PC crash, help!

Emjay86

Emjay86

Emjay86

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Hey guys!

I have an issue with my PC crashing that has started happening a couple of weeks ago. It first came along when I swapped out my 2 GTX 580 cards for a GTX 970 so I have figured it was this. Im unsure as to whether it is and before I do an RMA I want to make sure that it isn't something else I need to replace.

So basically what happens is as im gaming (always when gaming, never happens otherwise) my screen will go black, display a message about not receiving a signal as if the PC was turned off, the sound will loop from the point of crashing and nothing will respond other than turning it off/resetting it by the manual buttons on the case.

My specs are:

My specs are:
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 2600K @ 3.40GHz
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z68X-UD7-B3 (Socket 1155)
Graphics
BenQ XL2410T (1920x1080@120Hz)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (NVIDIA)
Storage
119GB M4-CT128M4SSD2 ATA Device (SSD)
931GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA)
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AZRX-00A8LB0 ATA Device (SATA)
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS70 ATA Device
Audio
ASUS Xonar D2X Audio Device

PSU is a 1250W OCZ ZX series.

All of these are around 3-4 years old, running at stock and should be well cooled.

Thanks in advance!
 
A quick update.

I just went to launch Company of Heroes 2 and as the game was about to launch the PC crashed. First time its happened without actively being in a game.
 
Ok so I don't get any blue screens or error messages and when windows boots up again it comes back with something about it not being able to connect with the server at that time and to try again later, basically windows doesn't know either.

I can't unfortunately put one of the other cards in as they are on waterblocks, I have no more fluid or tubing for the time being and ive just spent the last of my coffers buying the 970!

Also ive done 3 clean driver installs using DDU thinking it was a driver issue. It cant STILL be a driver issue surely?

I recently started to get a message about something being wrong with .net framework on my startup which is interesting, also when I do restart from the crash settings in games can be changed. For example after the last crash I loaded up company of heroes 2 again to find the resolution was changed as were the graphics options.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be any of those though!
 
Try testing the reaction of the machine with a stress test - ie Prime and Furmark on the GPU.

Also check temps.
 
RJC said:
Try testing the reaction of the machine with a stress test - ie Prime and Furmark on the GPU.

Also check temps.
Click to expand...

Ive got MSI Afterburner and its Kombuster program with it. Will that suffice?

Also when im running these what am I looking for exactly? Ive run a test on Kombuster before and the stats look normal. The temps never exceed 70, the framerates are capped at 120 so they never exceed that although having said that I have noticed that the power % does go to about 105 which is odd as its set to cap at 100%. Would this be a problem?
 
Yep run that.

Trying to look at if the issue could be software or hardware. Running independent stress test programs you can check temps and see how that particular hardware performs.
 
RJC said:
Yep run that.

Trying to look at if the issue could be software or hardware. Running independent stress test programs you can check temps and see how that particular hardware performs.
Click to expand...

How long do I need to run the program(s) for and when will I know if something isnt quite right? (Sorry im a noob)
 
Just done a benchmark test on FurMark and it came back with a score of 4195. Not sure how good that is but everything else looks in order.
 
Your card managed to run Furmark which stresses it quite high without crashing which is a good start.

Can you run Prime 95 and check your cpu temp.
 
Also, have you flashed the motherboard bios to the latest version? Seen a few posts from other users having issues with new cards on older motherboards.
 
After running the FFT's test on Prime for about 10 mins it came back with no errors, temps didnt go over 50 degrees (my cpu is watercooled by 1 triple rad and 1 single, 7 fans in total (it used to have graphics cards on the same loop)).
 
Bios can be downloaded onto a usb flash drive and updated from within the boards bios. Tbh im not that familiair with how it's done on a gigabyte board as ive only used asus boards.
 
setter said:
Bios can be downloaded onto a usb flash drive and updated from within the boards bios. Tbh im not that familiair with how it's done on a gigabyte board as ive only used asus boards.
Click to expand...

I think its updated now although its not exactly clear what I should be installing, so it may not be also :p
 
Remove all of your RAM and try turning it on. You should get warning beeps indicating missing RAM.

What were the essentials that you hooked it up with?
The essentials to me would be - 1 stick of RAM, CPU, GPU (if you don't have onboard video), PSU. Remove all expansion cards and extra peripherals.
 
Ok so ive had another 2 crashes last night and thats after the BIOS update. Is there any way I can test my RAM without taking it out physically?

Could this all be down to a simple incompatability issue?
 
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