Windows 7: Crash * Distorted (Illegible) BSOD During Gameplay

Hey guys! So I've been at it troubleshooting this problem for about 3months now. It all started with my 680i mobo frying (literally, smoke came off the SB), and I got an RMA. I swapped it out with a 790i FTW they sent me, and was able to OC pretty significantly on it, which i was happy with. I even OC'd my GPU 8800gtx by 15% and everything was stable.

Ran Prime95 for hours with no errors, and also ran MemTest for >8hrs for 192% coverage with no errors.
Everything runs great, except that consistently while I'm playing Starcraft 2 (I'm an aspiring esports competitor), it crashes in the middle of games. Screen freezes/blacks out, sounds goes into infinite stutter - until I hard reboot.

I then started down the Rabbit's hole to fix it:
-Temps: CPU IDLE/LOAD (C) [67/72, 65/72, 57/59, 57/59], GPU [60C @ Sustained Load], SPP/MCP [60C @ Sustained Load] - Great temps considering OC, I have great case airflow & heatsinks, no problems there.
- Remove all OC - Reset Stock Clock/Volt Settings on all components
- Decreased Graphics settings to low everything in Starcraft2
- PCIe to 100mhz
- Decreased/Increased NB & SB Voltage
- Added (2) fans pointing directly at the NB & SB heatsinks - these have dropped in temp by 5C with fans.
- Changed timings & voltage on RAM to manually match factory specs
- Changed BIOS settings entirely to a full list of settings posted on a forum that some people were having success with.
- Swapped out the 2x4GB 1866 G.Skill Ripjaw for 2x2GB 1066 Crucial Ballistix
- Reseated all cables
- Unplugged mini-card reader (this was suggested in another thread, and actually seemed to help some people oddly - not me tho).
- Flashed BIOS to most recent version SZ17
- updated to most recent graphics, audio, and chipset drivers

Nothing worked! It kept crashing!

My instincts really do tell me its a graphics issue, considering the screen turns off for most freezes. The only other correlation that I could note was that it started crashing right after I installed SP1.

I then continued to try:



- Tried doing a system restore before SP1, but apparently the system restore file got corrupted so I couldn't do that. Instead I 'uninstalled' SP1 & all windows updates from that day via control panel -> programs and features -> view installed updates (top left corner of window) -> r-click desired update to uninstall it.
- turning off background CPU/GPU Samplers and all other bg progs (some people were saying that evga precision or coretemp had some stability issues with Windows 7 SP1).
- Disabled hardware flash acceleration
- repair install of SC2
- disk check
- update all drivers multiple times (both installing directly over current, and also using Driver Cleaner AND Driver Sweeper) - Video, Audio, Chipset
- reverted to older editions of drivers.
- all in-game settings to low.
- uninstall and reinstall AVG


Nothing worked, so I went out and bought a new GPU - 560 ti.

IT CRASHED AGAIN!! I reinstalled video & audio drivers. Still crashed!!

Final step: Reinstall Chipset drivers directly over current.
SUCCESS!! No more crashes. Thank God!

That ran for like 6weeks without crashes, and I avoided reinstalling SP1 too, just in case there were some driver incompatibilities for whatever reason.

Just recently installed SP1 again. No crashes for days, even during long 4-6 hour gaming sessions.

Then, last night, it crashed twice again!! There never were logs in the Event Viewer (I checked after every reboot), but this time there was a feint distorted image of a BSOD (still no eventviewer log tho), thus I decided to come here to hopefully get some more eyes on it.


Current System Specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM (but I installed it) - age = 3yo
Mobo: EVGA 790i FTW (RMA for an old 680i, this board is less than 3mo old)
RAM: 8GB G.Skill DDR3 2x4GB 1866 (running 1600) + 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1x2GB 1333 (running 1600) (<3mo old)
CPU: Q6600 @ 3.6GHz (>3years old) w/ TRUE
GPU: nVidia 560 ti stock (<1mo old)
HDD: Intel 510 120GB SSD boot and starcraft install(<1mo old)



Thanks in advance, sorry this was so long but I figure the more info the better in troubleshooting this thing. I just want it run smoothly!

Hello surfsk8snow.

I did not find any dump file in your CrashDocs.zip attachment. To make sure you have it enabled check this tutorial (Link)

Any questions feel free to ask.

Best Regards,
FredeGail

bah, looks like I didn't have it set up to save to minidump, it was set to kernel dump. I guess I'll have to wait til it happens again to post. Thanks for the link