Screen freezes while gaming then turns random solid color and restarts.

[pachunes1]

My girlfriend's gaming laptop from Origin is having a problem playing certain games. I've noticed it's a lot of games that use Unreal Engine. But some others still crash that are not. Basically to simply put it.
Goes to play Dead by Daylight, get to lobby and screen freezes, then turns a solid random color and the laptop restarts, no noises no blue screen of death. Some days works just fine some days can't play certain games at all but can run others. I can list her parts if need be. But any insight will be appreciated. As my next steps of action is to reset her windows. If that doesn't work I thought of taking off her overclock by going into BIOS and turning everything back to default settings.

 

[terry4536]

Freezes are usually the result of a software or driver issue. The first thing I would suggest is updating the graphics driver. Download and install the graphics driver from the graphics manufacturer (http://support.amd.com/en-us/download or http://www.geforce.com/drivers).

 

[pachunes1]

Freezes are usually the result of a software or driver issue. The first thing I would suggest is updating the graphics driver. Download and install the graphics driver from the graphics manufacturer (http://support.amd.com/en-us/download or http://www.geforce.com/drivers).

I have already updated her GPU drivers from the Nvidia website. Well their download Nvidia control panel is what I believe it's called.

 

[terry4536]

Then I would suggest reinstalling the operating system. Also updating the motherboard drivers is a possibility.

Since the problem occurs when playing games, the power supply may be inadequate to fully power the graphics card. A new power brick may help. There is the possibility that the graphics card is beginning to fail.

 

[pachunes1]

Then I would suggest reinstalling the operating system. Also updating the motherboard drivers is a possibility.

Since the problem occurs when playing games, the power supply may be inadequate to fully power the graphics card. A new power brick may help. There is the possibility that the graphics card is beginning to fail.

I am going to reset her OS, in about an hour I will let you know how things go, sorry for the late reply more then one thing going on at the moment. But I will reset her OS, if that doesn't work I will go into BIOS and take off overclock by setting the BIOS to default settings. If that doesn't work then I will change out her power supply brick. And if none of the above work including installing new drivers for motherboard, GPU, and CPU then I shall try to replace the GPU. Either way I will post my answer if it is found.

 

[pachunes1]

Then I would suggest reinstalling the operating system. Also updating the motherboard drivers is a possibility.

Since the problem occurs when playing games, the power supply may be inadequate to fully power the graphics card. A new power brick may help. There is the possibility that the graphics card is beginning to fail.

I've reset her windows and reinstalled her GPU drivers. The issue remains the same. I will reset the all overclock in BIOS to default and see if that fixes the issue I will also post my results again. If any other ideas please let me know.

 

[terry4536]

I thought of one more possibility the router. If the router is having connection issues, it can cause lags (but only on online games).

 

[nobspls]

The GPU on the machine has bad hardware. That kind of problem are indicators of failing hardware.

 

[pachunes1]

I thought of one more possibility the router. If the router is having connection issues, it can cause lags (but only on online games).

Quite a possibility, as some games aren't multiple player games but it is connected to steam would still crash. But we are going to invest into a Ethernet cord for her laptop to fix the lag issues she does have here and there. Also we have reset the overclock to default and changed the processor power from 8 to 14. And we have not had a problem yet still doing testing as to make sure because before it would work for hours randomly and no crashes then boom. I will post results again soon.

 

[pachunes1]

The GPU on the machine has bad hardware. That kind of problem are indicators of failing hardware.

That is one of the worst possibilities. We have no ruled that out but before we jump to that we are going to make sure by testing all other methods. So far we are about 30-45 minutes into gaming on games we know it crashes on. Ni No Kuni is one of the games it would crash with in 5 minutes and it hasn't had a single crash yet. I will post results again soon, also we changed out her power supply brick to her spare at the same time. I will change it back if we have no crashes to see if it was the brick to make sure my answer is precise. Thank you all for helping will post soon.

EDIT: The crashing has continued. I will again change and test some things tomorrow and post results. I will try to copy and paste the event log as well tomorrow for more insight for others.

 

[J_E_D_70]

I hope you find a fix but I have to agree that hard locking at a solid color screen is heavily leaning towards a bad gpu.

In general (tho not always):
Bad OC, bad ram, and drivers = bsod
Heat = Stuttering/slowdown
Bad gpu = Artifacting/solid color screen

 

[terry4536]

I hope you find a fix but I have to agree that hard locking at a solid color screen is heavily leaning towards a bad gpu.

In general (tho not always):
Bad OC, bad ram, and drivers = bsod
Heat = Stuttering/slowdown
Bad gpu = Artifacting/solid color screen

You left off the principal complaint of freezing. I agree that the colored screen is a issue. That's why I suggested updating the drivers. In my experience, when a bad graphics card produces colors it is usually in streaks of colors or lines.

I'm not saying that it can't be a bad graphics card. But the fact that it isn't consistent is a problem. When a graphics card fails like this, it is usually more of an permanent thing. Plus when a graphics card fails, it doesn't trigger a restart.

It seems to me to be more of a freezing situation. Freezing is very inconsistent. Freezing can cause restarts. Freezing can cause colored screens. And freezing can be associated with a particular software (or game).

 

[J_E_D_70]

Good point! Can’t remember if my hosed 8800 gtx would eventually restart or stick... been a while

 

[terry4536]

Here is a Microsoft page on freezing. It applies to Windows 10 too.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2681286/troubleshoot-windows-8-1-windows-8-or-windows-7-hangs-or-freezes

 

[nobspls]

I'm not saying that it can't be a bad graphics card. But the fact that it isn't consistent is a problem. When a graphics card fails like this, it is usually more of an permanent thing. Plus when a graphics card fails, it doesn't trigger a restart.

A failing video card/GPU will trigger lots of random restarts. I have GTX970 from 4 years ago. It has caused all sort of random reboots. The sound get stuck in an infinite loop and makes horrible sounds, and the screen can go blank, black, white, gray, or other gibberish when it does. Game will run for 5 to 60 minutes or more, but it will reboot whenever it wants, usually just to screw you over for your in game progress. I moved this GTX 970 to different PCs and the problems clearly follows that particular GTX970 exhibiting those same random reboots on any machine I test it against.

 

[terry4536]

it will reboot whenever it wants, usually just to screw you over for your in game progress

Really, the graphics card is out to ruin your score? The random restarts are a conspiracy to piss you off too?

Restarts occur on every single Windows PC.

 

[nobspls]

it will reboot whenever it wants, usually just to screw you over for your in game progress

Really, the graphics card is out to ruin your score? The random restarts are a conspiracy to piss you off too?

Restarts occur on every single Windows PC.

LOL. Not reallly. Restarts do NOT randomly happen on Windows PC. I have many Windows PC, but the problems only occur on that one paricular GTX970. I tested it with multiple PCs and saw only the random crashes, blackscreens, gray screens, and other gibberish with that particular GTX970.

If you can't read and can't be helpful you have no business writing crap on the forums.