Every Game crashes.

[Disultory]

Hey guys! I recently upgraded my Dad's PC with my GTX670, an Athlon X4 860K, an Asrock FM2A88M-HD+ and a Single Stick of 8GB of Ram.
Hes using a 550W Corsair CX Powersupply, so that shouldnt be an issue. Now, this weird issue keep occuring and i have no idea what could be the cause of it.

It doesnt matter what game he plays, be it COD, be it Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, heck, Heroes of Might and Magic 6. ALL will crash at some point. In a weird pattern.

Once i reboot the PC, a game will run 30-40 Mins straight, no problems, but then it will crash, either giving me a "The Graphicscard driver failed" error, or a "DX DEVICE_REMOVED" or something along those lines.

If i then try to keep playing, starting the game again, it will crash in 5-10 mins. So i checked if the GPU is fine. It is, it runs in my PC, it runs in my Moms PC no problems. Then i wanted to try out a different GPU in my Dads PC, a 560, and that one didnt even give me an output. Monitor kept Standby, couldnt even see the Bios Post.

So at this point im sitting here thinking it must be the motherboard. So i flashed the Bios to the newest version. Still no better. Its not a temperature issue aswell, we had Prime 95 and Furmark running for 2 Hours without problems.

So right now im just really confused as to what the issue could possibly be, since the PC wont crash on fullest load with Furmark and Prime, but it will crash when playing games, no matter what. I hope someone had this issue before and is kind enough to help out. Thanks in advance

 

//EDIT: COPY PASTING MY LAST POST FOR EVERYONE WITH THE SAME ISSUE. MOST LIKELY A COMPATIBILITY ISSUE.

 

Holy shit that was one weird ride. Finally got it sorted out. For everyone with the same problem and basically no way to fix it: Its most likely a compatibility issue. After i was finally able to update the MSI A88X G45 Gaming Bios with the help of an A4 6300 (decent CPU actually, running in my Mums PC now with the Asrock board and a GTX560 -> no problems) games dont crash anymore with the X4 860k. For now. Ive been playing Infinite for a good hour, when it used to crash after 5 mins max. My dad will play on Friday, itll show if it really did end up solving it but im pretty sure it did. Thanks to everyone that joined me on this wild rollercoaster and that tried to help. Awesome Forum, awesome members. Thanks a whole lot. Next stop: Watercooling and Overclocking. Lets. Go. 

[TeddyMcSwag]

Have you tried playing a game outside of Steam?

 

Maybe try changing the GPU to another PCI-E slot if your mobo has one

 

You could always see if there are new drivers

 

Try validating game cache?

 

I dont know what else it might be, but check all connections and such

[Disultory]

Funnily enough, Far Cry 3 runs on uplay (yey Ubisoft) and that crashes aswell.

Mobo only has one PCI-E Slot

Updated the drivers several times, even reinstalled Windows

Validating Game Cache?

Connection are checked, everythings in place.

 

//Edit: Actually, now that i think of it, Game Dev Tycoon and Bejeweled 3 Dont crash. Those run in Windowed mode. Guess ill try if it has something to do with that, at this point it could be literally anything

[APrettyCoolWalrus]

I can't quite help you with your crashing problem but I have to ask: How common is it to see a German Cloud9 fan?

[Simeon Petkov]

Bad ram sometimes can cause problems like this.

Try with other sticks.

Update the directx.

[Disultory]

It's actually not that uncommon to find Cloud9 fans here, or Esports fans in General. I only follow their League division tho, so i cant really talk about Dota and Hearthstone (they probably have a CSGO division aswell), but alot of my german LoL friends follow NA LCS and are fans of C9

 

I will definitely try to switch out the Ram, thanks!

[Disultory]

Alright so, everything works fine with a different GPU. I installed my GTX770 in his PC again and everything worked perfectly. To cross test, i put his GTX670 in my PC, just to see if the GPU is plain broken. it isnt, everything ran fine, no problems. So basically, games crash with the GTX670, but not with the GTX770, and they only crash on his PC, so the GPU isnt broken. Im hella confused now.

[SpecTre12345]

Alright so, everything works fine with a different GPU. I installed my GTX770 in his PC again and everything worked perfectly. To cross test, i put his GTX670 in my PC, just to see if the GPU is plain broken. it isnt, everything ran fine, no problems. So basically, games crash with the GTX670, but not with the GTX770, and they only crash on his PC, so the GPU isnt broken. Im hella confused now.

 

Sounds like a bad driver installation, try doing a clean install of the newest NVIDIA drivers but using Display Driver Uninstaller first.

 

Uninstall your current drivers (make sure you have the newest drivers for your NVIDIA card already downloaded to your computer). Restart. Make sure Windows Update DOES NOT automatically install drivers for you (you can do this by unplugging internet for a moment). Run Display Driver Uninstaller, Select AMD and select "Uninstall Current and Previous Drivers, DO NOT restart computer." Then Select NVIDIA, and select "Uninstall Current and Previous Drivers, restart computer." Install the New Drivers after restarted (the ones you have downloaded already). Restart Computer. Plug in internet again, make sure Windows Update doesn't try to install an older version of the NVIDIA drivers (if you see it appears in Windows Update just hide it). 

[Disultory]

Will try that right now, thanks!

[i_build_nanosuits]

Will try that right now, thanks!

or it could be that the GPU is getting old and has started to decrease...in that case lowering the clockspeeds on both the core and the memory would probably solve the issue at the expense of a little bit of performance of course but if it's what it takes to get the card stable...you could also overvolt the card a little with MSI afterburner but this will probably decrease the card even more even faster...

[Disultory]

Still the same, Bioshock Infinite even crashed in the main menu.

Since the GPU works in my system perfectly well, i dont think it has anything to do with it but i actually tried underclocking it, didnt help

[SpecTre12345]

Still the same, Bioshock Infinite even crashed in the main menu.

 

Are you on a fresh install of Windows?

[Disultory]

Yes i am, we tried reinstalling it several times

[SpecTre12345]

Yes i am, we tried reinstalling it several times

 

Think you can come up with a bullet point list of things you have tried?

[Disultory]

Switched Ram

Switched GPU (Which did work, but the GPU isnt broken since it works in my system just fine)

Reinstalled Drivers

Reinstalled Windows

Trying to enable/disable Physx, Graphic Settings etc several times

Tried some gamespecific "fixes" which also didnt work

Underclocking GPU

Ran Prime95 & Furmark for 2 Hours - Stable, nothing crashed, Temps were fine. GPU was about 50°C, CPU was in the mid 60°C

 

Thats all i can come up with, Thanks for being so patient and helpful!

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

@Disultory

Hey do you get some Application has been blocked from acessing graphics hardware or Driber kernel x.x.x.x responding or similar messages?

[Disultory]

It depends really. Its either Windows telling me the GPU has been removed or the NVIDIA Driver telling me it has been reloaded after crashing.

 

//Edit: Windows never crashed when he's not playing. Everythings fine then, no weird blackouts or drivercrashes, its exclusively when gaming.

[SpecTre12345]

Switched Ram

Switched GPU (Which did work, but the GPU isnt broken since it works in my system just fine)

Reinstalled Drivers

Reinstalled Windows

Trying to enable/disable Physx, Graphic Settings etc several times

Tried some gamespecific "fixes" which also didnt work

Underclocking GPU

Ran Prime95 & Furmark for 2 Hours - Stable, nothing crashed, Temps were fine. GPU was about 50°C, CPU was in the mid 60°C

 

Thats all i can come up with, Thanks for being so patient and helpful!

 

No problem. Are you on Windows 8? 

[Disultory]

Im on Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

It depends really. Its either Windows telling me the GPU has been removed or the NVIDIA Driver telling me it has been reloaded after crashing.

//Edit: Windows never crashed when he's not playing. Everythings fine then, no weird blackouts or drivercrashes, its exclusively when gaming.

Ever got nvldmk.sys blue screns? Trying to make a paralel with my cureennt problem, looked similar apart from the error messages.

[Disultory]

Never got any bluescreens yet

[SpecTre12345]

Im on Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit

 

Hmm, have you tried using a different PSU in your Dad's computer (but with the GPU that isn't working in your dad's computer)?

[Disultory]

No, since i dont have any spare ones sadly. That's one of the reasons why i had Prime95 and Furmark running, normally, if its a Powerissue the PC will shutdown immediatly but it ran for 2 hours just fine.

//Edit: Oh, and the PC actually never crashes its only games that do. 

[SpecTre12345]

No, since i dont have any spare ones sadly. That's one of the reasons why i had Prime95 and Furmark running, normally, if its a Powerissue the PC will shutdown immediatly but it ran for 2 hours just fine.

//Edit: Oh, and the PC actually never crashes its only games that do. 

 

I know this sounds like a pain, but unless you can get a hold of another PSU. You should try sticking the PSU in your rig, in your dads rig along with the GPU that doesnt work with your dad's rig. See if that does anything. Maybe a project for another day, but worth a shot because it's something you haven't tried on the bullet list. 

[Disultory]

I will definitely try and post results after, thanks alot man.