Screen Freezing While Playing Games

[kruuu]

Hey Guys,

Just built my rig a few weeks ago and I'm having screen lockups while gaming. Basically what happens is I'm playing, the screen completely freezes, can't alt+tab, cant CTRL+ALT+DEL...nothing. There is also sometimes a buzzing sounds from the speakers when it happens but not every time. It's happened in a variety of games from WoW to BF3 to Minecraft...it definitely freezes in minecraft a lot or sometimes if I'm trying to record with FRAPS.

My graphics drivers are up to date for the graphics card so that should be an issue. I have a fan next to my case to help with airflow for now and I use MSI Kombuster to monitor GPU temps which never really exceed 65C so overheating is not the issue.

Computer specs:

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

GPU: EVGA 012-P3-1571-KR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

SSD: OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

PSU: OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

BR-ROM: LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - OEM

RAM: Crucial Technology BLS4KIT8G3D1609DS1S00 32gb Kit Ddr3 1600

I'm not sure what options I should start with in identifying the problem. I had a friend help with building the computer so I'm by no means an expert

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[fantastik250]

You may want to check each RAM stick that you have.

Also, did you overclock anything?

Also, some may say that your PSU is not reliable because it's an OCZ brand (may possibly be malfunctioning). So let's start with the RAM first.

 

[kruuu]

Being a newbie, I'm not completely sure how to check my RAM sticks so some tips on how to do that would be great!

I have not touched any clock speeds on the GPU or CPU.

 

[fantastik250]

Okay, shut off computer, then insert one stick and turn it on. See if you experience any problems. like playing a mini flash game online. If no problems, then remove stick and try a new stick. And repeat this until you find the problem. If there are no problems then all the sticks are okay.

 

[kruuu]

Alright I will give it a go. Would it make a difference if I told you that it doesn't happen every time I play a game and it happens after random periods of playing games? If it's a bad stick would it just not work at all?

I'll still do what you said, just curious

 

[fantastik250]

We'll never know. Anything can happen whether software or hardware. Most freezing issues happen with either a hard drive, psu, or ram sticks.

 

[kruuu]

Alright, so far with the first stick in, I was able to get minecraft to crash in about 30 seconds. Testing the other sticks now.

Edit*

With the second stick in, i couldn't get minecraft to crash for a couple of minutes, then i turned fraps on an within 5 seconds the computer locks up.

What's the best way to go about testing the PSU?

 

[smorizio]

make sure your mb bios is up to date..with the new x68 and z77 there a lot of new cpu code updates and updates for usb 3.0.
i would use cpu-z and check the ram speed and timing. use cpu-z and look at the spd info and see if the mb is reading the spd info. most time on random lock up the ram timing is off or the voltage on the dimms may be just a little low.

 

[kruuu]

make sure your mb bios is up to date..with the new x68 and z77 there a lot of new cpu code updates and updates for usb 3.0.
i would use cpu-z and check the ram speed and timing. use cpu-z and look at the spd info and see if the mb is reading the spd info. most time on random lock up the ram timing is off or the voltage on the dimms may be just a little low.

How would I go about making sure the mb bios is up to date?

I downloaded CUP-Z. What am I looking for under the SPD tab?

 

[fantastik250]

Okay a couple of things, make sure you know what revision motherboard you have. It's either 1.3 or 1.0.

This link is for revision 1.3
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3978#ov

Click on the downloads tab, you will see download type and click on the selection for BIOS.

You will see the latest version. Make sure you backup any important files from your computer before updating the BIOS.

Also, if you still have an issue after updating the BIOS, you may want to go into your BIOS settings, and look for your RAM settings, if it's either manual or auto. (Try switching it to manual if it's on auto).

 

[kruuu]

Okay a couple of things, make sure you know what revision motherboard you have. It's either 1.3 or 1.0.

This link is for revision 1.3
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3978#ov

Click on the downloads tab, you will see download type and click on the selection for BIOS.

You will see the latest version. Make sure you backup any important files from your computer before updating the BIOS.

Also, if you still have an issue after updating the BIOS, you may want to go into your BIOS settings, and look for your RAM settings, if it's either manual or auto. (Try switching it to manual if it's on auto).

It appears that I have the 8th verison of the BIOS, while the current version is 10. I will try updating and see what happens.

Nevermind, I found it.


Where do I check to see what revision I have?

 

[smorizio]

on cou-z under the mainboard tab it give you the make and rev of your mb and it says bios..who made it and the rev and date.

 

[kruuu]

How do I actually update the bios?

I downloaded the current verison .exe file. It extracts a couple files, I try to run FLASHSPI.exe and it states that it's not compatible with 64 bit windows.

Any recommendations on what to do?

 

[fantastik250]

Okay, go to this link and download the @BIOS utility

It will then check your motherboard and find the most recent version BIOS update for your motherboard. Make sure you read through what the page says before installing your BIOS
http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/121/tech_a_bios.htm

 

[kruuu]

Okay, go to this link and download the @BIOS utility

It will then check your motherboard and find the most recent version BIOS update for your motherboard. Make sure you read through what the page says before installing your BIOS
http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/121/tech_a_bios.htm

Well, I updated the BIOS successfully to the current version. I started minecraft with Fraps going and couldn't get it to freeze up regardless of what I did.

I will give it some time and update this post if the problem comes back.

In the mean time, thank you so much for the help and patience. Much appreciated!

 

[kruuu]

So everything was going fine yesterday, but now I'm getting the freezing again.

There was one instance where there was an error 7 with the GPU where it timed out and closed the game I was running.

Not sure if that sheds any light on anything.

 

[smorizio]

try using opened hardware monitor and look at your cpu and gpu temps. some card crashes are due to card over heating.
also use msi afterburner to see if the fan is spinning up as the card heats up. there a fan tab if you take it off auto and bring the speed up to 70 percent you should hear the fan spin up. the cpu-z tab spd shows the speed your ram can run at most mb default ram at 1066 or 1333. you have to go into dram speed selete xmp profile to get speed faster then 1333.

 

[JabbaTheNut]

Seams like a lot of effort to get a piece of software to work. The Fraps freezing issue is very prevalent and the solutions are varied. As well, the available solutions require tweaks to otherwise highly acceptable systems. Is there an alternative to Fraps?

I just bought this software for my son to record Minecraft multiplayer play. The freezing started immediately and we had to uninstall Fraps. I guess I kissed $40 goodbye for nothing.

I would like to purchase software for recording PC game play. Any suggestions?

 

[RussK1]

Seams like a lot of effort to get a piece of software to work. The Fraps freezing issue is very prevalent and the solutions are varied. As well, the available solutions require tweaks to otherwise highly acceptable systems. Is there an alternative to Fraps?

I just bought this software for my son to record Minecraft multiplayer play. The freezing started immediately and we had to uninstall Fraps. I guess I kissed $40 goodbye for nothing.

I would like to purchase software for recording PC game play. Any suggestions?

You should start your own thread... but there's MSI Predator and it's free.

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/video_capture.htm

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/predator.htm

@OP

I would start with video card as the issues happen upon gaming.

1) Download Driver Sweeper HERE.
2) Completely uninstall drivers and reboot.
3) Run Driver Sweeper and reboot.
4) Download latest nVidia drivers HERE and reboot.

 

[fantastik250]

If you still have warranty, try and go for a replacement card.

 

[yandriy]

Hi there. I had the same problem for over a week now. All brand new parts, GTX 680, etc. After an intensive research, hours of investigation and conversations with tech support from both NVIDIA and EVGA I was able to resolve the issue:

I turned off FRAPS and the problem was gone. I couldn't believe it, thing is, I installed FRAPS about a week ago and it worked fine for a couple of days that is why I didn't even think that it could be FRAPS that is causing this. Also, my FRAPS was on auto-on from a restart, so that is why it was always ON.

I uninstalled FRAPS and can now truly enjoy my new rig.

P.S. This was my first ever post online Hope it will help many!