Crashing/freezing in every game and in browser

[mof]

A couple of months ago I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and shortly after that I replaced all my hardware except for 2 SSDs and 1 HDD.

I remember experiencing a crash while playing the Witness after upgrading to Windows 10 but before getting any new hardware and I don't recall having many crashes before using Windows 10.

I realised recently that a lot of the games I've played (e.g The Witness, Dying Light , The Division, Just Cause 3) in the last couple of months have caused crashes fairly consistently. Usually they become unresponsive to the gamepad/M+KB and the picture freezes but the sound might carry on playing. I can still kill the process in the task manager or in some cases I have to restart because the task manager is stuck behind the game screen.

I've had the same thing happen in Microsoft Edge but not in Firefox as far as I know.

I wondered if my storage drives were causing it and I've tested them and replaced my HDD ( I go into details in this thread https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18726606) but that hasn't stopped the crashing.

I'm using 364.72 drivers. Using SLI on most games. CPU and GPUs are not overclocked (apart from factory overclock). Using X.M.P for RAM.

Also I use a Xbox 360 controller with a wireless adapter for most games.
I don't if it's relevant but I output audio over HDMI to a receiver which is a display device in windows and I run duplicate screens. Game @ 2160p.

Whocrashed says "No valid crash dumps have been found on your computer"
There's a lot of info. in event manager but I don't what to look for and I don't know if these freezes would be recorded because they're not hard crashes like BSOD.


It's difficult to enjoy games now because I waiting for the crash.
How do I find the cause of these crashes?


I remembered something else that could be causing the crashing - when I was trying to do a fresh install of Windows 10 I was booting from a flash drive to use a program to correctly format my SSD so that Windows would let me install to it and during that process I messed with the bios (or at least thought I did) and ended up recovering the bios from the Asus driver DVD a few times because it didn't seemed to be working. Could this have caused some problems? Should I flash to a new bios version? I understand that you're not supposed to change it unless you're haivng a problem.

 

[Cromulent]

If you have new hardware (particularly a new motherboard) you'll need to reformat and install Windows 10 from scratch. If you didn't do that it would explain why it is crashing so much. Remember that installing a new motherboard is a major upgrade and requires a fresh install of Windows.

 

[mof]

If you have new hardware (particularly a new motherboard) you'll need to reformat and install Windows 10 from scratch. If you didn't do that it would explain why it is crashing so much. Remember that installing a new motherboard is a major upgrade and requires a fresh install of Windows.

Yeh thanks I did a fresh install with the new hardware. I suppose I could try doing again though.

 

[Cromulent]

Yeh thanks I did a fresh install with the new hardware. I suppose I could try doing again though.

Ah, OK. I had problems with games crashing a lot and ended up upgrading my GPU and that fixed everything. I haven't had a crash since so have you ruled out any hardware issues?

 

[mof]

Ah, OK. I had problems with games crashing a lot and ended up upgrading my GPU and that fixed everything. I haven't had a crash since so have you ruled out any hardware issues?

I'm not sure if I can rule out the hardware or not. I could try a memtest.
I'm sure how I could test the cpu/ gpu except for running a benchmark/ stress test for a while. Temps under load (in games) are ok - cpu 45c, gpu1 55c (liquid) , gpu 2 70c (air).

 

[crapler8]

what new hardware did you install??? dont use the same operating system.... it will have issues

 

[Cromulent]

I'm not sure if I can rule out the hardware or not. I could try a memtest.
I'm sure how I could test the cpu/ gpu except for running a benchmark/ stress test for a while. Temps under load (in games) are ok - cpu 45c, gpu1 55c (liquid) , gpu 2 70c (air).

Try it on just one GPU. I had a crossfire set up and upgraded to a single card set up so either one of my GPUs was not working correctly or both of them. Either way it was a hardware issue causing all of my crashes.

 

[mof]

what new hardware did you install??? dont use the same operating system.... it will have issues

The new hardware is in my signature except for the g1 gaming 980 ti which I already had. I've done a fresh install of Windows 10 since getting the new hardware.

Try it on just one GPU

I'll give that a go. Can I test the 2 cards on their own without having to remove them from the motherboard? Could I just disable sli to test the top card and some how disable the top card to test the bottom one? (I know I'm being lazy).

I'm not ruling out hardware being the cause of the problem but I do remember having this problem after installing Windows 10 but before getting any new hardware.
(I did a fresh install of Windows 10 again after getting the new hardware.)

 

[koolpc]

A proper full format and install may be the answer. No special programs to do any other tasks just do it all through Windows.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

I'm not sure if I can rule out the hardware or not. I could try a memtest.

Memtest is a good shout. If you're familiar with creating boot CDs / boot sticks, I would give Seatools a go too to rule out the hard drives. Seatools is made by Seagate, but it is the most universal hard drive diagnostic in that it will test non-Seagate drives as well.

 

[mof]

Memtest is a good shout. If you're familiar with creating boot CDs / boot sticks, I would give Seatools a go too to rule out the hard drives. Seatools is made by Seagate, but it is the most universal hard drive diagnostic in that it will test non-Seagate drives as well.

I'm going to try memtest when I get a new memory stick.

I've used seatools windows version already - I mentioned it in another thread https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18726606


I've just played the Witness for a while with sli disabled and I didn't get any crashes. I'm going to try the division later because that has been crashing quite consistently.
After that I'll do same with the other gpu on it's own.

EDIT - Just played a fairly long session of the divison without any crashes with sli disabled.
Anyone know an easy way of testing my second graphics card which is installed in another pci-e slot without having to take the other card out and swap them?
Maybe in the bios settings or nvidia control panel?

 

[mof]

I've tested both graphics cards on their own and I didn't see any crashing but I still get crashing when I use SLI.

I'm wondering if there could be something wrong with the motherboard, the SLI bridge or perhaps the PSU is getting too hot or it's not coping with power draw of both cards.
The highest power usage I've seen with 2 graphics cards is about 550W so the 850W PSU should be fine.
The PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case with fan facing down (in accordance with the instructions) with little clearance between the PSU and the ground. Perhaps it gets too warm when both GPUs are being used?

I haven't seen any crashing during benchmarks despite there being high usage on both cards. It seems to only happen during certain games.



Could this be moved to a hardware forum please, perhaps graphics cards? Thanks

 

[mof]

Since I'm getting intermittent crashes which I can't reliably reproduce it's very difficult to diagnose the problem.
I tried reduce the clock speeds on the gpus and that seemed to work for a few days but then it happened again. I also tried increasing the voltage on the gpus too but that didn't work for very long.
I found out I had a faulty SATA port on my motherboard and I've swapped my HDD to a different port. This solved a separate problem which I thought might be related to the crashing where the boot drive couldn't be found and I had to reboot a few times to get it to work.
Unfortunately I've had the crashing twice since then in the division - once with a "send crash report" error.

I ran memtest yesterday for 9 hours with no errors found.

 

[NoobCannon]

Id try a new psu personally. Or a different cable.

How are you powering the cards? Seperate from psu or using some kind of splitter?

 

[mof]

Id try a new psu personally. Or a different cable.

How are you powering the cards? Seperate from psu or using some kind of splitter?

The cards are powered directly by the psu. Hybrid uses 6+2 pin + 6pin. g1 uses 2 x 6+2 pin.
I'm going to test the psu with a voltmeter.
I want to test under load I'm not sure the best way.
I don't have a spare one to test with but it's only a few months old with a 10 year warranty so I could rma it but I don't want to do that if there's nothing wrong with it.

Do you think it's worth taking the psu/ whole pc to a repair shop to get them to test it?

 

[NoobCannon]

No. You will get shafted the second you walk thru the door.

Wort case buy a pau and return it saying not needed. The purple place is good for this

You will get an answer from here that works eventually

 

[shankly1985]

If you have new hardware (particularly a new motherboard) you'll need to reformat and install Windows 10 from scratch. If you didn't do that it would explain why it is crashing so much. Remember that installing a new motherboard is a major upgrade and requires a fresh install of Windows.

Used to be*
I have updated from three different cpu changes on the past and didn't fresh install.
Windows 7 and above made this so easy to do.

 

[mof]

Is it possible that running out of VRAM is the cause? It seems to be close to the limit in the some games.

Also I've swapped the cables of the psu round and I'm going to wait and see if that's made a difference.

 

[mof]

I've swapped the psu with a different one and after a few days I've had 2 games crash to desktop - red alert and the division. I've arranged to RMA the other psu but I'm not sure it's worth the postage now.
The original psu was making a clicking/ticking noise when under load. Should I send it back just for that?

I'm wondering if I should send back the gpus one at a time to see if one of them is faulty. They never show any artifacting or cause crashing during benchmarks and I still can't reliably recreate the crashes.
Could be the motherboard pci-e slots or the cpu.
Perhaps it's not hardware at all.

Event viewer shows several critical errors - half of them are "driver frame work user mode error" and the others are "kernel power 41" including 2 that were logged since changing the psu.
A recent error in the administrative events which matches the time of the last crash during a game is: source:distributed COM event ID:10016 Task category: none. I'll try searching for that error.

 

[fobose]

Have you tried with just one GPU at a time to see if it happens?