most games are crashing, ones that do work, screen goes black intermittently

[futurefields]

Far Cry 3 crashes as soon as I try to go in-engine

I can play The Forest, but every few minutes the screen goes black, and then comes back on (game still running)

Still can't tell if it's motherboard, power supply, or the gpu itself

 

[futurefields]

luckily i do have a spare 6850 laying around to test, and I also have a spare power supply to test Antec VP-450

 

[KaRLiToS]

Can you run Unigine Valley for couple of hours?

Far Cry 3 has been crashing for me since it's release.

 

[futurefields]

getting weird artifacts in Far Cry 3, which will run at lower clocks now but fi I try to run it at the clocks I used to run it at it crashes like crazy

see the shadow on the rock, all pixellated, they didnt used to look like that

 

[SlickR12345]

Say goodbye to your GPU.

 

[futurefields]

i guess ill be happier if it is my gpu than my motherboard

more expensive but way less work

 

[BFG10K]

getting weird artifacts in Far Cry 3, which will run at lower clocks now but fi I try to run it at the clocks I used to run it at it crashes like crazy

What do you mean "run it at the clocks I used to"?

You aren't seriously starting all these problem threads while overclocking, are you?

 

[KaRLiToS]

Have you solved your CPU idle state "issue"?

 

[futurefields]

What do you mean "run it at the clocks I used to"?

You aren't seriously starting all these problem threads while overclocking, are you?

Of course I am.

My i5 2500k ran at 4ghz for 2+ years

My 7950 ran at 1050mhz for 2+ years

Would you expect me to quit overclocking, run stock clocks, and just be happy with less performance?

Rather than try to find out why my overclocks suddenly aren't working?

And it's not just lower framerates. It's a higher latency existing in the graphics system - it's causing minimum framerates to plummet - very jarring on gameplay.

Personally, I like to find the reason why something would work one day, and then not the next, so I can make an informed decision on how to fix it.

You understand why I am spending so much time trying to fix my computer and spending a lot of time trying to get help about it on the internet?

Because when it comes time to fix it I want to make sure I am buying the right part.

I don't want to buy a new motherboard if my current one is working fine and it's actually the GPU that is the problem.

I don't want to buy a new GPU if my current one is working fine and it's actually the motherboard that is the problem.

I don't want to buy a new GPU or motherboard if I find out that it's actually the power supply that is the problem.

I hope this makes sense to you and I hope you are not mad at me for trying to figure out the hard-to-detect problems my PC is having.

 

[futurefields]

Have you solved your CPU idle state "issue"?

Yep.

 

[KaRLiToS]

What was it? Nothing? EIST ? C1E?

BFG10k is right. Don't expect to run into a no issue solution when you try to blindly overclock your thing. From what I am seeing from you from the last two weeks: when people tell you to do something, you ignore them and then you wonder how come your thing are unstable. Don't expect to run your HD 7950 at 1250/1650 without having artifacts. It is just silly. And on top of that, you don't even mention your overclock. You just say you try to run this game or that game and it crashes. Blaming whether a GPU malfunction or bad games.

Have you tried to run Unigine Valley with stock clocks (GPU and CPU) for couple of hours like I asked you to?

What are your method to overclock the CPU and/or GPU?

I'm here to help you and will do everything within my power to do so.

 

[futurefields]

What was it? Nothing? EIST ? C1E?

BFG10k is right. Don't expect to run into a no issue solution when you try to blindly overclock your thing. From what I am seeing from you from the last two weeks: when people tell you to do something, you ignore them and then you wonder how come your thing are unstable. Don't expect to run your HD 7950 at 1250/1650 without having artifacts. It is just silly. And on top of that, you don't even mention your overclock. You just say you try to run this game or that game and it crashes. Blaming whether a GPU malfunction or bad games.

Have you tried to run Unigine Valley with stock clocks (GPU and CPU) for couple of hours like I asked you to?

What are your method to overclock the CPU and/or GPU?

I'm here to help you and will do everything within my power to do so.

No I don't.

And I'm not trying to run at 1250/1650 where did you get those numbers? Saying that type of thing makes me think I am dealing with people are more interesting in proving points/proving people wrong on the internet than really listening to somebodies problem and trying to help them.

I am trying to run the 7950 at 1050/1250 which it ran comfortable at for 2+ years and never went over 57 degrees celcius which is a great temp for an overclocked GPU under load.

I haven't ran Unigine Valley for a couple hours because I know it will work at stock speeds. Everything is working at stock speeds. I don't want to run stock speeds on a K series processor and a 7950 GPU that everybody knows should be able to overclock.

I am running Unigine Heaven 4.0 because I know what this system scored on that benchmark when it was 100% healthy.

So that is the benchmark I am using now.

I never ran Valley on this system before so I don't know what it's scores were.

If I run Valley now it will give me a score but I have no reference to compare it with.

With Unigine Heaven 4.0 I have my old reference scores from when the same system was in a healthy state to compare it too.

Please don't think I am ever ignoring anybodies advice. I am just pressed for time (full time job, horrendous commute) so I need to spend my time doing the sort of tests that I know will give me conclusive data.

I really do appreciate yours, and everybody elses help.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Ok mate. Unigine Valley wasn't for the score but for stability purpose.

About your GPU overclock. Are you overvolting? Which program are you using to overclock?


( I'm still curious about what was your CPU issues? )

 

[futurefields]

Is Heaven 4.0 able to stand in Valley's place as a stability test?

Srry forgot to answer re: the CPU

It looks like I need to manually disable C6 in BIOS in order for my CPU to stay at 4ghz full time. That's what I did and seemed to be working.

EDIT:

PS - I went back to putting C6 on auto because after running benchmarks I determined it was actually not affecting performance, so would rather save on the power bill on that end than have the CPU cranked up full time.

 

[kasakka]

If you take out all the overclocks, does it run stable? Might be your PSU is going and overclocking makes it run at the limits.

 

[futurefields]

Everything runs fine when I disable overclocks, I think. It's honestly hard for me to tell what is happening with the machine.

The fact that nothing is hard crashing and giving me a error screen or making any beep codes or anything is making this problem extremely frustrating.


To summarize the main symptoms at this point -

1) Games will play for 10-15 minutes, then screen will go black for 2 seconds, then the game will come back, and everything is still running on the game and I am able to resume playing.


2) Sometimes when I power the PC off, and then turn it back on really quick, it will start to boot, but then power itself down, then power itself back on, and boot normally.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Is Heaven 4.0 able to stand in Valley's place as a stability test?

Srry forgot to answer re: the CPU

It looks like I need to manually disable C6 in BIOS in order for my CPU to stay at 4ghz full time. That's what I did and seemed to be working.

EDIT:

PS - I went back to putting C6 on auto because after running benchmarks I determined it was actually not affecting performance, so would rather save on the power bill on that end than have the CPU cranked up full time.

Heaven is as good as Valley to test stability.

If you want maximum power saving with maximum performance.

EIST (speedstep) : Enabled
C1E: Enabled
C3: Disabled
C6: Disabled
C7: Disabled

And in Windows set Minimum Power State to 0 and Maximim Power state to 100 using High Performance mode.

Everything runs fine when I disable overclocks, I think. It's honestly hard for me to tell what is happening with the machine.

The fact that nothing is hard crashing and giving me a error screen or making any beep codes or anything is making this problem extremely frustrating.


To summarize the main symptoms at this point -

1) Games will play for 10-15 minutes, then screen will go black for 2 seconds, then the game will come back, and everything is still running on the game and I am able to resume playing.

Sounds like power issue.

Have you tried to put more voltage into your HD 7950 memory and/or GPU. It would be good to raise the power tune too.

Which program are you using to OC your card?

2) Sometimes when I power the PC off, and then turn it back on really quick, it will start to boot, but then power itself down, then power itself back on, and boot normally.

This is not a big deal.

When there is a power cut in my neighborhood and I go to start my PC, it does the same thing... or if I unplug the computer.

 

[futurefields]

Sounds like power issue.

Have you tried to put more voltage into your HD 7950 memory and/or GPU. It would be good to raise the power tune too.

Which program are you using to OC your card?

Originally I was using just CCC, the power limit at +20, and worked great for 2 years

But if I do that now it crashes

So I switched to Trixx yesterday, and I bumped the voltage to 1.25 and I think it is crashing atleast not as often now

Its just weird because I didnt have to do this before

I feel like this all started either after I installed my 2nd hard drive, or when the power went out in my neighborhood a few weeks ago while my computer was running full blast.

 

[futurefields]

also you can see the shadow corruption issue I am still getting, in the Far Cry 3 screenshot I posted above

this is even with the voltage bump for the GPU, and at any clock speed

 

[kasakka]

getting weird artifacts in Far Cry 3, which will run at lower clocks now but fi I try to run it at the clocks I used to run it at it crashes like crazy

see the shadow on the rock, all pixellated, they didnt used to look like that

That's not an artifact, it's just the game engine swapping a higher res model in. Some objects appear as dithered until you get closer. No idea why it does that at that distance though.

 

[tential]

Funny how all of this starts right after you claim console is superior in many ways and now your PC just fails out on you.

 

[futurefields]

2) Sometimes when I power the PC off, and then turn it back on really quick, it will start to boot, but then power itself down, then power itself back on, and boot normally.

^ this is happening more and more often, kind of concerned

would this be a psu or motherboard issue

 

[futurefields]

Funny how all of this starts right after you claim console is superior in many ways and now your PC just fails out on you.

even if every component on this pc fails i wouldnt go buy a PS4 or XB1

 

[cusideabelincoln]

My theory: Your power supply might not be supplying the most accurate voltage. When you're pushing your hardware with overclocks they are more susceptible to fluctuations, even if they fluctuations might technically be in spec.

I'd start by replacing the power supply.

 

[Rezist]

Random reboot's sounds like a PSU issue to me as well. That or a dead short.