BSODs, Low Performance, FPS Drops.

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Ello all.

PC Specs:

CPU - Intel i7 3930k 3.2GHz Hex Core (Overclock is 4.4GHz)
Ram - 16GB Corsair Vengence Ram
OS HD - 120 Corsair SSD
Storage - 2 x 500GB Samsung Evo SSD
Storage - 2 x 3TB WD HHD
GPU - 2 x 4GB EVGA GTX 680 (SLI)
Coolage - Corsair H100 Water Cooled
PSU - Corsair AX1200 PSU (1200w)
SoundCard - Creative Soundblaster ZxR

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there seems to be 2 issues with the PC

1) The PC would randomly crash / restart regardless of gaming or desktop idling. This hasn't happened for a while though.


Little Background:

4 Years ago I Bought the PC from another reputable retailer which built the PC of the parts I selected and applied an OverClock. For about a year and a half the Overclock worked fine, however it began to generate some BSODS (Windows 7) I disabled the OC (BIOS Profiles) and all was well.

I would put the OC back on from time to time but the issue persisted and I would return to default.

These crashes would happen in games, Game Dev Software (Unreal Engine 4) or even on the desktop Idling.

I Upgraded to Windows 10 a few months ago and tried the OC but the problem persisted.

With no OC The problem even caused my PC to restart with no error message When playing Project cars and Guild Wars 2 in quick succession of reloading and beginning to play the game.

Original theories of this was due to GPU overheating, however after monitoring GPU Temps they was sitting at around 80°c and didn't seem to cause a restart.

This led me to believe that it was the PSU issue as there was no BSOD or error message.

As of Now:

I recently began to have some issues with the PC with the OC Disabled. In games such as Guild Wars 2 I get 9-12 FPS at times (where I was once getting 30+), Development Software seems to slow right down also.

So Yesterday and today I began to run tests, I applied the OC again to try and see if there are any issues and behold there was.

Something is leading me to believe it might be a memory leak, however I'm not to clued up on this to confirm.

ATTEMPTED FIXES

No clue what this is related to as there is no error messages

However I have just done the following so will keep an eye out.

MEMTEST (Sticks Are Fine)
ALL BIOS, CHIPSET, LAN AND OTHER DRIVERS NOW UPTO DATE

------------------------------------------------------------------------

2) The PC Would present me with Low Virtual Memory Messages when playing ARK:Survival Evolved or RUST.

However I went into ark and unchecked the following options;

High Quality Materials
Sub Surface Scattering
High Quality VFX

I had the game loaded and playing for a full day yesterday, I had a much better / consistent average 45 FPS and not a single low virtual memory issue.

Could one of these settings be causing my PC to suffer from low virtual memory?

Also I'm planning on upgrading to a 1080 TI If / When its released. By doing this would this prevent a Low Virtual memory issue as I feel my GPU's aren't quite up to poke to run ARK with decent settings.

However I wouldn't have thought the GPU would cause low virtual memory.

ATTEMPTED FIXES

AUTO VIRTUAL MEMORY ALLOCATION
INCREASING VIRTUAL MEMORY (16GB - 32GB - 64GB)
INSTALLING OS ON ANOTHER SSD
WINDOWS 7
WINDOWS 8.1
WINDOWS 10
MEMTEST (Sticks Are Fine)
ALL BIOS, CHIPSET, LAN AND OTHER DRIVERS UPTO DATE

Any help, Information, Idea's would be great.

Cheers.
 
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A few things you might want to try:

A proper memtest, to see if there is a problem with any of your RAM sticks
A clean install of win10 (if you went down the upgrade route)
Checking that the GPUs are on different voltage rails (IIRC the AX1200 is not a single rail design it's more like 2 600W PSUs in a box, so make sure the GPUs are on separate rails)

1) do you know of any proper memory tests ?

2) Had the same issue on Windows 7 & 10, always do clean installs and format my PC on average every 4 months.

3) How would the GPU's being on different rails effect the CPU or Memory (Depends what the issue is) as it looks as if the Memory is stacking information and not unloading it.
 
Last edited:
A few things you might want to try:

A proper memtest, to see if there is a problem with any of your RAM sticks
A clean install of win10 (if you went down the upgrade route)
Checking that the GPUs are on different voltage rails (IIRC the AX1200 is not a single rail design it's more like 2 600W PSUs in a box, so make sure the GPUs are on separate rails)

I performed a memory test with Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and there were no found.
 
I had that BSOD the other day, but my CPU is much older (i7 930). I increased the QPI voltage and it seems to be OK now.

But as you've removed your OC I'm not sure. Do you have a XMP profile set maybe?

It could just be a driver issue though. Also do a chkdsk just in case.

I have kept the O.C on whilst I'm trying to diagnose as it seems to cause the faults to arise easier.
 
Ah right. That BSOD was probably just instability then.

The memory leak I would think is a program or driver issue. You say it happens while idling on the desktop? Try safe mode.

It happens whilst idling, Playing games, Using Unreal Engine 4 and its all random (There's no specific time frame / action).

How could it be a program or driver ? as It happens on every installed version of Windows 7 and 10 I have used, to which there is around 25+ different installs.
 
Memory leaks are software related. If you're getting your drivers from Windows Update, especially in Windows 10, they can be the wrong ones.

The BSODs and crashes are most likely because your overclock has degraded over time, either due to the PSU or just generally; needs more voltage/less clocks.

I thought it might have something to do with the CPU.

By overclock degrading does that mean the CPU is unable to sustain the same overclock ?
 
Yes, I'd try putting some extra volts through the CPU to see if that helps, bump it up by say 0.15v

Bluescreenview will help to find out what happens when it blue screens.

Does this mean that the CPU has degraded and requires more volts to obtain the same OC ? I'm new to overclocking.
 
Extra voltage to cpu, also check for malware etc, has your main drive got space remaining?

It obviously cant be malware if my PC is formatted on average every 4 months and has had over 25+ Windows installs.

My OS SSD is never more than 50% full (Currently 35% Full).
 
Is there harm in checking? Have you upped the voltage on the cpu?

There's no harm in checking, thats why its done regular. However still wouldn't explain the problem if it persists on various installs and windows versions. ;)

I haven't altered the voltage yet as I'm unaware on how to do it. :rolleyes:

The PC has been on continuous since the last BSOD (Posted Above) and nothing has happened since.

Its weird how sporadic it is, can happen 5 times in a row then non for days.
 
In the BIOS you need to up the voltage, when you overclocked the CPU you would have played with the core voltage. Think stock is around 1.3v, add a bit more to it.

Think its QPI/VTT.

Yes, CPU degrade over time, overclocks won't remain stable.
How did you setup the overclock?

I didn't set up the OC Myself, The Third Party which built my PC applied it.

There are 3 profiles in the bios, 3XS_Standard, 3XS_Overclock, 3XS_OS_Backup.

Here's a photo of the OC voltage before

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And here's after,

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As you can See it was 1.400 and I have increased it to 1.450, is this ok ?
 
Probably go for 1.410 to start with and see how it goes, as that's quite a bit high.

Small increases, failing that, get rid of the overclock completely and see if it's the same.

Well its been on that since earlier and all is well so far? With the OC removed there is no issue besides lower FPS than in the past with the OC off, as if the cpu was degrading.

Also I did run a CPU-Z CPU Stress test with 1.450 and monitored the Memory usage which still becomes all used until the PC BSODs / Crash's.
 
Yes CPU-Z stresses the memory until its all used up and the PC Crash's

This is why I had a theory of faulty RAM Also.

The CPU-Z, CPU Stress test will run and the benchmark numbers will drop from around 10000 - 11000 all the way to sub 1000 until the the PC Crash's.

However whilst this is ongoing, when monitoring the memory it seems to have less and less available throughout the test until there is non left.

Gaming with the OC off is fine I just get low FPS (Lower than in the past with the OC off also).

With the OC on I can game perfectly fine until I get a random crash, which can be either be 1 hour after playing, or days after. As there doesn't seem to be any trend to the crashing occurrence. To which it could happen 3 times in a row

Example;

PC Crash,
Restart,
Load Game,
Play 10 Mins,
Crash,
x3

or it could crash and not crash again for days.
 
Not had an Issue for a while, suddenly Happened 3 times within 24 Hours (2 within an hour of the other) to the point PC almost locked up.

I'm really unsure as to what it could be.

I'm getting "You're Virtual Memory is low" messages, yet I have even increased the Virtual Memory... It seems as if its not clearing it and just hoards it until it has no more room.
 
I'm getting "You're Virtual Memory is low" messages, yet I have even increased the Virtual Memory... It seems as if its not clearing it and just hoards it until it has no more room.

Let windows manage the virtual mem

Has it always had the sb card installed if so what slot (what mb are you using?)

please re-post task manager screenshot

Windows did manage the virtual memory but I tried to increase it to fix this issue.

SB Card you mean the Soundcard?
If so, it has had it in and out for a few months at a time. Problem still persists.

I don't have them other screenshots to be honest. No clue where they all went.

EDIT: Images found and re-uploaded to original post.

I'm currently in the process of backing everything up, then formatting.

Will be moving the OS to another SSD to see if this has any beneficial results.
 
Last edited:
I have found the Images and re-uploaded them to the original post.

I did another CPU-Z CPU Stress Test and The same problem happened. This is on another SSD Which I have installed the OS, So the SSD Is not at fault.

I'm now going to remove all bar 1 RAM Stick and replace one by one to make sure these are not at fault.
 
So I just did another Stress Test with 1 4GB RAM Stick and same issue but less than 10 minutes, I tried this with different sticks to make sure it wasn't a faulty stick. The same issue with all sticks.

(I have updated my original post with the information below)

I performed the same CPU-Z CPU Stress test with individual 4GB Sticks to check it wasn't the Ram Stick at fault. Same Situation on every stick. However this time PC Doesn't make the 10 minute mark.

Pre-Test Screenshot

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2 Minute Mark

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4 Minute Mark

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6 Minute Mark

61InGmimSvi6cnusF3j3Vsaiuvefrmh4Aeo8IwrbZB7vBfCIeSk6bfTj8bIAuIyW1hZd8Wxk6Oo8ayrcuSFUmzfKCq6gEuYEWPQbYms15ov35fapUtVq0ukgkAojfC4fhQWP5Qcx1rKnLbZPx6F7W8E4XtKT0lGdlF_Nn-whqlmU1cN8XKl-qdcAwh5ynuhL2yixwQr3n3YYRiLGmqVb8wQ_sO6hLldMkkhkBjQ7x9l9sTtZP8QttiHzI7saViYXqfBYBqADu4drZCKwEte0lpwX_I-qYhNiCU49pZMNp7zDdN4tqsO1-u4tFpWypOvghrYcUgn1Iwt2i8eKk4rkIHjLx9pg6MzMw4caB2Q_Rw4hnzwA31snGm3r96gPVtnMK-FSDIKw3wfl14CkdPdFne8KeLbqi5ydseaDd0I2ndhAeQ3RVomCeC01U3h-Jy76p22Tz_R6ZKRQI8IQqU_BJhwgyYQMCpFYNMx50oSHkow-wfNfEnE0bgSjJY1ijfK8yr9OGDpEFpwajdRnvJJQa_s6e1e0pzZjgBAe-2zX5Wp-LX6eJpmscUPeg6lHwWP54bi9XntEygqiRBCxPhY2zCDmmWQkl85jH27SaYinZWj_kd8=w2200-h1238-no

7 Minute Mark

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8 Minute Mark

5DEYV0kkRRoPHbeozImzsoFqFx-Y9Zl6DLkXUkUKSi-DHj-889lm5QW3uR-GVW0gj92ZUytUF_3-omYIRcTMg9WZgkZPQM0rDWU4WlRs5wMpFsa3scTyC3hoeGU5AbOvm-B-cUmYwjdISOqbQ8je5Kis8vLcgH8dIUR9ZQWUsugY2VkvgNi19w1ddhFEpaA2S2QlERXyLA0z_JMHHszdW9wglGO9PAPk5II-48p9hAd2Ff4TSe8FyiKzGfbHQQ6z3Vtu_cGrqh4GKh2QKsC5TL6YIbtHs9fSae305RBvETommpHn9IHVYJlwAMsA2ATtr4JNVtrhUPqe6U5842pRb8ffZfZKbhZwVXH9tH3VQTCxuWWwrTBjBP8hh5qvvKwJWgaT2hK8jMreIzj_6G5fCD9qYrwRg1_zRayTahXEwtwd8Hq4rp66AsyPQ99h8QUoiIBnjIZgPP2eKSIqIVFN6v1Aj_sBvU8S6b3q4rciBQ20IpEj51SPNE6Qh8aFnWfTSofkJXuLkjiiTbTE-0wrFoy-esS4XRG07sI8kBw4JSFvjYQudwS8s0OW7WnVMtjKXemk_3e7Bi8iJeA9tB6XLa22JxW3orymO2J994gt4Z_VTCs=w2329-h1310-no
 
im not the most knowledgeable but if the pc is storing too much in the RAM and not clearing it maybe you should try a program like koshyjohns memory cleaner? it is suppose to clean the ram at 5min intervals if you click it to.

worth a try imo seeing as you format often anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion, However it doesn't solve my issue just provides a work around.
 
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