Win 7 64-bit BSOD when playing games but not after restart?

Hello all,

I have a Win7 64-bit system. It's an Acer Predator system

Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz Processor
6GB DDR3-1066 (PC3-8500) Memory
1TB 3.5" SATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive
SuperMulti DVD±RW Dual Layer Labelflash
NVIDIA GTX 260 896MB PCI Express Video Card
Realtek ALC888S High Definition 7.1 Sound Card
750 Watt Power Supply

Recently, however, it has been throwing up BSODs. The BSODs ONLY occur if I play a game. The system does not BSOD under normal use but has given me the BSOD playing Titan Quest, Alien Swarm, and Starcraft 2.

The BSOD message is sometimes different though, I have attached images of both BSODs. I'd say 75% of the time the BSOD is the secondary processor error and 25% the machine check.

Usually the BSOD happens about 5-10 min after starting up a game. I can tell when the BSOD is about to happen though because the audio begins to get garbled for a min or two before the BSOD happens. I've tried exiting the game when this happens and the garbled audio occurs in other programs as well (I tested using iTunes).

I've re-installed my video card drivers as well as my audio drivers and nothing has helped.

Now here is the strange part, after I BSOD, the computer boots up and asks how I want to recover. I select start Windows normally and the PC comes back up fine. However, I can now play the same games for as long as I want with no issues.

This pattern has happened numerous times with BSOD during first start-up but computer runs fine afterwards. I'm pretty stumped by this one. Not really sure what else to troubleshoot at this point. Any thoughts?

TL: DNR version:
1) PC BSODs after 5-10 min when playing games
2) Before BSOD, audio begins to break down
3) After restarting PC because of BSOD, computer runs fine

 

Is this a desktop system? If so, wrong forum....

Anyway.....

An 0x00000101 stop is a graphics/cpu crash, usually caused by overheating or bad overclocking settings.

An 0x0000009c stop is a directX failure, also tied to gpu crash.

Make sure that your system firmware is up to date, your vent/fans are clean, and that your graphics and chipset drivers are up to date. You might want to pull your memory dimms and clean the edge connectors with something like Stabilant or Caig Labs DeOxit.

If that doesn't take care of things, consider taking your machine apart to physically remove the CPU heatsink assembly. Clean all of the original heat sink goop off, and then reapplying new/good quality heat sink goop. Now repeat the same process with your graphics card.

The first set of advice is low stress. The second set requires that you have some familiarity with taking precision machines apart and attention to detail.

 

Thanks for the input. I realize this is a notebook forum obviously but I've gotten good advice in the past here so I figured it wouldn't hurt to post in the Windows section.

I'll check my fans/vents and I do have some thermal paste laying around so I may change that as well (hopefully as a last resort since I've never done it).

However, if it was really CPU/GPU overheating, why would it occur 5-10 min into gameplay and then have no problems for hours after the BSOD crash?

 

ah, because the gameplay might be stressing the cpu/gpu to the point of failure....... shutting the machine off for a sec lets things cool to the point where it does last for hours.

or the game itself is broken.

it the game legit, not cracked, etc, etc?

 

Under the description you give you could try a couple of things.

1.) Try booting the PC and go all the way to desktop. Let all drivers load up and the system settle. Then do a simple restart. once back up see if it will play without issue

2.) if that doesn't work try from power up going to desktop and loading a game and exiting it before you crash. Again do the reboot and see if all is fine.

If either of these work it is a hardware/system/Windows bios issue. With PNP windows can try and reassign resources. Your bios or hardware may not like this much from its cold initialization (Nvidia is infamous for not giving up or sharing resources). What then happens is now that it is reassigned as the warm reboot happens it intiallizes at settings the hardware settings the bios and the windows bios can live with with................

Edit; Some reading

 

I know the problem.

The CPU is overclock and the clock cycles are not in match with your second core. De-overclock your CPU to normal speed. If you did not overclock, go in the BIOS and it load default settings (or optimal settings if you have that option). Now try, it should work.

If that doesn't help, your CPU or motherboard is broken. You can try a re-install but I would not get my hopes up.

 

The only time I have ever actually gotten a BSOD not related to attempted overclocking or undervolting was due to a defective motherboard. Returned it for a new one and no problems since.

 

All of the games are legit. If it was a stress problem, I don't think 5 min of gameplay from a cold start would get it hot enough to fail...

I've tried the simple restart and that doesn't seem to work (I still got a BSOD and system stable afterwards). I haven't tried loading the game and restarting though, I can try that. Good idea.

System isn't overclocked. I actually completely updated my BIOS using the drivers from the ACER website already as well and that didn't seem to help. I used default/optimal settings.

While normally I would agree this is a hardware problem, if it truly was, why can I use the system normally after eating one BSOD? That's the part that makes this really confusing to me.

No overclock/undervolt. Again, if it was hardware it's a strange anomaly that the system works fine after the BSOD. I do have a warranty on the machine so I may go that route anyways but I'd like to avoid it if possible.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far everyone, reps all around

 

I know, I had the same thing (well I was overclocking my CPU). It does the SAME effect as you, if my CPU is overclock at 2.7GHz or up. At 3.0Ghz, the computer runs perfectly fine, after the BSOD pass. Until I play a game and out of thw blue, one moment or another.. it could be after 5min, like 2 hours, I get it back. So, my OC is stuck at 2.6GHz (normal speed is 2.2GHz).