Random PC Crashes When Gaming - Loud Buzzing Noise

[barhut]

Hello, so recently I have noticed my PC has been crashing more and more frequently. It happens primarily when I play borderlands two as that is the game I have been playing this past week. I bought the pc from here in June last year. It happens completely randomly, I could play for 15 mins and it crashes or 2 hours. The crash usually makes the screen go a random colour, white, blue, pink and there is a buzzing noise through my headset. I then have to hard restart the system. Rarely, when im playing the screen will go black, then I can hear the audio starting to buzz and i can CTRL ALT DEL to stop it from crashing and then I get the notification saying my display driver has stopped working. I have tried numerous things to solve this, reading multiple threads. I shall list the steps I have taken below.

Using DDU to remove and re-install nvidia drivers.
Stress testing CPU with prime95
Stress testing GPU with 3dMark
Updating all my drivers
Editing the Timeout Detection and Recovery through this - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665946
Re-installing realtek HD audio drivers
updating directx

It seems to only happen when I play borderlands. I have played numerous games in past weeks and it has only crashed with smite once and borderlands the rest. I have also noticed my audio will cut out for a split second across the entire PC, so it will be as if its turned off for a split second and then it comes back if that makes sense. In addition when i tried to update directx it stated that a newer or existing versiion was already installed. After clicking ok another dialog popped up saying it may not have been installed correctly which makes me wonder if my dx is corrupt? DXDIAG does not show anything though.

During one of the crashes the pc restarted itself and created a dump file. Upon reading the dump file through BlueScreenView the files affected were: dxgkrnl.sys, dxgmms1.sys and nvlddmkm.sys.

I have attached my specs. If there is anything else I can provide you with to help me let me know.

Thanks.

 

[mantadog]

To me it sounds like faulty hardware, which piece exactly, im not sure.

If the buzzing is from the speakers/headset only then that rules out some things. Have you been able to get the temps of the GPU/CPU before it crashes? Might be an idea to keep an eye on those as much as possible as it could be an overheating problem, though unlikely if it survived a stress test.

The next most likely cause is the GPU, it might be worth removing it and re seating the card just to rule out any problems their. While you are in their check the connections from the PSU to everything else and re seat the RAM.

If that fails to fix it you are left with 3 possible causes.
The GPU is just on its way out.
The PSU is on its way out
Windows has some sort of problem, try a fresh installation.

 

[Rustilol]

Hi Barhut

If the problem has only started occuring recently, or has incrased in frequency recently - I would advise rolling back your drivers to 337 release.

It deffinately seems like a graphic error by the way you described it.

Let us know if rolling back helps!

 

[vanthus]

I would agree with Rustilol that it's a graphics issue,either drivers or DirectX related.
If no joy with Rustilol's suggestion it could be down to an issue with DirectX,unfortunately there seems to be no easy way to reinstall/repair DirectX,
this link may be of some help,post 6 looks like an interesting suggestion.

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/280483-how-reinstall-directx-11-repair-directx-11-a.html
Might also be worth trying a Reinstall of Borderlands.

 

[barhut]

Last night I ran memtest before bed and ran it for 10 hours with no errors. Thanks for help guys will try these out and report back

 

[barhut]

Updated BIOS, resat GPU in motherboard managed to game for 4 hours on BL2 without crashing but just crashed now. Any other suggestions?

 

[mantadog]

If it was me I would try a clean installation of the OS, that way you know you are working from square one on the software side of things at least. Just be sure to back up everything you want plan to loose.