Random crashes while playing games

toejammed · Aug 26, 2022

My PC runs fine in standard conditions, but whenever I start playing any resource-intensive games, it crashes hard just after seconds of booting the game. Sometimes it shows BSOD, and sometimes it just hangs for a few seconds before restarting. But if I play lighter games with casual 2D graphics, then it runs fine. I've tried lowering my resolution, and the in-game settings, but to no avail. To fix this problem, here's everything I've tried so far:

Formatted the PC twice
Upgraded from Windows 10 to 11 (both official and legit copies)
Windows up to date including additional optional updates
Disabled Fast Boot in Windows
Switched the SSD used for Windows installation
Switched the SSD used for games
Re-installed and updated all my device drivers
Removed all unwanted USB devices connected to the PC except the keyboard and mouse
Completed uninstalled GPU drivers using the DDU tool and re-installed the current version before updating to the latest
Updated the BIOS from the official source
Ran the System File Checker - unexpected results. Sometimes it finds corrupted files and fixes them, sometimes it says ALL GOOD
Ran the CHKDSK multiple times - no problems detected
Ran the Magician tool by Samsung to test my SSDs - no problems with the longest option selected
Ran the MEMTEST, as suggested on this website - no problems detected
Scanned for Malware using MalwareBytes - no problems detected
Tried running Driver Verifier once, and it crashed my system so hard that it didn't boot for a few mins, and then I had to restore the PC

As you can see from the Speccy snapshot, I've spent a serious amount of money on this system, and it's only been a year now. It doesn't let me do the two things I built this system for - make and play games. After trying out every trick in the book, I have no idea what to do now. Goes without saying, but at this point, any help will be greatly appreciated. The Sysnative ZIP file is attached as well. Thank you!

x BlueRobot · Aug 27, 2022

There doesn't appear to be any dump files saved unfortunately, however, I did notice that you have Riot Vanguard installed and this has been known to cause some BSOD problems. I'm not sure if it has been patched yet or not, but it would crash the system when the its driver would unload itself.

toejammed · Aug 27, 2022

x BlueRobot said:
There doesn't appear to be any dump files saved unfortunately, however, I did notice that you have Riot Vanguard installed and this has been known to cause some BSOD problems. I'm not sure if it has been patched yet or not, but it would crash the system when the its driver would unload itself.

I installed it recently and my system crashed even when I didn't have it installed.

x BlueRobot · Aug 28, 2022

I would recommend removing it again and leaving it uninstalled while we investigate the issue. Unfortunately, I can't suggest much else until I've seen some of the dump files. Once the system crashes again, then please provide the dump files using the log collection tool you ran as part of the posting instructions.

toejammed · Aug 31, 2022

So this log is without the Valorant client, and my PC just crashed playing Call of Duty Cold War.

x BlueRobot · Sep 1, 2022

Okay, there still doesn't appear to be any dump files or any evidence of any BSOD crashes. I assume that this was just a general application crash? When you did have Driver Verifier enabled, how did you have it set up?

toejammed · Sep 2, 2022

x BlueRobot said:
Okay, there still doesn't appear to be any dump files or any evidence of any BSOD crashes. I assume that this was just a general application crash? When you did have Driver Verifier enabled, how did you have it set up?

It wasn't just an application crash, my PC restarted too, immediately. If it helps, I've attached the events from the Event Viewer and also the Reliability History, right before the crash. As you can see, it happens so quickly/harshly that it doesn't even create dumps. And all the crashes have either some DLL fault or some other file causing the crash. And as I mentioned, I've run SFC multiple times and it never finds any problem.

x BlueRobot · Sep 4, 2022

This isn't related to BSODs at all then, you're having seemingly random shutdowns/crashes while playing games, what are your hardware temperatures while gaming?

toejammed said:
And as I mentioned, I've run SFC multiple times and it never finds any problem.

That's because SFC is only designed to check the WinSxS folder and any hardlinks to files within System32.

zbook · Sep 4, 2022

The logs displayed BSOD with the failure to create dump files.

Windows reported problems that may have caused the BSOD too.

Troubleshooting these problems may require repeating some of the steps reported in the opening post.

x BlueRobot · Sep 5, 2022

zbook said:
The logs displayed BSOD with the failure to create dump files.

Could you please point out in the event logs where this is the case?

zbook · Sep 5, 2022

Code:

Event[6836]
  Log Name: System
  Source: volmgr
  Date: 2022-08-26T01:29:29.1130000Z
  Event ID: 161
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Chirag-PC
  Description:
Dump file creation failed due to error during dump creation.

Code:

Event[34486]
  Log Name: System
  Source: volmgr
  Date: 2022-08-24T21:44:22.4850000Z
  Event ID: 161
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Chirag-PC
  Description:
Dump file creation failed due to error during dump creation.

x BlueRobot · Sep 5, 2022

That doesn't necessarily mean dump files because of bugcheck crashes though. There should be another event which indicates the bugcheck code and I couldn't find any.

toejammed · Sep 5, 2022

x BlueRobot said:
This isn't related to BSODs at all then, you're having seemingly random shutdowns/crashes while playing games, what are your hardware temperatures while gaming?

That's because SFC is only designed to check the WinSxS folder and any hardlinks to files within System32.

Temps stay pretty normal/standard. The crashes happen right after I boot my PC and start playing the game, so there's no intensive load on the hardware either.

zbook said:
The logs displayed BSOD with the failure to create dump files.

Windows reported problems that may have caused the BSOD too.

Troubleshooting these problems may require repeating some of the steps reported in the opening post.

Yea, exactly. The dumps are not being created and I do see those messages too.

x BlueRobot · Sep 5, 2022

As mentioned previously, those dump files could be due to live kernel reports or application crash dumps. What were the Driver Verifier settings you had set previously? You mentioned that it caused your system to not boot?

Does the system crash at all when not playing any games?

toejammed · Sep 8, 2022

x BlueRobot said:
As mentioned previously, those dump files could be due to live kernel reports or application crash dumps. What were the Driver Verifier settings you had set previously? You mentioned that it caused your system to not boot?

Does the system crash at all when not playing any games?

No, it doesn't crash when not playing games. And these are the settings I used for Driver Verifier.

x BlueRobot · Sep 8, 2022

The issue appears to be application specific as mentioned previously and those Driver Verifier settings appear to be okay. I usually recommend DDI compliance checking though. Since the problem only appears while gaming then I would recommend opening a support ticket with them and see if they're able to investigate further.

toejammed · Sep 8, 2022

x BlueRobot said:
The issue appears to be application specific as mentioned previously and those Driver Verifier settings appear to be okay. I usually recommend DDI compliance checking though. Since the problem only appears while gaming then I would recommend opening a support ticket with them and see if they're able to investigate further.

Since the issue appears in every game that I play, I'm not sure how it's game-specific?

x BlueRobot · Sep 8, 2022

Well, games in general then, I assume that you've checked your PSU is providing optimal power while gaming? A reliable and trusted PSU brand which has sufficient wattage? Is enough power going through the rails? That's only thing which I can think of which is causing this issue since it only appears to happen when you play something resource intensive.

toejammed · Sep 29, 2022

x BlueRobot said:
Well, games in general then, I assume that you've checked your PSU is providing optimal power while gaming? A reliable and trusted PSU brand which has sufficient wattage? Is enough power going through the rails? That's only thing which I can think of which is causing this issue since it only appears to happen when you play something resource intensive.

How do I check if enough power is being provided?

x BlueRobot · Sep 29, 2022

An online PSU calculator will give you a rough ball park figure of if the card has adequate wattage to begin with, however, a better option will be to use OCCT which is available here.

Random crashes while playing games

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