Computer crashing when gaming

Hello all!

I'm having this weird problem. My computer crashes after x mins of gaming. Same thing with COD2 and BF3. How can I check what is causing this? Tried to remove any dust from the case and it seems that the computer isn't overheating.

I'm having 296.10 drivers atm and tried the newest also, dunno if it's releated to drivers or something else. Everything worked well before with this system so .

Do I really need to go to the local computer store and get that 3570k + new mb or what?

A couple things to try:

Download and burn/use a USB installer for Memtest86+ and run that for a few hours/few passes and see if there are any errors

Download RealTemp/CoreTemp/HWMonitor to watch your temperatures and use Prime95 on blend to see if you get any crashes.

If still no crashes we can try an application like 3dMark Vantage or 3dMark11 to see if it crashes during those simulations.

If you are getting a BSOD during the gameplay you can disable automatic restart on failture by going to My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Advanced and unchecking 'restart on failure' this way you can document what BSOD code it is giving you.

I would also try a different set of drivers and using an application like Driversweeper/drivercleaner that will remove all copies of old drivers from your computer.

Also, do this tried but true "high tech" procedure: Open your case side panel, grab a small fan and place it so that it will blow into said case, and turn it on to low settings. Now play your games. Are you still getting crashes?

Hello and thank you for your answers! Haven't have time to fix this problem, thought that reinstalling win7 could maybe do it like always but not sure anymore, noticed that my CPU usage is under 10% when unrarring 720p video material, can somebody tell me what might be causing that? Is my Q9550 coming to its end or what?


EDIT:




Memtest ok! Prime95 fine and no crashes etc. No defragmented partitions etc. What else? Could it just be the display drivers or something?

it is VERY hard for us to tell you what the issue is... is your PC rebooting when it crashes? what exactly does it do? just lock??

if it is rebooting then you NEED to do what janus said:

If you are getting a BSOD during the gameplay you can disable automatic restart on failture by going to My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Advanced and unchecking 'restart on failure' this way you can document what BSOD code it is giving you.

Click to expand...

this code will tell you what it is.. not likely that your cpu is on it's way out due to what you posted in your SS.

Jkicak said:

it is VERY hard for us to tell you what the issue is... is your PC rebooting when it crashes? what exactly does it do? just lock??

if it is rebooting then you NEED to do what janus said:



this code will tell you what it is.. not likely that your cpu is on it's way out due to what you posted in your SS.

Click to expand...

It just freezes, sound and picture both. And you have to restart it manually.

Sounds like a possible driver or os issue. if you run a 3d benchmark like 3dmark does it happen?

it could be PSU related

I had a Q9550 on a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 way back and 3.825GHz was the highest stable overclock I could get... I got it to 4GHz but it wasn’t stable and I see that he’s running at 3.8GHz and no offense but I think your level of experience in overclocking may be somewhat lacking especially when pushing your cpu to its limits. I think its an overclocking issue and you will have to start to isolate where the problem is coming from ie cpu, FSB, RAM etc... and the only way to do that is to follow what was previously mentioned.

Memtest86 for the RAM (at least two complete loops without errors)
Prime95 small FTT's for CPU only (if you can run this for 4hrs just switch to blend)
Prime95 Blend for CPU & Mem (run this for 12hrs)
3DMark Vantage (look for smooth video, and uncorrupted textures especially in the water and fog, and obviously for crashes)

All monitored with CPUZ (for voltages, multipliers, FSB etc...) and Core Temp for CPU temps... Be sure to note the temp at Idle and after 30min of load.

So I'm guessing youre running a 450MHz FSB with a 5:6 DRAM-FSB divider for your PC8500 RAM?
What is the model number and timmings of your RAM? Are you running the RAM at its specified timmings and voltage?
What is your FSB voltage?
What is your ICH voltage?
What is your PLL voltage?
Have you checked to make sure the PCIE frequency is uncoupled with the FSB and running at 100MHz?
What is your FSB strap? 2.00D?
Are you using any clock skewing or amplituted adjsutments?