Question Games Crash/Freeze - 3 year old PC, recent issue

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omnilicious

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2011
55
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18,545
Specs:
CPU: i9900ks
GPU: MSI 2080ti
RAM: 16GB trident z
Board: Hero Max XI
PSU: Seasonic prime ultra 750 w
Storage: C:\ = Evo 970 pro (1TB), D:\ = Corsair MP510 (2tb)
OS: Windows 10 21H2


What's happening?

Starting playing Dragon Age: Inquisition - all was well until 40-60 hours in the game started freezing and needed to be 'end processed'. This was happening once every 6-8 hours at first, but after a couple weeks of continuing to play it was happening every 3-5 minutes. Sometimes it would pop up a directX error.

Underclocking GPU made it work - until my PC shutdown (Yeah UNDERclocking crashed my PC).

I thought it was a DAI specific issue until I opened up Battletech, which I just played 100 hours of with no issues and it also froze and crashed. COD: Warzone also freezes and crashes (this one to a directX error). Heroes of the storm plays fine, CS:GO plays fine.


What I've done:
Uninstalled/Reinstalled graphics drivers
Run games in various compatibility modes
Change display settings in windows and NVidia control panel
Removed all overlays (Not sure I had any on to begin with, but I checked).
Repair attempts on steam/origins
vcredist_x64 and x86 used to repair/uninstall/reinstall
fullscreen/windowed/etc.
RAM seated properly
PSU Cables re-done (and there are 3 individual cables from the PSU to the GPU)



A bunch of other stuff from google searches and forum searches here.


Oddity - I've noticed on games that are likely to crash, in-game buttons (ACCEPT for example) will need to be clicked twice before they work.


Since my PC worked just fine for almost 3 years, I assume that a reformat would solve whatever problem, but it's a huge PITA and the problem may either return or persist.

I believe it's a directX issue, but I don't know where it would have come from. The only thing I remember having issues with at the time these crashes started was trying to play Elden Ring - which I ended up refunding because of the stuttering.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Last edited:
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Deleted member 362816

Guest
XMP should have been enabled already - but it looks like my bios went back to Auto for some reason.

UserBenchmarks: Game 187%, Desk 105%, Work 190%
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KF - 101.3%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080-Ti - 186.5%
SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 324.8%
SSD: Corsair Force NVMe PCIe M.2 2TB - 213.2%
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - 98.2%
MBD: Asus ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO (WI-FI)




Tentatively calling this solved. New powerstrip seems to have made the biggest difference - went with a more robust one Tripp-Lite Iso.

Enabling XMP since it likely switched off when I reseated the ram before also helped smooth out choppiness I was noticing.

A freaking power strip issue :'( .

I wouldn't have ever guessed that tbh. Glad you figured it out.
 

omnilicious

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2011
55
8
18,545
I wouldn't have ever guessed that tbh. Glad you figured it out.


New strip definitely had an effect, but after reformat, everything is still crashing. My entire PC freezes for a minute when the crash happens.


Unlikely to be software, I downloaded a cloud version of windows 10 to make sure it was a new install and not keep anything of the original. All my components are testing fine. Both drives have different games that are crashing on them, and they're crashing on both. I have no idea where to go from here.


On occasion I do get a crash where my video cards fans are maxed out and the screen is black (card is cold when this happens). But that one is pretty rare.
 
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Deleted member 362816

Guest
New strip definitely had an effect, but after reformat, everything is still crashing. My entire PC freezes for a minute when the crash happens.


Unlikely to be software, I downloaded a cloud version of windows 10 to make sure it was a new install and not keep anything of the original. All my components are testing fine. Both drives have different games that are crashing on them, and they're crashing on both. I have no idea where to go from here.


On occasion I do get a crash where my video cards fans are maxed out and the screen is black (card is cold when this happens). But that one is pretty rare.

I wish you luck, I am totally out of ideas, Sorry I could not be more of a help.
 
D

Deleted member 362816

Guest
Swapped my Video Card to slot 2 on PCI-E - no crashes.


Gonna go out on a limb here and say it's my MOBO's PCIe Lane 1.


Of course starting an RMA with ASUS is harder than debugging the issue to begin with, but I have 1 month left of warranty.

I think Asus still offers cross-ship with a credit card hold.