[PastPerspective]

Hey guys, I made a post about 2/3 weeks ago explaining that my PC freezes when playing games. It used to take 10 minutes to freeze the game, but now after this PC repairs company dealt with it, it now takes an hour. They assumed it was fixed, but they weren't entirely sure on how to force the games to freeze (some do it more regularly/quickly than others). I took it home, to find that it is still freezing. I recently inserted new RAM into the computer (two different types, both DDR3). They assumed that was why, and inserted JUST the new RAM into the PC. That didn't fix it, so they added the old RAM, and that seemed to fix it temporarily. After a while, it started doing the same, so I inserted the new RAM without the old ones still in there, and it still freezes, but it's no faster. This leads me to assume the RAM itself isn't the problem. The PC company don't think it's the RAM either.

I'm thinking it's either the power supply or the graphics card. On less power-intensive games like Minecraft, I've yet to see it freeze. On games like Max Payne 3 and All Points Bulletin, it takes a good 30 minutes to an hour. I'm doubting it's the card solely due to the fact that the games still run perfectly. If it was faulty, I'd assume the games would slow down, and perhaps I'd even see graphical errors. My power supply is only 600W, so maybe that's the problem? I'm thinking that the longer I play it, the higher the voltage, therefore the more stress it being put onto the PSU.

When my PC does decide to freeze, I always have to reboot it by turning off the power completely. Only once has it actually restarted immediately by itself.

Do you guys have any recommendations? A simple power-supply swap could determine the problem, yet if it is the graphics card, I'd have to get it replaced which fortunately it is under warranty.

[illegal_luggage]

It sounds like something is overheating, download HWMonitor which is small temperature monitoring program. It doesn't even need an install, all you have to do is extract a .zip file. Run the program and leave it running while you play a game. Report back with the temps. It will also be helpful to know your system specs? 600W is nice amount for a PSU but it really depends on what graphics card (and other hardware) you have. Cheap PSU's can be rated at 800W but will only be able to power a mid range graphics card and are pretty ineffecient and aren't known for reliability.

32-bit HWMonitor
http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/hwmonitor/1.19-32bit.zip

64-bit HWMonitor
http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/hwmonitor/1.19-64bit.zip



This post has been edited by illegal_luggage on Friday, Jun 1 2012, 15:24

[Wolf68k]

Did they ever actually test the RAM like with memtest or did they just swap around RAM over and over?
Download memtest http://www.memtest.org/ there is a USB key/stick/thumbdrive option but there CD ISO so you know you won't have any issues getting that to work (I haven't tried the USB version yet)

Does the game freeze, that's it and never comes back?

Have you done a simple system cleaning; virus and spyware scans, registry cleaning, chkdsk, defrag?

Have you checked with the Event Viewer to see if anything shows up there?

[PastPerspective]

Yeah, I use HWMonitor already.

On All Points Bulletin:
CPU: 63C
GPU: 64C
Mobo: 53C

On Battlefield 3:
CPU: 69C
GPU: 66C
Mobo: 58C

It usually happens when certain things happen. For instance, my PC will freeze when an explosions happens on APB. Maybe it is the card after all? I have no idea.

Edit: I'll try memtest now.

This post has been edited by PastPerspective on Friday, Jun 1 2012, 15:34

[PastPerspective]

QUOTE (Wolf68k @ Friday, Jun 1 2012, 15:30)

Did they ever actually test the RAM like with memtest or did they just swap around RAM over and over? Download memtest http://www.memtest.org/ there is a USB key/stick/thumbdrive option but there CD ISO so you know you won't have any issues getting that to work (I haven't tried the USB version yet) Does the game freeze, that's it and never comes back? Have you done a simple system cleaning; virus and spyware scans, registry cleaning, chkdsk, defrag? Have you checked with the Event Viewer to see if anything shows up there?

I don't have any discs around, but I tried the USB one. The files are on my USB, but nothing's happening?

And yeah, the screen will essentially turn black, I can still hear the game in the background sometimes but the sound is looping. I've tried updating all my drivers, scanning for viruses and so forth, to no avail. The PC seems fine until it freezes, what should the event viewer show me? How do I get to it?

[Wolf68k]

From the sound of it, it sounds like the PSU is what might be causing this. Could also be the GPU but start with the PSU first. If you can borrow one just to try out and see what happens.

As for the USB stick of memtest, you need to either go into the BIOS and set the USB to boot before the HDD or if you mobo is new enough (within the last 2 years or so) you might have an F-key you can hit on start up (for Gigabyte boards it's F11) which will bring up a boot menu to let you select which device to boot from.