BSOD while playing Facebook games and using Dolphin emulator

Hi, I just registered because because for the last two months I've been suffering from Blue Screen crashes. The screen goes black, the sound stops, and I have to turn off the PC using the on/off button. When I reboot, Windows reports that it recovered from an unexpected shutdown caused by a BlueScreen error.

It first happened while playing the Facebook game Candy Crush Soda Saga, and I thought at first that the game was just buggy. Then it happened when I played Words on Tour, and Bubble Witch 2 Saga, both of which are also Facebook games. But yesterday, I was playing a couple of games using the Dolphin emulator and got several more blue screen crashes. I wonder if my graphics card is failing? Or is it just bad drivers? Help please!

All of your dumps are STOP 0x116 which indicates a problem with your graphics card. Download this earlier version from here and follow NVIDIA Drivers - Avoid Problems for the cleanest possible install, then test the system for stability.

It could well be that the problem is with the card itself but try out that earlier driver which is known to be the most stable recent driver just to rule out driver issues. Also could you let me know the temperature your card is running at both under load and idle.


Uninstall Daemon Tools, a proven cause of BSODs.

1. Uninstall Daemon Tools.
2. Download the SPTD standalone installer and perform the following steps.
3. Double click the executable to open it.
4. Click the button shown below.

View attachment 353128

If the button it is grayed out as shown in the image, there is no more SPTD installation on your system and you can just close the window.

A driver from 2013? Definitely from before the problems started, so yeah, I'll go install that now, hopefully it'll work. I've also removed Daemon Tools. I'll report back if I get any more BlueScreen errors after the driver downgrade.

As for the temperature, how on Earth do I find that out?

Download MSI Afterburner to read your GPU temperatures, it can be minimised to the notification area so your temperature is always visible.

I think MSI Afterburner's installation keeps getting cancelled. It gets to 100%, asks about launching Goodgame Empire Game from desktop (if the box is checked, it puts a shortcut on the desktop linking to an online MMO), and whether I check that box or not, clicking Next results in the installer closing and I can't find where it was installed, hence, I think it's cancelling rather than proceeding. You'd expect the button to say Done rather than Next once it's completed, after all.

Check in Control Panel if it's installed, if so uninstall it. Then download it from this link instead. I'm not sure what's happening there to be honest.

I don't see it in the Add/Remove Programs list, so I was right, it never completed the installation. Will try the other link.
EDIT: OK, installed successfully, temperature with only that and Chrome running is 64C. I assume that's the idle temperature you mentioned. Uh oh. And it just said the temperature was 73C when a game was running (and this was only after a minute, not even long term). Is it supposed to increase that much?
EDIT2: The temperature goes as high as 80C. Overheating?

I've hit another snag, with the original problem. I followed the instructions, uninstalling the driver - and when I rebooted, guess what Windows did? The "display adaptor" that was supposed to be installed is in fact the latest Nvidia drivers - the same one I just uninstalled! So it seems that Step 8 undoes Step 7. Should I attempt to overwrite with the older one?

Digifiend said:

I don't see it in the Add/Remove Programs list, so I was right, it never completed the installation. Will try the other link.
EDIT: OK, installed successfully, temperature with only that and Chrome running is 64C. I assume that's the idle temperature you mentioned. Uh oh. And it just said the temperature was 73C when a game was running (and this was only after a minute, not even long term). Is it supposed to increase that much?
EDIT2: The temperature goes as high as 80C. Overheating?

Click to expand...

My GTX780 runs at 80°C when under load which is normal, I'd have to check the temperatures for your card though to see if that's right. 64°C when idling does seem very high though, mine normally sits around the 30°C mark.

Can you remove the side of your case and check your GPU for any dust build up. This is usually the main cause of overheating.

Digifiend said:

I've hit another snag, with the original problem. I followed the instructions, uninstalling the driver - and when I rebooted, guess what Windows did? The "display adaptor" that was supposed to be installed is in fact the latest Nvidia drivers - the same one I just uninstalled! So it seems that Step 8 undoes Step 7. Should I attempt to overwrite with the older one?

Click to expand...

No, don't overwrite what's installed. That becomes messy. Have you made the relevant changes to Windows Updates prior to rebooting?

Regarding Windows Updates, yes - in fact the recommended settings are what I use all the time anyway, to make sure I know when something is updated.