Frequent game crashes. Driver issue ? RAM ?

Hello hello,

(I hesitated where to create this post so I'll let someone move it where it fits !)

So I have a problem with my PC for a long time : majority of games crashes, some frequently, some occasionally and some never. I have tried a bunch of troubleshooting with no results. I'll try to be as constructed and complete as possible. My build is in my profile tags.

Game crashes :

Game	Platform	Crashes frequency	Note
Rocket League	Epic Games Store	Constantly (even at start)	My poor beloved
Control	Epic Games Store	Not once in 30hours	Most demanding game ever played
Genshin Impact	Epic Games Store	~1 hour
Cities Skyline	Steam	~30 mins
Apex Legends	Steam	Occasionally
Hades	Steam	~2 hours	Doesn't crash if started with Vulkan
For the King	Steam	~1 hour	Doesn't crash if started with DX9
In Sink: A Co-Op Escape Prologue	Steam	Constantly
Unrailed	Steam	~2 hours
The Witcher 3	Steam	Less than 5 times in 300 hours	Modded
Deep Rock Galactic	Steam	Not once in 120 hours
Dishonored	Steam	Not once
Dishonored 2	Steam	Not once
CS:GO	Steam	Not once (?) in 2000 hours
Hyper Light Drifter	Steam	Not once
Outer Wilds	Steam	~20 mins
Moon Hunters	Steam	~20 mins
Dofus/Dofus retro/Wakfu		Not once	Flash games
Lost Ark	Steam	Not once in 10 hours
Disco Elysium	Steam	~2 hours

As you can see it doesn't seem to be related to resources used by the games.

What I tried :

RAM	Bootable MemTest86 (all tests, 4 passes) : no errors Testing a single stick at a time, switching slots Tried with my SO RAM sticks (Kingston HyperX Fury Black 2 x 8 Go DDR4 2666 MHz CL15)
CPU	Bootable MemTest86 (all tests, 4 passes) : no errors Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool : All tests passed without errors
GPU	Heaven Benchmark 4.0 & Unigine Superposition benchmark 1.1 : no crashes, temp > 65°C, no artifacts Tried with my SO GPU (same model) Testing several Nvidia driver version (9 or 10 tried with full DDU swipe in Safe Mode and light install driver only) Forcing a specific DirectX version for RocketLeague in Direct X Control Panel
Windows	sfc /scannow DISM /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth Fresh new install with complete swipe of both drives
BIOS	Testing with and without GameBoost & XMP Reseting BIOS (by jumping the Clear CMOS jumper) Flashing to latest BIOS (7A12v1A ) Flashing to an older BIOS (1.7)

I also updated all drivers (using touslesdrivers.com detection tool). My windows version is Windows 10 Family 21H2 19044.2604.

I configured Windows to dump crash logs on application crashes. Here is the last one for RocketLeague (I checked for improvement with this one because it constantly crashes and it is my fav game at the moment).
All Rocket League crash dumps points to a FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION_c000001d_nvwgf2umx.dll (analyzed with WinDbg). Which seems to be a GPU driver problem but as explained, I tried several versions with full DDU swipe and also switched with my SO GPU to no avail.

A red flag of my build is the RAM frequency that I'm able to set : even with GameBoost and XMP it won't boot with 3200Mhz, max I'm able to set is 3100Mhz, and by default the BIOS set them to 2133MHz. but :

• They are supported as specified in the MB documentation
• MemTest86 detected nothing and
• Replacing my RAM with the one of my SO changed nothing (BIOS correctly set hers at 2666Mhz)

At this point I'm leaning towards changing some hardware but the troobleshooting results let me puzzled.

I'm willing to do/redo any necessary tests to found the culprit x)

I already thank all those who will look into this ! Thanks !

Pumpkin

Thanks !

No I'm not, and I hard reseted the BIOS settings so they should be ok.

You are using overclocking both in the Graphics Card and the main RAM.

Your RAM is sold for overclocking use as you can see from the JEDEC and XMP profiles of those modules.

If it won't boot at 3200 MHz and you set it to 3100 MHz that is far too close for reliability.

For no overclocking you would set it to 2133 MHz at 1.2v. i.e. the highest JEDEC profile.

Graphics Card maybe to some setting such as "quiet" or some expression they use. You will have to look up the details and compare with Nvidia specs.

Your SSD is also old with relatively low TBW endurance specs, you can check with CrystalDiskInfo. MOBO is also old and taken a hammering.

Being hammered for 6 years means hardware endurance is reduced significantly.

Hello Helmut, thanks for the reply.

Sorry if I was confusing. The 3100Mhz was only to test why I couldn't boot at 3200Mhz (to see if setting the OC settings resolved the crashes). It usually runs at 2133Mhz, as you can see :


I'm also attaching the BIOS info of the CPU while I am at it :


Concerning the GPU, what makes you think that it is running overclocked (genuine question) ? I indeed tried to OC it when I built my PC 6 years ago, by curiosity, but reseted it to default settings. I checked those settings various times during my troubleshootings because removing the OCs is always advised. Is there something I missed here ? This is the settings displayed in the utility provided by ASUS ROG :


Which seems to match the settings displayed on the specifications of the GPU on their website:

Engine Clock	OC Mode - GPU Boost Clock : 1860 MHz , GPU Base Clock : 1657 MHz Gaming Mode (Default) - GPU Boost Clock : 1835 MHz , GPU Base Clock : 1632 MHz *Retail goods are with default Gaming Mode, OC Mode can be adjusted with one click on GPU Tweak II
Memory Speed	8008 MHz

Also, here is the results of CrystalDiskInfo for the SSD :


And finally, because I tried another game which crashed today, I have two new dump files. One is an ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION_c000001d_nvwgf2umx.dll, and the other one is an INVALID_POINTER_READ_c0000005_nvwgf2umx.dll

Again, thanks for looking into this

You have some type of data corruption going on.
The Cpu can't execute the file sounds like a some spring cleaning and a fresh os install and fresh program install
You not being able to change memory speeds suggest a bios update might be needed.

Thanks for the reply.

I already did a bunch of OS reinstall but I can try once more.
When reinstalling the OS does formating the drives in the Windows Installer is enough to completly swipe them or is there better procedures to ensure their cleaning ?

Also, I always installed the OS on the SSD by common sense. But just to rule out the SSD of the culprits, should I try to install the OS on the HDD, at least temporarily ?

- - - Updated - - -

So I just finished installing Windows 10 Family 22H2 19045.2006 on my HDD after removing the SSD.
Flashed the BIOS to the latest available release (7A12v1A).
Installed EGS and RocketLeague : same result, the game crashes at start with the exact same log.

So it is not the SSD, and it's not just data corruption. There is faulty hardware somewhere.

Tomorow I'll try once more with my SO RAM and GPU.

Because I obvioulsy won't swap the CPU, could someone point me to the best tool to test it ? Thanks

- - - Updated - - -

It is tomorrow. In my build I currently have my SO RAM (1 stick > Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8 Go DDR4 2666 MHz CL15) and GPU (same model as mine, GTX 1070 ROG STRIX 8Go), I removed the SSD and installed the OS on the HDD.

It is a fresh new install. Only things installed after the OS are the EGS and RocketLeague.

And it still crashes at start. Same logs.

Remaining components are the CPU, the MB, the PSU, and the HDD. HDD shouldn't be the culprit as in all my previous installs it was only used to store OneDrive (OS and softs/games were on the SSD).

So, CPU, MB or even the PSU ?

How could I check those ?

Have you tried a different PCIe port for the GPU?
Also try a different SATA connector and cable for the hard drive. Ya never know...
How old is the PSU by the way?

Thanks for the reply.

F22 Simpilot said:

Hardware is not your issue.

It would be a good news. But how could software still be an issue after full swipe + fresh install ?

F22 Simpilot said:

What's the make and model of PSU and its wattage?

CoolerMaster G650M 80Plus Bronze. So 650W.

F22 Simpilot said:

What is EGS?

Epic Games Store (since RocketLeague is no more on Steam )

F22 Simpilot said:

Is Windows legit?

Yes, still using the activation key I got with the original Windows 8 OS.

F22 Simpilot said:

How long has it been doing this? Did the problem just start out of the blue?

Maybe since start. Hard to tell because it doesn't impact all games/softwares (I also had CAD softwares crashes). And it doesn't impact them in the same ways. So depending on what I was playing it doesn't bothered me the same way. But yeah I already had crashes several years ago (3+).

F22 Simpilot said:

Try HeavyLoad. Free Stress Test Tool HeavyLoad | JAM Software

Thanks, I'll try today.

F22 Simpilot said:

Have you tried a different PCIe port for the GPU?

Never thought about that... Maybe because my old case prevented me to do it. But I just did and it changed nothing unfortunately.

F22 Simpilot said:

Also try a different SATA connector and cable for the hard drive. Ya never know...

Ok, I'll try it and update the thread.

F22 Simpilot said:

How old is the PSU by the way?

As old as the build, so 6 years.

- - - Updated - - -

I ran all 5 tests of HeavyLoad (CPU, GPU, Memory, Drive and Test File) for two hours with the following settings :

CPU : 4 processors, Normal thread priority
Memory : 2000MB available Memory (out of 4Go; only one stick atm), 1000MB/s memory speed
Test File : 100 000MB free space (out of 869Go), 1000MB/s writing speed

And no signs of failure in sight. Should I increase the settings or run it longer ?