Computer crashes only on Dayz

[Marmoo 32]

Hi  All

 

Hoping you can help me with something which is confusing the F*** out of me

About a month ago I built my brother a new PC. Been building them for the last couple of years with no problems but this one is giving me a bit of a headache.

 

SPEC'S

 

i5 3470 Quad

Gigabyte HD 7850 OC AMD/ATI Graphics - 2GB

4GB DDR3 1600 MHZ

Corsair 600w PSU

 

Windows 7 - Home Premium - Retail Version

 

ARMA 2 + ARMA 2 OA downloaded Via Steam

DayZ downloaded, installed and played via Dayz Commander - ARMA 2 + DayZ both patched to the latest versions

Dayz played on 'High' settings'

PC linked to monitor via HDMI cable from graphics card

 

PC has not been overclocked in any manner - everything on stock speeds

 

The problem arises after about 20 minutes of game play..The PC will completely crash and force a restart. This crash can happen anywhere in the game, whether my brother is in the woods or in a city like Cherno. 

 

I tried to eliminate the obvious by getting my brother to completely uninstall ARMA 2 + ARMA 2 OA and Dayz + DayZ commander and complete fresh install to see if it was any corruption of files which could have caused this. Unfortunately this has not solved the problem. We have also uninstalled the graphics card driver and installed the latest driver via the AMD website - still same problem. I got my brother to play Dayz on a lower graphic setting like normal or low but still crashes.

 

My brother last night mentioned that he felt the computer was running a little warm (by feeling the case). Problem for me is that my brother lives about 100 miles away so I can not feel the case myself so I am unsure if what he is talking about is normal heat from the case or if we do have an overheating problem. The next suggestion I am going to give my brother is to take side panel of computer case to allow more air into the computer and play Dayz and see if we have the same problem.

 

The case we used for the build is the Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Mid Tower, recommended to me due to the extra airflow this case can give. One concern I had in building with this case was the fact that the PSU sits at the bottom of the case just below the graphics cards and I was concerned re hot air combining in close proximity.

 

I think I will have to go to my brothers to sit at the PC when this crash happens but I was looking for some ideas if anyone else has had either similar problems with the same spec's or just similar problems generally and how they fixed it.

At the moment the processor has stock fan on it and I am looking to replace that with a superior one so this could solve problem

 

I would like to make clear that this crash only happens on DayZ. My brother does play a variety of games for long periods of time with no problems and the computer is generally used most the time, again with no crashes. I understand that ARMA 2 is a very intensive game both on the processor and the GPU so this may be the reason for crash but I can not imagine that the Spec's of the PC struggle with the game.

 

Also, can anyone link to me a good temperature monitoring program so when I do go over I can monitor what heat the computer and graphics is at while playing game.

 

Thanks in advance for any help and happy hunting :)

Edited August 1, 2013 by Marmoo

[h3l1x 330]

Core temp, gpu-z, cpu-z, open hardware monitor, aida64. Personally I mostly use open hardware monitor. Just make sure especially for cpu temps that TjMax is reported correctly for your particular cpu.

 

Also, tell your brother to completely disable shadows if he has the setting enabled and try to see if it keeps crashing. I play on a e8500 with a thermalright ultra 120 extreme and a 6950 2gb with unlocked shaders. DayZ used to crash every 20-30 minutes, with an error saying "Arma II has encountered an error" or something like that. Anyhow, it always used to do that, every 20-30 minutes, I didn't know what to do. So after playing with settings etc, as soon as I completely disabled shadows It has never crashed since then, and it's been a couple of months. It was not a matter of temps, it was something else.

 

And yes, never use stock cpu heatsinks/fans (neither intel or amd) if you're gaming. Don't need to buy hyped mass oriented watercooling since you'll end up buying just a brandname and bling. A hyper 212 EVO will be fine, and as you can see here, no difference in performance compared to the corsair h60, although it costs less than half than the corsair option. So don't go for bling and don't listen to anyone telling you "omg out-of-the-box watercooling is so superb cause it's moar expensive than air heatsinks". Now, custom/diy loops wc is a different story but you also don't need it, it's more of a hobby/contest than a necessity (also much pricier and difficult to handle). Lastly, thermal paste does make a difference, so go for something good.

Edited August 1, 2013 by h3l1x

[Marmoo 32]

Thank you for advice h3l1x

 

We disabled shadows but still crashed so we are looking at possible overheating here I think.

Arranged to go to brothers soon to sort and put on new heat sink and monitor temps to isolate problem

Edited August 2, 2013 by Marmoo