Computer freezes during games

[Rapsven]

So I got my computer to boot up. It turned out to be the copper grounding bolts.

But now when I play a game, inevitably, it'll freeze the computer and the computer shuts down. I'm thinking it's an overheating issue, but I'm looking for feedback.

GPU? CPU? Motherboard?

Edit:

So I've been monitoring the data with CPUID. The GPU, on full load is around 80 C, which I think is normal. But after running a Prime95 torture test on the CPU, I've found that the average temperature of the 4 cores in my i5 is in the mid 70s. That seems pretty high to me.

When playing a game, would that be high enough to freeze my game and then shut down the computer completely?

 

[Homerboy]

did you seat the HS/Fan on the CPU properly? Flush and square?
If this is a stock HS/Fan combo, did you remove any cover on the thermal paste?
If this is an after market HS/Fan did you apply the right amount of thermal paste (did you apply thermal grease?)

 

[Devilpapaya]

Those temps are "high" but nothing that would likely be dangerous to the system. What is the heat threshold for shutdown set at?

Also do you get any sort of bluescreen during the shutdown? (this could be very fast, you'll want to disable auto restart to be sure (hit f8 during start-up, then select the disable auto-restart on system failure option)).

If there is a BSOD, post the error code and or google it to see what it means (the error code will look something like 0x0000007E (0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF 0xFFFFFFF or longer, if you're running 64-bit) The first number outside the parenthesis is the important one.

If there is no BSOD, its probably heating or powersupply issues.

 

[Rapsven]

There's no BSOD. What happens is I'm playing the game and all of a sudden it freezes. The monitor shows the same frame. Then the sound turns into a buzzing sound. After that, the monitor then says "no input found". Then I just restart my computer.

When I installed the CPU heatsink, there was a time that I took it off to make sure that the CPU was properly in place. I didn't apply new thermal grease. Could that be the problem?

 

[Homerboy]

There's no BSOD. What happens is I'm playing the game and all of a sudden it freezes. The monitor shows the same frame. Then the sound turns into a buzzing sound. After that, the monitor then says "no input found". Then I just restart my computer.

When I installed the CPU heatsink, there was a time that I took it off to make sure that the CPU was properly in place. I didn't apply new thermal grease. Could that be the problem?

quite possibly.
As stated earlier, while the temps you are listing aren't THAT outrageoulsy high, I'd say they are on the high-side.
1st thing I'd do is remove the HS/Fan, clean off completely. Reapply some AS (properly) and give it another shot.

 

[Rapsven]

Alright. I'll go to Best Buy and get some tomorrow. Atlanta traffic's terrible right now.

 

[nboy22]

Just want to throw my 2 cents in. This could very well be a sound card issue as well. I just had an issue that sounds almost exactly the same. I played Battlefield Bad company 2 with my onboard realtek soundcard and the game would completely freeze with the buzzing sound loop. It would restart on its own, but I would have to hard reset it with the power button.

My solution was pretty simple, buy a new soundcard and slap it in. I bought a Asus Xonar DS. It has worked absolutely flawlessly and I have had no more freezes.

It might sound weird, but you could completely uninstall all of your sound drivers, completely disable the soundcard in your device manager, and play the game for a while with no sound and see if that helps.

I just can't believe that a realtek soundcard/drivers would cause such an issue. One things for sure though, I'll always have a 3rd party soundcard in the future.

I really really really doubt that this has anything to do with temps. I would say it's your PSU but usually the whole computer would just completely shut off immediately. The buzzing sound you mention sounds exactly like my problem I had just a few weeks ago.

 

[dfuze]

You could also try taking the side panel off your case and pointing a fan at the inside and see if that helps stop lockups while you monitor the temps still

 

[Rapsven]

Okay, I took off the thermal grease with isopropyl alcohol, used some new thermal grease and now when I try and boot up, I get this beeping noise. It's two different beeps alternating. And it keeps trying to boot up if the power's on. I am completely at a loss of what to do. What happened?

 

[Homerboy]

Okay, I took off the thermal grease with isopropyl alcohol, used some new thermal grease and now when I try and boot up, I get this beeping noise. It's two different beeps alternating. And it keeps trying to boot up if the power's on. I am completely at a loss of what to do. What happened?

Sounds like the CPU is completely unseated at this point.
Pull everything off, and repeat. BE CAREFUL and DO IT RIGHT.

 

[Rapsven]

Okay, this is weird. I reapplied the thermal grease (after taking the new thermal grease off), then reseated the CPU. I turn on the computer and it goes to desktop. I'm thinking sweet! I start to play a game, and in the middle of it, the computer just completely shuts off. Which means that the CPU is definitely overheating at this point.

Now when I try to boot up the computer, it gives me the alternating beeping noise. What the hell happened?

 

[dfuze]

Does your motherboard manual list the beep codes? If not, you can try google w/ your motherboard model and beep code and see if its listed there. Essentially your pc is trying to tell you what is wrong, just need to translate it now.