System locks up or game crashes or bad behavior

[0gun]

Hi Guys,

I'm having terrible issues mainly when playing games (Battlefield BadCompany 2, L4D2, etc.)... crash after crash and I can't get it fixed.
System description:


Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
DirectX DirectX 11.0

CPU Type DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, 3000 MHz (9 x 333)
Motherboard Name Asus P5E3 Deluxe (2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 3 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR3 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394) - Intel Beachwood X38
System Memory 4096 MB (DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM)
DIMM1: Aeneon AEH760UD00-10FA98X 1 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-18 @ 457 MHz)
DIMM2: Aeneon AEH760UD00-10FA98X 1 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-18 @ 457 MHz)
DIMM3: Aeneon AEH760UD00-10FA98X 1 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-18 @ 457 MHz)
DIMM4: Aeneon AEH760UD00-10FA98X 1 GB DDR3-1066 DDR3 SDRAM (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-18 @ 457 MHz)
BIOS Type AMI (06/18/09)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 (512 MB)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 (512 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2
Monitor LG W2252 (Digital) [22" LCD] (190216843009)
Driver used: 280.19-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-beta.exe

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350) Sound Card

Storage
Storage Controller Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO/PCH SATA RAID Controller
Disk Drive Volume0 (931 GB, RAID 0)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS) 214.6 GB (15.7 GB free)
D: (NTFS) 716.7 GB (0.8 GB free)
E: (NTFS) 99 MB (71 MB free)
F: (NTFS) 39999 MB (23652 MB free)
G: (NTFS) 1726.2 GB (1250.0 GB free)
Total Size 2696.7 GB (1289.7 GB free)

I was pretty sure the problem was overheating, as 9800gx2 does that. A few days ago it was over 100ºC... so today before playing games I've opened the card, removed from its case, cleaned it up (superficially - as I didn't have all tools needed), didn't mount the case back as I read online it helps and I confirm (the log proves it too), temperature wasn't an issue at the crash moment.

Today I've used Everest and recorded a log (attached here). It's a long log, but if you scroll to the end you'll find 2 lines highlighted in red. That was the exact time when the game crashed (BF BC2). I was in game when stuttering started, video modes changed, screen went black, screen went white... I had game sound but no video. I've alt-tab, started Task Manager and ended game process so sound stopped and my machine was 'operational' again.

Can someone help?

 

[GhislainG]

Your video card might be defective, but is the system stable when running Prime95 Torture test?

 

[0gun]

I've never heard of this Prime95 Torture test, so I'll look for it later on when I get home and test it...

About the video card being deffective... I'm not saying you're wrong but there are times no issues occur at all... I mean, hours of fun online gaming (BC2, L4D2, GTA IV, etc), while there are times after some time playing it crashes. (in the log you can see it was less then 50 minutes). I don't think I've ever come accross something like that...

I forgot to mention the PSU is a Thermaltake ATX Toughpower 1200W W0133RU and as it can be observed in the log file the info provided by the components shows stability.

Anyone? Help! Please! =)

 

[GhislainG]

Both the 32 bit and the 64 bit versions can be downloaded from http://majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html.

You can stress test the video card with FurMark: http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Your PSu far exceeds your requirements.

 

[0gun]

Problem fixed... I've changed drivers (Nvidia has just released new ones) and instead of letting the driver choose which GPU should be used for PhysX I've manually forced one and it stopped crashing as well as fps is a little higher now.
Not really sure what's the reason for that but now my system is operating regularly after hours of gaming. I've also used the Furmark which ran just fine but when temperature reached 95º I've decided it was enough.
So... for those with X2 boards presenting instability I'd suggest manually forcing one of the GPUs to do the PhysX part.