Multiple Blue Screen of Death Crashes during gaming Please HELP

[Ethantanious]

Ok so i have a fairly old pc i put together around 2009 with very few upgrades to it since then.. I will list components in a sec but here is my question first... Lately when i play games such as Skyrim or Saints Row IV after about an hour or so i get a blue screen of death this is seemingly a new issue but i haven't been gaming for a while so it could be an issue that i just haven't noticed because i haven't been under heavy loads...anyway here is what i've got:

processor: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black OC'D from 2.8(stock) to 3.4 ghz
CPU cooler: cooler master hyper N250
Motherboard: ASRock 780G
Video Card: EVGA GTX 460 SE 1gb 256-bit GDDR5
Monitor: #1 Acer 23'' 1080p #2 40'' highsense TV also 1080p
ram: 4gb ddr2 1066
hdd: OS and both games mentioned above are on an OCZ Agility 3 120gb SSD
but i also have a 250gb WD blue series HDD for storage
Power supply: Rosewill green series 630W 80 plus bronze certified

i had thought maybe it was a overheating problem but my temps don't seem to be high enough to cause alarm
at idle cpu is around 31-35C with GPU at 38-40C

i have only checked the gpu under load as it is all i have set up in my OSD during games but it gets up to around 65-70C And i have read the nvidia cards can run up to 85-90C

after the first crash i cleaned out the heatsinks (which were filthy) and that dropped my temps to what i have posted (before it was about 5-7C higher at idle) but its still crashing so any input would be much appreciated

 

[i7Baby]

I'd suspect a faulty video card - the 460 will be old. Try your one in another pc. Try another one in your pc.

 

[Ethantanious]

i7Baby i really hope you are wrong no offence i just could not afford a new card right now... the card i got in jan 2011 so its a little over 3 years and in that time i have cleaned the heatsink at least once a year and probably a year and a half ago i took the heatsink off and thoroughly cleaned it and the chip then reassembled it with arctic silver in an attempt to extend the life of it. Also i can run hd movies on my tv while using the monitor and the video card can handle it without a problem.

 

[cball1311]

If you could get an error code from the BSOD and the instance that caused it would be great. You can change the BIOS to halt the system on error instead of restarting. This would narrow down some possibilities.

 

[Ethantanious]

This is the first Blue Screen


And this is the second one i got


i used blue screen viewer to pull up the images hope this helps

 

[cball1311]

Yep, I would concur that it is either the GPU or CPU. If you have been overclocking the CPU since 2009, it could be at its "end of days".

Here, skim through this thread from Windows 7: Random BSOD x124 caused by hal.dll

Long story short, the OP changed his CPU, all BSOD's vanished. You can read through to see the thorough steps to resolve the issue.

 

[i7Baby]

If you got any overclocks, get rid of them.

Check all your drivers are working and up to date in Device Manager

Run an aniti virus scan on your drive

Run Checkdisk too

Try a Sytem Restore

Check between each action

 

[Ethantanious]

thanks that link is very useful and jsut skimming through i would have to agree its probably my cpu i suppose for now i will throttle it down to stock speeds and try to get as much life out of it as i can while i save money for a new one.

 

[Ethantanious]

@ i7baby i will check all my drivers and run scans and chkdsk tonight

 

[Ethantanious]

so for now i have got rid of my overclocks
checked all my drivers in device manager all were up to date but just in case i still downloaded drivers for my ssd and the latest nvida drivers
so far after installing those drivers i have had no more blue screens while playing skyrim WOOT WOOT

 

[i7Baby]

Nice to hear. Sometimes these things work; sometimes they don't.

 

[cball1311]

so for now i have got rid of my overclocks
checked all my drivers in device manager all were up to date but just in case i still downloaded drivers for my ssd and the latest nvida drivers
so far after installing those drivers i have had no more blue screens while playing skyrim WOOT WOOT

Cool to hear. Good job.