Some games crash & go to black screen, have to turn off computer

[Iggy]

Hi, I'm at the end of my rope here, so hoping someone might be able to help or has had similar issues.

Since yesterday, I've been getting crashes in several games (Company of Heroes 2, The Witness, Subnautica - I'm assuming others will be affected as well). Crashes occur after between 2 and 20 minutes of playtime, sometimes I can make it through several matches of CoH without any problems. What happens is I get a short sound bug (1-2 seconds) and the screen just goes black. The monitor gives me a "no connection" error message and there's nothing I can do. I can still talk to people on TeamSpeak, but have to turn off the computer eventually, as Ctrl+Alt+Del, Alt+F4 etc. do not do anything.

Here's a few things I have looked into:
- CPU/GPU temperatures are good
- game cache(s) verified, OK
- drivers are/were up to date
- last Windows 10 update was a while ago, problems only since yesterday
- re-installed graphics drivers
- turned off Windows Defender (someone had a similar issue where that helped)

My specs:
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Intel Xeon E3 1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz Haswell-WS 22nm Technology
12.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz
ASRock B85 Pro4 (CPUSocket)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (Palit Microsystems)
111GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB (SSD)
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EURS-73TLHY0 (SATA)
PIONEER BD-RW BDR-208D

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, and thank you!

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Iggy:

- drivers are/were up to date

What does this mean please ?

"Were" ?

And from where did you download and install the most recent and up-to-date drivers ?

Did you get them from the official ASRock site ?

Is this the board ?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B85%20Pro4/?cat=Download&os=Win1064

EDIT..Not the Nvidia GPU drivers, of course. The other system drivers. Get Nvidia drivers up to date from Nvidia.

Post information on the PSU also, please. (specifications)

[Iggy]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Originally posted by Iggy:

- drivers are/were up to date

What does this mean please ?

"Were" ?

Sorry, I meant that either there were no updates available or I downloaded and installed them, getting no results. I used the auto-update functions of GeForce Experience, Razer Synapse etc.

As for the motherboard drivers, completely forgot about those, downloading and installing now, thank you. Will report back once I've tested everything.

[Iggy]

PSU: 500 Watt be quiet! Straight Power E9 Non-Modular 80+ Gold

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Iggy:

As for the motherboard drivers, completely forgot about those, downloading and installing now, thank you. Will report back once I've tested everything.

Yes, others make that mistake also sometimes.

Also, just in case, please see my edit above...sorry about that.

Post the PSU information.

EDIT.....

Thermal and Power Specs:
98 CMaximum GPU Temperature (in C)
145 WGraphics Card Power (W)
500 Recommended System Power (W)**
2x 6-pinsSupplementary Power Connectors

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications

It looks like a decent PSU, but 500 is just the "recommended" wattage, so keep that in mind. Usually, it is better to get a few extra Watts for headroom when choosing a PSU. I am not saying that is your problem, but something to keep in mind.

http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/279

[Atslah]

Sadly, I am having a similar issue. Been running Win10 Pro for about a year now, and only a few issues with some (really old) games.
But within the last few days, all of my regularly played games are crashing after 2~20 minutes of play too. Nothing weird going on, no beeps or any odd sounds, then they just stop responding. game screen is still there with a frozen mouse pointer. No key combos can get me out of the game to the desktop to kill the program and restart it, or reboot. Have to hit the reset button. :(
Anyone know what mircosoft did this time? (Since I haven't changed anything on my system, I blame them!)
Any suggestions to get my Steam Games running again would be much appreciated!

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by dfinjr:

Anyone know what mircosoft did this time? (Since I haven't changed anything on my system, I blame them!)

Don't assume that just because it may have presented itself after a Windows update, that the update was directly the cause.

The OP posted his or her complete system spec, including the OS being 64 bit. I suggest you do the same, please.

Also, what is your antivirus program and other security software that you may be using ?

Never assume that because you have not changed anything yourself on you system, that changes have still not been made. Changes happen without your making them.

[Iggy]

Have installed all the available board drivers except the VGA drivers, which give me an error message saying my PC doesn't meet the minimum requirements to install them. Crashed my PC with a few minutes of The Witness. I know this probably doesn't mean much, but I've had this computer for almost 3 years and the power supply (or any other component, for that matter) has never been an issue. Do you have any other suggestions? And thanks for your help so far, I appreciate it!

[Atslah]

I know, my bad....you are correct there, changes are happening regularly, and clearly I am not able to keep up with them.

OS = Win 10 Pro 64 bit
Mobo = Gigabyte 970 (don't remember for sure, been quite a while)
CPU = AMD Phenom x6 @ 3Ghz
Ram = 8 GB Kingston Hyper X
Video Card = Asus GTX 660 - 2GB

Running Norton Antivirus Online
Safe Web - On
Identity Safe - On
Anti- phishing - On
(most all security/surfing options set to On)

I do appreciate your time and willingness to help.
Thank you!

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Iggy:

Have installed all the available board drivers except the VGA drivers, which give me an error message saying my PC doesn't meet the minimum requirements to install them. Crashed my PC with a few minutes of The Witness. I know this probably doesn't mean much, but I've had this computer for almost 3 years and the power supply (or any other component, for that matter) has never been an issue. Do you have any other suggestions? And thanks for your help so far, I appreciate it!

I would suggest that you do a clean reinstall of the GPU drivers after uninstalling them properly as part of that proceedure, and using safe mode afterwards and software such as DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to cleanly remove all drivers. Then reboot and reinstall a fresh, new download of the drivers from Nvidia only.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

How to do a clean reinstall of GPU drivers

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+do+a+clean+reinstall+of+GPU+drivers&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Again, be sure to use safe mode with DDU after uninstalling all GPU drivers in normal Windows, then reboot into safe mode, clean all drivers with DDU, then reboot and reinstall the newly downloaded drivers.

Just because you have had no issues before is not really always relevant. Besides, hardware degrades over time. If you are only seeing this crash in graphically intensive processes such as games and that is the ONLY time you have this issue, that "MAY" suggest the PSU is not providing enough power for the GPU in those applications.

You have to keep that in mind and keep an open mind or you are not troubleshooting this properly, no disrespect.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by dfinjr:

Running Norton Antivirus Online

I stopped reading right here.

Just in the last few days, users have been reporting new conflicts with Norton. Norton has always been on the list anyway.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

And in other cases in the forums, you can see it clearly........

Norton hates Steam.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135508284745669639/?tscn=1486325012#c135508284745775689
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/348292957936793818/?tscn=1476505156#c348293073006152613
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/392183857628513359/#c392184289304621591
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/458607518209700397/?tscn=1453942737#c458607518210063348
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/392184289304843029/?tscn=1458633705#c392184342868920447
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135508284745669639/?ctp=2#c135508292188750093
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135508398035252595/?tscn=1486512443#c135508398035441848

My money is on Norton as being your problem. After you fix the problem of Norton, if that is it, more steps to repair any corruption or damage it may have caused may be necessary.

EDIT..Especially since you said you have most/all security enabled on Norton. And disabled is not always good enough for the parent program of the Antivirus. Norton is one of those for sure. Child processes such as Norton Online Backup still can conflict, and are not disabled if the core parent process of the antivirus is disabled.

That is the problem that some miss. Disabled is not always as good as fully uninstalled and a restart of the computer done afterwards.

Then, you have to go back and verify the game files for all games affected.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

[Atslah]

Norton hasn't bothered me in quite some time. I'd forgotten about it for the most part.
I've been able to convince it, in the past, to ignore my games and usually Steam in general.

I'll read through the discussion links you've provided and see what I can....do.

Again, I appreciate your time and willingness to help us.
Thank you!

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by dfinjr:

Norton hasn't bothered me in quite some time. I'd forgotten about it for the most part.
I've been able to convince it, in the past, to ignore my games and usually Steam in general.

I'll read through the discussion links you've provided and see what I can....do.

Again, I appreciate your time and willingness to help us.
Thank you!

You are welcome, and yea, that is the usual reply ..."I have not had a problem with that before."

But antivirus and OS and other programs update and things change. New conflicts can come up. You need to have exceptions for all of Steam and games in any antivirus that you use, and especially in your case as you said you have so many of Norton's features active right now.

"But I never had a problem with that antivirus before..."
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/9/357288572126129212/?ctp=2#c357288572128593748
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/364040961444986179/#c364040961449364808
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/392184289303449855/?tscn=1458512553#c392184289303484833
http://steamcommunity.com/app/730/discussions/0/364042063114127030/

See my post above as I added an edit...sorry about that.

EDIT......

Those links in the previous reply were just examples to try to motivate you to see that Norton is suspect. They don't really contain steps to fix it, unless later mentioned in the threads where they are posted. My suggestion would be to get rid of Norton totally and forever.

It has been said by some, they would prefer to have an actual Virus on their computer over Norton.

See this post. This seems to be recent information from this user on how to possibly resolve it....

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135508284745669639/?ctp=3#c135508489632005030

THEN you have to verify the game files, and repair any damage or missing files due to Norton quarantining them, possibly.

[The Giving One]

TO the OP of the thread...Iggy

I had a Seasonic Platinum 1000 Watt ( top shelf hardware costing over $200, and way overkill for my system at that time) go bad after only about 4 or 5 years.(warranty covered replacement)

And it was basically double the power of what I needed in the first place.

Point is, they do go bad (degrade), and therefore they can be suspect to your problem perhaps. This is another reason why it is usually a good idea to get a bit more than 'recommended'. Due to degradation and other factors such as added hardware throughout the life of your build.

Nvidia says the "recommended" for the GTX 970 is 500 Watts. That is what you have, but it is 93% efficient give or take, according to what I read on the site for Be Quiet.

93% of 500 is 465. So the most wattage you got is theoretically 465 Watts. Efficiency needs to be taken into account. And that is the "MAX" anyway.

http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/279

"500 Watts of continuous power...."

"80PLUS Gold certification and up to 93.1% power conversion efficiency......"

So you are not really getting 500, as hardware is always advertised attractively. Now add in degradation over time and use, as this is also a factor.

There is no such thing as 100% efficient. Not that I am aware of that is. Electrical components are not quite there yet.

[Iggy]

Thanks again, I'll get a new PSU and see if anything changes. I am now on my laptop, as I cannot get my computer past the Windows safe mode "please wait" screen after trying to clean install graphics drivers (safe mode wouldn't let me use the DDU .exe). Interestingly enough, I still get the black screen/no signal detected crash that forces me to hard reset.

[Iggy]

Update: screen will now go black 1-2 seconds after boot, cannot do anything at all. Ordered a fresh CMOS battery as well, a friend reported having solved a similar problem by exchanging it.