Computer Crashing/Restarting During Gaming

AnonymousRaine

Posts: 8   +0
Good afternoon!

I come to you all in desperation. After dealing with this for two months, I'll do anything for an answer!

It all started...with The Witcher: Extended Edition, about two months ago. There came a time in the game I would speak to an NPC and not just the game - but my entire computer - would crash, and restart. It SUCKED (I really wanted to finish the game :( ) but I figured I had a corrupted save or the game just hadn't successfully turned to the newer hardware/OS generations, uninstalled, and continued. This was, of course, after spending a pretty penny to replace my PSU and RAM and invest in a new cooler. I could run FurMark just fine, no issues, but to be safe. Just because.

But then. A week ago. Then, it happened playing Orcs Must Die 2. Oh, nuts.

I tried switching my dual-monitor setup back to a single...and it seemed to work! For about a day. Next thing you know, I fire up OMD2, *bzzzap* crash. Computer restart.

This does NOT happen with all video games, so far ONLY those two. I've clocked (too many) hours into Skyrim and Shadow of Mordor and thus disproved that.

I don't believe temperatures are the issue. My CPU sits usually around 60-62C when the crashes happen, and of course the argument is to be made of 5 minutes running The Witcher EE meaning crash vs. 6 hours of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim with nothing. And again, I can run FurMark to its heart's content and nothin' happens.

Yes, my graphics drivers are up to date as of July 30th, 2016.

I need input. I'll try anything! If it gets rid of this ominous cloud every time I fire up a game, or something lags out, that'd be great!

My specs are as follows:

Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme
Power Supply: EVGA 600W 80+ Bronze
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

ANY questions or log requests, please let me know and I'll respond as soon as I possibly can. Today when it happened I pulled up the event log and screenshot all the events from turning on my computer, through the crash (about a five minute window). Please let me know if any of these should be expanded and I can screencap whichever is necessary, I don't want to flood this place with images JUST yet. The 'Critical' event is, as expected, the crash itself.

upload_2016-8-1_16-25-42.png

In advance: thank you ALL for your help and support!

- Raine
 
Error volmgr 46: may need to check box under startup & recovery >system failure to "write an event to the system log" OR you may be seeing early stage of HDD failure - check SMART

error WMI 10: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2545227

error Application 1000: might be your problem, so open up the description and see if you can figure it out

Beyond the above, I get a bit concerned about the HDD. The outstanding fact is that you run FurMark without an issue - but when you have a busy system and introduce something which initiates a quick retrieve from HDD - whammo - so check SMART and download appropriate HDD test utility from its maker and run that. (Stupid me - defrag?)

If you haven't done so already, turn off 'automatic restart on error' in BIOS - this way you might see the error and the error code. I would also dig back in Event Viewer and take most errors seriously. It is real nice when you only have one or two @day and you have researched and know that they are Microsoft's problem - not yours.

ps I have a similar system - how does Shadow of Mordor run?
 
Error volmgr 46: may need to check box under startup & recovery >system failure to "write an event to the system log" OR you may be seeing early stage of HDD failure - check SMART

error WMI 10: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2545227

error Application 1000: might be your problem, so open up the description and see if you can figure it out

Beyond the above, I get a bit concerned about the HDD. The outstanding fact is that you run FurMark without an issue - but when you have a busy system and introduce something which initiates a quick retrieve from HDD - whammo - so check SMART and download appropriate HDD test utility from its maker and run that. (Stupid me - defrag?)

If you haven't done so already, turn off 'automatic restart on error' in BIOS - this way you might see the error and the error code. I would also dig back in Event Viewer and take most errors seriously. It is real nice when you only have one or two @day and you have researched and know that they are Microsoft's problem - not yours.

ps I have a similar system - how does Shadow of Mordor run?

So you know I haven't disappeared into the nether: THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUICK RESPONSE. So much. I am currently in the process of going down and checking off your suggestions, but SMART says both drives are "OK" so here's hoping that's not the issue. I've been wanting to get a new bigger one though, so worst case I'll try that as a last ditch effort. In the meantime, I'll run a defrag overnight. Couldn't say how long it's been, so the answer is probably "too long".

Application 1000 Error is as follows:
Faulting application name: NvStreamUserAgent.exe, version: 7.1.2084.9592, time stamp: 0x57605c64
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.19018, time stamp: 0x560a0083
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000004f6c6
Faulting process id: 0xc34
Faulting application start time: 0x01d1ec36ea22eb59
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NvStreamSrv\NvStreamUserAgent.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: 28aa74d3-582a-11e6-bd9b-001966fbc702

So something with the NVIDIA GPU driver miscellaneous everythings. I'll see what Google can show me for others having issues with that but that's good advice, thank you! This is all pretty much black magic to me, I've got some basic knowledge sets but when it comes to these errors as far as I'm concerned it's moonspeak.

As for Shadow of Mordor, it runs alright! Mostly medium graphics with a few high/ultras tossed in here and there gets me 58-60 solid FPS. But I'm not too picky on graphics either. Great, great game though.
 
You should back up the hard drive asap to save you a lot of stress if it fails after you do that you could try chkdsk and sfc these might help if it is a hd issue
 
And I bet things would be better with a clean out of the old nVidia drivers and installation of new (after the defrag)
 
And I bet things would be better with a clean out of the old nVidia drivers and installation of new (after the defrag)

Whelp, I'm back with bad news.

Just rolled into The Witcher 1 and everything was going great. Until , I'm chattin' with Gramps in the Swamps, aaaaand crash. ONLY THIS TIME it didn't fully reset: what I got was a teal screen, no text, no nothing on it. No response. I manually powered off and restarted.

Restarting, my event log within the time of the crash reads as follows:

upload_2016-8-7_9-39-37.png

---

And from bottom to top:
upload_2016-8-7_9-40-20.png

upload_2016-8-7_9-40-40.png

upload_2016-8-7_9-40-58.png

upload_2016-8-7_9-41-13.png

Are there any further suggestions any of you kind folks may have?
 
The only other errors were two occurring on this day when I first turned the PC on, when Steam failed to connect and timed out, and one involving Microsoft Security Client OOBE that I forgot to mention before that post!

upload_2016-8-7_11-48-40.png


upload_2016-8-7_11-48-57.png


upload_2016-8-7_11-49-16.png

upload_2016-8-7_11-49-42.png

@Cycloid Torus I really want to thank you for all of your attempts at helping me here. For the record, all of your suggestions in the prior posts HAVE been followed up to this point.

As usual, if more cut-pasted information is requested on any of these, let me know.
 
Sorry, but we need a better defined failure. The kernel power event is a consequent symptom. The Client OOBE is nothing (annoying error hanging on in Windows for years and years). The delayed Steam is interesting and may have something to do with Gramps crash 30 minutes later, but I am unclear how - some corruption in the Steam shell supporting the game and the 'services' which Steam provides - possibly? This all may lead to wondering about the HDD.

What tests have you run on the HDD and what results?
- SMART?
- CHKDSK?
- manufacturers' utility?
 
I figured I had a corrupted save or the game just hadn't successfully turned to the newer hardware/OS generations, uninstalled, and continued.

It's very difficult for a normal program to crash the computer as it could in the Windows 98 and even Windows XP days. The majority of the time it's a driver or hardware issue.

I could run FurMark just fine, no issues, but to be safe. Just because.

Furmark is a victim of it's own success these days and nVidia and AMD both limit it's performance. If you're not seeing higher GPU temperatures and bigger power draws than gaming produces then it's being limited and it proves nothing. Try a different stress test.
 
Sorry, but we need a better defined failure. The kernel power event is a consequent symptom. The Client OOBE is nothing (annoying error hanging on in Windows for years and years). The delayed Steam is interesting and may have something to do with Gramps crash 30 minutes later, but I am unclear how - some corruption in the Steam shell supporting the game and the 'services' which Steam provides - possibly? This all may lead to wondering about the HDD.

What tests have you run on the HDD and what results?
- SMART?
- CHKDSK?
- manufacturers' utility?

SMART said both were OK, but tonight (just because it's been a good 6 years anyhow) I'm replacing my HDD to see if that makes any difference. I've got my OS running off an SSD that was purchased all of two-three years ago, so I've got few concerns about that.

I just ran CHKDSK and it seems to also indicate everything is fine. I've SS'd the results below just because:

upload_2016-8-7_15-37-45.png


@EndlessWaves That's what I thought, hence why my first step was replace all the possibly weak components! I'm at a total loss now though, my limited knowledge has been exhausted. As for Furmark, it succeeded in providing a challenge and I ran it in unison with Prime95 (information I forgot to include way above) with, still, no issues. Just some fans spinning hard to keep up.

The newest and oddest piece of information was as said above: the most recent time it crashed, it didn't restart this time: the screen turned a very bright teal and simply locked up.
 
Sorry, but we need a better defined failure. The kernel power event is a consequent symptom. The Client OOBE is nothing (annoying error hanging on in Windows for years and years). The delayed Steam is interesting and may have something to do with Gramps crash 30 minutes later, but I am unclear how - some corruption in the Steam shell supporting the game and the 'services' which Steam provides - possibly? This all may lead to wondering about the HDD.

What tests have you run on the HDD and what results?
- SMART?
- CHKDSK?
- manufacturers' utility?

Good afternoon! Once again I am back. New HDD, still the same problem. :( Crashing in the swamps while talking to Gramps.

This time the event log shows nothing having to do with Steam (think that was just a one-time thing) and shows nothing new than what it has in the past. Opinions, anyone? This is driving me up the wall!
 
I did not see the SSD specs. Have you downloaded and run manufacturer's utility - especially, TRIM ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing ). It is like the 'pack' command in dBase - good housekeeping.

Since you now have a 'recurring error' ( the Gramps crash) maybe we can figure this out. When you replaced the HDD, did you just copy old to new or did you reinstall? Can you verify integrity of game with the Steam checker? If you have previously turned off 'automatic restart on error', then start game and try Gramps again.
 
I did not see the SSD specs. Have you downloaded and run manufacturer's utility - especially, TRIM ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing ). It is like the 'pack' command in dBase - good housekeeping.

Since you now have a 'recurring error' ( the Gramps crash) maybe we can figure this out. When you replaced the HDD, did you just copy old to new or did you reinstall? Can you verify integrity of game with the Steam checker? If you have previously turned off 'automatic restart on error', then start game and try Gramps again.


Okay, I've got some great news.

Turns out my video card was dying. Simple as that. Three months of banging my head into a wall, too much money into upgrades, and that was it! I was playing Skyrim, one of the games that for-sure was flawless, and moments after firing it up....crash. My roomie passed along his graphics card and let me borrow it for testing. I tried playing the game...nothing. It was perfectly smooth. Played a little more into it. Played OMD2. Played all the games that had prior crashed and not a single issue.

So I went out and bought myself a brand shiny new card (ow, but it was time anyway, and now Shadow of Mordor runs on ultra!) and after a 2 hour session of The Witcher EE, I can once again safely abandon myself to the plot and not be fearful of computer crashes. I guess having been abused in the significant other's system for a few years, then lightly used in mine for another few, the old 570 gave up the ghost and was on it's way out.

I just wanted to thank you, @Cycloid Torus , for ALL of your help while I was trying to diagnose and get to the bottom of this. I really appreciated your input when I was in a state of utter WTF and if I could would send you dozens of cookies. Instead, I wish you the best and hope that you someday spontaneously choose to eat a cookie with my username in mind, as a well-deserved reward for helping some random user on the internet with their problems.

Thank you. <3
 
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