Random crashes.

[Recon-UK]

Hi guys, i am new here, as you may obviously be aware of already.

Came across this site by the very talented Tiny Tom Logan on youtube, such a great reviewer.

Anyway, i am needing some help, my PC specifications are:

i5 2500k 4500mhz under a Corsair H100
EVGA Z68 SLi motherboard
8GB Gskill Ripjaws X 1600mhz
2x EVGA GTX 480's under custom air cooling 920mhz OC! (currently only using 1 card)
Crucail M4 64GB SSD as cahce drive
2x Samsung Spinpoint F3's in RAID-0
Silverstone strider 1000 watt 80 plus gold rated PSU
Silverstone Raven RV02-B.

Ok, i have only had this happen twice, but it is indefinitely when i play games, it first happened on Battlefield 3 last night, and has just done it again whilst playing Call of Duty: Black ops.
I will be playing happy as pie, then wham.... it all just locks up with no warnings and no weird sounds from the hardware, just a buzzing sound of the game where it has locked up.

Ok, my CPU is stable, and my card is too.


Temperature for CPU was at 58c.
GPU was at 72c.

I am unsure if it is related to my GPU, or if it could possibly be my drives, but some help will go a long way guys.

Cheers for listening, hope to here some nice feedback.

 

[jamesriley94]

How have you tested overclocks? And how long for?

Reset all overclocks to stock and see if the issue continues.

 

[Recon-UK]

I must say that is my max acheived clock, my bad.

When in game, i was using a clock of 850mhz, i have never had any issues before with the whole 2 years of having the cards.

I have only recently started using the cache feature of the Z68 board, i am wondering if it is this maybe?

 

[Recon-UK]

Sorry for a double post, but my cards are rock solid stable.

I do a few videos of my cards performance on youtube, so maybe you can get an idea of it from here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xre8v6ykBB0

I have alot of overclocking experience, i am just having issues with a random lockup.

 

[jamesriley94]

It could be to do with caching - if so, maybe uninstall the games and reinstall.

It does sound to me very much like an OC problem however. The cards may have experienced degradation due to the high clock speeds.

It's still best for troubleshooting to reset any overclocks, and test alternately with the cards. Maybe even run memtests as well, not that it's likely to be that.

I'm guessing it's obviously, but are drivers alright?

 

[Recon-UK]

Running NV 304.48 driver.
I am definitely thinking this is the SSD or RAID array.
When a 480 crashes from an unstable clock, i will either get a blank screen, or a total PC shutdown.

This however, leaves the game still on screen frozen with the sound buzzing.

It seems like either corruption of some files, or that my drives may be causing this.

Also excuse me if i am coming across rude, you are trying to help me, and i am fully greatful of this, i just know when my card is not up to snuff with an OC, i posted it in this section, incase someone had solid info on weather it may be the GPU.

Besides that, i guess a reinstall of the OS is needed, would backing up my files be ideal if something is corrupted?
I do not fancy redownloading everything, but if i must, then i guess a coffee will be made, and i will go head on at it.

Cheers.

 

[jamesriley94]

I understand if you're sure OCs are stable and I dont doubt you. But I know from my experience especially with games like GTA IV that certain games, and even drivers for some things dont particularly like it when being OCed. I'm not saying your overclocks arent stable - merely that from a trouble shooting point of view, it just makes things easier to help with if the BIOS has been reset. Besides, it isnt gunna do any harm is it.

Anyway...it never harms to fresh install, if you dont mind it. From this sense, it probably does look as if it is a disk issue. As for backing up - it depends what. Obviously data files fine, but you need to make sure the game files arent corrupt. On steam, you can verify the integrity of the game cache. Do this before backing up. Running RAID arrays with SSD caching seems pointless to me these days, especially with SSDs so cheap. I think that's most likely your problem. I'd advise to lose the cache drive, and run the OS straight from the SSD. Then like your steam folder on the RAID array, and Origin / any random games if you can fit them on the SSD. Maybe purchase a new bigger SSD if you can afford it

 

[Recon-UK]

That is exactly the way i had it before, and it all worked flawlessly well, thanks for your help and time James, i will get on with a reinstall.

 

[airdeano]

check your event viewer in admin tools to find out code or error message on the crash.
on sudden freeze up, i usually will back the overclock .1 or .2 and retest.

airdeano

 

[Recon-UK]

It seems it was the cache drive causing the issues guys, my gut feeling has paid off

Once again, cheers for the help and time guys, i will be sticking around on these forums to help folk, and give my knowledge.

Happy days

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Running NV 304.48 driver.
I am definitely thinking this is the SSD or RAID array.
When a 480 crashes from an unstable clock, i will either get a blank screen, or a total PC shutdown.

This however, leaves the game still on screen frozen with the sound buzzing.

It seems like either corruption of some files, or that my drives may be causing this.

Also excuse me if i am coming across rude, you are trying to help me, and i am fully greatful of this, i just know when my card is not up to snuff with an OC, i posted it in this section, incase someone had solid info on weather it may be the GPU.

Besides that, i guess a reinstall of the OS is needed, would backing up my files be ideal if something is corrupted?
I do not fancy redownloading everything, but if i must, then i guess a coffee will be made, and i will go head on at it.

Cheers.

I was going to say that.

I tried to RAID-0 4x F3s and got nowhere (onboard SB850 RAID controller of a Forumula IV) but I do think the F3s might have had something to do with it. I've since had one of those four F3s die on me for no reason and will have to send it back to Seagate (Seagate bought Samsung's HDD department if you didn't already know).