Solved BSOD while playing videogames

[SilverEnsign]

Hi,

Recently I have been experiencing BSODs. They started occurring a few months ago after I attempted overclocking my Xfired HD 5770 and HD 5750 using a third-party software, b/c AMD's overdrive (and Catalyst Control Center) where not working. I experienced screen tearing so I attempted to reset everything to stock clocks, and I even removed and put back in my cards. After this attempted OC I started experiencing BSOD only when I played video games. Thinking I had screwed up my card settings, and since I could not find a way to give a true factory reset (and believing that to be the root of my problems) I went ahead and upgraded to a single Sapphire Radeon 7870 GB lx unlocked video card. I even gave my self a fresh re install of windows after I installed the new card. Now, after playing Crysis 3 for many hours I experienced two BSODs within the span of 10 minutes (by the way, the BSODs before my new card happened when playing BF3 or a graphically intensive game for a long while, but not when playing, say, Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion or something graphically un-intensive, like when not playing games). I'm not sure whats wrong so I need your help. Is it a temperature problem? Did I screw up my Motherboard? I promise I wont ever try to clock my GPU's using third party software again!! Any and All help will be so greatly appreciated!!!!

SilverEnsign

 

[Arc]

It is some display related crash.

*******************************************************************************
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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
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Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 50, {fffffa0010c337f0, 0, fffff880047cdce5, 7}


Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : dxgmms1.sys ( dxgmms1!VIDMM_GLOBAL::ReferenceAllocationForPreparation+19 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

Whereas your display driver is the latest.

fffff880`044b3000 fffff880`04547000   atikmpag   (deferred)             
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys
[COLOR=Red]    Image name: atikmpag.sys
    Timestamp:        Fri Mar 29 06:39:45 2013[/COLOR] (5154E9D9)
    CheckSum:         00091A60
    ImageSize:        00094000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Stress test the Graphics Card using Furmark.
Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark

Check if the Power Supply Unit (PSU) supplying adequate power to the computer or not.
eXtreme Power Supply Calculator
At least 30% extra is safe.

Is the computer hot? Report us the heat of the computer after a couple of hours of your normal usage. Upload a screenshot of the summery tab of Speccy.

Let us know the results.

 

[SilverEnsign]

Problem solved

Thank you for your help,

After tinkering around with fan settings and running tests, I have come to the conclusion that my problem was in fact overheating. With some safety measure in place I have yet to have a blue screen as my temps are staying below 68 degrees Celsius.

 

[Arc]

Good to know.

For any further issue, let us know.

 

[SilverEnsign]

I am reopening up this thread as I have been experiencing BSODs again. I am currently running the tests that Arc instructed me to do and will shortly post these results. But I left out a important part about my computer: the case. I have a Rosewill Blackbone computer case (link below) and when I initially built my computer it served my purposes well. But now that I game more, I am questioning whether or not to buy a new case. This case, by the way, only has two fans, one pulling and one pushing. And the fans I bought for the case are under 10 dB and likewise does not push larger amounts of air. I think they or the company were called scythes or something. However I have two fans hooked up to my CPU heat sink that came stock with the heat sink and the computer case.

Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com

 

[SilverEnsign]

BenchMarks

Ok here are my results for tests mentioned above.
*(I have a Sapphire version of the HD 7870 GHz and it has two fans on their heatsink)

Furmark- I allowed the benchmark to run for about 20000 frames with my GPU fans running at 100%. My beginning temperature was 37 degrees Celsius and reached 75 degrees Celsius. No Blue Screen during test.

PSU- Using the calculator and actually being relatively generous with the amount of things drawing power, It calculated my Wattage to be 438 W. I have a 750 W PSU; this is 71.2% more than calculated.

Speccy- attached snapshots as requested.

 

[Layback Bear]

SilverEnsign are you fix now. How are your cpu and gpu temps.
Your choice of cases for doing heavy gaming is not a good one. That why the temps must be monitored.
Please add to your specs exactly what power supply you are using and what cpu cooler you are using.

 

[essenbe]

As LaybackBear requested, please fill out your complete system specs: the easy way (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html) or you can do it by hand. To see what we would like, click 'my System Specs' at the bottom left of this post and see mine. We are apparently dealing with a hardware issue so as detailed as possible please.

As far as fans go, I know of no fan that is 10db, and if there is one, it won't put out much air. The eternal battle with fans is always sound vs. airflow. Your case came with 2 120mm fans, but you have the option of adding 2 more 120mm fans. I would invest in some good fans as you seem to be having cooling problems. To get good airflow, you will have to put up with at least some noise. Although some don't appreciate the color or the expense, Noctua fans ar as quiet as you will find with good airflow. You also want positive airflow ( more cooler fresh air coming into the case than going out). The internal wiring should be managed in such a way as it does not block airflow.

It is important to know the brand of PSU you have. Many of the cheaper brands will not put out the amps or voltage they claim. Generally with PSU's, you get what you pay for.

I also notice you have mixed 2 brands of ram. That is never a good idea, although sometimes it will work, staying with one brand bought as a set, is the safest way. Please run memtest86+ for 8 full passes, which will take several hours. It's best to run it overnight. If you show an error you can stop the test. Here is how to run it. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

 

[SilverEnsign]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!!! first off, after running Memtest for 8 passes i experienced no errors at all. Second My CPU temps don't reach over 55 degrees Celsius when under heavy load. My GPU temps can be found above, but for a recap they sit at 35~40 Celsius under no load and can get up to 75 Celsius under heavy load (using furmark stress test), but averages are anywhere from 60~70 Celsius depending on which game I'm playing and the ambient temperature of the room. I still think it has something to do with these temperatures, but recently, on logging into my user, a window pops up that says update.exe can not be found. I'm wondering if this is an effect of the BSOD or something else. Oh and I updated my system specs.

 

[essenbe]

Do you have SP1 installed and are you using spyware Doctor?

 

[SilverEnsign]

Yes SP1 is installed and I have never heard of that program and it does not show up as an installed program so I would say no.

 

[essenbe]

Press alt+control+delete at the same time, select task manager, find update.exe, right click it and select properties. See what program it is associated with.

 

[SilverEnsign]

I am not finding update.exe in my processes list. But this does not happen every time. Just sometimes.