[dhitchner]

Hey guys,

So as some of you know, I recently built (with some great help from Phillpower2) my fiancè a new gaming rig . I tested this computer for over 48 hours before we took it to her house and it ran flawlessly. But, the last few days she's been having major problems with it. While playing on Star Wars: The Old Republic or Second Life the games crash. She can play for an hour sometimes with-out a crash, but they usually happen every 5 to 10 minutes. When they crash, they usually just crash to desktop. Then she will just reload the game and play again for another few minutes until they crash again. But a few times she has actually crashed to blue screen. Her graphics drivers are up to date along with all her Windows updates.

I've had her run DXdiag, but that didn't show any errors. Also had her monitor the CPU temp; it stayed under 60^oC. The next step I was thinking of doing, is swapping out her GPU for one of my old ones to see if it fixes the issue. But until I can get over to her house, is there anything else I can do to help her? Thank you in advance.

Here's a screenshot of her parts list:

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Hello dhitchner

First suggestion is to open up the case and remove and securely reseat the video card and Ram in case they were disturbed in transit also check that all internal connections are securely in place, let us know how it goes.

[phillpower2]

Hello dhitchner

First suggestion is to open up the case and remove and securely reseat the video card and Ram in case they were disturbed in transit also check that all internal connections are securely in place, let us know how it goes.

[iammykyl]

Hi dhitchner>
Sorry to see you are having problems. We will need your fiancé to register on G2G and start her own topic as this would be much quicker than going through you.
You could ask her to download Speedfan, after ten minutes with the rig at idle, take a screen shot. Keep Speedfan running, play a game until the computer crashes, (restart Speedfan if it has stopped) take another screenshot.
Include system specs, symptoms, and the 2 Speedfan screenshots in her first post.

[dhitchner]

Okay, we will go ahead and do both of those suggestions. Although, I doubt she will register on her. She doesn't have much spare time and she prefers me to handle things like this for her. Thank you guys. Will update soon.

[phillpower2]

Ok and good luck.

[dhitchner]

Well it seems the reseating worked. After I opened the case, reseated them memory modules and graphics card, and rechecked all psu cables we couldn't get the games to crash again.

Thanks a lot guys. Will update you all if anything else happens.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update and lets hope that it all stays good

[dhitchner]

Hey guys,
I'm back. So last weekend, after I reseated hardware, we couldn't get the computer to crash. Then on Monday, she starts crashing again over and over and over... She said that Star Wars crashed on her 9 times in 10 minutes; then she gave up. So Tuesday, I get my fiancè to run Speedfan and then we end up playing online for about 3 hours that night, and she doesn't crash once. Then, Wednesday night she is playing again and again it starts to crash. She does run Speedfan and gets some screen shots. I'll post them in a minute. Then last night, she has even more crashing.

This is the email she sent me:
"I tried the test again today... booted up and tried to play Star Wars for about a ~20 minute period. I logged ~6 crashes during that time including one where the machine locked up. Towards the end of that time, I got the dreaded blue screen of death. The message at the blue screen was that clocking information was not received by a secondary processor in time (same error as before).

I rebooted the machine and then had several (2-3) rapid crashes in a row. At that point I got worried so I rebooted and tried to get some plain old work done.

I was working on my PowerPoint for lecture and noticed that the graphics were not displaying properly at all. Its difficult to describe; perhaps the best way to put it is when I moved items around on the screen they would leave afterimages, as if the screen was not being refreshed correctly. I could pass the mouse over the area and it would "sort of" fix the display, but not quite. Needless to say, I couldn't use PowerPoint either."

So, it seems to be very temperamental (crashing constantly one night, but then the next night it's fine). What should we do now?

Thank you all very much

[dhitchner]

The screenshot on the left is from before loading any programs; the screenshot on the right is right after Star Wars crashed to desktop.

[phillpower2]

The Speedfan readings are inconclusive can you run HWMonitor and provide a screenshot for us http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html

Can you please use the edit tab if you have something to add while you are waiting for a reply as this will make sure that nothing gets overlooked and avoids filling up peoples mail box, thanks.

[dhitchner]

I was at my fiancè's again this weekend and we couldn't get it crash again. It's so weird. Then, this evening, we start playing together online and she crashes 3 times in 30 minutes. I have her screenshots here. The screenshot ending with 519 is from before any crashes, then the screenshot ending in 553 is after the first crash, while the screenshot ending with 603 is after the final crash.

[phillpower2]

Sorry for the delay - I had to do some work within the business.

There are some strange readings showing in the HWMonitor screenshots.

Can you go into the BIOS and select the MBs default settings and see if that helps.

The odd readings may be caused by the ASUS monitoring software BTW.

[dhitchner]

Thank you for the reply; I'm just glad to have your help.

I noticed the strange readings too and then ran HWMonitor on my PC and saw some of the same strange readings (like the SYSTIN, CPUTIN, TMPIN3, AUXTIN, and TMPIN4 all having a max temp over 125C. I'm pretty sure these can't be right, or the computer would be smoking). I have the same Mobo as she, so I'm assuming it's just a monitoring error that this ASUS mobo has with HWMonitor.

Anyway, I will still have her make sure her BIOS is still on default settings.

I was thinking next I'd either insert one of my old GPU's and see if that fixes it or just re-install Windows on it.

Also wanted to reiterate the BSOD message she is getting to see if that rings a bell to anyone. It is "A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor". Sounds to me like that might be a CPU problem or Mobo. But would like to be able to narrow things down so I don't replace the wrong thing.

[phillpower2]

Best Answer

Rely on the MBs own monitoring software and see if the readings are as they should be.

Restore the MBs default settings and see if the clock interrupt message goes away, FWIW overclocking and selecting the MBs optimized settings can cause such a message as can an out of date BIOS or chipset driver.

No need to swap video cards or reinstall of the OS at present, I would suggest a Repair Installation first in any event.

[dhitchner]

We did do the restore to default setting in the BIOS. Basically, the only thing it changed is the "performance" setting went to "normal". I had put it into "performance" when I first installed everything. Since then, she hasn't had any crashes. It's now been 2 nights. I'm going to do some online gaming with her tonight and hopefully all will stay well.

So my next question will be: if this fixes the problem, why can't we have it on "performance"? Is there something wrong with the Mobo that is causing this problem? I have same Mobo and have mine in "performance" as well, but I don't get any crashing. Should I contact ASUS and see if they want to RMA it? What do you think?

Thank you Phillpower2... I'm really grateful you take time away from other things to help us all out on here.