PC Games freezing...
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Soldato
Very kindsadly I'm in London so little bit far away from you in the West Mids!
I am scratching my head as to what else it could be, can't help but think I'm missing something obvious
Whereabouts in the West Midlands are you?
Soldato
He's not, I am.
Got there just before me
By way of an update... I unplugged the GPU last night and switched to the painfully slow integrated graphics. Booted up Rome 2 and boy that was a shock, had to lower all the settings and resolution and it ended up looking like a Playstation 2 game
I left it running on the campaign map overnight and low and behold, no crash or freeze this morning. It was running for about ten hours. I think we've found our dodgy part!If it is indeed my 1070, I'm in a tricky position as good luck getting a replacement at the moment...
Soldato
Again though that could indicate PSU, or something else, don't assume!
Have you found anyone to help you yet? I'm annoyed that I am so far away, as I could have had it done for you by now.
Again though that could indicate PSU, or something else, don't assume!
Have you found anyone to help you yet? I'm annoyed that I am so far away, as I could have had it done for you by now.
Hmm how can I rule it in or out? A mate has kindly offered to lend me a spare GTX460 over the next couple of days. He's willing to help me disassemble and reassemble too - though he seems to think it worth trying another card first.
What do you think?
Soldato
Hmm how can I rule it in or out? A mate has kindly offered to lend me a spare GTX460 over the next couple of days. He's willing to help me disassemble and reassemble too - though he seems to think it worth trying another card first.
What do you think?
No harm in trying another card, but given the age of the system and by the sounds of it never had any proper maintenance carried out, then I'd seriously consider the rebuild, with a nice fresh OS on a new drive. You could do that bit first if you prefer, just grab a cheap 240gb SATA SSD, and unplug the cables from your current one, pop that one in, install the 20H2 Window 10 and put up to date drivers on it, and nothing else other than your game that keep crashing.
Brilliant, I will do, at this point I think I have relatively little to lose
anything I should be mindful of before picking up a new SSD, are they pretty universal compatibility wise or do I need to pick up a specific one? I've got Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) motherboard. In terms of the windows key, I assume that I can easily find a cheap one online? And then pop it onto a memory stick and install it from there? Drivers wise - what are the essentials, GPU, sound, anything? I've not done a clean install of windows before.
Soldato
Brilliant, I will do, at this point I think I have relatively little to lose
In terms of the windows key, I assume that I can easily find a cheap one online? And then pop it onto a memory stick and install it from there? Drivers wise - what are the essentials, GPU, sound, anything? I've not done a clean install of windows before.
Something like a Crucial BX500/MX500 will do should be about ~£25 for 240GB, but yes anything (brand) you've heard of should be fine these days, its only for testing with after all.
No need to get a Windows key as you put it, just get yourself a USB flash drive 8GB+, and on your machine download the Windows Media Creation Tool, and make an installation USB drive, it is very easy to do/follow. Drivers, just grab the latest Nvidia Gfx one, and again drop it on that new USB install drive, once Windows 10 has finished installing, and before you connect it to the internet (tell it you have no connection during setup and unplug the Ethernet if that is what you use), install the NVidia Gfx driver. Once you've done that and restarted the PC, you can connect to the internet and do the Windows updates, may need a few restarts as it will pick up all of the drivers you need. As I said make sure you've disconnected all of your other drives completely prior to starting the install, and during your testing. Windows doesn't need to be activated for it to work correctly at all, and you don't need a license key to install it.
Soldato
He's not, I am.
Got there just before me
By way of an update... I unplugged the GPU last night and switched to the painfully slow integrated graphics. Booted up Rome 2 and boy that was a shock, had to lower all the settings and resolution and it ended up looking like a Playstation 2 game
If it is indeed my 1070, I'm in a tricky position as good luck getting a replacement at the moment...
D'oh
Brilliant thank you. I’m getting hold of a spare GTX660 a mate has tomorrow so will give this a go too. Many thanks
I did, all I could spot was a series of random software errors and then critical errors where the Pc is freezing, kernel power errors I think they were called.
By way of an update, I popped my mates GTX 660 in yesterday and took my GTX 1070 out. All was well for a few hours, I managed 3 hours of gaming on that compared to the maximum of 30 mins ish I'd get on the 1070 before another freeze 
Could this perhaps suggest a PSU fault? I've got a new SSD coming today, so am planning to try that along with taking it all apart and rebuilding tomorrow. My mate also has a spare 750w PSU I can borrow, so I think I'll perhaps pop that in first, test and then proceed with the SSD / rebuild from there.
Thoughts and ideas gratefully received
Could this perhaps suggest a PSU fault? I've got a new SSD coming today, so am planning to try that along with taking it all apart and rebuilding tomorrow. My mate also has a spare 750w PSU I can borrow, so I think I'll perhaps pop that in first, test and then proceed with the SSD / rebuild from there.
Thoughts and ideas gratefully received
By way of an update to this, I found the faulty part - a seemingly broken PCE Wireless Adapter. I had noticed I'd lost WiFi connection a week or so prior, but thought nothing of it as I use ethernet.
Removed it 4 days ago now and not a single freeze since will keep a close eye now but hopefully this has sorted it!
Removed it 4 days ago now and not a single freeze since
will keep a close eye now but hopefully this has sorted it!