So about a month ago, my computer started to freeze during games, but only after long hours of intensive games. The game would freeze and the sound will loop until i have to manually restart. Now its starting to happen pretty much every time i play a game for more then 30 minutes.

Specs:
GPU: XFX 9800GTX
CPU: e4500 Core 2 Duo
PSU: 550W Corsair.
motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula.
Memory: 4GB G.Skill 2x2GB.
CPU heatsink: Stock
HDD: Caviar 250gb.

Everything is stock except for the memory which is overclocked to 4-4-4-12 800MHz.

So far i have tried:
Prime95 for 2 hours
Windows Memory diagnostics tool
Nvidia Human Head demo for 2 hours
Ive checked the temps and everything is normal, about 30C idle for the CPU, around 50C on load. About 60C on the GPU.
Ive tried increasing the voltages and it didnt work.
Ive tried changing my video card and sound card drivers


I cant figure it out and its just pissing me off. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This happens when your graphic card is overheating I believe.

Really weird that Prime95 and the Nvidia demo don't give you crashes but games do.

Three ideas come to mind. 

1. Reformatting in case something is messed up software side.
2. You said you tried different sound card drivers, but thinking about it, the only major thing games add over those tests you already did was sound.  Try older drivers if you only updated (and didn't downgrade), try on board sound if you're using a sound card?
3. Are you playing any one specific game now than you were before?  Maybe the game is bugged.


I have had so many very specific game problems.  Sometimes certain games will tax your hardware in weird ways.  I remember underclocking my videocard because certain maps in Unreal 2K3 were causing freezes (inferno and junkyard, if I recall).

edit - Also, maybe try a different sort of GPU tech demo with higher framerates and turn off vsync.  Basically run something that will give you hundreds of frames per second.  This will tax an entirely different part of your videocard than something that does heavy/large shader work.

The same thing happens to me ocassionally and when I install games. Don't know what it is.

"Really weird that Prime95 and the Nvidia demo don't give you crashes but games do.Three ideas come to mind.  1. Reformatting in case something is messed up software side.2. You said you tried different sound card drivers, but thinking about it, the only major thing games add over those tests you already did was sound.  Try older drivers if you only updated (and didn't downgrade), try on board sound if you're using a sound card?3. Are you playing any one specific game now than you were before?  Maybe the game is bugged.I have had so many very specific game problems.  Sometimes certain games will tax your hardware in weird ways.  I remember underclocking my videocard because certain maps in Unreal 2K3 were causing freezes (inferno and junkyard, if I recall)."

Reformat. I need to do that myself. My computer slows down horrendously completely randomly. And sometimes I even blue screen.

Have you dusted the thing recently? I say it still sounds like a heating issue.

"Have you dusted the thing recently? I say it still sounds like a heating issue."

Then something must be wrong with one your hardware. Doesn't sound like a software problem to me. That is, unless you're running on Windows 95. If it is a hardware problem, a reformat wont do anything.

It only happens when playing games? It never happens when loading programs, installing software and basic day to day PC usage instances right?

I assume you have done the logical thing and tried playing games on lower visual settings and tweaked them around yes? Lower the resolution as well if you are playing above 1280x1024 when doing this (wouldn't believe how many people forget to lower their resolution when testing out settings). Logically the lower the settings the lower the demand on your system, see does this have any effect.

Do you get any stuttering or 'jumping' in framerate before the crash? or is it sudden and crash without warning?

Have you done a virus, spyware and adware scan on your PC? It helps to do virus scan > spyware / adware scan > virus scan in that order usually.

Have you tried defragging the HDD?

Think back to just before this started happening, did you update / download / install anything 'major' or something which could be linked to this?

Have you tested the GPU out on another computer of similar specs? Sometimes it helps to do this just to narrow down whether the GPU is on the blink or not.

When playing games are the textures, shadows and all other visual effects and such like appearing normally or how they should be? Is there any warping in colour and so forth?

Consider those questions before doing anything drastic. I know PC issues like this can be insanely taxing and stressing as it is very difficult and time consuming to narrow down the problem. But personally I would try the following first....

Take your PC, put it out into an open area (away from any heat source) where it has good ventillation. Take the side panel off your PC and if you have one try and hook up a basic electric fan so it faces inside your PC. Try that for a few hours and see what happens. Sounds to me like your system is overheating to the point it can't even continue to run Windows properly so it may not be a GPU issue. It could very well be a HDD issue. I had something similar in another desktop which was caused by an overheating HDD. Because 60 degrees centigrade for your GPU under load doesn't seem too abnormal to me. I'm on a 7900GS and it hits 60 under load and still manages to take the strain without problem.

EDIT - Forgot to mention, try checking the Windows Device manager. See does that shed any light on this.

Have you tried killing the memory overclock? The first thing you should always try when troubleshooting hardware trouble is stopping all overclocking. Also consider giving Memtest86 a shot, since I'm not sure how reliable the Windows Memory Diagnostic is.

"Have you tried killing the memory overclock? The first thing you should always try when troubleshooting hardware trouble is stopping all overclocking. Also consider giving Memtest86 a shot, since I'm not sure how reliable the Windows Memory Diagnostic is."

"It only happens when playing games? It never happens when loading programs, installing software and basic day to day PC usage instances right?

Only when i play games, ive yet to have it crash/freeze when i do anything else.

I assume you have done the logical thing and tried playing games on lower visual settings and tweaked them around yes? Lower the resolution as well if you are playing above 1280x1024 when doing this (wouldn't believe how many people forget to lower their resolution when testing out settings). Logically the lower the settings the lower the demand on your system, see does this have any effect.

Yeah, it freezes no matter what setting its at.

Do you get any stuttering or 'jumping' in framerate before the crash? or is it sudden and crash without warning?

No stuttering, just freezes without warning.

Have you done a virus, spyware and adware scan on your PC? It helps to do virus scan > spyware / adware scan > virus scan in that order usually.

I scan for spyware and viruses once a month usually. I just scanned it about 2 days ago and it still freezes.

Have you tried defragging the HDD?

 Vista has it set to were it automatically defrags once a week, but i always defrag it about once a month just to make sure.

Think back to just before this started happening, did you update / download / install anything 'major' or something which could be linked to this?

It started happening when i got my video card about 6 months ago, ive tried changing the drivers, rolling them back, etc. The temps seem to be normal at about 60-70C on load.

Have you tested the GPU out on another computer of similar specs? Sometimes it helps to do this just to narrow down whether the GPU is on the blink or not.

No, i dont have another computer to test it in.

When playing games are the textures, shadows and all other visual effects and such like appearing normally or how they should be? Is there any warping in colour and so forth?

No everything seems normal.

Consider those questions before doing anything drastic. I know PC issues like this can be insanely taxing and stressing as it is very difficult and time consuming to narrow down the problem. But personally I would try the following first....

Take your PC, put it out into an open area (away from any heat source) where it has good ventillation. Take the side panel off your PC and if you have one try and hook up a basic electric fan so it faces inside your PC. Try that for a few hours and see what happens. Sounds to me like your system is overheating to the point it can't even continue to run Windows properly so it may not be a GPU issue. It could very well be a HDD issue. I had something similar in another desktop which was caused by an overheating HDD. Because 60 degrees centigrade for your GPU under load doesn't seem too abnormal to me. I'm on a 7900GS and it hits 60 under load and still manages to take the strain without problem.EDIT - Forgot to mention, try checking the Windows Device manager. See does that shed any light on this."

/sigh

so i thought i had fixed the problem by increasing my CPU voltage by a good amount, it ran perfectly fine for a few weeks and just now it froze while playing World in Conflict.

I am completely out of ideas. I dont want to reformat because i have no way of backing up any of my important files atm... looks like im going to have to shell out for an external HDD...

Anyone else have any ideas before i spend money that i might not need to?

You got a DVD burner?  I usually back up my files that way these days.  Takes a lot of DVDs but it's pretty easy.

Im having this exact problem and I cant figure out the solution yet. It only happens after a few hours if I then (or keep) playing intensive games or video. I dont think its happened if Im just  surfing the web or looking at files, just games and  video (the most "intensive" stuff to do on my system). The only thing I can think of is that it only started happening after I installed Windows 7 RC.