Problem with computer freezing during gameplay

[bograt]

hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone could help?

I have just Built my pc and everything is running smoothly apart from the fact that all of my games seem to crash often resulting in a blue screen!

when running games like crysis on very high the frame rate will be perfect and the cards will be cool to touch and then all of a sudden the display goes funny and the sound loops until i either get a blue screen or simply my computer restarts.

this will happen even on lower settings but it will just take longer to happen.

even with reletively low demanding games.

the thing that confuses me is how the framerate will be fine yet the problem still persists!

I recently upgraded to windows 7 64bit and have had trouble installing the disk that came with my motherboard,

I also had the problem with my gpus but installed the latest drivers from nvidia.

the other thing that may be relivent is my cards fans are running non stop suggesting that the hybrid sli function of the mobo is not working

PLEASE HELP!!?!!

thanks

 

[Ghosthud1]

can you lease list your spec of your system in full, and all overclocks on the parts.

 

[bograt]

ye sorry,

nothing is overclocked exept the gpus which are oc'ed as stock

cpu; amd phenom 9950 black edition

mobo; asus crosshair ii formula

gpu; 2x xfx 8800gt 670m alpha dog (sli)

ram; 2x 2gb kingston hyper x 1066

psu; antec 650w

hdd; wd caviar blue 320gb

it was set up by a pc build shop and when i got it had windows xp 32bit installed,

soon after i installed windows 7 64 bit

again the thing that confuses me is everything seems to be working perfectly until it suddently and INEVITABLY freezes,

just then i was playing unreal 3 for like 30 mins with everything on full and it was running all smoothly with perfect framerate untill it all froze and i had to restart this time no blue screen..

oh and the cpu fan is stock but the cou isn't overclocked and the blades generally feel pretty cool

 

[Ghosthud1]

knowing this is a problem with 3D applications i would first try disabling SLI and seeing if that offers any results.

obviously you press disable >.<

 

[bograt]

cheers for the reply, i have tried that already and unfortunately no luck.

i was wondering there are two dvi sockets from each card, my screen is plugged into one one of them, is this correct? asin not meant to be plugged into the board?

 

[Ghosthud1]

as im a huge ATI fanboy and has only ever bought 1 nvidia product.

the last thing i could suggest is to disable hybrid sli and power in your bios

theres just no need for it

and as for the DVI it should be fine where it is

 

[bograt]

i respect what you say about 'no need for sli'

but when sli is enabled there is a dramatic increase in frame rate... enough to turn crysis maxed out from unplayable to quick and smooth.

thanks for the advice anyway

there was one more thing though about the cutting out... at its worst i diddn't even get to play the game. it froze on the level select screen!

 

[Ghosthud1]

im on about hyrbid SLI lol there is a need for normal SLI

Hybrid SLI is the internal graphics card known as the IGP working together with one of your dedicated cards. so there is no point in having hybrid enabled.

 

[bograt]

oh sorry man misunderstanding,

thanks i will try that

 

[bograt]

ye seems nothing works...

has no one had this? or heard of it before?

seems otherwise i have just wasted a **** load of money!

 

[Ham]

Sounds like a memory issue I had a while back. Grab memtest86+ and let it run overnight. About 6-10 passes.

 

[bograt]

ahh this is a point i should have mentioned, i did run a mem test twice and both times the computer froze about half way through (almost exactly the same way as when in game) but as a result of that i diddn't get any error messages.

you think its faulty ram? if so how can i test the 2 different ram sticks? because surely their not both ****ed

 

[Ham]

memtest doesn't generally freeze. Are you using specifically memtest86+, as in the version you boot into instead of windows?

 

[bograt]

well no it wasnt that exact one, it worked within windows like an app.

i have had a look at that specific memtest but dont know how to run it, its a .bin file

which im not familiar with, should i just burn it to a disk and boot it?

 

[FarFarAway]

There's a MemTest86+ bootable ISO, burn that and run it, see how you get on.

Sounds very much like memort issues as Ham said

 

[Ham]

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Grab the bootable ISO in a .zip (2nd option)

Burn this to a CD (Win7 can burn ISO files, you must use a proper ISO burning technique. simple c&ping the file to the cd and clicking burn wont work)

Boot from the cd (enter bios and change the priorities or use a boot menu if your mobo has one)

let it run for a decent length of time.

 

[bograt]

ye got it running now but my cpu fan is flying! my god its loud... the same as when its starting up... dont know if i can sleep through this!

anyway cheers for the help guys....

just wondering though how will it tell me if something is wrong? and how do i diagnose the problem?

 

[biscuitboy]

Will go red and tell you where the errors are in the memory... Try each stick individually to test each stick... If you dont find anything, perhaps try nocking the 1066 memory down to 800 in the bios and clock up your fsb, lowering the multi, I found with the phenom II chips that the bios often doesnt like being set in 1066 for some reason..

Does sound more like a driver related issue tbh though... I would make sure your sound drivers are up to date and also your chipset drivers and Graphics drivers.. Said you had problems installing from disk yeah?? You will need newer windows 7 drivers for your HW..

 

[bograt]

ye i have found nothing wrong with the ram from the tests,

i hope it is a driver problem though and not some faulty expensive hw.

i have emailed asus about an alternative download of drivers for the mobo and am awaiting reply but when you say newer windows drivers.... where would i get them? microsoft website?

and wouldn't the drivers i got from nividia be fine for the cards?

my soundcard doesnt seem to be installed atall... i have a card called supreme fx that came with the mobo but there are no mentions of this when windows is running.

thanks for the advice

 

[biscuitboy]

Not really, always recommended to get the latest Graphics drivers.. Go to the Nvidia page and download the latest Graphics card drivers.

I mean you will need drivers designed to work in windows 7. Here are a few:

http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/12594-new-soundmax-driver.html

There are links to some new drivers for the soundcard...

Other drivers for the motherboard can be found here:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=EIDxaW1Ln3YR9RA2

Latest Chipset drivers etc:

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/nforce_vista_win7_64bit_15.49_uk.html

Try those and come back!

P.s

Would prob recommend running drivercleaner or similar first and putting on fresh drivers!