My PC Crashes During Gaming (Red Screen)

[JeremyLall]

Hi, I was wondering if you could help me, I've been going at this problem for about 2 months now. The problem has been occurring ever since I bought a new graphics card. I upgraded from a Radeon HD 6950 2GB to a Radeon HD 7970 3GB. What really happens is I'd play 10 minutes into a game, then the game would crash. After the game crashes, Windows 8 would crash, displaying a pure red screen. This causes my computer to restart. This only occurs while playing games, so I can watch movies and do regular computing without a problem. I'm not sure if it is a temperature problem (I've already tried increasing the fan speed) or compatibility problem between the GPU and the motherboard, or even with the cpu. I've tried Windows 7 and I'd keep getting the blue screen of death instead of the red screen. Please help.

My specs:
CPU: Intel i7 2600k
GPU: XFX Double D Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB
PSU: Kentek 750 Watts
Motherboard: Asus p8z68-v lx
Ram: 8GB

By the way, I've already returned the Gpu and have received a replacement, but the problem still continues. I've eliminated that the problem is not drivers, as I've cleared and re-installed them many times, and most likely not a defect in the Gpu. However, some people have said that the problem may either lie in a bad communication between the Gpu and the Cpu or in a bad power supply. I'm pretty convinced that the problem is a hardware problem, but I'd like more opinions. Any ideas as to what is happening can really help a lot.

 

[Charlie Swafford]

Test to see if your old graphics card faces the same problem, if it doesn't than that particular graphics card is not compatible with one of the other components.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Make certain there are no overclocks of your system RAM, CPU, and GPU. Also, make certain you are running the card with 8-pin PCI-e power connectors and that both power connectors are firmly plugged in.

Make certain the card is not overheating. Perhaps run a program such as GPU-Z to monitor clock speeds and temperatures:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

If you're running any other software that interfaces to the GPU for the purposes of setting fan speeds, overclocking, monitoring, etc., completely disable it for the duration of troubleshooting.

 

[JeremyLall]

Test to see if your old graphics card faces the same problem, if it doesn't than that particular graphics card is not compatible with one of the other components.

I kind of sold my old graphics card, but I don't see why this card isn't compatible with my other components. I've seen other people with the same processor as me with the same gpu, and the same motherboard with the same gpu, but not both the same motherboard and processor at the same time. The only component I can see that it may have some problems with is my power supply, or so people have said in my other forum question, but I was just wondering if there was something I may have missed. I wish I had another computer to test this with.

 

[JeremyLall]

Make certain there are no overclocks of your system RAM, CPU, and GPU. Also, make certain you are running the card with 8-pin PCI-e power connectors and that both power connectors are firmly plugged in.

Make certain the card is not overheating. Perhaps run a program such as GPU-Z to monitor clock speeds and temperatures:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

If you're running any other software that interfaces to the GPU for the purposes of setting fan speeds, overclocking, monitoring, etc., completely disable it for the duration of troubleshooting.

I'm pretty certain the card is not overheating as the temperatures stay around 35-45 degrees C while idling and 50-65 degrees C under load. I'd like to note that my power supply only has one 6 pin pcie with a 6+2 pin pcie, I'm not sure if that may do anything to the power that is being received by the graphics card. Also, I'll have to try disabling the software, I never even thought of something like that, I always thought it was suppose to help. Thanks for the tip, let's hope it works. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that nothing is overclocked on my system.

 

[jerreece]

Why create a new thread for this topic? Hoping for a different answer?
Original Thread: (Poor quality PSU)
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1700521/crash-playing-games.html

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

If your graphics card has 2, 8 pin, PCI-e power connections, that means it needs both of them.

6 pin, PCI-e power connections are rated at up to 75 Watts, whether they can actually deliver more or not.

8 pin, PCI-e power connections are rated at up to 150 Watts.

I'll say it again to be sure, if you're card has two 8 pin power connections on it, make sure both are properly fed with 8 pin power connections.

The 6+2 PCI-e power connection on your power supply is perfectly fine as either a 6 pin or an 8 pin. The two pins are left separate for the purpose of backward compatibility with cards only requiring a 6 pin power connection.

If you have only 1 PCI-e connector on your power supply, you can use an adapter such as this to fill the 2nd power connector:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198022

Be sure to use the +2 extension so each connector has all 8 pins utilized, and do not use the adapter alone to fill both 8 pin connections. Use the existing PCI-e 6+2 and one PCI-e 6+2 from the adapter to minimize current draw over each lead coming from your power supply.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Appreciate your input, jerreece, but your other thread contained no troubleshooting, just a bunch of folks telling the OP how poor his choice in power supplies is.

I did a search for his power supply as well, and found a 750 Watt Kentek, which appears to have a single PCI-e power connector on it. If the problem is insufficient power due to lack of connections on the power supply, the solution is not to throw out the power supply, it is to provide sufficient connection to the graphics card. While the OP may choose to replace his power supply in the future, it has not been determined the problem is due to a fault of the power supply.

 

[DSzymborski]

Appreciate your input, jerreece, but your other thread contained no troubleshooting, just a bunch of folks telling the OP how poor his choice in power supplies is.

I did a search for his power supply as well, and found a 750 Watt Kentek, which appears to have a single PCI-e power connector on it. If the problem is insufficient power due to lack of connections on the power supply, the solution is not to throw out the power supply, it is to provide sufficient connection to the graphics card. While the OP may choose to replace his power supply in the future, it has not been determined the problem is due to a fault of the power supply.

In my experience, the connectors available provide a valuable clue to the "real" output of a fly-by-night firecracker. Considering the symptoms are those that a shoddy PSU can frequently cause, I think the horrific part in a build of good parts is the next place to check after the GPU's been swapped out.

 

[Charlie Swafford]

Yes you will have to get a psu with 2 8 pin connectors because this GPU has 2 ports, or like previously stated get the converter. I did a check on both the Graphics Card and the PSU and the PSU has 1 connector while the Graphics Card takes 2. This is the easiest and cheapest fix here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198022

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

I like your description, made me laugh. Have had plenty of "fly-by-night firecracker" experience myself. Yes, the connectors available may provide a clue to the underlying intentions of the power supply engineer, or perhaps marketing shaved some cable ends off to save money on the final product? All we can do in this case is to assume.

I still am surprised that everyone is telling the OP to replace his power supply, before first finding out if he has even correctly plugged in his graphics card.

Are we an angry, mindless mob, hell bent on expressing our opinions, or a collection of individuals with varying degrees of experience and skill, trying to help? Let's get more logic involved.

If you want anecdotal evidence, I've seen a 250 Watt power supply that happily output 235 Watts, and it did so for years until I retired it (wattage was measured at the plug using a Kilowatt meter.) It was a very cheap power supply that I inherited from one of those mail-order, TV special computers. It had plenty of adapters to attain the right connection types inside the computer it was running, and I still use it when benching systems at home.

 

[JeremyLall]

Why create a new thread for this topic? Hoping for a different answer?
Original Thread: (Poor quality PSU)
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1700521/crash-playing-games.html

Actually yes, I didn't want to jump to conclusion and spend money on a new power supply.

 

[JeremyLall]

Yes you will have to get a psu with 2 8 pin connectors because this GPU has 2 ports, or like previously stated get the converter. I did a check on both the Graphics Card and the PSU and the PSU has 1 connector while the Graphics Card takes 2. This is the easiest and cheapest fix here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198022

That part is what I find odd because my power supply somehow came with 2 pcie connectors.

 

[DSzymborski]

I still am surprised that everyone is telling the OP to replace his power supply, before first finding out if he has even correctly plugged in his graphics card.

My doctor still tells me to lose weight, even if I'm in there for something else!

If you want anecdotal evidence, I've seen a 250 Watt power supply that happily output 235 Watts, and it did so for years until I retired it (wattage was measured at the plug using a Kilowatt meter.) It was a very cheap power supply that I inherited from one of those mail-order, TV special computers. It had plenty of adapters to attain the right connection types inside the computer it was running, and I still use it when benching systems at home.

Yeah, but there's a difference between taking that risk on yourself and giving someone else advice to do that. I may be susceptible to that dangerous combination of bacon-and-laziness but I'm not going to give advice that tells others to replicate it!

Even if he gets it working with that PSU, I would still be very uncomfortable at letting it - he's not running a light office system, he's got an overclocked 7970 in there. If I'm that GPU, I'm praying that he doesn't figure out how to fully hook me up to that PSU. It's the equivalent of calling for an ambulance and realizing that they're dropping you off in a dirty alley behind a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Joe's Burgers and Surgery may turn out to be a reputable medical facility, but I'm certainly not going to bet on it.

It's not like Seasonic or XFX are giving me a kickback every time I recommend a PSU!

 

[JeremyLall]

I like your description, made me laugh. Have had plenty of "fly-by-night firecracker" experience myself. Yes, the connectors available may provide a clue to the underlying intentions of the power supply engineer, or perhaps marketing shaved some cable ends off to save money on the final product? All we can do in this case is to assume.

I still am surprised that everyone is telling the OP to replace his power supply, before first finding out if he has even correctly plugged in his graphics card.

Are we an angry, mindless mob, hell bent on expressing our opinions, or a collection of individuals with varying degrees of experience and skill, trying to help? Let's get more logic involved.

If you want anecdotal evidence, I've seen a 250 Watt power supply that happily output 235 Watts, and it did so for years until I retired it (wattage was measured at the plug using a Kilowatt meter.) It was a very cheap power supply that I inherited from one of those mail-order, TV special computers. It had plenty of adapters to attain the right connection types inside the computer it was running, and I still use it when benching systems at home.

Thanks for all your help and I'm pretty sure my graphics card is plugged in properly. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice. I've just called AMD and am trying out their beta drivers, they think that my problem may be bad drivers. I'll tell you guys later on how it goes.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

You're pretty sure your graphics card is plugged in correctly? So, you have two 8 pin, PCI-e power connections that have all 8 pins connected to your graphics card? Just checking, as you still seem unsure.

I'm enjoying your analogies, DSzymborski, but I would hardly compare his power supply with bacon and laziness. If he is able to make his card work with that power supply, it may happily do so for years. I haven't read in this thread or the OP's original thread, that anybody is experienced one way or the other with the particular brand he's using.

 

[JeremyLall]

You're pretty sure your graphics card is plugged in correctly? So, you have two 8 pin, PCI-e power connections that have all 8 pins connected to your graphics card? Just checking, as you still seem unsure.

I'm enjoying your analogies, DSzymborski, but I would hardly compare his power supply with bacon and laziness. If he is able to make his card work with that power supply, it may happily do so for years. I haven't read in this thread or the OP's original thread, that anybody is experienced one way or the other with the particular brand he's using.

Well, I don't have an 8 pin pcie, I have a 6+2 pin pcie plus another 6 pin. My card only requires one 8 pin and one 6 pin. Like I said earlier, I'm not sure if the 6+2 pin may cause any problems for substituting an 8 pin. Also, yes I'm sure the card is plugged in correctly, I've tried pushing slightly hard on both the connectors to connect to the card and the card to connect to the slot in the motherboard. Everything seems fitted properly like it was before. By the way, the beta drivers I tried from AMD still didn't help. One of the guys at AMD had me run 3dmark 11 to test the card, but my pc crashed once again. Now I'm sure that the problem is not in the drivers, but in the hardware. Do you know of any way to test if the card is defective in terms of hardware? (Not sure if that came out clearly)

 

[Charlie Swafford]

guys stop fighting over if he needs a new Power Supply or not. As long as he knows that this is a cheap power supply that could go out at anytime and potentially break his parts than let him go with it. (If he can get it to work at all with this power supply)

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

A 6+2 pin PCI-e connector is designed to work as either a 6 pin or an 8 pin. Yes, you have used it correctly, provided you used both the 6 pin and 2 pin pieces together.

Since it would appear you have experienced this problem with two different 7970 graphics cards, I suspect your card is not the underlying issue, but simply the device bringing the symptoms to the surface.

I understand your question this way - that you would like to run a program that can test your graphics card and tell you if it is good or bad.

What I recommend at this point is testing your graphics card in a known good system, or testing a known good power supply in your system.

 

[jerreece]

Appreciate your input, jerreece, but your other thread contained no troubleshooting, just a bunch of folks telling the OP how poor his choice in power supplies is.

I did a search for his power supply as well, and found a 750 Watt Kentek, which appears to have a single PCI-e power connector on it. If the problem is insufficient power due to lack of connections on the power supply, the solution is not to throw out the power supply, it is to provide sufficient connection to the graphics card. While the OP may choose to replace his power supply in the future, it has not been determined the problem is due to a fault of the power supply.

If his problem is the fact that this knock off PSU isn't capable of what it's labeled (i.e. it claims 750W but can't actually put out that much) simply using a Molex to PCI-E power adapter isn't going to fix anything. There have been many knock off, cheap, Chinese products made throughout history that claim to meet certain specs that don't. Let alone with Power Supplies. Anyone worth his salt will tell you the last place you skimp is in the PSU department.

The OP may not have realized this Kenetek was poor quality. I'm not blaming him. You can't simply modify electrical stuff and "make it work". The label may claim 750W. But that doesn't mean it's actually capable of that. Knock off companies falsely advertise products all the time. A few of us have seen or heard of it happening before. Junk PSU (or even just an old one) fails and takes out half the components inside the case with it as it fizzles out.

Even if it CAN output 750W doesn't mean the internal components are of solid build. Running it at 750W may be it's doom as it may not be able to sustain that for any length of service. It's no different than you or I trying to overlock memory, a GPU, a CPU, and trying to get our motherboard to provide STABLE voltage so we can balance power with temperature and find the right mix. You can't skimp without potentially having issues.

He's tried different drivers. That didn't help. The symptoms seem like a power problem. Of course AMD will try every software fix they can until they can't fix it because that's standard protocol.

 

[JeremyLall]

A 6+2 pin PCI-e connector is designed to work as either a 6 pin or an 8 pin. Yes, you have used it correctly, provided you used both the 6 pin and 2 pin pieces together.

Since it would appear you have experienced this problem with two different 7970 graphics cards, I suspect your card is not the underlying issue, but simply the device bringing the symptoms to the surface.

I understand your question this way - that you would like to run a program that can test your graphics card and tell you if it is good or bad.

What I recommend at this point is testing your graphics card in a known good system, or testing a known good power supply in your system.

I wish I could test it in a different system, but I don't have one. I've made an RMA with Newegg for a replacement and that RMA ends tomorrow, so I'll have to send this card to them tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the same problem will continue with the next replacement (hopefully not). If the problem does continue, then I'll have to take it to a local computer repair store as they'll have more resources for fixing this computer. Again, thanks for your help, but that is my conclusion.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Good luck in your difficulties. If you find the solution, it would be nice to know what it turns out to be. I suspect, as do the others, insufficient power quality, but more testing is needed.

 

[JeremyLall]

Good luck in your difficulties. If you find the solution, it would be nice to know what it turns out to be. I suspect, as do the others, insufficient power quality, but more testing is needed.

I will post the solution if it is ever found thanks for your support.

 

[JeremyLall]

I got my PC back from the repair store and apparently it is the graphics card's fault, it was defective. The repair store ran my PC with another graphics card (the exact make and model) and everything turned out perfectly fine. For future references, it is possible for Newegg or any other retailer to give you a second defective item as a replacement for a defective item. Hopefully the next replacement isn't defective again. An employee at the repair store said it took him five tries to actually get a working graphics card! Again thanks everybody for your help, this problem is presumed to be solved.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Sweet, glad to hear you got it going! Nice to know your power supply is operating just fine, and some closure on the thread!