Computer freezes when gaming (and I've tried everything)

[thesupersoap]

Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
CPU: Core i5 760 @ 2.8gHz
Power Supply: Corsair 750 watt PSU. I even bought a Cooler Master GX750w to test.
GPU: EVGA GTX 560 Ti SC. I have RMA'd this product.
Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45 flashed to version 1.10. I have RMA'd this product.
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x2GB DRR3 1333mHz. I tried a different pair of RAM sticks too.
Hard Drive: 625GB Western Digital
Monitor: Acer G235H (1920x1080@60Hz)
OS: Windows 7 x64 bit

I know, this problem gets asked frequently on the forums. I have done my research and tried everything, but nothing seems to work. About fifteen minutes into gaming my computer screen freezes and the sound loops and I'm forced to manually shut down my computer. There are no BSODs so I can't figure out what's causing this. Here are the following methods that I have done so far:

1. Replaced the power supply, ram, mobo, and gpu by using RMA, but the problem still persists.
2. Formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows.
3. Turned off turbo boost and OC genie.
4. Adjusted voltage of graphics card to 1.1v.
5. Monitored the 12v rail in the BIOS, doesn't fluctuate.
6. Ran Memtest with 6-7 passes with no error found.
7. Graphics card runs mid 50c idle, 79c load when playing games.
8. CPU runs mid 30c idle, mid 50c load with turbo boost enabled.
9.Vcore set to auto.
10. Turned off one of the Nvidia sound drivers that had the same location number as my high definition audio driver.
11. I have a dual monitor setup, so I unplugged the other monitor.
12. Tried several drivers from nvidia. Currently using driver 280.26.

Can anyone tell me what else can be causing the problem? I have been testing for about a month now and nothing seems to be working.

EDIT: Added monitor and hard drive to specs.

 

[Outlander_04]

The problem you are having sounds like a software problem , especially as you have replaced pretty much all the hardware
Try booting from a linux live CD and seeing if the problem happens

 

[thesupersoap]

The problem you are having sounds like a software problem , especially as you have replaced pretty much all the hardware
Try booting from a linux live CD and seeing if the problem happens

I should clarify that the problem occurred first, which is why I had to replace the components to determine the cause. I will try your suggestion and see what I can come up with.

After booting from a linux live cd, how will I go about playing my games to see if it crashes? I'm not familiar with linux, and my games are on steam if that helps.

 

[Outlander_04]

I had no idea how to stress test a system in linux either , but it seems like a very quick way of eliminating a software problem as being your issue , so I googled this

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=486495

 

[Viper6]

Is the windows pirated?

 

[Onus]

I'd also guess software problem, most likely related to your sound drivers. Turn down audio quality...way down, and/or uninstall the sound drivers.

 

[swifty_morgan]

you said you turned off the nvidia sound drivers........ uninstall the nvidia drivers ( all ) from the control panel. reboot. after startup run your nvidia drivers but do a "custom" install. only opt to install the physics driver and the graphics driver when prompted.

 

[monkeysweat]

i would say software as well, have you tried a clean install of windows? it is by far easiest way to clean out any old drivers, just make sure you download a copy of your network driver first as my luck always seems I can't connect to internet after fresh install of windows to download all my other drivers because my friggen network card won't work
anyways,, if you have done that already, try installing Intel Matrix storage manager, windows 7 SATA drivers do suck and can cause some weird issues.
Make sure all Direct X drivers up to date then do clean install of all the nvidia drivers, just don't do the 3d drivers unless you game in 3d

 

[flipt]

I'd also guess software problem, most likely related to your sound drivers. Turn down audio quality...way down, and/or uninstall the sound drivers.

First question, is this one particular game or all games. That could be important. I have usually had the same problem when I was having sound issues, usually driver related. However, it has often been with only one particular game that does not play nice. I think you are using onboard sound since you don't list a card. Working off of jtt, after unistalling the sound drivers try disabling the sound chip in your bios and then fire up your game you are having trouble with. Also, go to the forums for your game and see if others are having a similar issue (i guess you did this already, but I have solved a many a problems seeing what other people are doing with the same problem).

 

[tsnor]

This is a surprise: "Turned off one of the Nvidia sound drivers that had the same location number as my high definition audio driver." You don't list a sound card (or i'm blind), so assume this is the MB integrated sound or sound from the video card? If you use sound from your MB chipset maybe mark the sound on the video card as not enabled in device manager. FYI, I had some problems with sound over hdmi with a htpc, ended up using the microsft driver not the ATI driver (this was ati/amd not nvidia). Maybe take a look and see if there is something there.

What games have problems? If it's a single game then the problem is likely in the game given the other work you done. Check on the game home page, etc.

You done "Formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows." If it's multiple games then I'd try this again, with the same clean format of you disk, get the windows service current, do an install of one of the games and see if it hangs. I'd install the absolute minimum other software. I'd do this with only one monitor connected.

 

[tsnor]

Also, if you have a few hours and can make it though the fist 10 mins of noise, this might help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSeNWvjhBfg

 

[thesupersoap]

I've played with COD4 and BF:BC2 and both of the games suffer from the freezing screen and sound. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics card drivers and this time and I disabled the Nvidia sound driver so only the motherboard's sound driver is in use.

I'll let you guys know if it crashes. If it does, I'll do another format and reinstall windows 7 and stress test with linux.

 

[thesupersoap]

I don't mean to double post, but I think I found the fix! I disabled all of Nvidia's sound driver, leaving only the mobo's sound driver enabled. Now the games don't crash. Thanks for all of your help everybody!

EDIT: It froze once on BC2, I think I might have found the fix for it. I'll keep you guys in the loop.

 

[marcosdipaolo]

Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
CPU: Core i5 760 @ 2.8gHz
Power Supply: Corsair 750 watt PSU. I even bought a Cooler Master GX750w to test.
GPU: EVGA GTX 560 Ti SC. I have RMA'd this product.
Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45 flashed to version 1.10. I have RMA'd this product.
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x2GB DRR3 1333mHz. I tried a different pair of RAM sticks too.
Hard Drive: 625GB Western Digital
Monitor: Acer G235H (1920x1080@60Hz)
OS: Windows 7 x64 bit

I know, this problem gets asked frequently on the forums. I have done my research and tried everything, but nothing seems to work. About fifteen minutes into gaming my computer screen freezes and the sound loops and I'm forced to manually shut down my computer. There are no BSODs so I can't figure out what's causing this. Here are the following methods that I have done so far:

1. Replaced the power supply, ram, mobo, and gpu by using RMA, but the problem still persists.
2. Formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows.
3. Turned off turbo boost and OC genie.
4. Adjusted voltage of graphics card to 1.1v.
5. Monitored the 12v rail in the BIOS, doesn't fluctuate.
6. Ran Memtest with 6-7 passes with no error found.
7. Graphics card runs mid 50c idle, 79c load when playing games.
8. CPU runs mid 30c idle, mid 50c load with turbo boost enabled.
9.Vcore set to auto.
10. Turned off one of the Nvidia sound drivers that had the same location number as my high definition audio driver.
11. I have a dual monitor setup, so I unplugged the other monitor.
12. Tried several drivers from nvidia. Currently using driver 280.26.

Can anyone tell me what else can be causing the problem? I have been testing for about a month now and nothing seems to be working.

EDIT: Added monitor and hard drive to specs.

***IMPORTANT***
1- if you left it crsahed, did it come back after 5 minutes or something? if it did ...welcome to the club
2- how did you disabled Nvidia sound drivers? I should do the same with my ati's?

 

[thesupersoap]

Best answer selected by thesupersoap.

 

[Jishaxe]

Hi, sorry for the necro but I need to ask, is it still working?
I've being having an identical problem, and I have had suspiscion that it's something to do with the audio drivers because:
1) When I have the nVidia audio drivers enabled, I get four entries of "NVIDIA high definition???" (name going from memory there)
2) When I have them enabled and the onboard disabled, I get no sound through neither my headphones or internal speakers, but I wouldn't really expect it to
3) I've had occasions that when I have the nvidia drivers enabled the PC would freeze but the OS and sound is still going on in the background. Disabling the nvidia drivers and enabling onboard is the only way to fix this semi-freeze, but I'm still getting the freeze and sound loop problem. I've tried many combinations of onboard and nvidia drivers but nothing has solved that problem.

I have tried to uninstall the nVidia sound, but it would automatically reinstall itself afte r a reboot from the Found New Device thing. Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

Hi, sorry for the necro but I need to ask, is it still working?
I've being having an identical problem, and I have had suspiscion that it's something to do with the audio drivers because:
1) When I have the nVidia audio drivers enabled, I get four entries of "NVIDIA high definition???" (name going from memory there)
2) When I have them enabled and the onboard disabled, I get no sound through neither my headphones or internal speakers, but I wouldn't really expect it to
3) I've had occasions that when I have the nvidia drivers enabled the PC would freeze but the OS and sound is still going on in the background. Disabling the nvidia drivers and enabling onboard is the only way to fix this semi-freeze, but I'm still getting the freeze and sound loop problem. I've tried many combinations of onboard and nvidia drivers but nothing has solved that problem.

I have tried to uninstall the nVidia sound, but it would automatically reinstall itself afte r a reboot from the Found New Device thing. Any ideas?

Hello guys, I had the same issue. In my case the problem was with the BIOS RAM settings. I had to check what the different values were on my RAM. Values like CAL, RAL and two others. In my case they were 9 9 9 24. But in the BIOS where you can change these values, the entered value was 9 9 9 28. So I changed that to 9 9 9 24. And after that NO CRASH!

I hope this helped

 

[jeffweng88]

i know this is kinda late like 6 years late but someone recently found out the problem and its actually really dumb.if you have two or more audio devices active they actually fight each other until your computer crashes.go into device manager and disable either high definition audio which will turn off your speakers or nvidia high definition audio which i dont know the use for.

 

[sorrowhill9]

i know this is kinda late like 6 years late but someone recently found out the problem and its actually really dumb.if you have two or more audio devices active they actually fight each other until your computer crashes.go into device manager and disable either high definition audio which will turn off your speakers or nvidia high definition audio which i dont know the use for.

Ho my god. i think this could be my solution. I installed an EVGA 1080ti in my PC in October 2017. Since then my PC has been randomly crashing 2 or 3 times a month. And today, yes today August 4, 2018, almost a year later, I found out that my sound device is using nvidia high definition audio. I just disabled it, going to see if this problem stops. Will update!