Why do games keep crashing on my PC

[Spacewolf]

So this summer my old computer (desktop) suffered a pretty extensive failure and i got a new one as i move around alot i got a gaming laptop however games seem to crash fairly often and i dont know why there are no noticeable signs in the game no jittering and my computer is up to specs, it most often crops up in new games e.g. deus ex human revolution and dragon age origins (not realy that new i know.

Specs if your interested
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System Information
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Time of this report: 11/29/2011, 12:43:55
Machine name:
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
System Model: RF511/RF411/RF711
BIOS: AMIBIOS Version 10HX.M034.20110426.SSH
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6056MB RAM
Page File: 2829MB used, 9279MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
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Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_C0A5144D&REV_09
Display Memory: 1696 MB
Dedicated Memory: 64 MB
Shared Memory: 1632 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)


Any help would be appricated and even reading this far deserves a well done

 

[MrTub]

Post more specs

The fact you are trying to run games on Intel HD Graphics may be part of the issue.

Why do you have 6GB of RAM on a dual channel system?

Quite common sale trick, they use 1x2gb and 1x4gb

I would guess its overheating problems.

What happens when the game crashes?

Does the whole computer shut down and you have to wait a few mins to start it?

Or do you get a bluescreen?

 

[isometry]

Check your system temperatures while playing a game that crashes, to see if it could be overheating. Here is a program for checking temperatures:

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

It could also be that your Intel graphics do not meet the minimum requirements of the games you are trying to run.

 

[ResonanceSD]

get bluescreenview. Are you getting crash to desktops or complete system reboots?

 

[ResonanceSD]

Whilst the new integrated graphics in the Intel second generation core cpus are better than their predeccesors, you are better off lowering your settings or getting a cheap discrete card.

 

[JesterRaiin]

my computer is up to specs

Intel(R) HD Graphics Family

No, not really. Sorry.

Also : With such shit*y gfx new games won't run fast or won't run at all. You may suffer some problems with textures, lags. Sudden crashes are rather out of question. It's either hardware failure due to (for example) overheating, or software problems. Viruses, worms, trojans ?

 

[Spacewolf]

my computer is up to specs

Intel(R) HD Graphics Family

No, not really. Sorry.

Also : With such shit*y gfx new games won't run fast or won't run at all. You may suffer some problems with textures, lags. Sudden crashes are rather out of question. It's either hardware failure due to (for example) overheating, or software problems. Viruses, worms, trojans ?

well alot of people are posting the same thing so i'll quote you, no im not getting any problems with graphics, textures or anything like that even on max it runs like a dream for most of the time. The windows points system rates my gaming graphics at 6.6 and the system at with desktop graphics for windows aero being the lowest by .3 points.

Also the crashing problem is the game sort of freezes and i have to CTL/ALT/DEL out and start task manager then it crashes to desktop. I think you could be right about over heating as it does seem to get very hot around the plug in area and then work fine after i leave it to cool for a while. Not sure how you could sort this couldnt exactly fit a water cooling system on my laptop.

 

[DazZ.]

Not sure how you could sort this couldnt exactly fit a water cooling system on my laptop.

You could install Speedfan [http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php] first and find out if that's the issue though.

Seeing as your graphics card only has 64MB solely for graphics though as it's onboard I wouldn't expect much in the way of gaming.

 

[JesterRaiin]

my computer is up to specs

Intel(R) HD Graphics Family

No, not really. Sorry.

Also : With such shit*y gfx new games won't run fast or won't run at all. You may suffer some problems with textures, lags. Sudden crashes are rather out of question. It's either hardware failure due to (for example) overheating, or software problems. Viruses, worms, trojans ?

well alot of people are posting the same thing so i'll quote you, no im not getting any problems with graphics, textures or anything like that even on max it runs like a dream for most of the time. The windows points system rates my gaming graphics at 6.6 and the system at with desktop graphics for windows aero being the lowest by .3 points.

Also the crashing problem is the game sort of freezes and i have to CTL/ALT/DEL out and start task manager then it crashes to desktop. I think you could be right about over heating as it does seem to get very hot around the plug in area and then work fine after i leave it to cool for a while. Not sure how you could sort this couldnt exactly fit a water cooling system on my laptop.

Benchmarks and ratings are one thing, reality is another one. Since i saw powerful rigs unable to run simple games and complicated ones running on quite shi**y computers, i don't believe that much in benchmarks.

Notebooks aren't the best gaming platform despite being based on quite strong components exactly because of rather poor heat management. I never saw water cooling system for notebooks in action, so i don't know how good they really are, however there are solutions like this :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834997410

 

[Zantos]

That's odd, I've got a laptop of similar specs and with the graphics turned down it can run games fine. Overheating is a likely issue, but also have you checked all your drivers are up to date? I know Toshiba has alongside it's preinstalled rubbish, a program that will check to make sure your drivers are running properly and up to date. Before you try anything more expensive this might be worth checking.

 

[Wolfram23]

Most likely a heat issue.

But you may want to exchange that laptop for something better.

 

[Spacewolf]

Not sure how you could sort this couldnt exactly fit a water cooling system on my laptop.

You could install Speedfan [http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php] first and find out if that's the issue though.

Seeing as your graphics card only has 64MB solely for graphics though as it's onboard I wouldn't expect much in the way of gaming.

although it does say that it has 1.6GB not dedicated so presumably as long im not doing much in the background it it uses the rest

 

[isometry]

Also the crashing problem is the game sort of freezes and i have to CTL/ALT/DEL out and start task manager then it crashes to desktop. I think you could be right about over heating as it does seem to get very hot around the plug in area and then work fine after i leave it to cool for a while. Not sure how you could sort this couldnt exactly fit a water cooling system on my laptop.

If you think overheating might be the issue, there are a few things you can do to help that even though as you say it would be impossible to upgrade the cooling system itself.

First, download some software to make sure your fans are running at 100%. Most laptops set the fans to run far below 100% to cut down on noise. Running the fan at 100% doesn't hurt anything, it's just noisy. But if it will help protect your computer and stop these crashes it's worth it.

The next thing you can do, make sure there is no dust blocking the fan vents. Also make sure that when you are playing the laptop is on a hard, flat surface (if you put it on a pillow or bed it can sink into the cushion which blocks airflow).

The next thing you can do is turn down the graphics settings of your games. This is why its good to look at the system temperatures. If playing a game on high makes your processor go to 65 degrees Celsius, trying playing on medium or low settings to bring the temperature below 60 degrees.

Finally, you can buy an external cooling pad like these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007639%20600028834&IsNodeId=1&name=Cooler

 

[DazZ.]

Not sure how you could sort this couldnt exactly fit a water cooling system on my laptop.

You could install Speedfan [http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php] first and find out if that's the issue though.

Seeing as your graphics card only has 64MB solely for graphics though as it's onboard I wouldn't expect much in the way of gaming.

although it does say that it has 1.6GB not dedicated so presumably as long im not doing much in the background it it uses the rest

Just because it's allocated memory from your boards RAM instead of having actual graphics memory doesn't mean it's going to run like a graphics card that has 1GB of memory.

You need a graphics card to play games happily, you have a motherboard.

 

[brainslurper]

Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_C0A5144D&REV_09
Display Memory: 1696 MB
Dedicated Memory: 64 MB
Shared Memory: 1632 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)

There's your problem. Intel onboard graphics fucking suck. Like, horribly badly suck. They don't support ANYTHING games require to run and can barely handle running Windows. It's amazing you get anything to work at all game-wise.

My advice: Get a laptop with a proper video card and games should stop crashing. They're crashing because they're calling functions the video chip can't handle.

I just played skyrim for a couple hours on my macbook with core 2 duo integrated graphics, and it worked fine.

 

[Spacewolf]

well checking my system heat without crashing it got up to 85C not sure how much higher it wouldve gotten without crashing

 

[brainslurper]

Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_C0A5144D&REV_09
Display Memory: 1696 MB
Dedicated Memory: 64 MB
Shared Memory: 1632 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)

There's your problem. Intel onboard graphics fucking suck. Like, horribly badly suck. They don't support ANYTHING games require to run and can barely handle running Windows. It's amazing you get anything to work at all game-wise.

My advice: Get a laptop with a proper video card and games should stop crashing. They're crashing because they're calling functions the video chip can't handle.

I just played skyrim for a couple hours on my macbook with core 2 duo integrated graphics, and it worked fine.

There's no such thing as 'core 2 duo' graphics. Core 2 Duo is the processor, and is actually quite a nice one most of the time. You likely have an ATI graphics chip in there which supports the various functions games are calling, either that or Skyrim is one of the odd AAA titles that actually will run on Intel integrated.

There is no graphics "card". It is integrated into the processor, and the processor is a Core 2 Duo. That is what I have decided and no amount of steam telling me I have a nvidia 320m is going to deter me from thinking that.

 

[Choppaduel]

it got up to 85C

That's hot. I'd wager you will, if not already, have overheating issues.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Judging from the other posts, it sounds like over-heating is the biggest issue. There's a solution for this, though it does come with it's own risks; you could download a program that would let you control the speed of your fan (it would be loud, but games run significantly better when it's running at full speed.)

Or you could resort to magic...

 

[Vern]

It really sounds like overheating to me. My desktop runs between 45 and 60 C, if you're getting up to 85 C then that's extremely hot in a tiny little package. Add in the stress on a built in graphics driver that's doing things it wasn't designed to do you will have problems. If it's not a virus or driver issue, then I would say the laptop is shutting itself down to avoid catastrophic failure due to overheating.

Does it crash doing anything other than playing games, or is it only when playing games? If it's fine doing anything else, then it seems the issue is with the added stress on the hardware while playing games. I mean, make sure your fans are clean, make sure it's on a solid surface so that it can ventilate, but really there's not that much more you can do. And an integrated graphics card really isn't for gaming.

It looks like your system only has 64mb dedicated to the GPU, and while it can use available RAM from the system if needed, that could cause issues with overheating. Most games released in the last 2 years won't run, or will run like complete crap without a dedicated GPU with 512mb RAM. So yeah, it looks like your system is held back by the onboard GPU. I'm not a fan nor an expert on laptops, I still stick with my desktop computer, so I can't begin to give you suggestions on replacing your GPU, but it seems like that's where the problems are happening. The games you're trying to play are taxing your GPU, and overheating your system, which then goes into automatic shut down so it doesn't fry everything.

My suggestion, turn down the graphics settings to the bare minimum and see if that helps. Otherwise, replace the GPU or get a laptop cooling unit. But really, I'm dubious, I really don't think it should be running at 85C, that's 15 degrees shy of boiling water, it seems like for a compact laptop 60-70C should be the max. It's quite possible this computer just isn't up to the task of running games.