- Joined
- Oct 12, 2011
- Messages
- 18 (0.00/day)
System Name | Heimdall |
---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor |
Motherboard | Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard |
Memory | G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card |
Storage | OS/STEAM/GAMES: Seagate 600 Series 240GB 2.5" SSD MEDIA: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM HDD |
Case | Rosewill THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case |
Power Supply | Rosewill 1000W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply |
Software | Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) |
Greetings. I'm a lifelong PC user but need some troubleshooting advice. Here are my specs: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FM2cbv
My current build is my first custom PC. I constructed in with parts purchased on Black Friday 2013 in December of that year. Up until now, I can't think of any problems I've had with it (only quirk is that it tends to wake itself up right after it's been shut down or put to sleep, and the action needs to repeated once or twice to make sure it stays off/asleep).
Recently, however, I've been getting some odd crashes that have put me ill at ease. I have cleaned it out with compressed air, so I'm not sure that dust is the issue. The problems have arisen primarily while playing Skyrim, and they've occurred mostly within the last week or so. My Skyrim is running at max and has about 100 mods installed, so it's not the most stable game in the world. These crashes feel different though. The "usual" Skyrim crash - which I've always had to deal with ever since I started playing again in early August - is just a simple freeze during a loading screen or a quicksave, or while a bunch of combat is going on. A simple ctrl-alt-delete and end-process brings me back to desktop just fine, and I can often resume playing for hours without another glitch - with so many mods, I'm pretty sure those are definitely software, not hardware issues.
But the recent crashes are different. After playing for about half an hour (roughly), my game would freeze and the system would made an abrasive GNNNNTTT noise - no alt-tabbing, no CAD, only thing to do was a hard reboot. This seemed like a hardware issue, probably overheating - especially since the machine hadn't had a lot of downtime in the past several days. So i turned it off and let it cool for several hours, moved it away from the wall so it would have better circulation, opened the vents on top, and took the side off entirely.
This appeared to solve the problem. I was able to run Skyrim for hours and hours without any hard crashes (not even many run-of-the-mill software crashes) either. However, after the computer had been on for a couple days, after playing for a while, I got another hard crash - the freeze, the nasty noise. So I turned it off and let it rest overnight, turned off the PSU too.
So I try Skyrim again today, computer's only been on again for an hour or two. Within maybe 5 seconds of loading my save and moving around, the game starts to glitch out, flickering in and out between still screens and blackness (music still playing) and then a black screen with some glitchy pink letters scattered around at random in what looked like French or something. Never seen anything like that. No hard GNNNT noise though. Still, I turned it off, let it rest a bit and then tried Skyrim again later in the day. Things were going well for a while (close to an hour?), but sure enough, got another hard GNNNT noise crash.
At this point, I figure I should really check every nook and cranny for dust, so I took out the GPU and blasted it thoroughly with compressed air, and then replaced it. Then I did the same with the PSU. Still, even after thorough cleaning for dust, I get these hard crashes while playing Skyrim.
At this point, I kind of put the issue on the backburner by simply not playing Skyrim for a few weeks. However, I installed Shadow of Mordor today and had a similar hard crash after about 20 minutes of gameplay. Only one notable difference this time -same GNNNT sound but the system went to that light-blue-screen-of-death with the Windows 8 frowny emoticon thing saying 'collecting data for restart' or whatever.
So based on the issue with SoM, I've concluded that for whatever reason, suddenly more graphically-demanding games are now causing my system to ti crash. I come to you to ask your advice - any idea what might be the cause? What tools should I install to track my PC's performance so I can figure out what's the source of the issue (RAM? GPU? CPU?)
My current build is my first custom PC. I constructed in with parts purchased on Black Friday 2013 in December of that year. Up until now, I can't think of any problems I've had with it (only quirk is that it tends to wake itself up right after it's been shut down or put to sleep, and the action needs to repeated once or twice to make sure it stays off/asleep).
Recently, however, I've been getting some odd crashes that have put me ill at ease. I have cleaned it out with compressed air, so I'm not sure that dust is the issue. The problems have arisen primarily while playing Skyrim, and they've occurred mostly within the last week or so. My Skyrim is running at max and has about 100 mods installed, so it's not the most stable game in the world. These crashes feel different though. The "usual" Skyrim crash - which I've always had to deal with ever since I started playing again in early August - is just a simple freeze during a loading screen or a quicksave, or while a bunch of combat is going on. A simple ctrl-alt-delete and end-process brings me back to desktop just fine, and I can often resume playing for hours without another glitch - with so many mods, I'm pretty sure those are definitely software, not hardware issues.
But the recent crashes are different. After playing for about half an hour (roughly), my game would freeze and the system would made an abrasive GNNNNTTT noise - no alt-tabbing, no CAD, only thing to do was a hard reboot. This seemed like a hardware issue, probably overheating - especially since the machine hadn't had a lot of downtime in the past several days. So i turned it off and let it cool for several hours, moved it away from the wall so it would have better circulation, opened the vents on top, and took the side off entirely.
This appeared to solve the problem. I was able to run Skyrim for hours and hours without any hard crashes (not even many run-of-the-mill software crashes) either. However, after the computer had been on for a couple days, after playing for a while, I got another hard crash - the freeze, the nasty noise. So I turned it off and let it rest overnight, turned off the PSU too.
So I try Skyrim again today, computer's only been on again for an hour or two. Within maybe 5 seconds of loading my save and moving around, the game starts to glitch out, flickering in and out between still screens and blackness (music still playing) and then a black screen with some glitchy pink letters scattered around at random in what looked like French or something. Never seen anything like that. No hard GNNNT noise though. Still, I turned it off, let it rest a bit and then tried Skyrim again later in the day. Things were going well for a while (close to an hour?), but sure enough, got another hard GNNNT noise crash.
At this point, I figure I should really check every nook and cranny for dust, so I took out the GPU and blasted it thoroughly with compressed air, and then replaced it. Then I did the same with the PSU. Still, even after thorough cleaning for dust, I get these hard crashes while playing Skyrim.
At this point, I kind of put the issue on the backburner by simply not playing Skyrim for a few weeks. However, I installed Shadow of Mordor today and had a similar hard crash after about 20 minutes of gameplay. Only one notable difference this time -same GNNNT sound but the system went to that light-blue-screen-of-death with the Windows 8 frowny emoticon thing saying 'collecting data for restart' or whatever.
So based on the issue with SoM, I've concluded that for whatever reason, suddenly more graphically-demanding games are now causing my system to ti crash. I come to you to ask your advice - any idea what might be the cause? What tools should I install to track my PC's performance so I can figure out what's the source of the issue (RAM? GPU? CPU?)