you do NOT need to go back to Win7 to stop your computer from bluescreens or crashes. Millions of people are using Win10 with no issues, including me. If a hardware issue is causing problems in Win10, they're going to cause problems in Win7.

The ONLY reason why you MIGHT want to go to Win7 is if your motherboard, chipset, or graphics card drivers are old enough that they are only Win7 compatible. All your parts should work without any issues on Win10.

 

[stevenhuby]

So I took out my RAM, cleaned it and the slots and now the crashes are more frequent so that doesn't appear to have worked. I guess it could be faulty RAM? I never had this issue until I upgraded my PC in 2016.

My power supply is 600w which is plenty enough to handle everything.

I'm honestly just at a complete loss, I don't want to start RMAing parts if I don't have to but I really don't know what to do next.

 

[polis_putrus]

Hmm if the crashes are more freequent then it must be your ram, playing games will cause more ram to be used so when gaming, some data probably went to the bad ram stick and caused it to crash use memtest86 to test your ram, also the ting that ensures that it's your ram is the buzzing sound, it happened to me too RIGHT after I swapped my 3GB of ram with my mom's 8GB of ram, I knew her ram was faulty, the my computer did exactly what yours did, but the strangest part was when I upgraded the graphics card, I NEVER had any isssues, so it also may sadly be your 1070 that is the problem, don't buy a new one unless your sure. Thanks