Question Game freezes, but character is playable and sounds can be heard ?

[Solomon Walker]

About a year ago I used to have trouble with games crashing like this, but I underclocked both gpu and vram. That reduced the frequency of crashes but it would happen once in a while.
The crashes would, on some games, give me a error like "graphics driver needs to be updated", other times the screen would just freeze, audio would loop then after a while the game would close. I then had to quit gaming for a while, but after updating to Windows 11, I started to notice that games wouldn't crash anymore.

Maybe a month after I got back to playing games, again the crashes started to appear, with similar pattern as before but sometimes with "DXGI ERROR DEVICE HUNG".

The more demanding the game, the higher the graphics setting is, the faster it will crash. But since the last weeks the crashes have been so frequent I cant game at all. it went from 30ish mins in between crashes to 2-4 mins in between crashes.
The system hasn't crashed in normal use, other than gaming. I have yet to notice any artifacts. System is 2 years old.

Things I have tried-
-underclocking gpu alone and along with underclocking vram. ( reduced crash frequency temporarily)
-resetting MOBO BIOS
- disabling GeForce overlay ( reduced crash frequency temporarily)
-Disabling XMP
- Using DDU to do a fresh install of drivers
-Reverting to old drivers
-Changing the power supply
-Running Memtest = it showed no errors
-changing the thermal paste on Gpu and cleaning the heatsink even tho temps are always sub 65C hot spot reaching 70C.

System specs-

• AMD Ryzen 5 3500X 6-Core Processor
• One stick of Corair Vengance LPX 16GB 3200Mhz
• Zotac AMP GTX 1660 Super
• Corsair CV-650 PSU
• MSI b450m-a pro max
• KINGSTON 250 Gb Nvme SSD
• Seagate 1 TB HDD

 

[Tac 25]

questions.

1. Did you get your 1660 Super brand new or used?
2. On the first day you started using the gpu, did you have to under clock it to be able to use it for games??

gpu could be dying. I hope not.

 

[Solomon Walker]

-It was I bought the whole system together two years ago, brand new.
-I was able to play games without any underclocking for about half a year or so.

I really wish its not dying.

 

[Tac 25]

that's a bit worrying, a brand new gpu needing to be underclocked to work after only half a year. You should have used the warranty and sent it back.

do you have another gpu at home? Try using another gpu, see if the problem persist in games.

 

[Solomon Walker]

So I tried it with a RX 6700 XT and this time the error is driver time out, the symptoms are the same like previously stated.
crashing with frozen visuals within 2-4mins and the sound looping
I tried resetting my system and it still persists
could it still be ram ? or SSD ?

 

[_ThunderClap_]

Bad ram sticks maybe. If possible try different sticks.

 

[Solomon Walker]

Tired new sticks, it ran for a while only to blue screen about 40 minutes later
The error was UNEXPECTED KERNAL MODE TRAP
Should I try to run Linus ?

 

[_ThunderClap_]

Tired new sticks, it ran for a while only to blue screen about 40 minutes later
The error was UNEXPECTED KERNAL MODE TRAP
Should I try to run Linus ?

Run windows memory diagonsis and perform a check on ur hard drives health and bad sector count. Most likely ur ram or the hard drive is the issue.

 

[dudio]

I'd be suspicious of your CV650 PSU..don't rule it out as the possible cause. Somewhat poor reviews.
Can you get access to a good quality spare PSU and see if that resolves your problems?
Be sure to not re-use your existing psu cables as pinouts are often different from manufacturer to manufacturer.

 

[aveatquevale]

Having the same issue. Happens only during gaming.

It rarely happens in the first 45 minutes of gaming. Usually happens past the hour mark. My brother is adamant something's overheating. CPU temp looks okay when i restart, go into bios and check temps (usually within a minute after a freeze occurs). I have a nagging feeling that if I leave the pc at sleep for a while, wake it up and then go gaming, the probability of a freeze is higher.

With your original ram stick (One stick of Corair Vengance LPX 16GB 3200Mhz), when the freeze happens, are you able to reset the pc via the reset button on the case, or does it not work, and you end up having to resort to holding the power button for 5 secs (like I have to) ?

Before you mentioned that you tried different ram sticks, I was tempted to link to this. They guy in that topic, you, and me all share the same make of ram (Corsair). Long story short, he solved it by trying Gskill ram sticks upon recommendation. Specifically, this model: GSKILL 3200 ripjaw V. F4-3200C16D-16GVK

Is there any chance the different ram sticks you tried later on were also, of Corsair make ?

BTW, here is my build that's causing me grief in a very similar (if not in the exact same) manner:

i5 6600,
msi z170a mb,
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz (PC4-19200) C14 Memory Kit - Red (CMK16GX4M2A2400C14R)
noname 400 something watt psu.

I'm planning a PSU change soon for a new GPU anyway, fingers crossed it turns out being my PSU.

Whatever it is, I hope you solve it soon. It really is bothersome.

 

[Solomon Walker]

Having the same issue. Happens only during gaming.

It rarely happens in the first 45 minutes of gaming. Usually happens past the hour mark. My brother is adamant something's overheating. CPU temp looks okay when i restart, go into bios and check temps (usually within a minute after a freeze occurs). I have a nagging feeling that if I leave the pc at sleep for a while, wake it up and then go gaming, the probability of a freeze is higher.

With your original ram stick (One stick of Corair Vengance LPX 16GB 3200Mhz), when the freeze happens, are you able to reset the pc via the reset button on the case, or does it not work, and you end up having to resort to holding the power button for 5 secs (like I have to) ?

Before you mentioned that you tried different ram sticks, I was tempted to link to this. They guy in that topic, you, and me all share the same make of ram (Corsair). Long story short, he solved it by trying Gskill ram sticks upon recommendation. Specifically, this model: GSKILL 3200 ripjaw V. F4-3200C16D-16GVK

Is there any chance the different ram sticks you tried later on were also, of Corsair make ?

BTW, here is my build that's causing me grief in a very similar (if not in the exact same) manner:

i5 6600,
msi z170a mb,
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz (PC4-19200) C14 Memory Kit - Red (CMK16GX4M2A2400C14R)
noname 400 something watt psu.

I'm planning a PSU change soon for a new GPU anyway, fingers crossed it turns out being my PSU.

Whatever it is, I hope you solve it soon. It really is bothersome.

It is very annoying, yes. The fact that it only happens during gaming is really super annoying, about the rest button, I usually don't have to reset. I usually just hit the windows key and close the game in task manager, or sometime it goes to the desktop, but if I click anywhere it will go back to the frozen game. In that case I hit Windows+G to bring up 'Xbox game bar ' which also has a task manger and close the game. I hope you can find a solution too, for me changing the PSU did not work.
Actually I bought the same make of Corsair Ram, in hopes that it either solves the problem or I run with 32 GB ram, I have recently changed my PSU (was using gigabyte one before) and my graphics card.
The only thing that isn't new is the MOBO, SSD and CPU.
I am gonna try to boot from hard drive, I have tried running the system only from the SSD and the crashes still happened.
I used Kingston's software to check the health of the SSD and it has a ' SSD wear indicator' which showed 87% ( so 13% worn down ) temperature is 38C at idle.
Also shows no warnings and failures,' overall : healthy '
Okay here is another thing, I have not activated windows, could that be causing these issues ????

 

[aveatquevale]

about the rest button, I usually don't have to reset. I usually just hit the windows key and close the game in task manager, or sometime it goes to the desktop, but if I click anywhere it will go back to the frozen game. In that case I hit Windows+G to bring up 'Xbox game bar ' which also has a task manger and close the game.

This is quite a bit different than mine. Nothing other than holding down the power button for 5 seconds to shut the pc down works for me. Everything else is unresponsive, including the reset button on the case. Other than when freezes occur, reset button works just fine.

Actually I bought the same make of Corsair Ram, in hopes that it either solves the problem or I run with 32 GB ram,

Any chance you could borrow a ram stick of different make and give it a try and see whether it solves your issue ?

The only thing that isn't new is the MOBO, SSD and CPU.

Now that you mention it, I've been having timing problems with my bios for quite a while now. Tried different things and they didn t work. Maybe something is going bad on my mobo after all.

Okay here is another thing, I have not activated windows, could that be causing these issues ????

I don't think so honestly. I dual boot with another OS on, and I'm getting the exact same freeze on that OS too. But having read your reply, the way your problem manifests itself is quite a bit different to mine. But I've never heard an inactivated windows os causing a problem like yours.

 

[aveatquevale]

So I've had your type of freeze playing Valorant the other day. Game froze, sound loop, but I was surprised to hear people talking on voice chat. Ngl, I got mighty confused.

In hindsight, I should've tried alt tabbing or trying caps lock or num lock to see whether the system was responsive in some way or not first, but I got fixated on the reset button, lo and behold it worked this time. I think that's almost like what you experience. Oh and one more thing, was supposed to check the EZ debug led on the mobo when i had a freeze, forgot that in the heat of the moment also...