Help me find the problem to this weird crash issue...

[MoonShock]

Hey guys. Here are the specs of my computer:

Motherboard: Asus P8H61 M-LE
CPU: Intel i3 2120
Memory: Corsair 4GB RAM
PSU: Coolermaster GX 550W
Graphics card: EVGA Nvidia GTX 650 TI

_

Now the problem is that I will get these weird crashes when playing a game, for example in DOTA 2, if I Alt+Tab out and in. But this does not always happen. Sometimes I can Alt+tab in without any crash, and sometimes it will randomly crash. The type of crash I get is some type of a 'hard crash'; no BSOD. Sometimes my screen will be colored blue, sometimes grey, sometimes green, sometimes black (when it crashes) and that with a looping sound, like some kind of motor or something. But this ONLY happens if I Alt+Tab in and out. And very rarely otherwise. I will try making a video about it...

Today I just noticed that when I tried over-volting my graphics card, the exact same type of crash occurred when I kept clicking on 'apply'. What that did was that it made the core clock jump from its idle state to its active state constantly. THAT is what alt-tabbing also does! Make the core clock jump down and up! Could it be my power supply? Because I've tried all tests for RAM, video memory, video card stress test and none of them found any error at all!

All the hardware I've listed above is new. I bought the Processor, RAM, GPU, CPU and PSU over a period of August 2012 till March 2013. The newest hardware I've gotten is the graphics card, and that's when the issue started appearing. But then again, I never used the PCI-E power cord before this graphics card. So right now I'm confused as to what's messing it up, and what I should send back since they're all on warranty (I don't want to send all of them -_-).

I would like to mention that I live in a country that has... unstable voltages. So maybe a stabilizer can help with things? Please help me out here! I really want to get rid of this issue.

 

[thor220]

Hey guys. Here are the specs of my computer:

Motherboard: Asus P8H61 M-LE
CPU: Intel i3 2120
Memory: Corsair 4GB RAM
PSU: Coolermaster GX 550W
Graphics card: EVGA Nvidia GTX 650 TI

_

Now the problem is that I will get these weird crashes when playing a game, for example in DOTA 2, if I Alt+Tab out and in. But this does not always happen. Sometimes I can Alt+tab in without any crash, and sometimes it will randomly crash. The type of crash I get is some type of a 'hard crash'; no BSOD. Sometimes my screen will be colored blue, sometimes grey, sometimes green, sometimes black (when it crashes) and that with a looping sound, like some kind of motor or something. But this ONLY happens if I Alt+Tab in and out. And very rarely otherwise. I will try making a video about it...

Today I just noticed that when I tried over-volting my graphics card, the exact same type of crash occurred when I kept clicking on 'apply'. What that did was that it made the core clock jump from its idle state to its active state constantly. THAT is what alt-tabbing also does! Make the core clock jump down and up! Could it be my power supply? Because I've tried all tests for RAM, video memory, video card stress test and none of them found any error at all!

All the hardware I've listed above is new. I bought the Processor, RAM, GPU, CPU and PSU over a period of August 2012 till March 2013. The newest hardware I've gotten is the graphics card, and that's when the issue started appearing. But then again, I never used the PCI-E power cord before this graphics card. So right now I'm confused as to what's messing it up, and what I should send back since they're all on warranty (I don't want to send all of them -_-).

I would like to mention that I live in a country that has... unstable voltages. So maybe a stabilizer can help with things? Please help me out here! I really want to get rid of this issue.

Well the voltage coming into your PC is very important and needs to be within a range for it to operate properly. Going from max load to hardly any would make that an even bigger problem. You should get a multi-meter to check voltages coming into your computer and also your power supplies output. Make sure to measure during load too. If you see spiking, you know the problem.

 

[Guest]

just to be save, i'd run a stresstest on both cpu & gpu to test if it's really power-related, as in the psu struggles to deliver stable voltages under load.

a quick guess though would be a faulty graphics driver, that windows related, or a combination of both. so try installing other/never nvidia drivers and run windows update. also see if there are any updates/patches for the game. my tip would be to always check, if the issue persists, after each step so you know exactly which changes solve the problem. enabling system restore points would make it easier to revert changes.

if nothing helps i'd get another graphics card, but of course with pcs you can't ever be really 100% sure what's the culprit, so best of luck!

please add other details of your system (os...), maybe it turns out useful.