Several games freezing up for no apparent reason.

[Graphic]

At first I thought it was just one game but this is starting to seem like a serious issue. Basically, Company of Heroes, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect are all freezing, forcing me to hard restart the PC. This problem could be effecting other games, but I haven't played much else recently. I do know that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seems to be uneffected, so does Call of Duty 4. I've known of Company of Heroes freezing for months, and just recently tried getting back into Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect which worked fine the first time I played them. These games don't freeze right away or at predictable times, it seems totally random. But if I keep playing these games, I will freeze. Period.

I've been trying to figure out this problem for a week now.

I've ran memtest86 for ~5 passes. RAM is in perfect condition.

I've ran Check Disk with "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" checked. Harddrive is in perfect condition.

I've ran a pre-start up virus scan with Avast! Found one infected dll, took care of it.

Ran Ad-Aware. The usual tracking cookies crap, nothing extraordinary.

I've tried uninstalling Realtek HD audio drivers and using the Windows default. Nothing.

I've tried old Nvidia drivers from February, the current retail drivers, and new beta drivers. Nothing.

I've downloaded RivaTuner and Nvidia System Tools and jacked my GPU fan up to 100%. Nothing.

I defragged. Nothing.

I uninstalled Daemon Tools. Nothing.

I'm out of ideas guys.

With my hardware being in apparently fine condition, I'm thinking it's got to be driver/software related, but I don't know what else to try. Could it be Windows itself?

It may or may not be related, but I also have freeze/BSOD issues when running any kind of video capture software (with any game, including the ones that don't freeze), like Xfire's built-in recording and Fraps. These freezes are also random but a sure thing. At this point I don't care about that, though. I just want to play my games.

I've attached my DxDiag, but just let me know if you need any more information.

[Graphic]

Anyone?

[Graphic]

In another thread here I'm trying to figure out why some games always freeze. All indications point to the CPU running quite hot.

So I get the bright idea to go into the BIOS and set the CPU multiplier down to 4x from 14x. F10, save, and now my computer won't start.

I hit the power, the fans come on, the fan lights come on, everything flashes like normal on the tower, but I got a blank monitor and no beep.

As far as I know all I need to do is get back into BIOS and change the setting back.


Please tell me there's a way to fix this without taking my machine to a PC repair stop or calling the geek squad.

[Laurie52]

Ok, dumb suggestion: If your video capture software is creating problems even when not playing games....that might be the best place to look.

[Graphic]

I have no idea how you got the idea that that was somehow the problem, I made no implication that it was. I just said "oh, and BY THE WAY, I also have problems with video capture, perhaps the same root problem is causing them both."

It was indeed a dumb suggestion, with all due respect.

That was definitely worth the three day wait for a response

www.computerhope.com takes a giant **** on this place.

[koala]

Originally Posted by Graphic

www.computerhope.com takes a giant **** on this place.

I'll close this thread as you've found help elsewhere.