Computer Crashes When Gaming Only

[abccg]

Hello.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 750 @ stock 2.66 Ghz
GPU: EVGA gtx 460 superclocked edition @ 850/1950 Mhz
RAM: G.Skill 2x2 4 GB @ 1333 Mhz
PSU: Corsair TX 750 Watts
OS: Windows 7 64 bit (legit fully updated)

For about a week now I have this issue when trying to play Counterstrike Global Offensive (my favorite game) or any other medium to high end game (L4D2, BF3). I can play for a few minutes sometimes 15 minutes but eventually I will always crash. My screen suddenly goes black (no errors), I can hear a sound loop for a couple of seconds then complete silence as my PC tries to reboot itself but can't. I get 8 beeps (2 long beeps at first then 6 fast beeps) and my motherboard display reads the error code "2E". When I looked that error up it refers to a ram or video card/display problem.

Here are the things I've tried already:

- Reinstalling the game
- Checking for viruses
- Updating to latest nvidia drivers, latest bios drivers, latest chipset drivers
- Rolling back to my last good working nvidia drivers
- Putting in a friends pair of 2x2 G.Skill 4 GB RAM @ 1600 MHz
- Trying my GPU in different PCIE slots
- Running memory diagnostic in windows (no errors)

Tried all of those things with no luck.

Now here's why I'm sure its most likely my video card and or the power supply causing this. When the crash happens sometimes I can hear my video card fan spinning at 100% speed which is noticeable a bit loud. This is very strange because every temperature monitoring program I have running (realtemp, evga precision, etc) all show very good temperatures so Its not overheating at all.

Why does my system do this? Haven't made any big hardware or software changes lately. And I know my video card isn't dying or something because I'd get frame drops but it runs lower end games like Starcraft 2 perfectly fine at great frames without any crashing.

Help please, getting really frustrated. My PSU is brand new too only a couple months old.

 

[clutchc]

Have you tried cleaning up registry errors and resource-wasting junk? Run CCleaner and do the Clean and Registry portions both.
https://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER
Also, be sure you don't have a lot of other stuff running in the background when you game. Disable as much as possible that resides in your tray.

 

[DarkSable]

^I strongly disagree with that.

First of all, CCcleaner can SERIOUSLY mess up your system if you touch the registry without knowing what everything is and checking each one.


Second, it's fairly obviously not anything that CCcleaner has to do with. If you had read the post, the entire computer is crashing, not just the game.


I notice that what you haven't tried is switching out your video card. If you hadn't run temp programs, I would almost guarantee you that the issue was just overheating, but... It's more likely since it's not that that your video card failed. Contact the manufacturer and get an RMA.

It can still be a video card failure if it runs low end games just fine - if one of the VRAM modules has crapped out, you would be able to play games that use so little ram that it doesn't touch that module. Same thing if you had a MOSFET which was failing - the power running through it when playing basic games wouldn't bother it, but as soon as it tried to do something strenuous, it would crash hard.

 

[clutchc]

We are all entitled to our opinions. I have used CCleaner on many builds for more years than I can remember. From back when it was called Crap Cleaner. Never once did it mess up a registry or cause any issues at all. But boy, did it ever fix a lot of problems. Including BSODs and crashing. I use it at least weekly and have for many years.
Then again, maybe I'm just lucky ;-)

 

[abccg]

Thanks for your replies.

@clutchc: I do use CCleaner and I really like it, been using it for years. I know a lot about PC's so to DarkSables point I know what to mess with and what not to mess with. I have tried cleaning the basics as well as some minor registry errors to no avail.

Also I usually only have 40-50 processes running in the background when I play, the bare minimum 90% of those being Microsoft processes and the rest just things like: realtemp, steam, chrome, corsair usb headset control, evga precision, etc (no crap in the background).

@DarkSable: I don't have a spare GPU to test out but I want an RMA to be my last resort. And is it possible for a GPU to just mess up like that overnight basically?

The game even before crashing runs very smoothly, I still get my usually 200-300 fps with no stuttering at all. So thats why I feel like it isn't failing on me, otherwise I'd get slowdowns in frames right?

The sudden powering off is perplexing.

 

[DarkSable]

Can you borrow a friend's graphics card just to throw it in your system to test it? I can certainly understand not wanting to RMA until you have to.

Yes, they can fail overnight like that if it's a problem that's been building and then finally got to the breaking point.

It... could... give you errors like that, but you're right that it's particularly strange. To be honest, this is gonna be hard to diagnose without a spare graphics card and PSU.

 

[abccg]

Yeah I'll see what I can do about getting another gpu. Got a few ATI cards laying around but no nvidia :/.

Thanks fellas. I'll check back shortly.

 

[DarkSable]

Well using an AMD card would be perfectly fine as long as it's compatible enough.

All you need to do is see if the system boots fine with a different graphics card, or even with onboard graphics. If it boots and will run the same games or comparably stressful loads, then your graphics card is bad.