My PC Restarts When I Open or Play any PC Game

[Murgyyy]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a bit of help. I'm not too good with computers on the inside but I can work my way around my PC.
For Christmas last year I went to a computer shop in my local area and got a gaming pc built. I'm not sure what you need to know as Specs wise, but first I'll explain what's happening.

My PC has never done this before, and it's bugging me as I want it to be fine for battlefield 4 beta in a few days. Whenever I open any game for example, heroes of newerth or call of duty 4, MW3, BO2. My PC makes a sound through my headset, like a null sounds and the screen goes grey and reboots. I've looked at the error once before as this has happened lots and it said Blue Screen. I don't know if this is the error everytime.

My PC is raised off the ground by stilts i made to keep it off the dusty carpet.
I have Windows 7 Home Premium
-Processor: Intel Core i7-3770k CPU @ 3.50GHz 3.90GHz
-I have 8GB of ram
-64bit operating system
-I really don't know what else is on the inside of my PC but that's all I can do, if you tell me where to see or find some specs you need to know I can do it.

Thankyou to whoever reads and replies :~)
This is pretty urgent as my parents use this PC for bookwork too, (their program crashes the PC too)

 

[secolliyn]

I had a similar problem a while back turned out to be my power supply i would suggest downloading HW monitor (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html) and check the 5V that what was messing up on mine at least it's a place to start

 

[Murgyyy]

I don't really know what I'm looking at on this program, what should I be looking out for and under what heading?
All of my cores are sitting at 35C degress and all 3 of my fans: fan 1- 1200rpm fan2- 800rpm fan3- 1000rpm
What voltages am I looking at to show you?

 

[ingtar33]

sounds like a power supply issue. but lets make sure you don't have something else going on.

dl prime95 & hwmonitor
run prime95 on a blend (max stress/heat on ram and cpu) and see if you crash. if your system is fine and temps don't go out of control, then we're going to have to look at your graphics card.
dl furmark, run it and see if you get a crash.

if neither of these crash you out, then you'll need to dl memtest86, pull out all but one stick of ram and run it for a few passes. swap out the ram so you're testing another stick, and run it for a few passes.

basically what we're trying to do is test your hardware by taking the software issues out of the equation. if none of these crashes you out, then we'll have to go forward assuming there is a hard drive problem or a driver problem or a virus on your system.

 

[Murgyyy]

I pay for Avast Internet sercurity, wouldn't be a virus and I will get onto downloading and trying all that now to see if it crashes, thanks! I will reply soon!

 

[Murgyyy]

No crash with Prime95 and HWmonitor, even as the temperatures rised 20 degrees celcius on all cores.
- PC crashed as soon as I clicked the run test in 1920x1080 in fullscreen with furmark. (DID NOT CRASH WITH JUST NORMAL BURN IN TEST.)
I have an nvidia GTX 650.

 

[ingtar33]

ok. then it's likely your video card OR video card drivers causing the issue. so what i want you to do is uninstall everything from your computer that you even suspect smell like it might be possibly related to nvidia... including all the graphic drivers. uninstall them all. restart your computer and dl the latest gpu drivers from nvidia 327.23 WHQL. install them, restart your machine if it asks you to, then see if you can run the furmark test again. if it doesn't work know that nvidia drivers have been iffy since 314.18 WHQL, so try to hunt those down and dl them, see if those will work better for you.

If neither of those works we'll have to insure the problem is the gpu and not some weird software issue. so dl the latest bios update for your motherboard and try to test it again with furmark, if that doesn't work, pull the gpu out of your system and plug your monitor into the motherboard's graphic ports; use the igpu on your intel chip and see if you can load into furmark without crashing. assuming that works, i want you to examine your 650gtx, clean off all dust and dirt, using 90% rubbing alcohol and qtips. clean the board and heatsink and fan so it looks like it's brand new. Then flick the fan with your finger, see if it spins freely and noiselessly, at the end of the spin watch it closely, make sure it does a backward "bounce" before stopping. assuming it's all kosher put it back in and try again. if the fan fails to do either (spin freely or bounce backwards) it's a dead fan and your gpu is probably overheating, causing the crashing. you'll need to look into replacing the gpu as a whole or the cooling unit if it's not under warranty any longer. if the fan works fine but after cleaning it still crashes on furmark, you'll probably have to exercise whatever warranty you have on the gpu.

 

[Murgyyy]

I've just checked and I have all the lastest updates for the nvidia drivers, I won't need to uninstall them then and there is no available updates for it. I have grapics driver 327.23

 

[ingtar33]

yes... but your driver install might be faulty. try what i suggest, remove the drivers and anything to do with nvidia, or you suspect has to do with nvidia and download the drivers again. reinstall... make sure nvidia experience isn't installed when you reinstall... i've heard some horror stories about that screwing with cards.

if your card still is having problems uninstall again, hunt down that 314.18 whql driver and try that one.

 

[Murgyyy]

ok I haven't done what you've said yet because I was busy but I got on my PC and opened counter strike grobal offensive and after an hour my PC blue screened, I looked at the error. and when it restarted I opened chrome to do what you said and it crashed and then it did it with Internet explorer once it restarted. I'm on my iPhone telling you this, I'm running a full system scan with my avast. my PC is still under warranty so I might as well take it in if I can't resolve it with research and your help! thanks again, I hope I can fix this!

 

[ingtar33]

ok I haven't done what you've said yet because I was busy but I got on my PC and opened counter strike grobal offensive and after an hour my PC blue screened, I looked at the error. and when it restarted I opened chrome to do what you said and it crashed and then it did it with Internet explorer once it restarted. I'm on my iPhone telling you this, I'm running a full system scan with my avast. my PC is still under warranty so I might as well take it in if I can't resolve it with research and your help! thanks again, I hope I can fix this!

good luck. hope you can get it working long enough to try what i suggested. i'm pretty sure its your gpu/drivers so it's not like they'll have to look long and hard cause i think we narrowed the problem down pretty well already.

 

[Hassam Rehman]

sounds like a power supply issue. but lets make sure you don't have something else going on.

dl prime95 & hwmonitor
run prime95 on a blend (max stress/heat on ram and cpu) and see if you crash. if your system is fine and temps don't go out of control, then we're going to have to look at your graphics card.
dl furmark, run it and see if you get a crash.

if neither of these crash you out, then you'll need to dl memtest86, pull out all but one stick of ram and run it for a few passes. swap out the ram so you're testing another stick, and run it for a few passes.

basically what we're trying to do is test your hardware by taking the software issues out of the equation. if none of these crashes you out, then we'll have to go forward assuming there is a hard drive problem or a driver problem or a virus on your system.

 

[Hassam Rehman]

ingtar33.MAN u are awesome thnks man thnks.i was really worried after listening of the sound comming from my pc while running that tests man.you are the best.i am using gtx 770 asus direct cu 2 i was stunned that it cant run assassins creed revelation but you told me why my pc is restarting thnks man love u.i dont know if u will be able to read this but just for u too know i salute u. thnks

 

[Skyline2004]

Hy guys. I am experiencing smth similar. I have been playing 2 games : Assassin's Cr 3 and SWTOR . I am running both games on high res and high detail, the FPS seems good and stable and i am always playing on native resolution like 1920x1080. Around 2 months ago i started hearing a few clicks in the PC case.. happens randomly. These clicks noises sound like HDD clicks I assume, and after that the pc crashes and restarts and before that i get a second of a BSOD. The pc restarts and then i can continue the game, and sometimes it works for hours and sometimes does that again. it all random. I have done tests of GPU and CPU and my PC does not crash at all with them. I have monitored the voltage and the temp which all seem within normal parameters. Except with Furmark when i tested my GPU it reached up to 90 C on my GTX 760 EVGA and still , the PC did not crash. I have an FX6100 CPU and a PSU (Kentek) 750W. I am thinking somehow the lack of my CPU power is using HDD cache ? or something like that ? or it's not even the CPU fault ? I am trying to find a solution to these crashes and I cannot. What I will do now : I will update the Bios on my ASUS MB . And also I will make a clean install of Nvidia drivers. I have searched for an update for my FX6100 but cannot find anything out there. I also have 12Gb of RAM running at 1333Mhz.. If anyone can give me some tips. please do..Thank you in advance

 

[ingtar33]

you're hearing clicks like a hard drive making noise? could be your hard drive dying. it will cause this same type of crash. typically hard drives get a little noisy before they die.

 

[Skyline2004]

you're hearing clicks like a hard drive making noise? could be your hard drive dying. it will cause this same type of crash. typically hard drives get a little noisy before they die.

@ingtar33: I do actually have a 3 yrs old HDD (Hitachi) but I have tested it by installing the games to different paths coz I have 4 HDD's total on my PC. No matter which one I choose . The PC still crashes doing the clicking noise.Sometimes I hear the noise and nothing happens, the game still running and then if I hear it again it will crash.
I did installed the drivers again and updated my BIOS and nothing has changed. Should I start looking for a new CPU or?.....It is such a heavy stress while gaming ( only when gaming this happens) If i watch movies or download at high speeds or even transfer large multiple files at high speeds ..I hear nothing and everything looks normal. I am bummed....

 

[Skyline2004]

you're hearing clicks like a hard drive making noise? could be your hard drive dying. it will cause this same type of crash. typically hard drives get a little noisy before they die.

I would like to provide an update do this situation. I just started my Pc normally and didn't even load the windows. It was stuck in that loading screen of the mobo and the click from the HDD started again..and it's my new HDD Seagate 1TB .. i shut down remove the conn. cable and power cable from it. Booted in Windows finally and i opened a game and after that I hear the click noise again on the Other HDD above the one i just disconnected... another Seagate 500 Gb. And before these 2 i was suspecting hearing my 3rd HDD where some of my games are being installed and being faulty. and I checked them. they are ok . No bad sectors no ..nothing. I am starting to be suspicious about my PSU (Kentek) which i heard on the forums its a ghost company .. nobody heard of them. And maybe the power fluctuates too much and its causing these problems. Also I set my cpu running on 3.6 Ghz and then sometimes I see it on 3.59 . It always changing. Never stable with the frequency
Just before these things happened now i was cleaning the fan of the PSU and make sure the power cable is connected properly. Could It be that the PSU its causing this issues ? I need some tips/help/advice here . If not i will go buy a new Corsair PSU 750-850 W .....

 

[ArchitSahu]

Morgyyy, I have had the same problems too! I opened up the computer and nothing looked wrong. But when i switch it on, i dont even get in 10 minutes and it blue screens. So i opened it up, suspected it was the nvidia and took it out. Voila works like a charm! You should try it.

 

[Skyline2004]

Morgyyy, I have had the same problems too! I opened up the computer and nothing looked wrong. But when i switch it on, i dont even get in 10 minutes and it blue screens. So i opened it up, suspected it was the nvidia and took it out. Voila works like a charm! You should try it.

I fixed the Issue .. it was my PSU fluctuating like hell and I didnt even noticed..I changed my CPU also yesterday to FX6350 it was last piece in stock and much much cheaper than the 8350. got a Corsair RM850 Psu but this one spooks the crap out of me coz the fan is not spinning not even when i play games. It like just standing there. But my PC is working normal. and no crashes anymore. It is written that it will not spin till it reaches 40% load. So even when I am playing full res on high detail...Its still quiet .. hmm ?

 

[ingtar33]

the RM850 is a high end corsair, made by seasonic, all those psus will only spin up the fan when the psu is too hot... otherwise it won't spin at all.

Glad you nailed it down, scary what a bad psu can do to a system. Never seen that specific problem before, but just be thankful that it didn't damage anything permanently.

 

[Skyline2004]

the RM850 is a high end corsair, made by seasonic, all those psus will only spin up the fan when the psu is too hot... otherwise it won't spin at all.

Glad you nailed it down, scary what a bad psu can do to a system. Never seen that specific problem before, but just be thankful that it didn't damage anything permanently.

You are right.I was lucky. I would advice anyone not to buy (Kentek) PSU's they are not stable at all. So now that you've confirmed about the RM850, I rest at ease. I have touched it after 1 hr of intensive gaming and it is not hot at all. Maybe just average warm like 30 - 35 C . I see the fan spinning when i completely shut down the electricity on it and I power on the PC in the booting time and after 2 -3 mins it will stop. So I guess everything normal here..
Thanks "Ingtar33" for the advice and tips. I was worried tough..
And a quick question : Is it normal for my GTX 760 to run at 70-72 C temp on heavy gaming ? Or should I open it and reapply the thermal paste again.

 

[ingtar33]

well... the gtx 760 has something called an "adaptive" turbo boost... it basically will automatically overclock your gpu to it's thermal limits when the gpu is doing something stressful like gaming. In short it's basically overclocking your gpu for you, and adjusting that overclock according to the temps on the card... so yes, it will run HOT while gaming, it's designed to do exactly that; in short the turbo is working as intended.

BTW: if you take the heatsink/fan off a gpu you invalidate it's warranty, i'd suggest you not do that unless you're confident you can do it in a way the company won't notice, OR your gpu is out of warranty.

 

[Skyline2004]

well... the gtx 760 has something called an "adaptive" turbo boost... it basically will automatically overclock your gpu to it's thermal limits when the gpu is doing something stressful like gaming. In short it's basically overclocking your gpu for you, and adjusting that overclock according to the temps on the card... so yes, it will run HOT while gaming, it's designed to do exactly that; in short the turbo is working as intended.

BTW: if you take the heatsink/fan off a gpu you invalidate it's warranty, i'd suggest you not do that unless you're confident you can do it in a way the company won't notice, OR your gpu is out of warranty.

Oh, I see, Thanx for the heads up! Well then... 6 more months to go til a full check up . Cheers ! All the best!