Computer Crash While Gaming

Mar 2, 2018
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Recently i've been getting constant crashes while gaming, they are completely random too, it seems.

My screen suddenly gets filled completely with vertical lines of random colors and a very loud - and unpleasant - sounds plays, shortly after, the computer shuts down and restarts by itself, when i turn it back on, Windows says i had a blue screen, even though i never see one.

This only happens when i'm gaming, and while sometimes it may happen after 5 minutes, other times it can take up to 12 hours of constant gameplay, and sometimes it doesn't even happen at all.

Also, it doesn't discriminate, it happens on very old games that barely even use the computer's resources as well as in very heavy newer games.

Doesn't seem to be temperature related, i thought it was at first but then i started monitoring the temperatures and realized they are ok, and there are no changes when the crash happens

I already cleaned the computer thoroughly, cleaned everything i could, checked plugs and screws, and added thermal paste where it was needed, but still no luck.

Honestly i have no idea what is causing it, i suspect it's some hardware-related problem (though i'd much prefer if it was software-related), but i don't know even know what to replace.

I was hoping to get some help on this issue.
 
Mar 2, 2018
3
0
10
I have an old ATI Radeon HD 5850.

Come to think of it, i did push the Memory and Clock speeds up a couple of years back, but it wasn't by much and it didn't really do anything, so i just left it alone.

I do realize now that these settings are still being used, i have reset them to factory standards and will see if my problem is solved, thank you for the insight.

What boggles me is that it has been working fine for years until very recently, if this is truly to blame for the crashing and freezing, what could be causing it? Old age? Is it dying?