Hey everyone - new member here. I've been trying to troubleshoot a problem for a while now and figured I could use some suggestions if anyone is up for it. I appreciate any advice!
Problem:
When I'm playing somewhat intense games - like Fallout 3, Borderlands 2, Max Payne 3, Smite, or Two Worlds II (I'm sure there are others, just haven't tested them) - my game will sporadically crash. Sometimes when it crashes (go to a black screen, or show the desktop), it will recover (no messages displayed and there's nothing recorded in Windows Event Viewer) but be extremely laggy. Other times, the game will crash completely causing me to force quit the application.
My Specs:
- i5-3570k 3.4GHz
- GTX 660
- G.Skill Ripjaws 8G DDR3 (one stick)
- Asus Z77 Extreme4
- Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD [Games installed]
- G.Skill Phoenix 120GB SSD [OS Installed]
I built the computer along with my roommate's computer at the same time. Both builds are identical and his machine has never had this occur. I've run hardware diagnostics (PC-Check : Pc-Check Diagnostic Software) and everything passed. This issue has occurred from day 1 of the build.
Other troubleshooting things I have done:
- Clean driver installs
- System recovery with brand new Windows CDs
- Tried swapping GPU with other build
- Tried swapping PSU with other build
- Tried swapping RAM with other build
- Tried switching my display from a TV to a my roommate's monitor
- Ensured all voltage settings are the same as roommate's ("auto" OC with mobo, all default settings though)
- Checked Windows Event Viewer - errors only show when I have to force-quit application as a "hang application" error. Not seeing any correlation between "information" events and the crashes either... I was hoping a service was starting up and causing problems but couldn't see anything that was consistent.
- Monitored CPU and GPU temperatures during crashes, all within expected ranges (CPU sitting around 40*C typically).
The issue ONLY happens during certain demanding games though, nothing will happen if playing less demanding games like Minecraft/WoW, or running multiple programming applications/virtual machines, etc. In addition, the issue IS NOT DEPENDENT on how long I play the game. Sometimes it will crash within 3 minutes of playing, other times I can go for 40 minutes without a crash. It usually does not take longer than 30 minutes to occur though.
I'm really at a loss as to what could be causing the problem. If it's hardware related, the only parts I haven't swapped are Motherboard, CPU and the Hard drives. I have no antivirus running (fresh restore at the moment) for testing purposes.
Any advice or help is greatly appreciated. I was a computer repair tech for a couple years, so given some instruction I can try to supply whatever other information is needed.
Problem:
When I'm playing somewhat intense games - like Fallout 3, Borderlands 2, Max Payne 3, Smite, or Two Worlds II (I'm sure there are others, just haven't tested them) - my game will sporadically crash. Sometimes when it crashes (go to a black screen, or show the desktop), it will recover (no messages displayed and there's nothing recorded in Windows Event Viewer) but be extremely laggy. Other times, the game will crash completely causing me to force quit the application.
My Specs:
- i5-3570k 3.4GHz
- GTX 660
- G.Skill Ripjaws 8G DDR3 (one stick)
- Asus Z77 Extreme4
- Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD [Games installed]
- G.Skill Phoenix 120GB SSD [OS Installed]
I built the computer along with my roommate's computer at the same time. Both builds are identical and his machine has never had this occur. I've run hardware diagnostics (PC-Check : Pc-Check Diagnostic Software) and everything passed. This issue has occurred from day 1 of the build.
Other troubleshooting things I have done:
- Clean driver installs
- System recovery with brand new Windows CDs
- Tried swapping GPU with other build
- Tried swapping PSU with other build
- Tried swapping RAM with other build
- Tried switching my display from a TV to a my roommate's monitor
- Ensured all voltage settings are the same as roommate's ("auto" OC with mobo, all default settings though)
- Checked Windows Event Viewer - errors only show when I have to force-quit application as a "hang application" error. Not seeing any correlation between "information" events and the crashes either... I was hoping a service was starting up and causing problems but couldn't see anything that was consistent.
- Monitored CPU and GPU temperatures during crashes, all within expected ranges (CPU sitting around 40*C typically).
The issue ONLY happens during certain demanding games though, nothing will happen if playing less demanding games like Minecraft/WoW, or running multiple programming applications/virtual machines, etc. In addition, the issue IS NOT DEPENDENT on how long I play the game. Sometimes it will crash within 3 minutes of playing, other times I can go for 40 minutes without a crash. It usually does not take longer than 30 minutes to occur though.
I'm really at a loss as to what could be causing the problem. If it's hardware related, the only parts I haven't swapped are Motherboard, CPU and the Hard drives. I have no antivirus running (fresh restore at the moment) for testing purposes.
Any advice or help is greatly appreciated. I was a computer repair tech for a couple years, so given some instruction I can try to supply whatever other information is needed.
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