Lockups while playing videogames on new PC

[silenttrigger]

Here is my setup, everything is brand new:

Fractal XL Case
ASUS X99-A USB 3.1 Motherboard
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99AUSB_31/
Intel i7 5820K 3.3 Ghz
Noctua NH-D15 Heatsink
G. Skill Ripjaw DDR4 RAM x16GB
ASUS Geforce GTX 970
Thermaltake 850 PSU

The issue I'm seeing does not occur till I try and play graphically intensive games like Battlefield 4 or The Division.

While playing The Division, I will have a good hour or so of gameplay, then all of a sudden the screen will lock up and the audio will start repeating. Unfortunately I cannot ctrl/alt/del out or alt/f4. Task Manager will not come up, so the only option I have is to do a hard restart of the entire computer.

At first, I believed it may have been the nvidia video drivers, since there was a big problem with the 364.47 drivers. I did have the 364.51, but to be sure I rolled back my video drivers to 362.00.

My computer still crashed while playing.

Next thing I did was monitor my CPU/GPU temps.

CPU did not peak above 55C while playing any games, and my GPU hovered around 50C-60C during gameplay as well.

Just to be sure, I did a thorough cleaning of my CPU with the arctic silver cpu cleaner, and then reapplied arctic silver thermal paste.

Having read some varying reviews about my motherboard, and people having issues with crashes. I made sure my BIOS was the current version which was 2001. Just to make sure, I reinstalled the 2001 drivers.

I ran a MEMTEST and no issues came up for the 2 hours I ran it.

I ran a Prime95 stress test for 2 hours and nothing came up.

I ran a passmark BurninTest and nothing came up.

But when the pc will still lockup when I run a game.

I understand that stress tests are usually done for longer periods of time, but I assumed since this issue would occur so frequently when I ran a game, it was bound to show up during those short tests.

I have a small feeling that it may be a PSU, RAM, or Mobo issue, but I dunno if I'm just missing something blatantly obvious to check.


Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cin19]

1) I don't know when you switch the GPU driver, do you use the DDU to uninstall the driver first or not? If you don't, try it in safe mode, then reinstall the new nvidia driver.
DDU http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
2) Also make sure you have the new chipset driver from either asus or intel site.
3) You can go into the BIOS to check the 3.3V, 5v, and 12V voltages to see your PSU is good or not. The PSU voltage tolerances http://pcsupport.about.com/od/insidethepc/a/power-supply-voltage-tolerance.htm

 

[silenttrigger]

1) I don't know when you switch the GPU driver, do you use the DDU to uninstall the driver first or not? If you don't, try it in safe mode, then reinstall the new nvidia driver.
DDU http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
2) Also make sure you have the new chipset driver from either asus or intel site.
3) You can go into the BIOS to check the 3.3V, 5v, and 12V voltages to see your PSU is good or not. The PSU voltage tolerances http://pcsupport.about.com/od/insidethepc/a/power-supply-voltage-tolerance.htm

I will definitely gives these a try, and report back as soon as I'm finished testing.

 

[silenttrigger]

Sooooooo i opened my case and realized something really silly.

I had put the RAM in the incorrect corresponding slots that were recommended for my card. Could this have possibly caused instability when I tried running games?

I read the recommended configuration for builds that have 4 sticks of ram and put them in the corresponding order. Will test my pc this evening, but Im wondering if something this simple could have caused issues?

 

[cin19]

If you installed the RAM in other slot, the RAM only runs at single or dual channel instead the Quad Channel. And the PC will run fine, you only get low-performances something like that.

But how about the voltage readings?

 

[silenttrigger]

So a recap of what I did last night.

I checked the voltages in bios using the link you recommended, and everything was within normal limits.

I placed all four sticks of RAM in the correct corresponding slots recommended in the manual.

I remounted my CPU heatsink and reapplied arctic silver 5.

I used DDU to uninstall my video drivers, then I went and reinstalled the current ones.

I downloaded the latest chipset from ASUS for my mobo.

I downloaded the latest realtek drivers.

I played a full round of BF4 - roughly 30 minutes, and had no issues with stuttering or crashes.

I played about 2 hours of The Division without any stuttering or crashes.

Before going to bed, I ran Prime95, and stopped it this morning at the six hour and 30 minute mark with no errors or warnings.

Temps for the CPU did not exceed 45C while playing any games, and temps did not exceed 60C while running Prime95.

So far I have not had any errors, and I played some more Division this morning.

I will keep this thread posted if any issues come up today. Today is my day off from work so I'll be attempting to play a lot of games.