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MSI P67A-GD65 (B3)

Intel i7-2600k

NVIDIA GTX 980

16GB DDR3

EVGA 750W PSU

I've been having an issue when gaming. They're either crashes or hangs, whatever you want to call them. Both screens will freeze, but sound continues playing (I'm suspecting a total kernal crash but the sound keeps playing from the sound bufffer?). The computer is completely unresponsive to any input/Crtl-Alt-Delt/etc. This never corrects itself and the computer just stays like this. Usually happens 20-30 min after starting gaming, but I've gone through patches when it won't happen for three hours of gaming straight. This happens both on the latest newest graphics intense games like GTA 5 and Witcher 3 as well as older stuff.

I feel like I've tried EVERYTHING. Here's everything I've tried/inspected (I'll add that both CPU and GPU are running at stock factory settings. The GPU does have a modest factory EVGA "superclock" overclock):

  • Power. My first power supply was a seven year old Antec one. I replaced it with a brand new EVGA.

  • Temperature. Temps were the second thing I checked. GPU temps were normal under load. CPU temps were running in the mid to high 70s and the max temp for my CPU is 72.5C. I pulled the cooler off and replaced the thermal paste (it was all dried up) and temps returned to normal.

  • Deleted GeForce Experience because some said it breaks setups.

  • Deleted all previous versions of NVIDIA drivers. There were some four years worth (9GB!). Fresh install of latest NVIDIA driver.

  • Ran Memtest and passed.

  • Ran chkdsk on all my hard drives and no errors detected.

  • Reseeded all sticks of RAM and the GPU.

  • Windows Event Viewer shows no drivers failing or anything during these crashes/hangs.

  • Inspected the motherboard for any leaked or exploded capacitors and didn't see anything.

  • Ran Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool and it passed.

  • Finally, I decided something must be wrong with my GTX 980. I got RMA authorization from EVGA and pulled it out and was running my GTX 580 (which worked well for me before) and suddenly it STILL was doing it.

Any ideas? Northbridge failing? BIOS issues? It's literally only been going on for a month or so. The fact that it's not BSODing leads me to believe it's a driver issue but Windows Event Viewer isn't showing anything failing, so I'm suspecting motherboard failing?

MSI tech support said it must be the graphics card. I said I was able to recreate the crash with a different graphics card and they didn't reply on the tech support ticket. I think I still had the level 1 guy. It's out of warranty so no chance of RMA, I just wanted their expertise if the Northbridge was faulty or so.

I updated BIOS and haven't had a chance to try to recreate the crashes yet.

I'm considering buying a new motherboard, but don't want to pull the trigger yet since there's no confirmation really.

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  • have you run sfc.exe to check your windows install's integrity? Jun 10, 2015 at 18:07
  • Just ran it, said it did not find any integrity violations.
    – Krbin
    Jun 10, 2015 at 18:15
  • I hate to give advice on this kind of issue, since nothing can be confirmed, but in my experience, in those situations, a new motherboard, and a windows rebuild do usually address the issue. sucks to spend money when you just don't know though. Jun 10, 2015 at 18:19
  • This is just what I'm going to do. I've messed around with this enough. Started chasing this problem two months ago when I thought it was power/temperature.
    – Krbin
    Jun 10, 2015 at 18:59

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