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    Computer freezing while gaming - need help

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Outphaze, Nov 14, 2012.

  1. Outphaze

    Outphaze Notebook Guru

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    I have a Dell XPS L502X running Windows 7.

    8gigs of ram / i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz / NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

    388/679gigs of HD memory used...
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    Recently, when playing games (I have tried BF3, Skyrim, and even Starcraft 2) after a few minutes of playing my computer crashes/freezes. These crashes either completely freeze the screen and force me to do a hard-reboot or sometimes the screen changes color (patches of green / red squares etc...).

    I used to be able to play BF3 non-stop for hours without any crashing on the lowest settings...

    I have changed all the settings in-game to lowest quality. The only program I'm running when I play these games is the game itself (i.e. I don't have other apps open or tons of internet tabs).

    I have updated the graphics driver multiple times and it hasn't helped... ATM it's on the most recent one.

    I don't usually play games, and I usually have my laptop closed and plugged into a 30-something inch LCD - I don't know if this has anything to do with my computer crashing or not... but I DO know that when I try to play games on the big screen it crashes much sooner.

    I have defrag set for every week... so my disk isn't extremely cluttered.

    *edit* I'm pretty sure I don't have any viruses... I have spybot S&D / Avast / McAfee (kill me) / peerblock.
    - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    I'm wondering if my fan / gpu is getting overheated and I need to clean it out? I have tried taking the bottom of my computer apart and trying to reach the fans to clean them, but it is very difficult to do and I feel like I am going to break something. If you guys think that is the source of the problem I will try to find a way to get to the fans.

    So yeah.. That's pretty much it. It's extremely frustrating and if anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it.

    Thanks for your time
     
    Outphaze, Nov 14, 2012
    #1
  2. jaug1337

    jaug1337 de_dust2

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    Several things pop up onto my mind.

    Damaged/old GPU
    Damaged HDD
    Out of place/damaged RAM

    I would start by opening the back of your laptop and taking the RAM out and putting it in again, see if it fixes anything. Or else try RAM checking, there's several programs to do this
     
    jaug1337, Nov 14, 2012
    #2
  3. key001

    key001 Notebook Evangelist

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    Don't close the lid if you want lower temps.
     
    key001, Nov 14, 2012
    #3