[Solved] Whole system freezes during games

[dtacs]

For about the past 5 days now, my PC has randomly started freezing during games. The freezes can occur at any time, but usually after about 20-30 minutes during a game. It occurs in BF2, PR, BC2, but not in single-player games such as Oblivion.

To check out the problem I downloaded a number of temperature monitoring programs such as SpeedFan and GPU-z, and found out that on idle my CPU was around 65c, and exceeding 90c on load.

After removing the motherboard and reseating the whole thing, I've managed to get an average idle CPU temperature of around 36c, but the problem is the freezes still happen, even when majority of my settings are all on low. It would be worth mentioning that the idle temperature for my card is around 58c which is pretty high, but I have NEVER had these problems up until this week.

Its incredibly frustrating rolling up to a cache with a full squad and tank/Stryker support then freezing right there and having to reboot. I'd appreciate any sort of help.

Specs:

Asus P5KpL-C/1600
Intel E5850
Sparkle 8800 GTS
4GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 1500

[dunem666]

try ajusting your page file, make it bigger

[SnipingCoward]

Since you appear quite firm with the hardware I suggest you go ahead and also check the cooling paste underneath the other coolers - i.e. south bridge, north bridge. Maybe those are causing the high temperature. You also should think about getting a few additional fans. But for starters you could test with leaving your case open and see how it goes. Whether temp is cooler and freezes stop.

The mobo or CPU might already be damaged due to previous overheating. Keep that in mind.

Maybe its just a software thing, try updating drivers, windows, run system integrity scans.
I think GPU-Z stresses the card so you will not be able to monitor the real idle temp when this thing is on. Same with CPU-Z, imo. Maybe google a bit to get what I mean.

[dtacs]

I checked with the good old finger on the heatsink to test for temperature under load while playing PR, both the north/south ones were cool and I've never taken them off and broken the thermal paste connection, and neither has anyone else.

I'll try updating drivers that could work, cheers.

One thing I noticed on the virtual memory that it had reccomended 4990, but I had it on 3227 or something like that.

[Psyrus]

I'd say first point of call would be independent tests of your three primary hardware pieces to see if any are near to or already failing. (I've assumed you're on a 64bit OS, you can find x86 versions if you need)

CPU:
Stress - Prime95 or/and IBT
Monitor - Realtemp or/and Coretemp

GPU:
Stress - Furmark and rthdribl
Monitor - GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner

RAM:
Stress/Monitor - Memtest86+

Running each of those independently for 10-30 minutes (memtest do a full pass), and then the CPU+GPU together for around the same amount of time should stress the computer way more than your games do. If you make it through those tests with no dramas then it's safe to say that overheating is not your issue, and it's a decent indication that your CPU/GPU/RAM isn't dying (not 100% ruling it out though).

The next step would be making sure that your sound card drivers aren't being annoying twats (unless you're using USB audio in which case don't worry about it).

And finally the really fun part of finding someone to lend you a PSU to chuck in to see if it's one of the PSU rails dying or the like

Once those troubleshooting steps are done, we can get down to the nitty gritty impossible troubleshooting

[SnipingCoward]

You could also try reverting using the system restore or a backup if you have one thats not too far in the past.

Do you have a second network adapter/lan port you can test with? Since you say its only on multiplayer games.

[dtacs]

Did a system restore and played BF2 for about 1 hour and it didn't crash so I think it may have been a software thing.

Edit: But alas it still happens in PR..so back to a hardware problem I guess.

[dtacs]

One thing that is a bit peculiar is that every time I log back into PR/BF2, all my settings are totally reset...weird...

[SnipingCoward]

Hmm, really strange. You might want to check your hdd. Depending on the manufacurer there might be a diagnositcs tool available for your hard drive.

Reverting back further is probably not an option!?

Run chkdsk c: /r - for some basic system repair attempts.

[dtacs]

I updated a crapton of drivers for my mobo/chipset and that seemed to do the trick, the problem could come back at any time though I guess. Thanks for the help gents.

Without making another thread, is there any way I can turn up my microphone volume without using windows/BF2 voip settings? Its incredibly low even though I have transmit/recieve on 100% and the mic boost on AND the Windows record levels on 100, I have to talk really loud for some people and its very frustrating.

Is there any sort of program I can download that will turn it up?

[whatshisname55]

Go to sound in your control panel, switch to the recording tab, find your mic and double click it. Go to the levels tab and turn your mic boost up as far as it goes then adjust the mic volume as needed.

Err, that's for win7 and vista, what do you have?

[dtacs]

Win7, and like I said, I already have it on 100.

[Darkpowder]

Try using another MIC and see if the levels are still low to work out if you have sound issues on your HW/SW Drivers.

What mic is it, was it working fine before the "troubles with your PC" or has it always been poor?