Blue screens when playing games

[robbiew114]

Hi guys,

Gradually built a decent gaming rig over the years at uni but been having problems for years. Usually blue screens during games that are a bit more graphically intense (Can range from Dead Island to Fallout 4) . Took it to a few different experts who tried different things but to no avail. Trying to play Warhammer Total War at the moment and I'm able to play for maybe an hour before I get a bsod. My GPU is running at maybe 84% and at 50° usually So nothing worrying. I've just tried using DDU to uninstall the drivers and reinstall, will see how that has worked after work today. I've been down this route before and never got to the bottom of it so want to see if you guys can help. Starting to think it's definitely a software error and I should just install a new OS?

My rig is;
Motherboard: ASUS VII Ranger
Processor: i7
PSU: Corsair 700w
RAM: Corsair 8gb DDR3
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 970
HDD: Can't remember the original make or details but it's the oldest part and only remaining bit I got from the original build 6.5 years ago, 500gb size so not huge.

 

[kosio890]

Full specs of your CPU?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

^+1 Also exact model PSU.

Do you have the system OC'ed? If so, test at stock and see how you get on. Poor OC's or unstable OC's can cause that kind of BSOD's.

 

[robbiew114]

Hi guys,

Posted this on the tram to work so didn't have full specs in front of me, but from my order histories, CPU is;
Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU

PSU;
Corsair CP-9020015-UK Builder Series CX750 ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Unit, 750 W

Not sure if the system is OC'd, however I did buy it from Overclockers so safe to assume it probably is lol? As you might have guessed, I'm not overly technical...

 

[robbiew114]

also event log always lists the error as being down to "Kernel Power"

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

have you ever re-installed the OS since all this has been happening? That might be an idea. What OS are you running?

 

[robbiew114]

I had before, but that would be 2 years ago at least and in that time i upgraded from a GTX660 to a GTX970, so I've been putting it of for a while out of sheer laziness. I'm currently Win7 Ultimate but might try and get a copy of Windows 10.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

well, you could try doing a fresh install with Win 7. As long as you back up the things you need, it's always good housekeeping to do a fresh install once in a while. My rig is purely for gaming, so I do a fresh install once a year minimum as I don't have to back up anything. I just do the install, and download all my games again (Origin, Steam).

You can try resetting the OC if there is one. You can go into the bios, and restore defaults. Its straight forward enough to do. Then test again. it could be an unstable OC but unlikely if it was done as a custom build (still possible though)

 

[robbiew114]

UPDATE;

Since I originally posted this tried a few things and completely reinstalled Windows, upgrading to 10 at the same time. Thought this would work but still getting blue screens. I'm messing around with drivers now with GeForce experience but not sure where I go from here. Will probs try and restore the defaults in the bios next.

 

[robbiew114]

well, you could try doing a fresh install with Win 7. As long as you back up the things you need, it's always good housekeeping to do a fresh install once in a while. My rig is purely for gaming, so I do a fresh install once a year minimum as I don't have to back up anything. I just do the install, and download all my games again (Origin, Steam).

You can try resetting the OC if there is one. You can go into the bios, and restore defaults. Its straight forward enough to do. Then test again. it could be an unstable OC but unlikely if it was done as a custom build (still possible though)

Okay done some research and some work and got the following conclusions;

Ran Memtest and Intel Processor Diagnostic (both 100% passed) as well as reinstalling Windows, the MoBo drivers and reinstalling the BIOS, however still get BSODs when playing more modern games.

Installed HW monitor this week and looked at the stats, all seems good for my rig except that my CPU can get to 90 degrees. Went on the intel website for my model and it's max temperature is 74 degrees. This could explain the kernel power BSODs because would the PC be turning itself off to prevent damage to hardware? Not 100% on this but throwing it out there

The intel info for my model is here;

https://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

good results. yes, it's highly likely thats causing it. Its called thermal throttling. You CPU is very hot, and may be shutting down to protect itself. You can try cleaning out the cooler with some compressed air. See if your temps drop. You may need a new cooler. So that would be the next step.
Also, it might be an idea to re-apply thermal paste as paste degrades over time.

edit: this on Tcase :https://communities.intel.com/thread/104967

its different from max temp. But still 90 is high. Most would like it below the 80c mark for daily use.