Game Freezes with weird sound

[anujvir1]

Hi
I have this new Motherboard i bought yesterday....ASUS Maximus IV Gene Z along with 8 GB DDR3 RAM and Intel I5 2500K.
Now, i had some issues overclocking the CPU, since i did not have good enough cooling systems. so i decided not to overclock for now.
But, i am having strange problems playing games. I was playing Crysis 2 and the system freezes after 30 - 40 minutes of gameplay. This it does with a weird, continuous sound. If not that, the game crashes and that's not all. Every time i start the game again, it starts from the previous checkpoint. So, every time the game crashes, or the system freezes, i get to start the game from even an older checkpoint. It was really frustrating. I dropped Crysis 2 and installed COD Black Ops. Played for some 30 -40 minutes, and the system froze again.... with that weird sound.
Any suggestions?
I am sure the CPU is not overheating. I checked with Prime 95 and i got a maximum temperature of about 65 degree Celsius in the torture test.
What could the problem be?

 

[jbschmerge]

Check your memory... Run memtest86 overnight and see if it comes up with errors. If its not the RAM, I'd bet on either issues with your PSU or a driver bug in windows.

I've seen similar lock-ups in the past and its inevitably (1) RAM (2) power supply or (3) buggy drivers. These crashes are *really* tricky to track down unless you start swapping components out of your rig.

Run memtest first, if that doesn't come up with anything strange, see if you can find updated drivers for this board. The 'weird sound' thing during the crash makes me think that the OS is crashing *in* the sound driver, so focus on finding an updated driver for that.

 

[anujvir1]

Check your memory... Run memtest86 overnight and see if it comes up with errors. If its not the RAM, I'd bet on either issues with your PSU or a driver bug in windows.

I've seen similar lock-ups in the past and its inevitably (1) RAM (2) power supply or (3) buggy drivers. These crashes are *really* tricky to track down unless you start swapping components out of your rig.

Run memtest first, if that doesn't come up with anything strange, see if you can find updated drivers for this board. The 'weird sound' thing during the crash makes me think that the OS is crashing *in* the sound driver, so focus on finding an updated driver for that.

Hey i totally agree with you.
Actuallt my priorities are quite the opposite of what you suggested.
1. Driver conflict or error
2. PSU
3. Memory

To eliminate the first one, i reinstalled windows and all the drivers. Played Crysis 2 for 3 - 4 hours. The hanging up thing happened only once.
I will download updated drivers and see if that helps.
I really hope its not the PSU or the RAM... I have already blown my savings on upgrading the mobo and processor and ram.
Thanks for the tip on memtest though. Will try that out and post results

 

[anujvir1]

Update : I think i have solved it. It didn't happen today at any rate.
What i dod was, i disabled the inboard graphics that z68 chipset has.
I thought that this kind of problem usually happens when there is a conflict in the drivers. Although i didn't install the drivers for onboard graphics myself... Windows must have installed some generic drivers, which might be causing trouble.
Let's see....

 

[soundguruman]

The first mistake was overclocking it.
The problem happens from improperly configured memory, or a defect chipset.
The same problem is going to happen again. You only think it's solved.

You can reload drivers all day, and it will still happen again. You can reload OS and it will still happen again.
Replace the motherboard, with a different brand.
The "looping" sound, where the computer locks into a loop, happens quite frequently with these boards. It's the chipset.

 

[anujvir1]

Ha ha ha...
That was interestingly pessimistic.
You mean.. That a person with an overclockable board should not overclock it at all?
And if the overclocking goes wrong... You are done and over with???
How about all those people who buy these boards and overclock and those who overclock and get it wrong???

 

[Aircondor]

Damn this is not good to hear... I just got this Asus Sabertooth P67 and am having the same problem.. Had Win 7 on it and went back to XP not as bad 'didnt lockup' just started making a repeating sound. Will run it a little longer and if still messed up will RMA the damn thing....oh I updated the bios and the ssd firmware tried all the drivers I could find, dont have the onboard video running , I dont think, unless windows saw it and loaded some driver for it. I will look in win to see.

 

[anujvir1]

Damn this is not good to hear... I just got this Asus Sabertooth P67 and am having the same problem.. Had Win 7 on it and went back to XP not as bad 'didnt lockup' just started making a repeating sound. Will run it a little longer and if still messed up will RMA the damn thing....oh I updated the bios and the ssd firmware tried all the drivers I could find, dont have the onboard video running , I dont think, unless windows saw it and loaded some driver for it. I will look in win to see.[/quotemsg


Hey Aircondor.
What power supply and RAM do you have?
Did to try an overclocking like i did and could not sustain it since you didn't have a good cooling system? Or was it sometging else.
Did you try and take technical assistance from ASUS's technician?

 

[anujvir1]

Update : seems like there is a problem with the dual channel.
I took the help of an ASUS's technician and hevsuggested i run only one of the two 4GB RAM modules i own.
When running 4GB the system does not freeze, but, as soon as i implant the other 4 GB module, the system freezes within an hour of gameplay. I have even updated the BIOS.
I am not sure if this is the problem of the motherboard or simply a compatibility issue.

 

[anujvir1]

Update:
The issue was resolved.

I just had to enable the XMP memory profiles from BIOS and it automatically set the voltage amd frequency values.
I was able to use both the 4 GB modules after that...without any issues...and have been using them since.