PC freezing while gaming

Kazriel Eversio

Kazriel Eversio

Posts: 7   +0
My PC hard freezes after an uncertain amount of time gaming. It can be five minutes (Monster Hunter World, on Steam) or it could be a half hour (World of Warcraft, blizzard launcher) or it could be perfectly fine (Darkest Dungeon, Steam.) I've tried to ask for help at three other forums, but to no avail. Every part in my PC is new, except for my video card. I've done memtest86, I've ran DDU and downloaded new graphics card drivers through GeForce, I've updated BIOS, updated my Windows. I've tried lowering the quality, I've tried pulling out the card and running only through on-board graphics. I've ran 3dMark, I've run tests on temps, on voltage, on load. I've reinstalled Windows, twice now. Formatted my C drive each install. I've tried auto-installing drivers, I've tried manually installing drivers, I've tried driverupdate tools which could be cancerous for your computer, I've tried pretty much everything I can think of and everything other people come up with as well, but there hasn't been a single fix for my system. I've reseated cables, I've improved cable management, ran the system with the side panel off. I have no idea what's going on.

Specs:
CPU: Intel i7-8700K stock
GPU: STRIX GTX 970 stock, aftermarket cryorig H7 cooler.
MOBO: MSI z370 Gaming Plus
RAM: G.Skill FORTIS (2x8gb)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1200 Platinum (I know it's overkill, I was running a 1k before I sent it back to EVGA for replacement, but they were out of 1k so they gave me the 1200 instead.)
 
I've checked like four separate forums now for some help. I checked CNet, Tomshardware, the nVidia forums, and now this one. I can't seem to find anything that would be causing it.
 
Like I said in the post, I've already ran checks on temps, using both speccy and HWInfo. They're fine. A tad bit high when running games, but you don't exactly expect your system to be running at 20 degrees when pushing your graphics. Even when I lowered the graphics to minimal it still freezes my system.
 
Check "reliability history" (type in search box) to see if there is any software issue. Any red? Pursue detail.

Since you are saying that it freezes when using either on-board graphics or video card, I would say it was a hardware problem and I would focus on RAM and motherboard. Please look up QVL for you motherboard and confirm that your RAM is listed for your current BIOS. Consider switching slots for RAM and running memtest86 overnight (many passes).

Do you notice any other 'patterns' leading to a freeze?

Check MSI support for issue..https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?action=search
 
Dual or single monitor? If dual, try single monitor.

Have you looked to see if your video card has a new bios? This is where MSI comes in.

Have you checked the event viewer?

What temps are you getting on your CPU and GPU while gaming?

You also said you sent an 1000 watt PSU back for replacement. What was the original PSU doing?
 
Reliability History and Event Viewer give me nothing of importance, only saying "The system was improperly shut down." There are no other errors relating to the freezing. The RAM is brand new, I made sure to check that they were compatible. Switching DIMM slots seems to have no effect. There are no patterns, I'd be playing a game for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, and then it freezes. No warning, no patterns, no artifacting or screen tearing, nothing. Just freeze, and requires a hard off. Using one monitor or two doesn't change anything. I still get constant freezes. I checked the drivers for the video card, and I updated to recent drivers. No change. I rolled back drivers to ones released three months ago, no change. I rolled back to the driver that was released when Shadow of War came out. No change. Temps are normal according to both Speccy and HWInfo64. I sent the PSU back because my computer had a failure that ended up shorting my entire system. Mobo and CPU all fried. When I pressed the power button, fans would spin for a fraction of a second, but nothing would boot. I figured it was a PSU issue, so I sent it back for the one I have now. Computer still wouldn't boot, so I figured it was a mobo/cpu issue, hence the replacement parts I have now.
 
Have you ran a check disk on your hard drives? Do you have an SSD? I did not see a spec listed on this so it could be overlooked.

What have your temps been while gaming on your CPU and GPU? I know you said they are 'fine', but do you have any numbers?
 
Is it just Shadow of War which freezes or are there others?

If others, I'm afraid your earlier 'electronic meltdown" (shorting my entire system) means that chips may be slightly fried - and fail from time to time without warning. HDD? SSD? keyboard? cd drive? mouse? All are suspect.

I'm sorry for your misery..I had one like this and it took me 6 months of switching things in and out to fix (I decided that mine was a bad VR chip on the video card and it seems to have 'gone away' when I picked up a cheap used replacement). My wife likes the machine - I got another one (better).
 
I've ran defrags, chkdsk, as well as reformatting almost all of them. I have one SSD and two HDDs, SSD is used for my windows boot, but I found out there's sometimes a problem with SSDs and since changed to an HDD to see if that fixes the problem, but it didn't. As for temps, I have a googledoc that has file dumps of my HWInfo64 logs, as well as other log freezes. If you want I'll link you to it, maybe that'll help diagnose things. It's every game, I was just using Shadow of War as the driver I rolled back to, when it was released. It freezes on every game. WoW, Monster Hunter World, even Darkest Dungeon. I suspect that it's a GPU issue, since that's the only piece of hardware in my PC I haven't replaced. That would key in with what you said, Cycloid, about the VR chip on the video card. I'm just hoping that there's something else I could do, so that I don't have to drop 600 dollars on a GPU.
 
Kazriel Eversio said:
Reliability History and Event Viewer give me nothing of importance, only saying "The system was improperly shut down."
Click to expand...

Lets try things my way then, bring me back a screenshot of event viewer, click on windows logs, then click on system log.
When you run any computer games, does it freeze hard with the sound buzzing or hissing ?
I think torus has your problem nailed down to your old video card.
However we won't know for sure if you will need rma support from evga or stable drivers from nvidia.
Read what hibachirat has to say as that mostly describes your problems.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/3lz2hh/windows_10_gtx970_games_occasionally_freezehard/
 
http://prntscr.com/kr5g6a Highlighted is the Critical error, and the "error" message is event viewer saying "The previous system shutdown at [time] on [date] was unexpected." Zero amounts of sound at all, it's like someone took a stillframe of what was on my screen, and left it there. No sound output coming from my headset, or out of my computer, such as with an electronic hissing or short or something. No sound at all. Unfortunately I don't have a spare GPU I can toss in.
 
Sadly, Kernel-Power error #41 is a "the horse has left the barn" report - I have found no useful meaning in it.
 
Kazriel Eversio said:
http://prntscr.com/kr5g6a Highlighted is the Critical error, and the "error" message is event viewer saying "The previous system shutdown at [time] on [date] was unexpected." Zero amounts of sound at all, it's like someone took a stillframe of what was on my screen, and left it there. No sound output coming from my headset, or out of my computer, such as with an electronic hissing or short or something. No sound at all. Unfortunately I don't have a spare GPU I can toss in.
Click to expand...

When you reinstalled windows did you use the generic drivers for your sound card provided by MS ?
Just to be sure check the hardware-sound panel, look at playback, tell me what is your default sound device.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
This is the official drivers you will always want when you reinstall windows or updating your onboard sound drivers.
 
My default device is my Logitech G933 headset, I downloaded the Logitech drivers. I always do, otherwise my headset wouldn't work properly. It's not like sound NEVER comes out of my headset, just when my computer freezes while playing games there's no repeating noises, no humming, no crackling, it's just like someone took a still frame of my screen.
 
I have the gaming plus z270 and I'm experiencing some of the same issues plus frequent hardware malfunctions causing minor inconveniences, but problems nonetheless. Have tried near everything you have as well, will be replacing mobo soon because I'm fairly certain that's the cause. I've upgraded from an evga 1050ti to a strix 1080 and I'm still experiencing the issues so I know it isn't GPU related, but Im willing to bet the NB/SB (can't remember which) Chipset on mobo is poorly constructed causing errors in data flow which could result in the freezing, something that wouldn't be picked up in any hardware monitor or even the event viewer. Hopefully you find resolution. Definitely will not be purchasing another MSI, looking at ASUS this time around as this MSI mobo has caused me nothing but issues since day one.
 
IAmWillyNilly said:
I have the gaming plus z270 and I'm experiencing some of the same issues plus frequent hardware malfunctions causing minor inconveniences, but problems nonetheless. Have tried near everything you have as well, will be replacing mobo soon because I'm fairly certain that's the cause. I've upgraded from an evga 1050ti to a strix 1080 and I'm still experiencing the issues so I know it isn't GPU related, but Im willing to bet the NB/SB (can't remember which) Chipset on mobo is poorly constructed causing errors in data flow which could result in the freezing, something that wouldn't be picked up in any hardware monitor or even the event viewer. Hopefully you find resolution. Definitely will not be purchasing another MSI, looking at ASUS this time around as this MSI mobo has caused me nothing but issues since day one.
Click to expand...
If you have reached the point of replacing motherboard, you might just want to re-partition your media and do a clean install.
 
Kazriel Eversio said:
My default device is my Logitech G933 headset, I downloaded the Logitech drivers. I always do, otherwise my headset wouldn't work properly. It's not like sound NEVER comes out of my headset, just when my computer freezes while playing games there's no repeating noises, no humming, no crackling, it's just like someone took a still frame of my screen.
Click to expand...
Did you resolve your issue anyhow? I am having exactly same problems on Asus hardware.
IAmWillyNilly said:
I have the gaming plus z270 and I'm experiencing some of the same issues plus frequent hardware malfunctions causing minor inconveniences, but problems nonetheless. Have tried near everything you have as well, will be replacing mobo soon because I'm fairly certain that's the cause. I've upgraded from an evga 1050ti to a strix 1080 and I'm still experiencing the issues so I know it isn't GPU related, but Im willing to bet the NB/SB (can't remember which) Chipset on mobo is poorly constructed causing errors in data flow which could result in the freezing, something that wouldn't be picked up in any hardware monitor or even the event viewer. Hopefully you find resolution. Definitely will not be purchasing another MSI, looking at ASUS this time around as this MSI mobo has caused me nothing but issues since day one.
Click to expand...
Any luck fixing the issues?
 
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