Help plz, computer crashes when playing games

Wabbit_87

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K, i built my system 1 months ago, and everything was fast and not lag at all, played BF3 and CIV V all max with no hicups,

specs, GTX580 SC EVGA,
I5 2500K
8 GB MEMORY CROSAIR
850X W PSU CROSAIR
ASUS PRO Z68 MOBO,
500 GB HD
WINDOWS VISTA SERVICE PACK 2

I GOT NORTON ANTIVIRUS ALSO

ok, so i could play all my games on ultra 1600 : 1050 res 23 inch monitor,
but one day i came home and my mobo started to light up on LED which was the memory one, for some reason my mobo didn't read my memory, so i click the LED and it flashed couple of times, and it got fix, but since then whenever i wanna play a game i get Blue screen, most of them say Memory error, or Memory management etc,

i cant play a game for even 3 mins, so last night i tried to change my memory from the slots, and i tried 1 stick at time using Batman arkam city,

Windows loads up normal speed a bit slower than b4, but when i play batman, even when the game menu is horrible slow, lol the bats on the menu fly so slow and it lags bad, even when i start teh game it takes 3 mins just to load,

so im lost here, are both of my memory sticks bad? or my mobo?
or my GPU?

i uninstalled vista and installed it again, i got a clean Gpu driver install, but i still get those blue screens.

even firefox started to lag lately, my computer doesn't seem fast as b4,
 

Wabbit_87

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i got everything on normal, i never oc anything, my ASUS mobo Z68 pro i never touched it in the BIOS, so everything is normal.

like i said, when i built it, everything was fast, until 1 week ago i came home and my MOBO couldn't read my memory anymore, but it got fix but after that , u started to get blue screens liek crazy, and last nigth i tried 1 memory stick at time, now with 1 memory stick i dont get blue screens but my game is so slow, like it lags liek crazy and then crashes.

i was chekiing my Mobo tem and cpu temp and they were on 30c.

now my gpu was on 50 c.

 

did you run memtest?
 

Wabbit_87

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no i didnt, but like i said, i think is my memory, cus all the blue screens i got, they say MEMORY ERROR, bad memory managment etc,

AND WHEN I USE ONE STICK Of 4 GB, my game is just way slower and lags to much, even ingame menu it lags horrible with 1 stick of 4gb,

i run the windows memory tool, and it says no errors found,.
 

Wabbit_87

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i really didnt wanned to update my mobo bios, cus i rly dont know that much,

but my ASUS PRO Z68 has a friendly interface for BIOS, 1 click and it updates,
it says my bios are from 8/12/11

there are new bios, should i update my Bios then? i dont know people tells me updating ya BIOS could kill your mobo.
 
Updating your BIOS can destroy your whole motherboard. If you have a power outage at the moment you are updating or if you accidentally hit the reset button or something you will have to buy a new motherboard.

As long as you do things right and nothing catastrophic happens, though, you tend to be alright. I don't think I have ever heard of a problem when people were careful and did everything right, even if it was scary.

In general, I don't think it is a BIOS thing, though.

Usually if it is brand new and working perfectly for 1 month and then working very very poorly after that then it is something that you did that messed it up.

It could be some program you installed or even a program you uninstalled, it could potentially be that you got a virus downloading bittorrents or a setting that got changed in windows somewhere.

There are really any number of potential causes, but most of them are not hardware related.

I would start by scanning for malware with SpyBot Search & Destroy and possibly AdAware too. Then consider deleting the Norton Anti Virus and installing Avira instead.

- Edit - If you want some hardware things to consider... Is it possible that the computer suffered some sort of trauma event? Did someone kick it on accident or drop it? Is it possible that there was a thermal event? Does the computer have an adequate cooling setup?
 

Wabbit_87

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ok here, this is what i get

check to be sure you have adequate disk space. if a driver is identified in the stop message disable the driver or check with the manufactuer for driver update try changing video adapter

check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS update . disable BIOS memory option such as caching or shadowing if you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components. restart your computer,press F8 to select advanced startup options and then select safe mode

Techniqal Information:
*** Stop: 0X0000008E (0XC000001D, 0X818A8803, 0X88360A94, 0X0000000)

 

Wabbit_87

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i got an Antec 900 mid tower, with 5 fans, lmy mobo and cpu temps are 30, 38 c max, now my gpu temp last nigth was at 58c,

i unistalled vista and installed it again to make sure if it was a virus, and i never go to torrents, also i got cc cleaner, and did a registry cleaning.

but yeah, kinda sux rly, im lost and getting frustrated, this rig cost me $1300 and i cant use it to play games, people tells me is teh memory, others tells me is my BIOS, otehr tells me in my temp, and other is a Virus.


im about to return everything, i runed antivirus and it found nothing,

i had norton for 4 years and never got an issue with it to play a game,

everytime iget a Blue screen it tells me , Memory corrupted, Bad memory managment and Update Bios or contact your etc.....

it only happens when i play a game, liek a can navigate and use windows without crashing, but when i play a game it crashes after 3 mins, i can see it starts laggin b4 it crashes to teh blue screen.
 

COLGeek

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Moderator
Updating your BIOS is very safe and not a big deal. It is offered as advice to rule out any compatibility issues.

Second, the types of errors being discussed are often the result of heat or power problems, thus the questions about OCing and temps.

Since your memory checks out, I would suspect that the PSU may actually be the problem.
 
0x0000008e can potentially be a RAM error, yes.

If you are $1300 into it, you could perhaps spare another $40 and buy a different set of RAM that is on the manufacturers qualified vendor list and see if that fixes it.

There isn't much we can do to "guarantee" it isn't RAM without you switching it out with a different set. You can run 8 hours of memory testing and come up clean and still have bad RAM so the only real test is wasting the money (or borrowing) to get another set and just try it.

I don't think it is the BIOS, if it were the BIOS it probably wouldn't have worked perfectly for 1 month before now.

I have heard a lot of people say they hate Norton, but if you trust it then more power to you. At the very least you could just try something else like Avira and just delete it again and reinstall Norton if it does nothing to help fix the problem.

If there is no problems except gaming, you may want to consider if it is the video card drivers or the video card itself too. I wouldn't think so if it worked just fine for 1 month, but if you installed new video card drivers 1 day before it started not working that could easily be the problem.

I am sorry you are frustrated with fixing this thing, I would be too if I spent $1300. My whole system isn't even worth half that and it works just fine so your situation would make me doubly or triply pissed off.

Still, computer hardware is not a subject that most people really find to be "fun" per se. It is pretty rewarding to be able to make it with your hands and have it work beautifully, but stupid problems can also leave you suffering for days as well and nobody likes that.

It is just the nature of the beast.
 

Wabbit_87

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ok im gonna update my bios 2nigth, do i have to erase my current bios first? does it work like when u wanna instal Drivers?

also my PSU is a corsair 850x top notch, i hear great things about it, its a modular psu, if is PSU related why does my blue screens says Memory corrupted, bad memory managment etc, i tougth it was related to my memory.
 

Wabbit_87

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ok thanx 4 ya help guys, i guess im gonna try to get new ram, and if the problem continues then send back my gpu and if the problem continues i will send back my mobo or psu,

i get mad bcause as soon i got my new rig, i got bf3, mw3 , Human revolution, and preorder skrym on steam , now i have all this games that i got 1 month ago and i cant play them lol, i been playing FIFA 12 on my ps3, i was about to take my rig to teh geek squad, lol tahts how much frustrated i was
 
Updating the BIOS isn't very much like updating a driver. It must be done from outside of an OS and thus the UI will tend to not be very much fun. It is also unlike a driver in how hard it is to undo something done wrong.

That being said, it should be as simple as you putting a file on a USB stick, putting it in the back of the computer, turning it on, hitting the bios button, finding the update bios area, and then pointing it to the file you downloaded. It sounds like a lot of steps but its not hard per se.

You don't have to get rid of anything else first, you will move seamlessly to the better one just by letting it do its thing.

I doubt it is a PSU problem unless you have cables hanging barely in the socket or something.

That being said, PSU problems can show up literally anywhere and often disguise themselves as problems with some other part. The best way to rule it out is to use a really good brand (you did) and to have a second one laying around or borrowable that you can switch in instead (not convenient for most people).

If you have infinite money or friends with good PCs that will let you borrow it, feel free to go buy a different one to test with or grab one of theirs and try it, otherwise I would try other things and save that step for later. It is still on the table even if your computer says it has RAM problems, but from where I sit other things are much more likely to be the source of the problems than this.
 

Wabbit_87

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well, my gpu is big so it barely fits on long size, i dont have a pretyy cable managment cus my gpu, but my ASUS temp toll tells me my cpu is at 30 c and my mobo is at 30 c, so i dont see a temp problem there, but last nigth my gpu was at 56c and i wasnt even playing a game
 
Prior to updating the Bios: It was working fine and unless you updated a driver that is incompatable with your current bios, it highly unlikely that updating the bios will have any effect. One possible exception is that a change has occured to a bios setting and updating may change it back, but this is rare.

Based On : IT was working and now getting memory errors, I'm leaning more toward
(1) Memory problem caused by (a) bad memory, (b) MB (ie slots), or (C) PSU.
...A).Download CPUID CPU-z. install and run. Look at memory tab and verify that it is running at the correct timings.
...B) download HWMonitor. Install & run. Look @ the Voltage for your memory - is it correct. Look at +12 V (Should be NO LOWER than 11.6 V (spec is 11.4V). +5 V should be above 4.75V. NOTE. can use a MB supplied utility to monitor as HWMonitor may not properly show your voltages.
..C Download and run prime 95 Blend Mode which is the default. Should be able to run for 4+ hours with out error. NOTE monitor your CPU temps (With HWMonitor), do not go above 85C on any of the 4 core temps.

If memory errors:
(1) first look at the Bios setting for your HDD should be AHCI. On the bios page there should be a "load default settings) - DO that, But check the HDD setting and if it changed to say IDE change it to orginal setting ie AHCI. Try system.

Only way to check memory or MB is to replace the memory (two sticks should be less than 40 bucks) and recheck.

 
Well, it doesn't so much matter what your GPU temperature was at yesterday as much as it matters what it was at the day before the problems started. That is kinda difficult to test for now. If it potentially could have hit 100c or 120c way back when, it could have damage that will stick with it forever.

Outside of visible burn marks, it would be kinda hard to tell about this without trying a different video card.

If you judge the chance of this to be remote, then feel free to test other things first. and just leave it hanging there as a potential source of failure to be investigated more thoroughly later.

You could at least try to use an older driver than whatever you are using now on the video card and see if that changes anything. If it was an updated driver that is causing instability that could easily fix it and for a cost of $0.
 
Added: On memory testing methods.

Memtest86. ALWAYS run this from a bootable CD. You download the ISO and Use the ISO burn function to put on the CD. IF you copy it like a data file it will not work. ALWAYS run this from the booot cd when resolving memory errors - do not go into your operating systen NOR load/Install an operating system if you have memory errors.

Memory errors = Possible corrupt installation of the operating system and/or can corrupt a "good" operating system when a BSOD occurs.

Once you have resolved all memory errors, then you can install your OS and/or boot to a installed OS.

When memory passes memtest and everyting looks good I always run prime 95 from windows (Better at detecting memory errors than memtest86).
 
ADDED:
If problem is Bad MB or Bad Memory the most probable cause is ESD when you put the system togother. This time of the year ESD is a much bigger problem than in the middle of the summer.

Main reason I mention this is that if you are replace, removing and reinstalling that memory - One of two things - keep one hand on the computer case (With PSU plugged in and rocker switch on back of PSU off). Or buy a $10 wrist strap. Connect the alligator clip to a UNpainted part on the case - again PSU plugged in and rocker switch on PSU off.

On your memory - Voltage shoud show up as 1.5 V and CPU-z should show it running at 800 (That equals 1600) with CL ratings of 9.
Note: most DDR3 1600 will run at 1333 which is the default, unless you changed the bios to run it at 1600.
 

Wabbit_87

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can it get fixed if is ESD?
 
Did somebody open up the computer and mess around with the internals a month ago?

If the case sides stayed on the case through that whole period then ESD damage is pretty unlikely.

ESD damage on a part can't be fixed except possibly by the company that made the product. For other people the only option is usually to buy another one of whatever was damaged.

It can be pretty hard to narrow down what that thing might be as well, with no real data about what happened around the time when it started not working.