Random Crash While Gaming on Win7

[Poissionnariat]

The title speaks for itself really. I recently finished replacing/upgrading all components within my current build. First, here are specs:

Asus Sabertooth 990FX
AMD FX 8120 8 Core CPU @ 3GHz w/Corsair H5O Liquid Cooling System
8gb G.Skill Ripjaw X DDR3-2400 PC19200
MSI GeForce GTX 670 w/Driver version 326.19
Intel 120GB 330 Series SSD
4 other 7200 rpm SATA HDDs totalling 1.7TB in space
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition w/Service Pack 1
OCZ ZT Series 750W Fully-Modular 80PLUS Bronze PSU

Now the problem:
It depends on the game as to how fast this happens but after a random amount of time playing, for example, GTA IV Episodes From Liberty City (Steam version), my monitors go either white or some random solid color (its never usually the same color, dunno if that even matters) and my speakers will blare this nonstop buzzing noise (envision a slow motion Transformer robot sound during transformation). This goes on for maybe 30 seconds to a minute, then the sound quits and im just left with a blank screen (still with whatever color came up) and cannot do anything. It causes me to have to do a manual restart to get my system back up.

Just to give you an idea of how random it happens. I could run World of Warcraft all day and have zero issues. I played Kerbal Space Program for roughly 5 hours before I had my first freeze. GTA IV is the most random as it can happen anywhere from 5 minutes to possibly an hour.

This issue has tested every foundation of computer servicing I have gone to school for and it eludes me. All hardware has been tested and found with no fault (especially the RAM which I ran memtest on for just about a full day).

I hope someone has some pointers as to where I can start. Im even willing to backtrack previous diagnostics just to clear it from the list of things I have done.

Attached below is a picture I took from my phone as to what I see when this happens.

HALP! :O :O

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[Calum]

Did you start off with the 326.19 drivers, or upgrade from a previous version?
I would suspect a graphics issue before anything else, you could try the graphics card in a different slot to see if that makes any difference.  Also, test it with the Unigine Heaven or Valley benchmarks or the Furmark test, leave it looped for a while to see if it does the same thing on a pure graphics test.
Is the firmware up to date on your SSD?  Sandforce based SSDs can cause a number of issues, firmware updates can fix some.  Also, is there a BIOS update for your board at all?  Could be worth updating if there is.

[Poissionnariat]

The SSD firmware is up to date. After getting the SSD I read reviews on it being one of Intel's worst SSDs on the market but it seems to do its job just fine.

There were 2 BIOS updates released from ASUS since I got the board back in April. Imma update them in chronological order release.

After that, ill game for a bit just to test functionality then if I am still having problems, I will loop a Unigine test for a bit. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks!

[Calum]

No problem, let us know how it goes.
The 330 and other Sandforce based SSDs are certainly less reliable than Intel's older drives, which used Intel's own controllers, however they do seem to be more reliable than other vendors' drives based on the same Sandforce controllers due to Intel writing better firmware and perhaps using better flash for the drives too.
See how you go once you have the BIOS updated to the latest version, and let us know the results of your tests if you have the problem again.

[Poissionnariat]

Okay here is an update.

Updated my BIOS to it's latest revision and all seems quiet thus far.

I was able to play GTA IV for almost a solid 2 hours without any sort of graphical glitch what so ever (minus one appcrash the game itself had but it's expected as the game is a bad port from consoles). I even ran that Heaven benchmark and it ran pretty well. Card got nice and toasty though, roasting in at 80C after several minutes but theyre designed to work at high heats like those so it's okay.

I really wanna say this problem is resolved but knowing my string of luck lately, it's probably just waiting for the right time to rear it's ugly head once again after I let my guard down.

As for now, I am pleased that I can play a game for a continuous amount of time without error.

Updating BIOS....sadly enough, with all my expertise, that was the last thing I would have thought of 
Thanks again. If anything pops up, Ill post again. Ill post again after several days just to be sure this problem is cleared up. 

[Calum]

Those temperatures are absolutely fine for the GTX 670, as you said, so nothing to worry about there.

Glad to hear it seems to be working at least for now, fingers crossed it stays that way

[Poissionnariat]

Of course as I attempt to give the all clear, the issue shows up yet again. No colors on the screen this time, just black screens and a buzzing sound for a short moment then silence, causing me to do a manual restart on the machine.

I have attached a Dxdiag and Msinfo32 file. I have split the Msinfo32 file into 2 separate documents, the second one being the Windows Error Reporting aspect, since it appeared to be a large piece of the original document. I also had to compress them to zip format as the Windows Error Reporting log was slightly less than 1mb and the post allotment is only 700kb. I honestly suspect it is software related. All my hardware is in the clear, diagnostic wise, but again, I am open to ideas.

Hoping for a swift reply on this one. Yesterday's gaming session sprouted a bit of hope, only for it to be brutally crushed yet again with this problem.

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[Calum]

I would perhaps be inclined to try either rolling back your graphics drivers to a WHQL release such as 320.49, or try the latest beta drivers, 326.80, rather than your current beta drivers 326.19.
Also, it could be worth trying your graphics card in a different PCI-E slot.
Have you had problems in games apart from GTA4 since the BIOS update?
What speed are you running your RAM at, is it running at the spec in your signature?  The max official RAM speed for the FX8120 is 1866MHz on two modules, which also raises the question whether you have 2x4GB, or 4x2GB?  I would assume the former but just checking.

[Poissionnariat]

Im at work right now but Ill leave a small update on here.

I downgraded to the WHQL release from Nvidia's site and will test that first since it's the easiest on the list of things to diagnose.

The crash happens in other games, just not as often. I mentioned in my first post that it even would happen while playing Kerbal Space Program. It has only happened once in it though. The issue doesn't appear to be unique to just GTA4, it just happens the most while running that game.

On another note, the ram I have is 2x 4GB sticks and I have em clocked at 2400mhz (my board picked up the profile they contained). Also I tried to clock em down to 1866mhz and my system became unresponsive.

I would like to mention that I had 16gb of Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600/PC12800 (4x 4gb sticks) before this new kit and had them clocked at their default of 1600mhz and the crash I am having still arose regardless so I can't be too sure the problem is ram related.

With the crashing being so random, its quite difficult to isolate the problem (5 minutes to 2 hours is quite the margin to work with). As for now, lets hope the video driver holds up since WHQL drivers are signed by Microsoft themselves and verified as stable. *fingers crossed*

I coulda swore computers operated in 1s and 0s, Yes and No, not "Maybe" and "Maybe not" lol
It's the whole reason I went to college for computer servicing in the first place! 

[Calum]

The crash happens in other games, just not as often. I mentioned in my first post that it even would happen while playing Kerbal Space Program. It has only happened once in it though. The issue doesn't appear to be unique to just GTA4, it just happens the most while running that game.

Right, I saw that, I just meant had you had any crashes in other games since the BIOS update?  I know it was crashing in other games before.

On another note, the ram I have is 2x 4GB sticks and I have em clocked at 2400mhz (my board picked up the profile they contained). Also I tried to clock em down to 1866mhz and my system became unresponsive.

1866MHz is the maximum supported speed, 2400 may work fine but it is overclocking the memory controller so I would be inclined to try and get the system working at the supported speed before anything else.  You would need to set the speed, timings and voltages as recommended by the manufacturer.  When you say the system became unresponsive, what exactly happened?

I would like to mention that I had 16gb of Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600/PC12800 (4x 4gb sticks) before this new kit and had them clocked at their default of 1600mhz and the crash I am having still arose regardless so I can't be too sure the problem is ram related.

I'm not necessarily suspecting the RAM, just trying to narrow it down.  It could be the memory controller having trouble running at higher speeds, or running all 4 slots, or several other things.

With the crashing being so random, its quite difficult to isolate the problem (5 minutes to 2 hours is quite the margin to work with). As for now, lets hope the video driver holds up since WHQL drivers are signed by Microsoft themselves and verified as stable. *fingers crossed*

Yeah, these kind of problems are the worst to diagnose!  All you can really do is try and change only one thing at a time, until you can verify the problem is or isn't fixed.

[Poissionnariat]

Okay so I caved and reinstalled Windows/updated and reinstalled games/programs. Although my efforts still seem futile.

It would seem the issue has shifted from the computer just straight failing on me (which is good, not requiring manual restart) to just giving me appcrash messages for games that fault out (which is still equally as annoying).

The crashes mentioned below are post-BIOS update/Windows reinstall & updating etc. (as to answer your previous question)

I attached the 2 appcrash messages for Kerbal Space Program and GTA 4 as those are the only 2 I have tested thus far. Again, the crash is random. I played KSP for maybe 20 minutes before it crashed and GTA IV for under a hour (even left to go somewhere and left the game paused only to come back and sit down then the game crash as I pick my controller back up).
I also am attaching a screenshot of the temps and gpu load my computer was at during the crash on GTA 4. Temps/load were almost identical for both games so I figured id just upload one. I noticed voltages from the board on the low side but looking in my BIOS, the voltages are right about their normal operational levels, maybe .010 off or so but nothing I would raise alarm to.

While the format in which the games crash has not triggered any need to manual restart since my Windows reinstall, it still boggles my mind that even on a fresh slate, problems still arise.
At any rate, I appreciate you still hanging around. 

Edit: wanted to add that while the load in Kombustor says 0 at the time of the fault, the load was around 40-50% (cant remember specifics)




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[patio]

I would replace the vid card myself...and hopefully return it under Warranty...

[Calum]

I would probably agree with patio...seen MSI cards cause problems similar to this quite a few times.  If you're still having issues on a fresh install, it's the most likely culprit.