PC crashes when playing certain games

[SamSeama]

First the crash: screens go black, fans go loud, speakers make a buzzing noise. It stays like this until I press the power button.

 

When it crashes: after 3-4 hours of playing Borderlands 2, an hour or so of playing Moon Base Alpha, 3-4 minutes of playing Caesar 4.

 

It NEVEr crashes when I play: Heroes of the Storm, Children of the Nile, GTA 5, Shift 2 Unleashed, Torchlight 2, Portal 2.

 

I searched the issue far and wide, what I have tried so far: clean video drivers install, used only one stick of ram ( then the other), checked if I have the latest bios (I have). Nothing worked.

 

Please help me, I'm desperate.

 

I also attached a DX Diag report.

 

Forgot to mention: the resolution goes to 800x600, one monitor every time I switch users in windows or when I shut down and power back the PC.

DxDiag.txt

DxDiag.txt

Edited July 15, 2015 by SamSeama

[LogicalDrm]

Maybe GPU is dying.

[trw.534m4]

Is there any diagnosis software I can use to check that?

[LennyIsLife]

Is there any diagnosis software I can use to check that?

Are you using an overclock?

[Elapo]

Are you using an overclock?

 ^^^^^^

I used to run a perfectly fine overclock on my 680. No issues anywhere.

 

But WoW kept on crashing, only WoW. Reverted the OC and it worked again.

[LennyIsLife]

First the crash: screens go black, fans go loud, speakers make a buzzing noise. It stays like this until I press the power button.

When it crashes: after 3-4 hours of playing Borderlands 2, an hour or so of playing Moon Base Alpha, 3-4 minutes of playing Caesar 4.

It NEVEr crashes when I play: Heroes of the Storm, Children of the Nile, GTA 5, Shift 2 Unleashed, Torchlight 2, Portal 2.

I searched the issue far and wide, what I have tried so far: clean video drivers install, used only one stick of ram ( then the other), checked if I have the latest bios (I have). Nothing worked.

Please help me, I'm desperate.

I also attached a DX Diag report.

Forgot to mention: the resolution goes to 800x600, one monitor every time I switch users in windows or when I shut down and power back the PC.

Check your CPU temps while gaming. My friends pc crashed while gaming because he needed to replace the thermal paste on his cpu

[SamSeama]

Cpu Temps are ok, again, I play GTA 5 for 8 hours no problem, Borderlands 2 crashes after 2 hours and the cpu doesn't heat up. I don't overclock anything.

[AGGELOS_970]

Can you tell us your PC specs?

[SamSeama]

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

 

CPU: AMD FX 8350 8 core  @ ~4.0GHz

 

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Dual Channel 8GB

 

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650Ti 128 Bit from Gigabyte

 

MB: Gigabyte Z77 D3H 

 

PSU: Corsair CX750

 

Hope this helps.

[AGGELOS_970]

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

 

CPU: AMD FX 8350 8 core  @ ~4.0GHz

 

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Dual Channel 8GB

 

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650Ti 128 Bit from Gigabyte

 

MB: Gigabyte Z77 D3H 

 

PSU: Corsair CX750

 

Hope this helps.

 

Wait... that doesn't sound right....

Isn't this an Intel socket motherboard?

[SamSeama]

Sorry it's GA-990XA-UD3 rev 3.0.

[AGGELOS_970]

Is this started happening from the start?

[SamSeama]

No, it started about a month ago when I installed Borderlands 2.

[AGGELOS_970]

Well that's a good thing... At least we know that it's not your hardware.

Maybe it has something to do with DirectX. Is there any error that's popping when it crashes? 

[SamSeama]

After I start the machine, I get Event ID 41 in Event Viewer. "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

[Alpha11]

maybe your psu is dying?

[SamSeama]

Might be, how can I test that?  Weird thing tho, it happens with  rather old games, it doesn't happen with recent games, like GTA 5, that requires way more resources, i.e. more power, than Borderlands 2. 

[Paranoid Kami]

Have you tried reinstalling DirectX?

[SamSeama]

Reinstalled directX, same behaviour.

[SamSeama]

Ok, I think I may have found the issue, maybe... I'll have to test this more, but it seems to work for now.

 

I went into bios, trying to enable S.M.A.R.T., thinking it might be the HDD.  I didn't find the S.M.A.R.T. option, but I concluded that the RAM was XMP enabled.  I know that XMP works with Intel, maybe this was causing the issue.  Now my RAM is noticeably slower, but hopefully it will solve the issue.

[AGGELOS_970]

Ok, I think I may have found the issue, maybe... I'll have to test this more, but it seems to work for now.

 

I went into bios, trying to enable S.M.A.R.T., thinking it might be the HDD.  I didn't find the S.M.A.R.T. option, but I concluded that the RAM was XMP enabled.  I know that XMP works with Intel, maybe this was causing the issue.  Now my RAM is noticeably slower, but hopefully it will solve the issue.

 

If you think this is the issue try setting the RAM speed manually. Without enabling XMP.

Just see your memory speed in the specs and set it accordingly.

[SamSeama]

When I disabled the XMP, the RAM memory went down to 1300 MHZ or so from 1866. I saw there is a multiplier that can bring it back up, should I use that to change the frequency?  Also, there is the timing, now it's 9-9-9-24, but on the ram it says 9-10-9-27 should I change that as well?

[AGGELOS_970]

When I disabled the XMP, the RAM memory went down to 1300 MHZ or so from 1866. I saw there is a multiplier that can bring it back up, should I use that to change the frequency?  Also, there is the timing, now it's 9-9-9-24, but on the ram it says 9-10-9-27 should I change that as well?

 

Firstly, leave it as it is now and play some games until you are sure that this is the problem.

And then we'll see.

[SamSeama]

Ok... problem not solved, unfortunately, is there a something that tests ALL the components, maybe it will find the issue this way?

[AGGELOS_970]

Ok... problem not solved, unfortunately, is there a something that tests ALL the components, maybe it will find the issue this way?

 

oh... ok.

No, there is no such thing. That would be too good to be true! 

So turn XMP back on and focus on the software part. Because as you said nothing was wrong until you installed Borderlines 2.

What about uninstalling the game and see what will happen? I mean... I can't think of something else at the moment.