Computer crashes when gaming

zebal said:

For CPU test:
GIMPS - Free Prime95 software downloads - PrimeNet

For memory test see bellow tutorial:
How to Test Your Computer’s RAM for Problems

No problems on either of them.

zebal said:

For disk test, the disk should be cleaned and reformatted in slow mode and system clean installed.

What do you mean by that?

zebal said:

Additional step to test disk is to detach it, and use another one, and observe if there is difference.

You mean transfer the games to a different drive and see what happens?

zebal said:

Since we know there was file system or disk problem, you can also try uninstall and then reinstall game that produces problems.
Then fully update Windows, reboot and try again.

The issue is not related to a single game, only to graphically demanding ones.

yehonatans said:

No problems on either of them.

Sounds good, I'm still suspecting software and Windows installation and not hardware, hardware tests are best done once you completely isolate software problems, otherwise conclusions may be wrong.

What do you mean by that?

1. make a backup of your data (bookmarks, passwords, documents, pictures and all you care about)
2. wipe out disk completely clean so that nothing is left.
3. format disk to account for bad sectors
4. Install Windows a new, so that only Windows is installed on drive.
5. don't install anything else, each installation on fresh system, requires new tests to isolate changes made.

That way you isolate all software problems in one shot! and only hardware and hardware compatibility is left.

You mean transfer the games to a different drive and see what happens?

No transfer at all, clean install windows on another drive and boot from that drive to see if there is difference.

That way you isolate disk problems.

The issue is not related to a single game, only to graphically demanding ones.

This may indicate many things, some of which we already partially tested:
1. Power issue
2. overheating
3. Faulty OS
4. driver problem
5. hardware problem
6. software (not necessarily games, maybe just bad DLL)

What I would do (and suggesting so far) is:
1. going from easiest things toward harder ones (not the opposite)
2. solving software first, hardware later, BIOS at the end.

You can apply troubleshooting steps in what ever order you want of course, fix may be very close or completely unrelated to software issues, but, this is how I would do it.

Have you reinstalled a single game that is known to shutdown computer? rebooted and tried to play again just that game?

yehonatans said:

No problems on either of them.




What do you mean by that?


You mean transfer the games to a different drive and see what happens?


The issue is not related to a single game, only to graphically demanding ones.

Had the same problem a while back, ended up being the graphics driver (running a Radeon XFX RX 570 card).

zebal said:

Sounds good, I'm still suspecting software and Windows installation and not hardware, hardware tests are best done once you completely isolate software problems, otherwise conclusions may be wrong.


1. make a backup of your data (bookmarks, passwords, documents, pictures and all you care about)
2. wipe out disk completely clean so that nothing is left.
3. format disk to account for bad sectors
4. Install Windows a new, so that only Windows is installed on drive.
5. don't install anything else, each installation on fresh system, requires new tests to isolate changes made.

That way you isolate all software problems in one shot! and only hardware and hardware compatibility is left.


No transfer at all, clean install windows on another drive and boot from that drive to see if there is difference.

That way you isolate disk problems.


This may indicate many things, some of which we already partially tested:
1. Power issue
2. overheating
3. Faulty OS
4. driver problem
5. hardware problem
6. software (not necessarily games, maybe just bad DLL)

What I would do (and suggesting so far) is:
1. going from easiest things toward harder ones (not the opposite)
2. solving software first, hardware later, BIOS at the end.

You can apply troubleshooting steps in what ever order you want of course, fix may be very close or completely unrelated to software issues, but, this is how I would do it.

Have you reinstalled a single game that is known to shutdown computer? rebooted and tried to play again just that game?

I have 3 drives.
1. C Drive (SSD, Windows is installed here)
2. D drive (HDD)
3.G drive (HDD, games are here)

Should I reformat ALL of the drives and reinstall windows to C?

I'm sorry to hear that

So tests done and passed are:
1. CPU
2. memory
3. GPU

And you reinstalled Windows..

What is left of suspect is:
1. SSD
2. drivers
3. Network cards
4. BIOS

I understand the problem happens with games only?

How to test games:
1. Make sure the games you test are original games, not pirated, you can get free to play game from steam
Fake games are waste of time and tests can't be trusted
2. disconnect from internet, play only offline - single player games (to isolate network problems ex. LAN, WI-FI adapters)
3. play online games, MMO

Let me know at which step you stuck testing games.

zebal said:

I'm sorry to hear that

So tests done and passed are:
1. CPU
2. memory
3. GPU

And you reinstalled Windows..

What is left of suspect is:
1. SSD
2. drivers
3. Network cards
4. BIOS

I understand the problem happens with games only?

How to test games:
1. Make sure the games you test are original games, not pirated, you can get free to play game from steam
Fake games are waste of time and tests can't be trusted
2. disconnect from internet, play only offline - single player games (to isolate network problems ex. LAN, WI-FI adapters)
3. play online games, MMO

Let me know at which step you stuck testing games.

I tried playing after disconnecting internet, still crashes.

I also tried playing games from different HDDs, no success.

What is left to test out is:
1. SSD
2. BIOS

To isolate SSD, you'll probably need another offline drive to backup data from one of your HDD's, and use that HDD to install Windows on it, and see if problem persists with that drive, you may want to detach all other drives to exclude them, and to prevent reformatting them.
You may want to test on HDD without installing any drivers first, and then again with original drivers.

And for BIOS, you'll have to follow manufacturer instructions very carefully on how to flash BIOS.
Flashing BIOS is your sole responsibility!

There is no need to test network cards since problem persists while offline.

On post #20, looks like another power connection is required for the Radeon RX 580. If omitted, expect crashes!