Games Crashing, Need Help!!!!

[Jimbob1865]

Hi guys I'm having a huge issue with video games crashing on my PC.

After a very short time of playing a game, the screen will freeze, the monitor will shut off leaving only a "No HDMI input" message on the screen. After a few seconds the image will return to normal, but the game is not responding and I have to shut it off via ctrl-alt-del and then task manager.

This only happens to very graphically intensive games such as Dark Souls 3 and Doom 4, older games such as half-life 2 and star wars battlefront 2 run perfectly fine. Many of the games that are crashing I could play perfectly fine previously.

I had a similar problem a few months ago when intensive games began crashing, I solved it when I found that my GPU's fans were locked at 35% speed for some reason and the card was overheating, no such luck now as my cards fans seem to be running normally. I have no idea what the problem is.

The only thing that I have changed about my PC is that I got a new 1080p monitor, I used my old monitor in tandem withy the new one as a dual display. I changed back to my old one on it's own to see if the problem was the monitor and the crashing still happens, I don't know how long this has been an issue as I hadn't played any modern games for a few months previous to the new monitor either. So I don't believe that to be the source of the issue. It's difficult to place exactly when this problem may have occurred as I'm only noticing it now, but I could have been going on for months for all I know.

I've cleaned and dusted the entirety of my pc's components and that hasn't resolved the issue.

I have updated all my driver and my BIOS, and that hasn't fixed the problem.

Here's my specs: (Aside from the new monitor, these have been my specs for the last 2-3 years and ran my games fine up until now.)

Monitor: BenQ GL2750H (Connected with HDMI.)

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7870 Twin Frozr 2gb Edition.

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition.

PSU: Corsair 750 Watts.

RAM: 8GB

Thanks for any future help,

 

[Jesse_20]

I'd start by looking in the event viewer for any hints leading up to the crashes first to see if it gives you an idea of what is happening.

 

[Jimbob1865]

I'd start by looking in the event viewer for any hints leading up to the crashes first to see if it gives you an idea of what is happening.

Do you think just re-installing windows and starting from scratch would fix the issue, because im seriously considering it now, I couldnt really find anything of use in the event viewer.

 

[Jesse_20]

While it's possible that would fix it, I don't think windows is the issue here. If it were, there would be hints in event viewer right before the time of the crashes.

It's more likely that you are starting to experience equipment failure due to heat. My guess is that it's your video card, as a cpu error would typically throw the whole machine into a restart/freeze, and not just the video. I'd open the case up and make sure all the fans are spinning on the cpu, case, and GPU (especially). A fan failure would raise the heat during extreme use (modern games more so than older games), causing it to fail and crash your video, which your game is unable to recover from. If the fans are ok, I'd suspect the video card is going bad, only noticeable when under full loads and temps are the highest.

 

[Jimbob1865]

While it's possible that would fix it, I don't think windows is the issue here. If it were, there would be hints in event viewer right before the time of the crashes.

It's more likely that you are starting to experience equipment failure due to heat. My guess is that it's your video card, as a cpu error would typically throw the whole machine into a restart/freeze, and not just the video. I'd open the case up and make sure all the fans are spinning on the cpu, case, and GPU (especially). A fan failure would raise the heat during extreme use (modern games more so than older games), causing it to fail and crash your video, which your game is unable to recover from. If the fans are ok, I'd suspect the video card is going bad, only noticeable when under full loads and temps are the highest.

Thanks for the help, I've opened my case and the fans seem to be spinning ok, I've kept HWmonitor open while experiencing a crash, and it only gets to a max of 62 degrees before it crashes.

Is it possible that there's some "max temperature" setting that would be set very low without me knowing on my GPU, I know you can do that for CPU's.

 

[Jesse_20]

To rule out the video card, pull it out and connect the monitor to the motherboard video (if you have it), and try running the games that crash. If the crash continues, it might be a bad stick of ram, which might not occur under normal usage. Newer games are also more ram intensive than older games. Take the ram down to one stick and try your games yet again. repeat with another stick. Also, try each stick in different Dimm slots, you might have a bad dimm.

The idea here is to try to duplicate the errors with parts removed to rule out those parts as bad. I'm still thinking the GPU is your culprit though since only video is dropping out while everything else seems to remain functional.

edited for spelling.

 

[helpstar]

run furmark and have a look at the max. temp

is the CPU overclocked?

 

[Jimbob1865]

run furmark and have a look at the max. temp

is the CPU overclocked?

I did this And max temp was 62 degrees.

 

[helpstar]

check your card in another system or another graphics card in your system if possible

test with another HDMI cable

 

[Jimbob1865]

check your card in another system or another graphics card in your system if possible

test with another HDMI cable

I'm using a cheap 1.50 (euro) HDMI cable I bought from a cheap euro store, could that be the problem?

 

[helpstar]

Just worth a try

 

[Jimbob1865]

Just worth a try

I swapped the old HDMI out for an old VGA cable I had lying around, the problem is still there. Although the Game crashed twice as fast with the VGA, if that means anything.

I starting to believe it's definatly my GPU now, I ran a memory diagnostic and it found no issues with my RAM.

 

[helpstar]

can you test the 7870 in another system or another GPU in your system?

 

[Jimbob1865]

can you test the 7870 in another system or another GPU in your system?

I don't have another GPU to test, but I could try running integrated graphics, I just need to get another cable for my monitor to go to the mobo,

 

[helpstar]

Which motherboard is it?

 

[Jimbob1865]

Which motherboard is it?

It's a MSI 970a-g46, it only has a female VGA connection on it, and the only VGA cable I have is female on both ends, so I going to need a new VGA cable to test integrated graphics.

 

[helpstar]

That's no VGA output, it's a serial port. This motherboard doesn't have an onboard graphics chip. You will have to check with another dedicated pcie graphics card

 

[Jimbob1865]

That's no VGA output, it's a serial port. This motherboard doesn't have an onboard graphics chip. You will have to check with another dedicated pcie graphics card

Ok, so it's starting to look like the GPU is the culprit, maybe I should just buy a new one?

Edit: A friend of mine gave me a spare GPU to test in my pc, and There is no longer any crashing, which pretty much confirms the GPU is the culprit, what should I do now? Is there any way to fix it? Could it be a software issue, it seems strange for this issue to come out of nowhere.

 

[helpstar]

Maybe

 

[Jesse_20]

Try running some graphic stress tests and see if any bluescreens appear on the loaner card. If that proves stable, it's certainly your card that is causing the problem. The issue could be driver/software related, which you can try to fix by trying different drivers until one works, or hardware related, which might be solved by reapplying thermal paste to the cooler unit of your graphic card. Otherwise, a replacement would be in order.

 

[helpstar]

Heat is not the problem, it´s getting a max. temp. with furmark of 87°C. So new thermal paste wouldn´t help.
I think the 7870 graphics chip has bad solder joints and therfore loses connection to the board. Baking could help, or heating with a heat gun.
But to be sure it would be better to test it in another system.

 

[Jimbob1865]

Hey guys just an update, I bought a new GPU and everything is working 100% fine now, thanks for all the help.

 

[helpstar]

Glad to hear