How to tell if a game crash is a result of an unstable OC

Goose · 21 Oct 2010 at 15:47

I was just playing Fallout 3 and it randomly crashed with "this program has stopped working" box. Im just wondering if that's a sign my OC is not stable or if it would have crashed in a different manner (blue screen or whatever).

Thanks

tibbsey · 21 Oct 2010 at 15:50

If I recall correctly, F3 had a number of problems with random crashes. As you say, an OC crash is normally different; freezing with repetative sound glitch, or BSOD.

If your system has been stable for a while and you have no issues with other games or stress testing programs, then I'd say it's just F3 being silly.

opethdisciple · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:05

If you have an overclock on your cpu, test with prime 95 for 5-8 hours, if its prime stable, then you can be a bit more confident with OC on CPU.

Goose · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:10

I only OC'd a few days ago for the first time ever and its been fine so far. I've done 4 hours of Prime Small FFT and about 2 hours of blend with no issues. It's extremely inconvenient for me to do the whole 8 hour jobby as i'm never out the house that long or off the computer that long when i'm home.

opethdisciple · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:13

In my experience when my cpu wasnt stable (was early days, didnt know what I was doing) the computer would either blue screen or just spontaneously restart....

So if the pc isnt restarting or blue screening it maybe just the game rather than the pc.....

Try a different game for a few hours...

4T5 · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:15

Is anybody else thinking Just try the game without the clock. :confused:

dcsarge · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:15

I recently completed Fallout 3 and to begin with I didn't have any problems but as soon as I strayed into areas covered by the DLC I got those sorts of crashes.

It was usually one or 2 during a 3-4 hour gaming session and it could happen within a few minutes or not until much longer. The only other game that I have a similar problem with is the Witcher, everything else I have played recently has been fine (Mass Effect and Mafia 2 to name a couple).

ShakeNBake · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:58

FortyFive said:
Is anybody else thinking Just try the game without the clock.

+1

wilko49 · 22 Oct 2010 at 00:07

Fallout 3 is a notoriously unstable game - I spent a week or so checking everything possible with my machine (24hour p95, reinstall, driver reinstall, windows reinstall, 24hour Memtest) before deciding the game is just buggy. Which is a shame, the gameplay is first-rate.