Games Crash My PC

[deleted_user]

Hey, so I have this issue where certain games cause my PC to crash when I play them and I was hoping for some feedback on what might be wrong. My GPU and CPU drivers are up to date.

PC SPECS:

MOBO: Asus Z97-A
CPU: intel i5 3.3 GHz
GPU: nvidia GForce GTX 970 Mini
RAM: 8 GB
Memory: 250 GB SSD (9.88 GB free of 237 GB)
PSU: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold (actually replaced this PSU now something a little higher is in there atm --- see below)

3 years ago I replaced my PSU with a similar PSU which resolved this previous issue of my games crashing: viewtopic.php?f=65&t=8989&p=193461#p193461

Aoe3 doesn't crash if I have the graphics on low, but if I have the graphics on high, it'll crash. I can run aoe3 on low graphics indefinitely.

Apex legends will crash every ~30 mins. Fallout 4 on max graphics won't crash, Tabletop simulator won't crash, Star Wars: Empire at War won't crash, but Overwatch will (and some other games). There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason which games cause this, but more than half of the games I will try to play crash my PC.

When I check my CPU and GPU temps w/HWinfo after a crash, they're completely normal (~50-60 C).

Here are a couple of diagnostic screenshots from Windows Reliability History. The "dip" is the couple of weeks I tried to play Apex Legends.

Daily

Weekly

I don't know what to make of these -- all I see are some software things.

What's Wrong?

Is my GPU corrupted? Do I need more RAM? Should I install/clear more disc space?

[Cocaine]

Hi!

As anyone will probably tell you to be the first step towards a fix is to completely reinstall windows on your PC.. I know this will be annoying to reinstall everything but, it will rule out software issue. If the games still crash after after that it means its a hardware issue..

[fightinfrenchman]

I put in a support ticket with Basement IT for you.

[wardyb1]

Could be short on RAM? If there is memory leak you could find yourself short on RAM, forcing the application to crash. That's only my very unknowledgeable guess though. On the plus side RAM is cheap anyway and going to 16 or 32GB is probably recommended anyway.

[n0el]

Add ram. Cheap upgrade

[gustavusadolphus]

When you get a crash are you getting BSOD or is the program just closing?

[deleted_user]

just performed a factory reset and going to install 8 GB more RAM tomorrow that I'll buy from some guy on craigslist.

[deleted_user]

OK I performed the factory reset, I installed 16 more GB of RAM (24 GB total) and still experienced the issue (the "test" would be to launch aoe3. If it immediately crashed w/high graphics turned on then the problem wasn't fixed). I deactivated my GTX 970 GPU and enabled my integrated CPU graphics card via BIOS. It was too low to run aoe3 integrated (got the error message); however, I booted it briefly and got massive fps drops but the PC didn't crash in the menus with high graphics enabled. So I think I narrowed it down to a GPU hardware issue.

Just installed a new GPU today and the problem appears to be fixed. Thanks y'all. Dunno what happened.

[musketeer925]

Most weird GPU issues I've had were due to an insufficient power supply. Were the problems you had years ago, leading to you to upgrade your PSU, with the same GPU? Maybe you had some permanent hardware damage that finally manifested itself.

[Guigs]

OK I performed the factory reset, I installed 16 more GB of RAM (24 GB total) and still experienced the issue (the "test" would be to launch aoe3. If it immediately crashed w/high graphics turned on then the problem wasn't fixed). I deactivated my GTX 970 GPU and enabled my integrated CPU graphics card via BIOS. It was too low to run aoe3 integrated (got the error message); however, I booted it briefly and got massive fps drops but the PC didn't crash in the menus with high graphics enabled. So I think I narrowed it down to a GPU hardware issue.

Just installed a new GPU today and the problem appears to be fixed. Thanks y'all. Dunno what happened.

Did you make sure you have power supply set on ultimate performance ?

[deleted_user]

Most weird GPU issues I've had were due to an insufficient power supply. Were the problems you had years ago, leading to you to upgrade your PSU, with the same GPU? Maybe you had some permanent hardware damage that finally manifested itself.

Yes, the problemsome GPU was same GPU as then. The original PSU unit was theoretically more than adequate but just kind of pooped out.

This seems like a good hypothesis, thanksh.

[musketeer925]

Most weird GPU issues I've had were due to an insufficient power supply. Were the problems you had years ago, leading to you to upgrade your PSU, with the same GPU? Maybe you had some permanent hardware damage that finally manifested itself.

Yes, the problemsome GPU was same GPU as then. The original PSU unit was theoretically more than adequate but just kind of pooped out.

This seems like a good hypothesis, thanksh.

Does seem like your PSU should be more than enough. Maybe your GPU was just a power-hungry bad egg the whole time. Or your PSU was faulty, and ended up killing the GPU because it failed to supply enough power.


https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator/