PC hangs and stutters sound while playing games. Overheat?

So a few minutes ago, I was playing NFSMW on My PC. It was running on High. Everything was normal except that the metal chassis on the PC is hot. I thought it was just my rear intake fan just blowing hot air out of the open DVD drive bay cover I took out for air flow, so I just kept playing. A few minutes later, the PC just hangs and I am forced to do a cold restart witch I hate doing. Anyone know what the problem is? Overheat? Should I change something? (PS: I did NOT Overclock anything.)

Hi duke :) .
Well over heating can be tested, don't let the temperatures 85°C if they do stop the test(s).
Test for thermals and stability:

• Download HWinfo and post a Screenshot of the sensors window, one at idle and another while putting load on the PC using Prime95 for the CPU side and Furmark for the GPU.
  
  • Before running Prime95 make sure to enable Round-off checking (see 1st post under the tutorial).
  
  
     Note

  It is not mandatory to run both tests simultaneously, although possible as long as the temperatures are under constant monitoring.

Please upload the MSINFO32 file:

Start → Run → type MSINFO32 then hit Enter.
In MSINFO32 go to, File → Save → name it your user-name.
Once the file is saved right click it and choose Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder.

Attach the file in your next post.

Please export and upload your system event log:

1. Start → type eventvwr → hit Enter.
2. Toggle open the triangle to the left of Windows Logs, right-click on System and choose Save All Events As...
3. 
4. A dialogue box will pop up asking you to name the file and select the save directory, name the file the same as your Seven Forums user-name and save it to the desktop.
5. A second dialogue box will appear asking you to select the Display Information, select Display information for these languages and check the box next to English (if you don't have English automatically offered check the box at the bottom to display additional languages - Show all available languages and check English).
6. 
7. Wait a few moments until the cursor returns to normal. The file will now be on your desktop (given it's the directory it was saved to) UserName.evtx, next to it there will be a folder called LocaleMetaData select both the .evtx file as well as the folder and compress them using Winrar / 7zip and attach it in your next post.

it does in fact sound like your system is boiling over so to speak. How many fan(s) does your system have and what rpm are they running at? Please post according to the pictures above so we can see what temps etc the system is running at.

Thanks for the files :) .
The images are very small but I can make out that Prime95 was parked (not stressing)
and that the CPU is at 49.5°, the GPU is at 53° and that the images are the same.

dukethedj said:

Hm..... Weird. I do remember taking two pictures. And I also remember running the CPU test.. Strange. So it is not an overheating problem?

I can't know if the test didn't run or at least the proper data was presented, please try again :).

I went through the event log and found several points of interest.
You are experiencing (or at least experienced) a couple of TDR events.

TVeblen said:

"Display driver xxxxx stopped responding and was recovered"

Timeout Detection & Recovery (TDR) = "Display Driver Stopped Responding and was Recovered" is a useful feature that started in Vista and is also in W7 that allows the OS to try and recover from a video timeout so that the system does not crash to a bluescreen. Symptoms included a screen flash with the TDR message appearing one or more times or the screen blinking out to black. If the system cannot recover it will crash (Stop Error 116 typical). The issue is that the video card is not responding as expected.

Code:

Warning    28/12/2013 02:26:01    Display    4101    None
Warning    28/12/2013 02:13:13    Display    4101    None
Warning    27/12/2013 07:17:18    Display    4101    None
Warning    27/12/2013 07:10:44    Display    4101    None
Warning    27/12/2013 07:04:37    Display    4101    None
Warning    27/12/2013 07:04:15    Display    4101    None

Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

In your case it didn't bugcheck the machine but it doesn't mean that you should accept its presence.

You also have a couple these entries.

Code:

Error    03/01/2014 00:11:13    HAL    12    None
Error    01/01/2014 00:24:26    HAL    12    None
Error    30/12/2013 02:51:58    HAL    12    None

The platform firmware has corrupted memory across the previous system power transition.  Please check for updated firmware for your system.

Are any of those dates ring a bell with new hardware of some sort?
Anything really a USB, a PCI-e etc'..

Also you had a couple of 0x7E bugchecks, please post the file from this tutorial.

• Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions