PC freezing in all my games

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 06:48 AM

So recently my computer has been experiencing a few issues...

I used to be able to play games no problem at all, but all of a sudden I am experiencing freezing in all my games, around 5- 10 mins into any game each and every time the game will freeze, and whatever I am looking at in game will become locked to the screen, leaving me unable to alt tab or ctrl alt delete out. However I can hear programs running in the background when my computer freezes, such as Itunes or Youtube... So it proves the whole computer isnt locking up. And I dont recieve any error messages.

If I run in Windowed mode and then alt tab it will actually let me do so, but the computer becomes very slow, eventually I will be able to close the program but I sometimes encounter a 'Windows in not responding' error which gives me the option to 'end process'.

I've had to reboot several times trying to fix this freezing issue myself but I fear it has just made the problem worse... My computer now hangs on a black screen or the windows symbol if I cold boot. The problem is, when this happens I have to cold boot one or more times to get it to start.

If I shut down normally I don't have any problems, and if im not running a game the computer runs flawlessly, the games also run well through menus and loading up until the point they freeze, which always occurs during actual gameplay. I don't get any warning, no frame rate drops, although Fallout New Vegas sometimes loses sound before it crashes.

I've experienced crashing on;
Fallout New Vegas
Crysis 2
Oblivion

I haven't tried any other games but the situation on all of these (all used to work no problem at all) is EXACTLY the same.

Here are my specs;
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit (6.1 build 7600)
nVidia Geforce GTX 460
AMD Athlon II x4 620 processor (4 CPU's), ~2.6 Ghz
4096MB RAM
Direct x 11
Atrix extreme power 80 plus 800W

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance for your replies.

!EDIT!

I just looked in the event viewer, there are tons of error messages (50,000 in total) but all the ones form today are about the same issue.

'The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.'

The thing is, I get this chkdsk thing popping up quite often when I start my computer after a cold boot, and i've let it run nearly every time... It didnt find any errors.

Any got any ideas?

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 06:55 AM

First suspect would be your low-quality PSU. For a 800w PSU with only 38a (combined) on the 12v rails shows that it is not good quality. My 750w pushes out more @ 60a on the 12v rail. Those are signs of PSU issues or overheating of the GPU or CPU or both. Please post voltages and temps from the BIOS screen.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 07:01 AM

I dont think its a heat problem as i've been playing fine for months, I even have the cover off right now, however I will check anyway.

In the meantime, what do you think the errors in the event log;
The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.

Data error on device. Device: \Device\RaidPort0

and

The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume \Device\HarddiskVolume2 mean? They are all from today, and I've cold booted the cpu a few times today.

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 07:07 AM

Please still post the voltages from the BIOS, as your PSU has seriously low amps for a 800w PSU on the 12v rails.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 07:22 AM

Not sure if these are right but here you go;

CPU Vcore: 1.224 V
3.3V: 3.296V
5V: 5.003V
12V: 12.056V
5V SB: 5.171V

CPU Temp: 46°C (114.8°F)

System Temp: 34°C (96.8°F)

Also it just asked me to run chkdsk AGAIN when I started up, but I chose to skip.

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 07:26 AM

Voltages are ok, but you CPU temp is a bit high for an idle temp. Do a load test on the CPU and monitor the temp with HWMonitor and post a screenshot from that.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 07:42 AM

Im a bit of a newbie when it comes to computers... How would I go about doing a load test?

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 07:45 AM

Download and run Prime95 and download HWmonitor and run it in the background whilst running Prime95 and monitor the temps.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 07:49 AM

Downloaded and got both of them working, which test do you recommend that I use?
Blend? In place-large FFT? Small FTT?

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 08:12 AM

Well I ran a blend test, which tests a bit of everything and alot of ram... here is a screen shot

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 08:50 AM

Your load temps seem ok. Even though your voltages appear normal I would suspect that, that is where your problem lies, your PSU. Try swapping in a different brand and see if it helps. Like I said before, for a 800w PSU that has the same amount of amps on the 12v rails as my old Gigabyte ODIN 585w PSU (34a combined) compared to your 38a, leads me to believe your PSU might be struggling to provide adequate power to your system. How old is your PSU?

Be careful if the PSU fails completely it could take your graphics card and other components down with it and then your costs will be far greater than that of a decent PSU.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 09:10 AM

Its about 5 months old, it was £160, its a switching power supply. I haven't got another PSU lying around that can support my GTX 460, that was the reason I got that PSU in the first place.

Do you think the corrupted file system structure in C: could be the cause of this?
Im getting alot of errors related to NTFS in the event viewer, and other ones im not sure of such as nvstor64

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welsher

I've had to reboot several times trying to fix this freezing issue myself but I fear it has just made the problem worse... My computer now hangs on a black screen or the windows symbol if I cold boot. The problem is, when this happens I have to cold boot one or more times to get it to start.

This leads me to the conclusion that it is definitely Power Related. I doubt whether the errors you get will have this effect on your PC even before it boots into Windows. You could try a clean install of Windows if you want, maybe it will work

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 10:34 AM

I think I worded that wrong, I have to cold boot because it freezes. Its probably hardware related (probably my fault for booting so many times) and something to do with chkdsk since it keeps popping up. I dont think its a power issue.

Wrench97 · 08-19-2011, 10:38 AM

Those Amp ratings(19,19 for the 12, and 30,30 for 5v and 3.3v) don't even add up to a 800w Peak rated supply.

Expand the voltage tab in HWmonitor and check the 12v mid-game.

Johnny1982 · 08-19-2011, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wrench97

Those Amp ratings(19,19 for the 12, and 30,30 for 5v and 3.3v) don't even add up to a 800w Peak rated supply.

Expand the voltage tab in HWmonitor and check the 12v mid-game.

For a (decent) 800w PSU you'd expect at least more than 60a on the 12v rail(s). My ODIN 585w had the similar output to this PSU @ 34a.

EDIT: Didn't even notice that the voltages were hidden.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 11:24 AM

Hmm maybe Im not quite sure of the wattage, I cant remember, On the side of the PSU it says 800W.

Sorry I didnt realise you wanted the voltages too...

The temperatures are all fine in this so I didnt bother showing them.

Wrench97 · 08-19-2011, 11:47 AM

Did you have the Video card loaded up during that period of time?

If not load the card with a game leaving HWmonitor running in the back ground.

The reason we're asking is that voltage spikes(spikes won't show up in hwmonitor but the variance from the lowest to highest will) can also cause corrupt data on the drive.

Welsher · 08-19-2011, 02:02 PM

Thanks for all your help guys, But I think I have finally found what is wrong...

Have a gander at this thread.
The Nvidia 400/500 series lockup club! - NVIDIA Forums

GTX 400/500 series have some serious compatibility issues that nVidia just wont acknowledge it seems... This thread is almost a year old and people are STILL experiencing these problems (myself included).

I was using the 260 drivers for a while, until the other day when I updated to the latest (282, I think) and things have gone downhill since then. So in the meantime I have reverted back to 260 and things are fine again... I think I will keep it like this for a while until I scrape up enough money to replace this current GTX.

Once again, thank you for your time and help.

Wrench97 · 08-19-2011, 02:13 PM

Is yours freezing in the bios?

Quote:

What doesn't work
1. Drivers, software, or reformatting. Anything that's on your hard drive does not matter. Why? Because these cards will lockup before Windows even loads. These cards are known to lockup while in the BIOS. Like I said before, drivers can help bandage the symptoms but they won't actually fix anything that's a compatibility issue between motherboards and these nvidia cards. You can take the hard drive and hammer nails through it and it won't effect the lockups. Like I said, leave your BIOS settings open for an hour or so, it will eventually lockup.