Hardware or Software problem?

thepersonhere

Ok, well I have a problem, and I have tried almost everything I can think of. This may be a long post.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Fx-4100 @ 3.6ghz
Motherboard: AsRock 970DE3/U3S3
Ram: Corsair 1x8gb Low Profile
Graphics card: VTX Radeon HD 7850 1GB
Hard Drive: 250GB
PSU: Corsair CX500

I recently went away to america, before I went my computer worked perfectly fine, played all the games I wanted on maximum settings. Now that I have come back I simply try to play a game and my computer crashes either when it's loading or when I get in game (The only game I can play is Vanille Minecraft, but once I add mods it crashes) Another game I've tried is Borderlands 2 on steam. The screen goes to a single colour randomly, could be blue, black, etc. Now it rarely recovers back to the desktop (I've only have this about 2 in 10 times) and gave me the message "Display drivers amd has stopped responding and have recovered". But most of the time its stuck on the plain screen for a minute or two and resets my computer, it will also occasionally go to a blue screen with writing saying windows is shutting down to protect it.

These crashes happen every time I play a game, now here's what I have tried already:

Uninstalled graphics card drivers and reinstalled about 10 times using the latest, Beta and older versions, still crashes.

Completely wiped the hard drive and reinstalled the Operation System, still crashes.

Used windows patches for my CPU (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060 & http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2645594) still crashing.

I have a few theories but don't know whether they will work or not, I've thought of increasing the voltage to the CPU, Graphics card and RAM as they might be underpowered and that might be causing the crashes as I can still play Vanille Minecraft.

Now I don't know whether the problem is Hardware or Software, so that's why I'm asking for you help. I have only had this computer for about 2 months and it worked perfectly up until now. (There was only one problem I had was when I was installing windows updates at the beginning it would freeze about 3 quarters of the way through, but it for some reason just updated after a while.)

Please help, I've been troubleshooting my PC for 3 days straight.

Edit: on the blue screen it also says "Attempt to reset display driver failed" if that helps at all.
Edit 2: I just found out that I can't play Vanille Minecraft, it just takes about 5 mins to crash rather than 20 seconds.
Edit 3: I just ran a Stress test on my cpu and it was fine, I then ran it on my gpu and my computer crashed so I think it has something to do with the graphics card, I would like to try anything before trying to replace it.
Thanks in Advanced.

Heino23

Sounds to me like the fan may be clogged up or not working well enough on your video card or cpu, I had a similar issue on my machine and I noticed the fan settings were low so I changed them to have the cpu fan running at 100% all the time and it works fine now.

yoyo

I have that exact video card, XFX 7850 1GB and also get the odd lock ups/black screen. It hasn't happened since I have done a full driver uninstall (using driver sweeper, the ATI uninstaller is rubbish) and installed the latest stable driver from AMD. AMD may make value for money video cards, but their driver support is still crap unfortunately. Do regret changing from Nvidia at times, but it's not as bad since doing a full driver install. Also make sure "AMD Overdrive" is off in the drivers catalyst control centre

Nick

thepersonhere

Thanks I'll try the driver sweeper as I have only been uninstalling them using the Catalyst.

yoyo

thepersonhere wrote: »

Thanks I'll try the driver sweeper as I have only been uninstalling them using the Catalyst.

Yeah I found the AMD Uninstaller didn't completely remove them. I also ensured Driver Sweeper removed all remnants of any Nvidia installs as well, not applicable in your case as you have just re installed

Nick

Edit: Something else you could try, if there is a bios update for your motherboard it may be no harm flashing it. I updated my mobos bios as well as doing the driver clean install.

thepersonhere

By the way I don't know if you say my edit but I think it has something to do with the GPU because I ran a stress test and the CPU lasted 1:30 mins and then closed it, my GPU only lasted 20 odd seconds before the computer crashed. Could it be overheating or underpower or anything of the sort?

Sparks43

thepersonhere wrote: »

I recently went away to america, before I went my computer worked perfectly fine, . Now that I have come back I simply try to play a game and my computer crashes either when it's loading or when I get in game

Theres your problem Pc got lonely next time send it to a PC Kennel where it can get all the love and attention it needs.:D


+1 on the Driver sweeper

thepersonhere

Also for some reason the driver sweeper has picked up Nvidia drivers and physx on my computer but I have never used and Nvidia card in this computer?

thepersonhere

Haha, next time I'll consider it! XD

yoyo

PhysX sometimes gets installed by games, remove it and the NVidia drivers but it shouldn't cause problems. Do check your CPU temps, but it does seem like an issue I had with this card (and many others) and it is software/drivers related apparently (and "normal" for ATI cards :rolleyes: ). It is was not as frequent for me though, but the driver clean up solved it, had one different kind of lock up when exiting GTA4 (Ice Enchancer enabled) but think that was unrelated.

Nick

thepersonhere

I used the driver sweeper but it still says in the Device Manager that I have the graphics card with the drivers installed

yoyo

thepersonhere wrote: »

I used the driver sweeper but it still says in the Device Manager that I have the graphics card with the drivers installed

Windows will try to install generic drivers for the card, but you should be able to install the latest stable ATI drivers now and fingers crossed it sorts it

Nick

thepersonhere

I'm afraid that didn't work, still got the blank screen.

yoyo

thepersonhere wrote: »

I'm afraid that didn't work, still got the blank screen.

Could well be the card then, I'd return it for a replacement and see if that sorts it. Did you test the RAM with Memtesdt86+, make sure it's ok

Nick

thepersonhere

I got to go somewhere but I'll test the ram later tonight