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Games Keep Randomly Crashing/Freezing

Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
Hey I'm trying to troubleshoot this problem. A little background

Recently my graphics card completely died. It would just display the screen on integrated graphics and with lines everywhere. A friend sent me a replacement card, a GTX 770. I had a little issue getting it set up, but for the first few days things were fine.

Now I will randomly freeze/crash whenever I play a game. The game itself will crash or freeze, and then it will be fine for a while before randomly doing it again. Sometimes it'll happen twice in 30 minutes, other times I can go for hours without anything happening.

I've tried reinstalling the drivers and moving the card to a different PCI slot, neither seemed to work. I'm kind of at a loss at what to do now.

Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.

Posts

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Do you have a spare power supply around?

    Also, how's your heat situation?

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    If you directly connect to the onboard GPU (assuming you have an Intel CPU), can you keep playing without issues (albeit at lower quality)?

    Based on your post, I'm making an assumption your card that died was a AMD card? I could be reading too much into the post though.

    Also yes on above. Can you try tightening down the screws on the CPU cooler?

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Do you have a spare power supply around?

    Also, how's your heat situation?

    The computer didn't seem to running pretty hot when I opened it up to switch ports a minute ago.
    Mugsley wrote: »
    If you directly connect to the onboard GPU (assuming you have an Intel CPU), can you keep playing without issues (albeit at lower quality)?

    Based on your post, I'm making an assumption your card that died was a AMD card? I could be reading too much into the post though.

    Also yes on above. Can you try tightening down the screws on the CPU cooler?

    The dead card is a GeForce 760. The replacement card is a GeForce 770. And tighten the screws on the CPU cooler? I am not I can do that.

    And when I was running integrated graphics I wasn't having these issues, but also I couldn't see half of the spell effects necessary to play the games I was playing.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • JaysonFourJaysonFour Classy Monster Kitteh Registered User regular
    Maybe something went fucky with your drivers and stuff. Have you doublechecked their integrity and the graphics files of the games you're playing?

    Also, maybe it's something with your drive?

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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    JaysonFour wrote: »
    Maybe something went fucky with your drivers and stuff. Have you doublechecked their integrity and the graphics files of the games you're playing?

    Also, maybe it's something with your drive?

    It's every game across multiple publishers, and I've tried reinstalling the driver three times now.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Use DDU to remove all the display drivers installed, listed, hidden, broken, or anything else hanging out on your computer, then install the drivers fresh.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • OricalmOricalm MDRegistered User regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Do you have a spare power supply around?

    Assuming the card takes a 6-pin connector, if you have a spare connection (or replacement cord) from the PSU I'd change that and see if it's any better. Also, I'd suggest you see if you can get something to monitor voltage.

    If you can't swap the power cord, and the DDU thing that Shadowfire recommended doesn't work, I would take a good long look at swapping out the power supply and see if that helps.

    Xbox Live: Oricalm
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Use DDU to remove all the display drivers installed, listed, hidden, broken, or anything else hanging out on your computer, then install the drivers fresh.

    Ok I did this and the good news is that shit stopped crashing all the time, it just locks up for about .5 seconds or so at a random times.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • BlindZenDriverBlindZenDriver Registered User regular
    How much power does you PSU deliver. If you machine was just born with the onboard graphics then maybe the 760 was just within what the PSU could support and the 770 is slightly above what is completely stable.
    What the exact minimum is depends on what else there is in your system and also some PSU's a more capable than others despite the specs listed being the same - a 500 watt PSU seems to be consensus on whats the minimum.

    Bones heal, glory is forever.
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Have you checked whether there's updated drivers on the manufacturer's website for your card?

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    discrider wrote: »
    Have you checked whether there's updated drivers on the manufacturer's website for your card?

    Ironically, using more up to date drivers causes games to completely crash as opposed to lock up for .5 seconds.
    How much power does you PSU deliver. If you machine was just born with the onboard graphics then maybe the 760 was just within what the PSU could support and the 770 is slightly above what is completely stable.
    What the exact minimum is depends on what else there is in your system and also some PSU's a more capable than others despite the specs listed being the same - a 500 watt PSU seems to be consensus on whats the minimum.

    I don't know the specs of my power source, it's been years since I built this thing.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I'm leaning more and more towards the PSU being the problem.

  • BlindZenDriverBlindZenDriver Registered User regular
    I don't know the specs of my power source, it's been years since I built this thing.

    Open the box, there will be a label on the PSU telling you what it is.

    Bones heal, glory is forever.
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Hey so update.

    I replaced the power supply. It fixed things! For a few weeks! Until yesterday, suddenly, when in the middle of a game everything started to chug and the game would freeze up for random intervals of time.

    I turned off the computer last night and tried things again, but it keeps happening. Again. Programs keep freezing. Sometimes the screen will go black for a period of time. I am extremely frustrated and have no idea what to do at this point.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • BlindZenDriverBlindZenDriver Registered User regular
    So since the new PSU fixed things for a while either something else have changed or how you use the computer has changed.

    It seems unlikely the new PSU is at fault, except if it is some old used one that has been sitting since then it might have been on its last leg.


    Did you like for example move the computer, try new games, update drivers...?

    If nothing comes to mind I can see two ways forward.
    A. Reinstall windows, drivers and games and see what it what.
    B. Start swapping parts ie. first step is to remove anything not essential to eliminate possible causes. Next if the problem persist then swap out parts one at a time, to see if it changes things and when it does you likely have found the root of the problem.

    Bones heal, glory is forever.
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    It's a brand new PSU.

    I dunno which parts to swap out because I don't have any spare parts and I don't know which ones are 'nonessential' to the point where I can just remove parts.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I think we went through this earlier in the thread but I suspect the next cause to be something wrong with your CPU cooler. Either the plastic film was left on or not enough paste or it's somehow loose/crooked.

  • MulletudeMulletude Registered User regular
    edited May 2020
    How much power does you PSU deliver. If you machine was just born with the onboard graphics then maybe the 760 was just within what the PSU could support and the 770 is slightly above what is completely stable.
    What the exact minimum is depends on what else there is in your system and also some PSU's a more capable than others despite the specs listed being the same - a 500 watt PSU seems to be consensus on whats the minimum.

    This is worth revisiting now that you have a new psu. What's the rating on the new one?

    Googling says the 770 draws 250w vs the 760 at 170w. Not a huge gap but could make a difference if you have something like a 450-500w psu

    Mulletude on
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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Mulletude wrote: »
    How much power does you PSU deliver. If you machine was just born with the onboard graphics then maybe the 760 was just within what the PSU could support and the 770 is slightly above what is completely stable.
    What the exact minimum is depends on what else there is in your system and also some PSU's a more capable than others despite the specs listed being the same - a 500 watt PSU seems to be consensus on whats the minimum.

    This is worth revisiting now that you have a new psu. What's the rating on the new one?

    Googling says the 770 draws 250w vs the 760 at 170w. Not a huge gap but could make a difference if you have something like a 450-500w psu

    The PSU is 750w

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Bendery It Like BeckhamBendery It Like Beckham Hopeless Registered User regular
    edited May 2020
    Have you used something like CPU Z to monitor temps while playing?

    I'd look for popped capacitors on your mobo at this rate, or just maybe take a sniff and see if you can smell the tell tale sweet maple syrup smell. Since it is behaving like a power issue, but the PSU was replaced, that would be my first bet.

    https://www.robotroom.com/Faulty-Capacitors-1.html

    Bendery It Like Beckham on
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