Help me with freezing games?

[Spec]

I'm not very tech savvy. So maybe you guys can help me out.

I have a problem with freezes in two (and only these two) games, that is Metro 2033, and Witcher 2.

They freeze at completely random times, usually in calm situations without much happening on the screen. The system is relatively well ventilated. I didn't have time for a long term benchmark, but on the short term it doesn't heat over 70? C. I'm using a 7850. I tried with and without overclocking it, no difference. Relatively quickly raises from the default 35 degrees idle temp to about 65, and stays there for the 20 minutes of ingame combat I tested it in. Of course in very long sessions it may rise a bit higher, but the errors don't appear only after hours of playing, so I doubt it's the heat. But again, I'm no expert, perhaps it is. I'll keep an eye on the heat, but sadly I can't check it right after a freeze due to... the freeze.

I tried anywhere inbetween low and high video settings, no difference.

I checked my RAM for problems, Windows didn't find any during the pre-boot test.

Drivers are up to date.

Problem does not happen during normal use, nor while playing any other games than those two specific ones.

CPU is an AMD FX 8150 processor, 8 cores at ~3.6 GHz.

8 Gigs of RAM, DDR3.

HDD is probably the bottleneck, it's small and wasn't very expensive because I don't install a lot of stuff. Games were both installed on a pretty close to full D:, but I'm currently re-downloading The Witcher 2 to rule out corrupt data and I'm putting it into C: (also close to full).

Windows is taking care of virtual memory on both partitions.

Any ideas? If it was a broken GPU, I'd have the problems outside of those two games, wouldn't I?

I don't have any costly benchmarking tools. Crysis never froze, if that is of any help. Two relevant games don't lag or stutter on close to max settings, either. (I'm not running anything at overly ultra settings, I don't want to deliberately invoke errors)

Edit: As for the freezes:
Game stops doing anything. Frozen picture. I don't recall music looping, but it may have, perhaps. Not sure.
Can't alt+tab nor ctrl+alt+del, have to completely kill the system. Happens about 30 minutes to 1 hour into the game. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Usually takes quite a while for it to happen.
No specific circumstances. Sometimes in cutscenes, sometimes in conversations, sometimes during gameplay, once while opening a menu... No idea. Rarely during big explosions, fights, shootouts, combat or anything like that, strangely enough.

It's extremely hard to reproduce on purpose. I could let the games run for 5 hours sometimes without incidents.

[KillJoy[Fr]]

You can check your hard drive with CrystalDiskInfo and also try to make a stress test of you CPU and GPU with OCCT. For OCCT i usually make a 10mins strees test including 1min of preparation and 1min of cooling down.

[Spec]

OCCT and Furmark (for relatively short periods of time) don't come up with any crashes or explosions.

I'm not sure how to read these things, the -12V value seems to sometimes stick around -15 instead during tests. No idea where these twelve volts go and why and whether it being fifteen means I'm screwed or whether that may be due to factory overclocking or some other reason.

[KillJoy[Fr]]

Well if your pc survive to that test this is a good news, but that strange -12v should stick at -12v with a tolerance of +/- 10%. Can you you show me the diagnostic graphs located in My documents ?

[Spec]

Here is the probably most relevant one, I can upload more if needed: http://i.imgur.com/OCpt7bW.png

Here's the GPU results:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/3qf39 ... /12-49.zip

[Spec]

Also, played the Witcher 2 again for ~30 MINUTES without incident. Monitored the heat and stuff all the time, tabbed out periodically, nothing unusual happening. Doesn't rise above the max heat it had in previous tests, I think I can pretty much rule out overheating.

Might not be hardware at all, unless these test results give reason to worry?

I changed it to run on partition C alongside the Steam client... Though if that was the reason, I suppose it'd have caused trouble for more people.

Made sure there's no dust anywhere, too, to be sure. A bit had collected around the video card, so maybe I'm lucky and that was the reason... Dunno.

I'm not running much in the background when gaming either. Noone ever complained about avast causing it, but I can turn it off I guess. other than that, just Steam, sometimes Firefox, and a few messengers (usually just pidgin and/or Skype)...

[KillJoy[Fr]]

Your right problem doesn't look coming from hardware at least CPU and GPU, have you launch CrystalDiskInfo too ?

[Spec]

Not yet, if it takes as long as Windows' full integrity check I'll have to do it overnight I guess

Edit: When I worte 30 hours above, I meant 30 minutes obviously. I didn't play for 30 hours straight, lol

(The tool only says 'good' right now. Am I supposed to run some sort of integrity test or is it just monitoring general usage? So far, it didn't act up.)

[KillJoy[Fr]]

CrystalDiskInfo help's for diagnostic trouble coming from the hard drive, any particular action is needed, it's only show some useful information like the temp, numbers of starts, hours awake and finnaly a general heath status. Since the result was "Good" you shouldn't be worried about HDD.

Your problem is more now coming from software.

[Spec]

Well, guess that's a good thing, I guess.

Edit: Guess guess guess.

I'll try playing without background programs next time, though that'll not be too soon, don't have time to play until next week, and it can take quite a while until the error happens.

[Spec]

Since I could not really find out what caused it (I reduced the amount of occurances by removing background software, but it still happens sometimes, other times the PC just shuts off under stress such as when working with CPU-intensive programs) I don't completely want to rule out hardware after all.

I had an idea. The PC is connected to the wall via a power strip. Is there a chance that it is faulty, possibly causing the voltages being unreliable and not being able to handle the stress? I'll try to switch that out.

[Psyrus]

Sporadic, strange PC issues that can't be explained by one component have historically (only twice, but more than 0) led me to finding out the PSU was the culprit.

It's a pain in the *** to test, you gotta borrow a PSU from someone

[LITOralis.nMd]

Tend to agree with Psyrus at this point in troubleshooting.
PSU capacitor, and/or a motherboard capacitor is probably nearing critical failure,

Also, if you connected all your peripherals to just one of your two 12V rails, it can cause this problem due to power load imbalance.

If you
1. post your system specs, including peripherals,
2. crack open your PC case and find exact make/model of your PSU,
we can offer a bit more advice

[Spec]

It just shut itself off while running nothing but Firefox and chat programs.

I'll have to open that thing up, I'll deliver the hardware details soon. If only I'd find the box of the PSU, I'm sure I kept it in the basement somewhere.

(Note: These problems haven't always been there. Especially not a sudden shutdown during regular use. These shutdowns have only been a thing since a few days, after I thought I had fixed the original issue with the games.
I even plugged it into a different wall socket.)

btw, Windows Event Log tells me that around the time of the shutdown, there was an error ID 41 from the source Kernel Power. Google tells me that could still be anything from overheating (doubt it while in firefox for a few hours) to PSU failure, but I guess worth mentioning.

Possibly related: There was a very brief power outage a few days prior to the most recent problems, which did shut my PC off (and everything else). But that could be completely unrelated.

[Spec]

CPU: AMD FX 8150 processor, 8 cores at ~3.6 GHz.
Video Card: HD 7850, I think it might be factory overclocked
Power Supply: BQT E9-600W (that ought to be enough)
Motherboard: GA-970A-UD3
RAM: 2x4GB DDR3 @1600Mhz (Corsair Vengeance, frighteningly)
Harddrive: Western Digital WD 5000 AAKX (SATA-III, 500 GB)
DVD drive: LiteOn IHAS124-19 or something

HP LaserJet P1006
A Samsung screen via HDMI, SyncMaster T220HD
Cheap Logitech Headset, not via USB (usually unplugged or partially unplugged)
A pair of ancient speakers I have no idea what they really are
USB-Mouse, another cheap Logitech thing I can't recall the name of, connected via something that calls itself "Unifying Receiver".
Some generic Keyboard from an old Medion computer, USB.

That really should be everything now, unless you need the case
Oh. Cooling. I forgot completely that I never replaced the default fan for the processor, that might be worth a shot, the default one is apparently quite shit. That and the heat in Germany right now could be a factor, if it's overheating after all.

Doesn't really explain why it shut down in firefox once, however.

[Death!]

I'd say it is HDD, but CDI said it's ok.

Well, try doing a system restore on a point before the power shortage. If it does not work, you can try installing Windows again, if it yet keep freezing, probably it's hardware (or driver) related.

[Spec]

Mh, I'd rather avoid reinstalling windows until that is the last option. I'll try using a different PSU and a new fan before that, because I don't have anywhere to backup all my data right now.

[Spec]

I'll just take the liberty and move this to hardware for now, it's been kind of going in that direction.

Now, I think I'll replace the cooling solution for the CPU and see if that changes anything. I need to do that anyway, so no harm in doing it now, least risky thing I can do.

Anyone got suggestions for a good air cooler for my processor?

[LITOralis.nMd]

Cooler Master HYPER 212 EVO extremely popular because it's cheap and gets the job done. At some point you can buy a second fan to make it push pull if you OC your CPU.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (RR-212E-20PK-R2) - PCPartPicker Deutschland
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (RR-212E-20PK-R2) - PCPartPicker

[KillJoy[Fr]]

Your CPU wasn't overheathing when we do the stress-test?