New PC Build all games crash during play

[citizensoldier]

Hi everyone. I recently built a gaming computer, the specs are

Windows 7 64-bit

Z68X-UD3-B3 GIGABYTE Motherboard

Intel i5-2500K CPU @ 3.3GHz

8 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) RAM

2x MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 in SLI

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM

Creative X-Fi Titanium 7.1 Sound Card

I think those are all the important components

Basically I built it about a month ago and it ran fine for a few days but then all my games started crashing to Windows after a random amount of time. I used a driver cleaner and uninstalled all my video drivers then reninstalled with lasted and still they crash. I can run all the games I play, Crysis 2, Portal 2, Metro 2033, ARMA 2, all on highest settings and while I play I have great framerate the performance does not seem to be lagging at all but after a while it will crash to windows and say "(gamename).exe has encountered a problem" what could be the problem? Hardware? Im at a loss. Any help would be great thank you.

 

[kashifme21]

I would recommend you install 2 softwares:

Speedfan : this utility can be used to monitor your CPU temps
MSI after burner: this can be used to monitor your GPU temps (it also displays your GPU Temp, FPS etc while you play).

First after you install Speedfan. Install Prime95 (this is a CPU torture test) it will heat your CPU up watch your temps rise on speed fan, see if your CPU can stabily handle this for 15mins atleast and what temps you get to, post those results. When you start Prime95 it will ask you a couple of options (basically it will ask you which test to run) take the test which stresses the CPU, then watch the temps rise on speedfan.

If the system passes this test, it means your CPU is fine.

Next its the GPUs turn, load up MSI afterburner. Go into the settings option, then click the monitoring tab, make sure you have selected monitoring of GPU temps.

Now load up any game and play. Make sure to note the temps of the GPU when the game does crash. If the temps are not too high then its probably not to the GPU.

Anyways these are the basic problems to diagnose first before we can procede further. Let us know your results.

Edit: I noticed you have a Creative 7.1 sound card, can you check the placement of this card, is it placed very close to your GPU? since GTX 560 probably takes up 2 slots, it is possible that a sound card placed next to it may be chocking airflow, just my guess. Playing around with MSI afterburner will tell the full story.

 

[Micropat]

I'm not sure if a computer just plain crashes or goes back to windows like what's happening to you when the power supply isn't strong/stable enough. It might be worth posting what power supply unit you are using.

 

[ngoy]

Also, run memtestx86 to check your memory, and also try running with a single card to see if that alleviates the problem. But as Micropat says, would be helpful to know psu size.

 

[AntiZig]

go into your BIOS and make sure your RAM is set to the correct voltage/timing/etc as on the sticker on the ram chips.

 

[citizensoldier]

My PSU is an Antec High Current Gamer 750W Ill reply with results from your suggestions thank you

 

[citizensoldier]

I tried disabling SLI but it didnt help the game still crashed, in fact I was playing portal 2 and it froze up instead of crashing and I had to Ctrl Alt Delete, also I forgot to mention that if I pause I game and leave it there for a while it will eventually freeze up, happened a lot with Crysis 2. I will try the other suggestions and get back to you thank you. ALSO! I had been getting a lot of BSOD as well with error messages such as driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and Nvlddmkm.sys as well as a few others. Its actually been a few days since my last BSOD but I would get them quite often while playing mainly Crysis 2. I also play Assassins Creed 2 and never have any crashes or BSOD with that game.

 

[kashifme21]

If you are getting BSOD then there is a high chance your CPU heat sink is not seated properly which is why the CPU is heating up.

Try running Prime 95 as a i mentioned earlier. Cant really help without knowing if your CPU and GPU are within limits.

 

[AntiZig]

if he's getting a BSOD it could anything that was already listed above and then some, have to look at the error codes first

 

[kashifme21]

@citizensoldier

another thing worth trying is checking if one of the PCI e slots are bad. try to run a GPU on each PCI slot maybe one of them is faulty. In which case u could RMA the MB.

 

[citizensoldier]

Ok I just did a CPU temp and GPU temp test while playing portal 2. The max temp for GPU1 was 63C and GPU2 was 52C which seems fairly moderate nothing bad I would think. The max temp for my CPU however was between 90-100C!!!! What the heck is wrong with my processor? Idle my GPUs are about 30-36C and the processor is at 40-48C. While playing Crysis 2 My GPU 1 hit a max at 80C and my GPU 2 hit 64C while the CPU was about the same, in between 90-100

 

[kashifme21]

Dude its your CPU then, it should never be that hot, check your heatsink it may not be seated properly. Your CPU temp should never be above 65C during game play. During Prime 95 with stock heatsink its ok to touch 80c. If you have a modded heat sink then on prime 95 u should never go above 70C.

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

DEfinaly your CPU cooler its not mounted corecly

 

[ngoy]

Ouch, yeah, that is waaay too hot. In addition to the bad mounting for the HS as mentioned by others, you could have problems venting the hot air from your gpus since you are using two of them.

 

[AntiZig]

basically, go check your thermal paste, and heat sink.

Also, there's a pretty big variance between GPU1 and 2, is there enough room to maintain enough airflow?

 

[kashifme21]

basically, go check your thermal paste, and heat sink.

Also, there's a pretty big variance between GPU1 and 2, is there enough room to maintain enough airflow?

I already suspected in one of my posts that he has the soundblaster card very close to one of the GPUs, which could be restricting Airflow and can cause the GPU to be posting high temps.

Though one of the GPUs having high temps is normal. I personally have GTX 580 SLI, the top gpu is always about 7-8C warmer then the lower GPU. He needs to tell us the layout of his system, how the GPUs are placed and where the soundcard is placed a visual would help.

However as indicated those CPU temps are alarming, his GPU temps are within normal ranges. Also he needs to tell us at what speed were his fans when those GPU temps were posted. If the fans are set to normal then temps will be high, he can easily set them to 50% and have a much cooler running System.

Also please check if your CPU Fan is actually working. Normally Your MB should send out a warning if the Fan has failed.

 

[citizensoldier]

Bought some thermal paste gonna reinstall HS & fan get back to you. My layout is

Spoiler

I have the 2 Graphics cards in the blue PCIE slots obviously and the sound card is in the PCI slot on the far right side, right of the right Graphics card. The two cards next to each other have a little more than my hands thickness between them. Honestly I think I just made a big rookie mistake being my first build and not knowing any better. When I installed the CPU fan it looked to have strips of thermal paste on it already, so I thought. So I didnt add any. As embarrassing as it is I think I DID need to add it and didnt therefore the heat isn't transferring to my heat sink. I will reinstall fan&HS and retest.

 

[AntiZig]

I already suspected in one of my posts that he has the soundblaster card very close to one of the GPUs, which could be restricting Airflow and can cause the GPU to be posting high temps.

Though one of the GPUs having high temps is normal. I personally have GTX 580 SLI, the top gpu is always about 7-8C warmer then the lower GPU. He needs to tell us the layout of his system, how the GPUs are placed and where the soundcard is placed a visual would help.

However as indicated those CPU temps are alarming, his GPU temps are within normal ranges. Also he needs to tell us at what speed were his fans when those GPU temps were posted. If the fans are set to normal then temps will be high, he can easily set them to 50% and have a much cooler running System.

Also please check if your CPU Fan is actually working. Normally Your MB should send out a warning if the Fan has failed.

ah you bring up an excellent point, if one card is above the other, naturally heat will rise in the case, so the top one will be hotter.


OP: I think you will be fine once you redo the thermal paste

 

[kashifme21]

@citizensoldier

the stock heat sink doesnt really need more thermal paste it already comes with enough paste on it, i think you didnt seat the heat sink properly in the firstplace happens to the best of us. Remember too much thermal paste is also bad.

I would strongly recommend you youtube some vids on how to apply thermal paste.

Also let us know if your GPU fan speed is set to Auto, you could configure MSIafterburner to set the fanspeed at 50% which is very decent since it provides good cooling and isnt too loud either. At Auto settings the fans are mostly configured for low noise hence they dont cool very well. Personally i have my GPU fan speeds Hotkeyed, when i start playing i up the fan speeds at a press of a button, while idling my system is whisper quiet.

I have 3 profiles:

1st one: super quiet for idle mode

2nd one: 50% fan speed (this is for standard game play where the game doesnt require much juice)

3rd one: 85% fan speed gpus OCd to 925MHz overvolted to 1.1volts. (this is for when i am playing a very demanding game at 5760*1080).

Remember GPU clocks can be hotkeyed to overclock even while you are playing, so its like having a NOS ready to go off at anytime ;-)

 

[citizensoldier]

Okay I reseated the heat sink and tried to play portal 2 again and it still crashed at the exact same spot it keeps crashing at, which makes me think its something else other than the CPU, but when I looked at the temps when it crashed the CPU showed 55C max when the game was running. This is without adding thermal paste. I'm thinking since it still crashed at only 55 it's something other than the cpu heating up because isn't that a reasonable max? I'll Try Crysis 2 out and see if I get similar results for the heat.

 

[kashifme21]

Okay I reseated the heat sink and tried to play portal 2 again and it still crashed at the exact same spot it keeps crashing at, which makes me think its something else other than the CPU, but when I looked at the temps when it crashed the CPU showed 55C max when the game was running. This is without adding thermal paste. I'm thinking since it still crashed at only 55 it's something other than the cpu heating up because isn't that a reasonable max? I'll Try Crysis 2 out and see if I get similar results for the heat.

If it is crashing at the exact same spot all the time chances are the game is missing some files. try this:

righ click portal 2 (when in the games menu in steam).

select properties

select local files tab

click verify integrigty of game cache..

This will cause steam to check if there are any files missing on the game.

Let us know what happens with crysis 2.

 

[citizensoldier]

Just played Crysis 2 for about 30 mins and my CPU temp maxed at 67. Seems like its still kinda high idk. Maybe its just a shitty fan? Came with processor. Can anyone suggest a good fan/heatsink because I was going to buy one soon anyway.

 

[kashifme21]

The stock heat sink isnt good thats for sure. If you want lower temps u will need to change the heat sink.

With a upgraded heat sink you expect temps to max out at about 55c if you decide to keep the cpu at stock speeds.

Should you decide to overclock to about 4.5ghz then you will be back to about 60-65C during games.

Did crysis 2 crash this time?

If u need a new heat sink i would recommend you checkout www.hardocp.com they have many heatsink reviews, i am sure you can find a good one there.

 

[citizensoldier]

No Crysis didn't crash. I think this was the problem and it was solved. Appreciate everyones help. I'll look into a better quality heat sink

 

[AntiZig]

You think what was the problem? The heatsink? or Portal 2 install being corrupted?