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PC Crashing during games randomly

crash freeze bsod cpu gpu

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#1
Prominia

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I built a new pc a little over a month ago and everything was working fine for a few weeks, then while playing games my computer will randomly freeze and I will hear a loud buzzing, then I have to manually reset it, no BSOD.  I can go daysof playing a game with no crashing, then i could play a game for 10 minutes and it will freeze up.  I have the CPU overclocked, but it still was crashing when i set it back to default.  I have run a tests like prime95 or a benchmark program for the gpu, and my PC did not crash during those, although the GPU benchmark test was short.  So I was wondering if this could be a graphics card problem, or maybe something overheating. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My build is as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (OC to 4.0)
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220-X 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Write


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#2
phillpower2

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Hello Prominia,

 

Heat and driver conflicts are common causes of such behaviour, a couple of questions may help us to determine which we should check first;

 

I can go daysof playing a game with no crashing, then i could play a game for 10 minutes and it will freeze up.

 

 

Is it the same game each time or different games.

 

Do you have clear, unrestricted airflow all around your chassis, when under load those two GPUs will be putting out a lot of heat that needs to be expelled from the case so that it does not start affecting your hardware.

 

You have 1866MHz Ram which needs to be overclocked to run at that speed when used with your MB, have you checked what speed it is running at and at what voltage, OCd Ram also produces more heat.


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#3
Prominia

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Thank you for your response.

1.  It is different games each time, some high graphic intense games and other low intense graphic games.

2.  I believe i did a pretty decent job with the airflow, i added an extra fan, and zip tied all of the cables.  When in game the max the bottom card will get is 80º and the upper card will get around 60º.  From what i read it is perfectly normal for one card to be warmer than the other.

3.  Yes i do have the ram enabled to run at 1866MHz using xmp, and checking with cpu-z each one running at 933.2Mhz  I did not touch the voltages so i guess they should be at the default.


Edited by Prominia, 06 March 2015 - 03:22 AM.

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#4
phillpower2

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All appears as it should be with your cooling and Ram, do you have an option in the BIOS to restore the MBs default factory settings (sometimes listed as "most stable") if yes, have you tried the option.

 

Before looking at drivers can you check your temps and voltages for us please;

 

Download Speedfan and install it.  Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.  The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.

If you are running on a vista machine, please go to where you installed the program and run the program as administrator.

 

speedfan.png

 (this is a screenshot from a vista machine)

 

 Download then run HWMonitor and post a screenshot so that we have a comparison to the Speedfan results, details from here

 

To capture and post a screenshot;

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

 

You are welcome btw  :) 


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#5
Prominia

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I have tried to restore it back to factory defaults before.  It did still crash afterwards again.  Again though sometimes it wont crash fro a weeks at a time, and then randomly crash multiple times in a day.

Speedfan.png

hwmonitor.png


Edited by Prominia, 06 March 2015 - 12:44 PM.

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#6
phillpower2

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In the main everything looks good both temp and voltage wise but I can only see the temp for the one GPU which seems quite hot for a card that is not under load, can you scroll the HWMonitor results down and attach the bottom of the page as a screenshot for us please, incidentally, if you check the temp details below you will note the safe temps for a single card, full article here

 

Some info below for testing the card/s to see how hot they do get under load.

 

Temperatures During Gaming Loop - Open Bench -Table Closed Case - VRM
 
Gigabyte GTX 980 Windforce OC      60-61 °C         64-65 °C              93 °C                 
 

Put your video card/s through their paces with Valley Benchmark (free) which you can download from here post back with an update for us when you are ready.


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#7
Prominia

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Yes I have ran valley multiple times becasue I did at first think that maybe my gpu overheating was causing a crash, in games the highest I would see the temp get on gpu 1 would be 80ºC and around 70ºC for GPU 2. I have also ran valley a few times with the same results, and from what I read when you do run SLI the cards tend to get warmer then when running a single GPU.

hwmonitor.png


Edited by Prominia, 07 March 2015 - 10:58 AM.

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#8
phillpower2

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No problems showing there either which is a positive sign  :thumbsup:

 

To see if we can identify any driver conflicts please refer to the copy/paste details below provided courtesy of jcgriff2  :thumbsup: 

1. Create a Windows System Restore Point -

Vista - START | type rstrui - create a restore point
Windows 7 - START | type create | select "Create a Restore Point"
Windows 8/ 8.1 - Using Microsoft System Restore (Windows*8) | HP® Support

2. Run Driver Verifier -

Windows 7 & Vista - START | type verifier 
Windows 8.1 & 8 - Press WIN +X keys | select "Command Prompt (Admin)" | type verifier 

Make these selections - 

1. Select 2nd option - Create custom settings (for code developers)
2. Select 2nd option - Select individual settings from a full list

3. Check these boxes -

▪ Special Pool 
▪ Pool Tracking 
▪ Force IRQL checking
▪ Deadlock Detection
▪ Security Checks (new as of Windows 7)
▪ Concurrency Stress Test (new as of Windows 8)
▪ DDI compliance checking (new as of Windows 8) 
▪ Miscellaneous Checks

4. Select last option - Select driver names from a list
5. Click on the Provider heading - sorts list by Provider
6. Check ALL boxes where "Microsoft" IS NOT the Provider
7. Click on Finish 
8. Re-boot
[/HIDE]

 

 

- If the Driver Verifier (DV) finds a violation, it will result in a BSOD

 

- After re-start, you may not be able to log on to normal Windows

... • Boot into SAFEMODE - tap the F8 key repeatedly during boot-up

... • Select "System Restore"

... • Choose the restore point that you created in step #1

 

- For Driver Verifier status

--- select last option, 1st screen -or-

--- type verifier /query (in a cmd/DOS screen)

- To turn Driver Verifier off - verifier /reset then re-boot

 

- The Driver Verifier needs to run as long as possible - even if the status screen appears clear.

- All future BSOD dumps must be VERIFIER_ENABLED_MINIDUMPs - otherwise the dump(s) are of no use

 

If your system does BSOD while the Driver Verifier is running, please retrieve the dump file from c:\windows\minidump and attach it to your next reply.

 

Please note that Driver Verifier may need to be left running for up to 72hrs, you should use the computer as you normally would and DV will not affect this unless a BSOD occurs.  


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#9
Prominia

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Ok this is now running.  I did not have an option for concurrency stress test.  Also when checking to the verifier it says dump_dumpfve.sys is never loaded.  Is this important?  Also what if my computer freezes at some point during this or something causes my computer to shutdown do i need to restart the verifier?  I will post back in a few days if there was no problem.dvm.png

 


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#10
phillpower2

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when checking to the verifier it says dump_dumpfve.sys is never loaded

 

 

Ensure that crash dumps are enabled on your computer, details for this here

 

If the computer does crash DV will hopefully identify the driver for us, freezes are more difficult to deal with as they can be hardware as opposed to software related.

 

DV will keep on running on your machine until you disable it and no restart is required after a crash.


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#11
Prominia

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Crash dumps where enabled so hopefully a log will be created if need be.  I will post back in a few days after the 72 hour period, thanks for all of the help.


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#12
phillpower2

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You are most welcome  :)

 

We will be here at one time or another should you need us meanwhile   :thumbsup:


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#13
Prominia

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It has been more than 72 hours and it seems that the verifier is still running, and it has not BSOD yet or had any other crashes.  Should i continue to let it run until it stops?


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#14
phillpower2

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It does not appear to be driver related so you can disable DV,  To turn Driver Verifier off - Start - type verifier /reset then re-boot.

 

Let us know how it goes with DV disabled for a couple of days or so.


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#15
Prominia

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The only change I have made was changing the power management to high performance from balanced.  I do not think that would effect anything, but it has not been freezing recently.  I will post back again if it does freeze again.


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