Games all crash in Windows 7 7100

[vinalhaven15]

Hi. i recently downloaded the 64 bit windows 7 rc 7100, and upgraded to that from the windows 7 beta. on the beta i could game fine and never had any crashes. Now that i have windows 7 rc ( with proper drivers, direct x, etc.) EVERY game i play crashes after 5 to 10 minutes. In crysis it just quits. In CoD5 ill be playing and then it freezes and the sky turns black/ white lines/ colors usually come out of the barrel of my gun when its frozen (they done move, it almost looks like my lcd shattered), and everything onscreen looses reflections and becomes bland. In GTA IV is crashes. i can browse the internet fine without issue and the system is stable enough to run for hours. other than gaming the beta is great. I am frustrated and need help thanks. Heres my system if it helps:
i7 920 @ 4GHz w/ TRUE heatsink lga 1366.... yes its stable
GTX 260 OC'd to 750MHz core clock
4GB DDR3 1333mhz
850w thermaltake black widow psu
MSI x58 pro motherboard
---plenty of airflow with nzxt nemesis elite case-----

keep in mind that it is the same overclock as it was in the beta and the beta did not have any issues
thanks

 

[Zoron]

I'm not convinced you are having temp issues... there is something else going on. I don't think it's just coincidence that you are all running nVidia cards and having the same issues. Mind you, I'm also running an nVidia card (8800 GT) and not having any issues. What driver versions have you tried other than the newest?

 

[soulse]

I am having the exact same issue, but with an ATI card. I've tried everything to fix this but I'm starting to think Direct X is the culprit.

There is no way Microsoft can't not know about this, so hopefully they fix it soon. I'm giving up for now.

 

[plazer]

Zoron: I don't think that temp is actually the root of the problem either, I just know that the only thing I did was lower the gpu temp to around 50 and now my games work. I also know that when I had vista I didn't have this problem and my gpu temp was probably in the low 70's while playing. As for nvidia drivers I tried a bunch I'm using 196.21 now. I also read a forum where a guy tried about 8 different drivers and none fixed the problem. So i didn't bother re-doing what he did.

The only explanations I can think of is the nividia driver (like you said) or Windows 7 (also common to everyone having this problem) or a combination of both is interrupting at a certain temp, there may be other aspects besides a certain temp that come together to cause the interruption but lowering my gpu temp stopped my games from crashing.

I'm not saying that lowing the gpu temp will work for every game on every computer. I really don't think it will, again because the gpu temp is not causing a problem, the crappy nvidia driver or windows 7 programming is. So, again, there are likely more factors than solely gpu temp that contribute to the problem, I'm just lucky that the main factor (for my computer and the 2 games I've tested) was in fact the gpu temp.

I played arma 2 last night for a good chunk of time with no crashes. It was funny because I was playing with a friend who is running ATI and it's now his game that is freezing after a certain amount of time. I'm going to try to get him to drop his gpu temp and I will post if it fixes the problem.

for people who have not read the whole forum, I just want to post what I suggest people having this problem (all games crashing to desktop after a certain amount of time - usually 5-10 mins) do so other people can try it and post if it works or doesn't. If you are feeling the same way I did a few days ago, you will be willing to try anything.

First I got RivaTuner. In rivatuner you can open a gpu temp monitor graph. I opened that, then played a game until it crashed to desktop. then I checked the graph to see what the highest temperature reached was. Mine was in the 70's i think.

Then I suggest you drop the temp of the gpu as much as possible. Open up your case and put a fan on it. and most importantly use rivatuner to increase your gpu fan to 95-100%.

Then open the rivatuner temp monitor graph again and play your game. If it runs for a long time you're set and you should post your success and your max gpu temp while playing. If it crashes to desktop, check the temp monitor graph and post your failure and max gpu temp while playing.

Maybe we will see a temperature trend.

Slickzor: Did you open up your computer to get the gpu temp as low as possible?

Soulse: did you try this? If you did can you post your temps?




Windows 7 x64 Pro
Core 2 Duo E8400 3.3ghz
4gb OCZ Fatal1ty PC8500
Asus P5N-T Deluxe
EVGA 9800gtx
Ultra 750w ps

 

[Zoron]

I do have one suggestion you may not have considered: power supply. If you have easy access to a different power supply, I would highly suggest giving that a try. If the power supply is not feeding the GPU what it needs, then that would cause a lot of random freezing / crashing.

 

[Fabiosc]

I got the same problem here, Win 7 RTM 7600 64 bits, Dx 11 with DX 9.0c August 2009 installed, ATI HD4850 card with Catalyst 10.1. System is stable and run memtest86+, intelburntest and other burn softwares, and i tryed 2 GPU burn tests too. My Card heats up to 78º but no crashes ir flickering happens. I think this temp is normal.

Let me ask u guys something, what mouse do u use? Its logitech? Because i'm reading some forums to find a solution and started to wonder what could cause this problem and i'm starting so suspect of my logitech drives. I'm at work so i can't test it, but i remember to play with my previous mouse COD4-MW for 30 min 3 months ago without a problem. Since then i didn't game anything and last week i bought Mass Effect and COD4-MW2 to play and both games are crashing. The only thing that changed in my setup is my Logitech mouse with its drives. Can anyone confirm if that's the problem?

I Play World of Warcraft without a problem. But Mass Effect 2 and MW2 are crashing within 5 min.

 

[Slickzor]

@Fabiosc, my card doesn´t exceed 50 degrees and i still got the crashes. I already gave up the idea that that´s the issue.

MW2 crashes here and some other programs do as well occasionally, but Mass Effect 2 doesn't... It's highly likely that it is a windows or other driver problem... I'm just going to keep trying to find the source of the problem.

@Zoron, Can't imagine that it's the problem since your computer already lowers the amount of power that is coming in. I've got a 600watts power supply which is directly in the power supply at my home. My old computer never had trouble either and that one actually used more power than this one.

I´m suspecting windows or certain drivers, or the game itself that's just badly coded (at the MW2 forums people are saying they have the same problem as i do). Everything else just works optimal and i played ME2 for atleast 5 hours straight yesterday (brilliant game 😉) without a single problem and at highest quality possible.

 

[nikopoika]

well I'm somewhat glad that I'm not the only one having the same problem...

Only 2 games I play are iRacing and WoW. Now,

I've been running win7 beta for 6 months and only had iRacing crash a few times but now when I upgraded to win7 final 64-bit it is unplayable and also WoW started random crashing which was very stable on the beta.

I have gtx260 and phenom II x4 at stock speeds. I have monitored my temps but I don't think it is the problem since I can run 3dmark vantage with gpu hitting 100 celcius and it is still running fine.

Also ran memtest for many hours no errors. Have tried updating all drivers and directx. There must be some problem with win7 or nvidia.. most likely win 7 directx or the graphic driver model because this seems to happen on ATI too..

btw, I also use logitech mx wireless keyboard and mouse but it cant be that can it?!?!


I'm going to start swapping computer parts to see if I can narrow this down.. please post all your findings!!

Niko

 

[KyleJ89]

I've got the problem too. Bought the computer about a month ago and have had this problem with games the whole time. I have a Phenom II 955 with a Saphire HD 4860 and Win 7 x64.

I was working with a guy from Saphire about the problem for about a week and we did the following:

Fooled with fan speed at 100% and did stress tests including Furmark

Put the card in my old dell 8400 P4 3 ghz with XP x86 and games ran with no problems

Put an old Visiontech x1300 XGE (was originaly in the dell mentioned above) into this new compy and it had the same problem

Went and upgraded the PS from 575 watt to a 750 watt, didn't work

Installed a friends HD 4850 in and same problem

I was convinced yesterday that it was the ram so I went to compusa yesterday and bitched and complained that the ram i had bought (some NVidia SLI brand) was no good and got comparable Corsairs, same thing

After all that the Saphire tech guy has given up and said to look elsewhere for the problem.

Games that work: Batman AA, Mirrors edge, CODMW and CODMW2, Bioshock, Grid

Games that have problems: Burnout PC (I play the most of), L4D, Assasins creed, GTA 4

Probably the only place left to go is either asus (my board manufacturer) or microsoft... any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

I just installed Windows 7 and updated all drivers to the latest versions. I played Colin McRae Dirt 2 and had no problem.
But, the second game I installed on Win 7 was Indiana Jones Lego Adventure II and it crashed as it never did with any other OS before.

My specs are:
Asus M4A79T Deluxe
AMD Phenom II 955
2 x Ati HD4870 Vapor

I am just getting started with Windows 7 so as for now I have not much to add.
I believe it to be a general compatibility issue between games and Windows 7.
Also, I'd like to remind you that most of the games that were mentioned above were NOT tested on Windows 7.

 

[Fabiosc]

Guys, it must be a WIndows 7 and directx problem. Our systems are stable and windows xp 32 bits and vista 32 bits run this games without any problem.
I'm trying to fix my Win7 incompatibility with games and recently i updated my VGA drives and directx to try to solve this but it didn't work.
I updated Catalyst 10.1 with a hotfix
And updated Directx to it's new release (february 2010).
This directx update it's not only for version 9.0c, because it updates dll's from Dx 10 and 11 too.
But i still have the same problem. The strange thing is that i can run this games on windows XP SP3 32 bits without a problem !!! But i don't want to use dual boot every time i wanna play...

 

[Zoron]

Can't imagine that it's the problem since your computer already lowers the amount of power that is coming in. I've got a 600watts power supply which is directly in the power supply at my home. My old computer never had trouble either and that one actually used more power than this one.

When I said power supply, I meant the computer's power supply... not the outlet in your house or whatever you may have the computer plugged into. That's why I said if you have a spare one lying around you might be able to swap it out and see what happens. Modern video cards are very power hungry... and if the power supply isn't up to the task, it will cause the kinds of issues you are having. Is the power supply a brand name or a cheapie? One thing you absolutely must not skimp on is the power supply. While 600W sounds quite sufficient, if you look at the label on the power supply, you can see what happens when the temperature increases: good power supplies provide steady power with little drop-off, while cheap power supplies can drop as much as 100W under load with the temperature increase.

 

[KyleJ89]

Guys, it must be a WIndows 7 and directx problem. Our systems are stable and windows xp 32 bits and vista 32 bits run this games without any problem.
I'm trying to fix my Win7 incompatibility with games and recently i updated my VGA drives and directx to try to solve this but it didn't work.
I updated Catalyst 10.1 with a hotfix
And updated Directx to it's new release (february 2010).
This directx update it's not only for version 9.0c, because it updates dll's from Dx 10 and 11 too.
But i still have the same problem. The strange thing is that i can run this games on windows XP SP3 32 bits without a problem !!! But i don't want to use dual boot every time i wanna play...

I totaly agree with you that its a Windows 7 problem. Its rediculous to have to use XP when we bought Vista and 7 to get the most out of our machines. I tried the hotfix and DX update also with no luck. I think its pretty rediculous that a fix hasn't come out yet for this problem.

 

[KyleJ89]

new info:

Just though a hard drive with vista in here, loaded the drivers and played burnout paradise, no problems after an hour and a half with the same settings as with 7...

7 doesn't last 20 min max

what does that mean?

 

[Slickzor]

@Kyle, i think it means it's Windows 7 that's the cause of the problems. I hope Microsoft comes with a solution soon, thanks for the intel!

 

[JazzK]

Having same problems with Kings Bounty Armored Princess and Football Manager 2010. And this is suprising because FM 2010 does not require High-End graphic cards for running. I have updated all drivers


Windows 7 Professional 32bit
ASUS P5E
2x1Gb Corsair Dominator 800MHZ
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
ATI HD 4850
Enermax Liberty 620W

If things does not change, I'll have to turn back to XP (and this is very sadly for this new OS)

 

[KyleJ89]

@Kyle, i think it means it's Windows 7 that's the cause of the problems. I hope Microsoft comes with a solution soon, thanks for the intel!

I got in touch with Microsoft's phone support and this is the story so far,

We went though the basic stuff, re-install video drivers, turn off all 3rd party software, and...that was it.

I am now at the 2nd level of support. The guy first suggested a change in RAM. He was "99.9% sure that it is the RAM" which I shot down quickly because this is the 2nd pair of 4 sticks in the machine because I thought the original 4 where busted. His responce: "oh....."

Next was safe mode (which I didn't think of trying before) and guess what? I have no problems in safe mode, which is good because tomarrow the guy can walk me though what to turn off or on to fix the problem.

Just have to wait 4 tommarow...

 

[Slickzor]

That's good to hear Kyle, hope you post your findings here!

 

[KyleJ89]

You guys are not going to like this... but this is microsoft's (abreviated) answer: Not our problem

I told the guy today that I left the computer on all last night in safe mode (because it dosn't realy seem to matter if I'm playing a game or not) and when I turned on the monitor this morning with the desktop staring back at me. That was exciting because that proves that I have a stable system at least on a basic level.

So we tried going into windows in normal mode, went into device manager, and disabled the video driver, dvd rom driver, networking driver and all the audio didilies. He figured that it was either the video or the network driver.

Ends up that it was none of the above...

But what is interesting is that when the screen went black, the monitor didn't loose its signal like it would with the driver enabled. It would just go black but the monitor would still be getting a signal from the video card (denoted by the monitor light still being green rather than amber). So instead of having to hard reset I could just move the mouse like a standard powersaving mode.

So after that the guy swears up and down that its a hardware issue (obviously out of things to try) and tells me to get in contact with the computers manufacturer (he is also obviously a bad listener because I told him at least 3 times that this is a 3 week old machine built by yours truely).

It seems like a majority of people with this issue are using ATI cards which may mean that we just have to wait for an updated driver to come out or...

Next thing to try is to put my 7 in a friends AMD quad core with a HD 4850 which is almost identical to my own setup. He runs vista with no problems so if his machine has problems with 7 then we know 100% for sure that it is 7 and not our machines or cards.

Wish me luck...

PS: If you know how to fix this please let us know.. because I'm tired of this bull...

 

[Slickzor]

@Kyle, i've got a GTX 260 from Nvidia, don't think it's the graphics driver.

I hope that rolling back to vista is the solution. I've got a powerful machine so the bad coding of vista compared to windows 7 shouldn't harm me too much.

It's always the same at helpdesks, they think u are a complete moron and they act like complete morons who don't listen to what you're saying. I can see your frustration and admire your determination for continuing the struggle to get your pc running properly.

I hope we hear from you soon! I've built my own pc as well but i still think it's windows 7 causing the problems (and yes Microsoft, it IS your problem).

 

[Zoron]

If you bought OEM copies of Windows, MS doesn't provide free support... they will always direct you to your PC manufacturer for support. That's the downside of buying OEM and that is why it's so much cheaper than full retail.

I haven't had any issues at all with games... which makes me reluctant to blame the problems solely on Windows 7.

 

[Slickzor]

@Zoron, it's hardware in combination with Windows 7 ofcourse. You can't blame it on the OS. But it's a problem for many people, which means MS should do something about it or atleast find the source but they don't.

 

[Guest]

ok, I have the crash prob too. fresh build spent alot of money and i can't play.
specs:
asus m4a79t deluxe mobo
8 gb ocz fatality ddr3 1333mhz
(2) evga gtx 260 core 216 superclocked gpu (sli)
1 tb wd hdd
(2) wd raptors raid 0
amd phenom II x4 955 3.2ghz
win 7 ultimate 64
all in nzxt case w/ 6 big fans, heat not an issue, i have tried everything to get this to play and it plays for 5 min.-sometimes a few hours but it will crash out eventually. all i can say is wtf??!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

 

[Guest]

Hi Everyone.

I've been having the same problem with steam & some other games crashing or going to black screen.....I can now play full games without crashing.

The problem for me was my Nvidia 9800gx2 SC was that it was over heating, so depending on how power hungry a graphic application was depended on how quickly it crashed.

I used Rivatuner & found that during intensive gaming my GC was reaching 100c at this tempature the system became unstable & froze caushing CTD or the black scrren of death resulting in a manuel reboot. I never had this problem with Vista.

Well I suppose I did start water cooling my CPU which cut down my main fans abilty to cool.

Just try Rivatuner & take the sides of your case & play.....usually where you would crash, drop back to windows & have a look at your temps on the hardware monitor.

\hope this helps someone
Aquaidboy

 

[KyleJ89]

Threw my 7 into friends machine and the same thing happened which means that this is soley a windows 7 issue. I had an idea while I was over there that maybe its the background changer feature (that I had to change the wallpaper every 30 min) that was the problem. I set the background so it would have a solid black background with aero on.

It seemed to work... but only on his machine.

I had it up on the desktop for a full hour (much longer than it ussualy lasts) so I figured that I fixed the problem and came home to test it out on my own machine, just to make sure. Sure enough, 40 min later the problem surfaced again. Then tried turning off aero with no success.

@aquidboy69: My card never goes beyond 70c and it crashes. i know for a fact that these cards can go up to 90c with no problems (thats what the ATI tech said anyway).

I'm a few fraid synapsis away from just getting a pirated vista and just getting this over with...

 

[KyleJ89]

I just now noticed that we all have (or a majority of us use) ASUS boards... I wonder...