6870 keeps crashing games

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 12:30

Hi guys,

Lately I have been experiencing problems with a lot of my games, where they are crashing/pausing and then continuing. I have tried lots of software related fixes but still cannot seem to put my finger on the problem.

Some examples of what happens:

Just Cause 2 - About a minute into the game and it will freeze, I then go back to windows and kill the process as it's not responding.
Payday: The Heist - Freezes and kicks everybody, then continues and people are able to rejoin.
Arma 3 - Freezing but have now sorted this by running in administrator mode. This is strange but may be an isolated problem as this does not help for Just Cause 2.

I have tried removing everything ATI related and reinstalling latest drivers. Tried the old driver and still no luck. Tried a few other things that people have advised, such as turning off desktop composition in windows 7.

I have now logged all sensor stats for the last freeze in Just Cause 2. The only anomalies I can see is that the GPU usage is getting up to 97% just before it freezes. These are the stats recorded in an excel spreadsheet:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64062909/SensorLog.xlsx

The rows highlighted in yellow are around when the freezing occured. Hopefully this provides some helpful information.

I am losing the will to live as this is an absolute nightmare! Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 15:39

Anyone? I know it's a lot to read! Apologies.

Thanks

arc@css · 19 Jul 2013 at 16:00

What is your system spec (cpu / overclock, psu)?

How is the performance of the card at idle / watching youtube videos etc?

Have you looked at how many background processes are running in task manager?

How long have you had your psu?

What temps is the gpu showing (idle and load)?

arc@css · 19 Jul 2013 at 16:04

Do you get any graphical corruption at all?

cainer · 19 Jul 2013 at 16:16

id start with looking at load temps, my cards running ~10c hotter than it was before this heatwave were having

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 16:36

Thanks for the response.

What is your system spec (cpu / overclock, psu)?

I have not overclocked anything. But the specs are as follows:

CPU: Intel i5 2500K 3.3GHz
GPU: Radeon HD 6870
RAM: G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
MOBO: MSI P67A-GD65
PSU: XFX Pro 650W Core

How is the performance of the card at idle / watching youtube videos etc?

No performance issues when normal usage. At idle it is about 48 degrees and is between about 0% - 6% utilization.

Have you looked at how many background processes are running in task manager?

About 95 processes in background.

How long have you had your psu?

Since I built the computer so I want to say about two years.

What temps is the gpu showing (idle and load)?

Mentioned above and in excel spreadsheet.

Thanks for the help

marc2003 · 19 Jul 2013 at 16:37

i've been playing JC2 quite a lot the last few days and it certainly makes my GPU fan spin up like crazy. but stability wise it's been perfectly fine and i'm also running windows 7 and the latest ati drivers.

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 19:45

Thanks for the response.

It's definitely related to my PC, I just don't know what!

arc@css · 19 Jul 2013 at 19:55

Do you have on-board video? If so, you could try seeing if that freezes in (obviously) lower spec games.

wazza300 · 19 Jul 2013 at 20:02

using x.m.p memory profile for your ram?

try with 1.07-1.08 cpi imc voltage(not sure what its labelled as in msi)

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 21:08

Thanks for the response.

arc@css said:
Do you have on-board video? If so, you could try seeing if that freezes in (obviously) lower spec games.

How do you enable onboard video? The i5 2500k has intel HD I'm just not sure how to enable it!

wazza300 said:
using x.m.p memory profile for your ram?

try with 1.07-1.08 cpi imc voltage(not sure what its labelled as in msi)

Not sure how I go about doing this? What do you mean exactly?

Thanks guys

wazza300 · 19 Jul 2013 at 21:20

X.m.p will setup your memory correctly,speed/timings/dram voltage

Then see if its any better or try CPU imc voltage at 1.08v

It will all be in the BIOS,might be called vtt/io on msi

Kei · 19 Jul 2013 at 21:29

Have you tried dropping the core clock on the gpu? (below stock if you've not overclocked it)

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 22:33

Thanks again for the responses.

wazza300 said:
X.m.p will setup your memory correctly,speed/timings/dram voltage

Then see if its any better or try CPU imc voltage at 1.08v

It will all be in the BIOS,might be called vtt/io on msi

I selected enable in the BIOS for XMP. Not sure how I can confirm it though when I am logged on.

Kei said:
Have you tried dropping the core clock on the gpu? (below stock if you've not overclocked it)

How do I do this? Overdrive is enabled can I do it on that?

Thanks

Kei · 19 Jul 2013 at 22:48

Yes you can lower the core clock in catalyst control centre under graphics overdrive.

wildest_jjk · 19 Jul 2013 at 23:14

Should I also try turning off overdrive?

Kei · 20 Jul 2013 at 09:00

Worth a try, though if you've not actually overclocked the card, turning it off shouldn't make any difference. If underclocking it makes it stable, you can rma it or just live with it at the lower clock speed. I had an MSI 3870 oc edition that had to be underclocked by 15mhz else I had crashes aplenty, I couldn't be bothered to rma the card so I lived with it. (I actually edited the bios to permanently set the lower clock speed)

wildest_jjk · 20 Jul 2013 at 09:23

Hi guys,

So I have now tested RAM with memtest, CPU with Prime95 and GPU with furmark. These all came back as fine.

Administrator mode has not worked as Arma 3 has crashed again. I enabled the XMP setting for RAM in the bios but am still getting crashes in games. Underclocking the GPU to 850MHz from 920MHz also made no difference, although I'm not sure if that was enough?

I'm really not convinced it's hardware unless it's somehow the PSU.

The one thing I am getting close to doing is reinstalling windows. I'm not sure if this is a great idea or not?

Thanks for all the help

the1gooner · 20 Jul 2013 at 09:40

I have a 6870 and your idle and load temps are almost exactly the same as mine, actually your load temps are better than mine. My card is run at stock.

From what I have read it seems like a new install of windows is the only thing left to try unfortunately.

I did a new install myself last week only took about an hour, definitely does help sometimes when things aren't running right.

Good luck

Just noticed in your spreadsheet that the fan speed of the 6870 doesn't go above 34%, set fan speed to manual and see if a higher fan speed helps. If it does then it's a cooling problem.

Phixsator · 20 Jul 2013 at 09:56

Backup your stuff such at documents, save games and what not and then do a complete reinstall(edit: i mean format to btw) of Windows 7 (or Windows 8.1 preview from the MS site if you want to try something new. Runs like charm). Once your win 7 install is complete install all drivers except video Card and then updates. Would recommend downloading win 7 SP1 full package as downloading every update by itself is more than a pain. Once the OS is fully patched create a system restore point manually and then install video drivers and whatever software you need. The catalyst 13.6 beta 2 has been working fine for me in win 7 and 8.0.