Borderlands 2 Ctd/Freezing-Windows 8.1

[XiandreX]

My system in Sig is freezing/crashing running Borderlands 2.
I am not sure if it hates overclocks or heat or drivers or settings.

I searched everywhere trying to find a fix. I had 13.11 running and installed the official 14.4's in hopes it would fix it. I have tried turning off FXAA. I am slowly reducing the overclock from 1100 to 1075 and now to 1050. I have tried adjusting voltage, fan speed profiles etc. Sometimes it crashes about 10 minutes in and sometimes I get lucky and get around 30 minutes before it locks up.

Afterburner shows max temps were only around 83c. I am open to any ideas/suggestions you might have. I have just bought most of the DLC from the steam sale and would love to play. I guess I can turn off overclocks completely while playing if that is what it takes.

I am running Windows 8.1

 

[BrightCandle]

When it comes to problems like this the first thing to do is get rid of the over clocks, CPU, GPU, ram etc. You turn them all back to stock. You don't need a potentially unstable machine getting in the way of your debugging. Might not be the issue but Microsoft has data showing that a lot of machine crashes are due to over clocks.

 

[XiandreX]

When it comes to problems like this the first thing to do is get rid of the over clocks, CPU, GPU, ram etc. You turn them all back to stock. You don't need a potentially unstable machine getting in the way of your debugging. Might not be the issue but Microsoft has data showing that a lot of machine crashes are due to over clocks.

Thanks for the quick response BrightCandle. I will check when I get home and see what happens.

If anyone else has experience with stability issues with Borderlands 2 similar to mine please chime in.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

I actually had weird crash issues with BL2 on Windows 8.1 too on my 760, but I fixed it by verifying the game through steam.

 

[BrightCandle]

The game has been 100% stable for me, both early on and just yesterday. Its just not been an unstable game and I haven't seen many people complaining of crashes and bugs and such. Its far more likely to be the computer than the game in this case, not certainly but most likely.

 

[XiandreX]

I actually had weird crash issues with BL2 on Windows 8.1 too on my 760, but I fixed it by verifying the game through steam.

I tried verifying it as well. Came back with 1 file having to be redone but still nothing. I will turn off Video card overclocks tonight when I get home.

 

[BrightCandle]

I tried verifying it as well. Came back with 1 file having to be redone but still nothing. I will turn off Video card overclocks tonight when I get home.

No not just video, also your CPU overclock, any RAM overclocks. You might think its stable, and so far its been stable but its not sufficient to just do the GPU clocks, it could be your CPU/RAM/anything else so turn it all off. Not down, go back to stock.

 

[XiandreX]

No not just video, also your CPU overclock, any RAM overclocks. You might think its stable, and so far its been stable but its not sufficient to just do the GPU clocks, it could be your CPU/RAM/anything else so turn it all off. Not down, go back to stock.

Hehe Bright that's what I meant to say. I will put the GPU down to stock first.
Ram is stock. If problem still persists then I will put CPU to stock.

The funny thing is all other games behave fine. It just seems to be Borderlands 2.

 

[BrightCandle]

Its not uncommon for one game to break the overclock. I was happy running 24/7 stable on my 3930k right until I started playing Arma 3, then it started crashing. I thought it was the game but pretty soon it was apparent I was crashing more and in different ways to other players in my group. I went back to stock everything and it worked fine, since then my overclock has been 4.4Ghz. It sure looked stable at 4.5Ghz for over a year, but it wasn't. Different games push different aspects of the CPU and what once appeared stable isn't in another game.

When you have crashing issues and other people don't its prudent to just remove the overclock, that eliminates it as a potential cause. I can't count how many times we have had people with problems here who just went back to stock and the problem disappears. We can't trust that you have done your due diligence to ensure your overclock and since BL2 is a very well done game its certain suspicious that its out right crashing for you, its 90% likely its your overclock.

 

[XiandreX]

Its not uncommon for one game to break the overclock. I was happy running 24/7 stable on my 3930k right until I started playing Arma 3, then it started crashing. I thought it was the game but pretty soon it was apparent I was crashing more and in different ways to other players in my group. I went back to stock everything and it worked fine, since then my overclock has been 4.4Ghz. It sure looked stable at 4.5Ghz for over a year, but it wasn't. Different games push different aspects of the CPU and what once appeared stable isn't in another game.

When you have crashing issues and other people don't its prudent to just remove the overclock, that eliminates it as a potential cause. I can't count how many times we have had people with problems here who just went back to stock and the problem disappears. We can't trust that you have done your due diligence to ensure your overclock and since BL2 is a very well done game its certain suspicious that its out right crashing for you, its 90% likely its your overclock.

Out of curiosity which of the 2 overclocks would you guess as the issue, Video card or Cpu?

 

[BrightCandle]

Out of curiosity which of the 2 overclocks would you guess as the issue, Video card or Cpu?

For lockups its more likely to be CPU.

 

[XiandreX]

For lockups its more likely to be CPU.

It turns out it was the Video card overclock. Also to clarify the system was fine.
It was just the game locking up etc.

I am going to have to slowly overclock again until I get issues. Thanks for all your help. Much appreciated.

 

[MeldarthX]

you can set a profile for BL2 - for fastest OC you can find on the video and profile for the rest of your games.... something about BL2 doesn't like the OC you had; some games and programs react like that glad you found it

 

[XiandreX]

you can set a profile for BL2 - for fastest OC you can find on the video and profile for the rest of your games.... something about BL2 doesn't like the OC you had; some games and programs react like that glad you found it

It makes me think I can push my CPU up a bit more now, although even though 4.2Ghz is very conservative its plenty for most tasks.

What's strange though is when my overclock was at 1100 on core for the 7950 it actually reported lower clocks in games like Crysis 3 which I would imagine would be due to power/heat issues.
Now with stock it seems to be pushing boost core to 1075 in Borderlands 2, which I know is far less strain on the Video card.

I will have to do some tinkering and see what sweet spot I can find.

 

[XiandreX]

For lockups its more likely to be CPU.

Small update. I spent some time playing lately and the CPU settings in the bios had reverted. So it seems the CPU was also at play here. Once I dialed the original settings back in things were steady.

One thing though... even if I drop the voltage in Afterburner it still seems to push Voltage to 1.25 in games. Is this normal for afterburner? :\

 

[BrightCandle]

I don't use afterburner, I have had nothing but issues with it over the years. When I change voltages I do it old school in the bios. My GPUs are normally stock but I tend to use the manufacturers tool for changing the voltage anyway.

 

[escrow4]

This reminds me of my 780 Ti GHz - it crashed randomly in Tomb Raider but not in any other game. At the time I was running a stock non K 4770, now its at 3.9GHz with MCE. This is actually why I don't overclock anymore (beyond factory overclocked). You can never guarantee its 100% stable - there is always the potential that something will trip it up.

 

[sxr7171]

This reminds me of my 780 Ti GHz - it crashed randomly in Tomb Raider but not in any other game. At the time I was running a stock non K 4770, now its at 3.9GHz with MCE. This is actually why I don't overclock anymore (beyond factory overclocked). You can never guarantee its 100% stable - there is always the potential that something will trip it up.

Pretty crazy you brought this up. I was going to say the same thing. I can take my 780ti to 1278MHz in every game except Watch Dogs which likes 1242MHz. But Tomb Raider is the only game to crash even at that lower speed.

In fact in AC4 I can exceed 1300Mhz with no issues. But darn Tomb Raider is the most sensitive game I own. I'm going to have to start at stock and see how far I can take it. I'd rather just play it stock than deal with crashes, I mean it's a video game and crashes just kill the immersion. I can keep to mostly 60fps with 2xSSAA anyway.

For info NFS Rivals is pretty sensitive to overclocking as well - even more than BF4. The only other game that has crashed for me is Crysis 3. I think these games are good for stress testing. With Nvinspector you can have several profile files for different games.

 

[hawtdawg]

I wasn't playing it 30 minutes ago when my system locked up. I've run the same OC on my CPU and GPU's for over a year without problems. Backing off of the GPU OC a tad seemed to fix it for me. Tonight was the first time i've played BL2, but I've played tons of BF4 lately without a single problem.

 

[XiandreX]

Pretty crazy you brought this up. I was going to say the same thing. I can take my 780ti to 1278MHz in every game except Watch Dogs which likes 1242MHz. But Tomb Raider is the only game to crash even at that lower speed.

In fact in AC4 I can exceed 1300Mhz with no issues. But darn Tomb Raider is the most sensitive game I own. I'm going to have to start at stock and see how far I can take it. I'd rather just play it stock than deal with crashes, I mean it's a video game and crashes just kill the immersion. I can keep to mostly 60fps with 2xSSAA anyway.

For info NFS Rivals is pretty sensitive to overclocking as well - even more than BF4. The only other game that has crashed for me is Crysis 3. I think these games are good for stress testing. With Nvinspector you can have several profile files for different games.

Crysis 3 also gave me issues with stability as I am sure it has given many others users. I imagine if you can run Crysis 3 you can run most without issues.

 

[Tempered81]

Good to see you found a solution.

Put a quality (reputable) high-end/high-amperage 750-1000w PSU on it just for kicks. Then dial back in all your highest CPU/RAM/GPU overclocks. Average system powerdraw on stock everything is probably 300-350W for your rig. With moderate overclocks it's probably 450-500w. With all your highest OC settings, it may peak upwards of 525w momentarily. Pushing all voltages up could cause peaks over 550w. Pushing everything to max clock & max volts and letting it heat up good and burn in for 20 mins could result in peak wattage momentarily spiking to ~600. Overclocks thrive on high amperage 12v rails.

 

[AdamK47]

Crysis 3 also gave me issues with stability as I am sure it has given many others users. I imagine if you can run Crysis 3 you can run most without issues.

I've completed Crysis 3 on the setup in my sig. It ran completely stable the whole play through. Over the years of building / overclocking I've learned to find clock speeds for stability. While most others claim +5% to 10% higher on their overclocks compared to mine, I know mine will run everything I throw at it.