[SOLVED] BSODs when playing Diablo 3 and other video games

[Phanixis]

I have now had two BSODs in the course of two days and I need to fix this problem.


The last two BSODs occured while playing Diablo 3. Just two days ago I got a dxgmms1.sys BSOD while playing Diablo 3. The day after, Diablo 3 was running rather choppy when I started it up, so I restarted my machine. That got the game working again but during the game the screen suddenly went black, then the video game back but it looked like the game was running with a lower gamma setting. After that the game crashed to desktop. Desktop continued running for about 10-15 seconds before I got another BSOD, this time because of win32k.sys. I have since stopped playing Diablo 3 until I can get this fixed.


However, Diablo 3 isn't the only programs to cause problems. A few weeks ago I was playing Chivalry online. The game suddenly froze up ultimately resulting in this screen:




Chivalry was the last BSOD I suffered since the beginning of this year when Divinity: Original Sin was causing similar crashes and producing the same type of screen as Chivalry. I was able to eliminate this set of BSODs by selecting the limit frame rate option under Divinity: Original Sin's video settings.


About a year before Divinity: Original Sin was giving me problems virtually every video game on my computer was causing problems. I solved that by formatting the hard drive, I am hoping I do not have to do that again. I really want to understand what is causing the problems, not flush the system every time things go mysteriously wrong for no apparent reason.


I have checked my video drivers and they appear to be up to date. Verified.exe cannot seem to find any problems either. Nothing I have done as of yet has revealed the cause for my latest set of BSODs. As best as I can tell though, all these BSODs are related to running video games of one kind or another. My suspicions are video drivers (which everything tells me is up to date) or the video card itself, which is rather expensive to replace.


I would greatly appreciate any help that could be provided on this matter. The necessary files for diagnosing my system should be attached.


Thanks.




System Specifications:


Motherboard: MSI X79A-GD45
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2 GB GDDR5 PCI-E 3.0
Ram: Kingston HyperX Predator Series KH24C112K2 / 2 x 4 GB, 2400 MHz
Power Supply: Thermaltake W0382RU Modular Power Supply - 750 W
Hard Disk: Cosair SSD 120 GB (Boot)
Samsung HD103SJ ATA SCSI 1 TB (data)
DVD Drive: LG WH14NS40K 14X Blue-Ray Burner - 128 GB BDXL
DVD Burner: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVDRW


OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

[jcgriff2]

Update your video drivers.

Swap out the video card if updated drivers do nothing.

 

[blueelvis]

Also monitor the temperatures of the Video Card.

 

[Phanixis]

According to an AMD utility, my video drivers are currently up do date. I ran a stress test of my video card using a program called FurMark. The video card reached 87 degrees Celsius at 97% operating capacity and it only need to push the onboard fans to 75% power. So the video card isn't failing any of the test I am trying to throw at it. I still plan to replace it if all else fails though, and perhaps monitor temperatures during problematic games. So far though, no luck identifying the cause of these BSODs.

 

[Phanixis]

Ok, I just suffered a really bad crash while playing Civilization 5. My Windows install afterward was completely unrecoverable. Every time I attempted to enter safe mode or run the repair utility I got a blue screen. Ended up formatting the install drive and reinstalling Windows. Didn't fix this bsods though, as I got another one after reinstalling Windows and installing the new video drivers. I got another screen like the Chivalry screen when Windows attempted an automatic update.

At this point I am going to have to start replacing hardware. I noticed the under my computer my system is only registering half the RAM it should have, and I only have a single set of dual-channel RAM. Not sure if that indicates that RAM is a problem. But it would be good to narrow down which piece of hardware is responsible for these errors. Can no one read those files I attached?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Phanixis]

Looks like its the RAM that is faulty. I ran MEMTEST, and it detected a memory error on the very first pass. I know what I am replacing in the machine first.

 

[Phanixis]

Ok, I found the problem and this is kind of embarrassing. One of my RAM modules must not have been properly secured because when I opened my case I found that it had actually fallen out of the DIMM slot. After installing it I now have the proper amount of RAM again. With any luck, this is my only problem.

 

[blueelvis]

Ok, I just suffered a really bad crash while playing Civilization 5. My Windows install afterward was completely unrecoverable. Every time I attempted to enter safe mode or run the repair utility I got a blue screen. Ended up formatting the install drive and reinstalling Windows. Didn't fix this bsods though, as I got another one after reinstalling Windows and installing the new video drivers. I got another screen like the Chivalry screen when Windows attempted an automatic update.

At this point I am going to have to start replacing hardware. I noticed the under my computer my system is only registering half the RAM it should have, and I only have a single set of dual-channel RAM. Not sure if that indicates that RAM is a problem. But it would be good to narrow down which piece of hardware is responsible for these errors. Can no one read those files I attached?

Thanks for the help.

Looks like its the RAM that is faulty. I ran MEMTEST, and it detected a memory error on the very first pass. I know what I am replacing in the machine first.

Ok, I found the problem and this is kind of embarrassing. One of my RAM modules must not have been properly secured because when I opened my case I found that it had actually fallen out of the DIMM slot. After installing it I now have the proper amount of RAM again. With any luck, this is my only problem.

Glad to hear that you have found the problem. Consider yourself lucky since the RAM stick is still working


Kindly mark this thread as solved in case your problem has been solved :)


-Pranav