"Random" system freezes while playing games

[claval]

I have to preface this by saying that I didn't play the games I've had experience issues with, on any other PC.

Games are: Titanfall 2 (single player) and Red Dead Redemption 2.

For the first I experienced 2 complete system freeze. No input responding, audio stopped, screen frozen on game screen. Restarting brought up nothing at all from windows. Looking online I didn't find any recent post about that, only very old topic and they were not referring to an exact scenario but something similar.

For RDR2 I played only just after the "tutorial" area and some of the first missions (I think 5-6 hours) and got a single freeze in whcih the screen turned dark gray and a buzzing sound coming out of the audio channel (had an headset but even when removing it, the buzzing sound was coming out from the laptop speakers). To clarify, it wasn't an "hardware making buzzing sound" but literally as if the soundcard was having a stroke and would just output this low continuous buzz.
Again, restarting windows didn't brought up any report of sort. Couldn't find any info online about this kind of issue.

Laptop is brand new Recoil, here are the spec:

Promotional Discount
Special Offer - Save Now On Intel Core i7/i9 Powered Laptops - Offer Ends 2nd December 2019!
Chassis & Display
Recoil Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ WIRELESS-AC 1550 M.2 GAMING 802.11AC + BLUETOOTH 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK QUIET MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Promotional Item
FREE Red Dead Redemption 2 & More! w/ select Intel i7 & i9 CPUs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
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I need guidance on what to test / which data to provide to get help as it's my first PC specialist order (built 06-12-2019, received 10-12-2019) and I don't really know what I can do here.

 

[Oussebon]

Hmm.. Red Dead might not be the best game to use for PC stability testing as it's had a lot of problems since launch including crashes and so on.

The fact you're getting it in another, different, single player game means there certainly could be an issue here.

The first things I'd check would be that drivers (Nvidia GPU, and the 'Gaming Centre' or 'Control Centre' software that helps run the laptop) are properly installed. And check temperatures.

Sweep the GPU drivers with DDU and perform a clean install downloaded from the Nvidia/Geforce website.

Clean Installing Graphics Drivers

Hi All, A clean installation of your Graphics drivers tends to be the "go to" fix for a lot of graphics issues due to the fact that it is so simple to do and can resolve numerous software causes quickly. I would suggest using a tool called DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), this is a straight...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Make sure the Gaming Centre or Control Centre app is running. If it's not, download and install it from your main PC Specialist account.

Use something like HWinfo to monitor and log temps. If you're happy configuring it, MSI Afterburner (which includes Rivatuner Statistics Server) can overlay temperature and other info on your screen while running games.

Perhaps download and run the free Firestrike benchmark (and the stability test if they have that in the free edition). You can get it on steam or from the 3dmark website. And Monitor your temperatures for the CPU and GPU while running that.

 

[ExistedName]

Hi Claval

First of all .... Can u get out of the game to the windows or u have to force restart your PC ? Did u tried any other games ? Both games installed to the same hard drive ( HDD , SSD , nvme ) ?

Few thing can cause this problem .

-System memory or VRam malfunction . VRam problem easily recognisable because the picture on your screen falls a part ( lots of horizontal lines )
-If u use HDD ( mechanical hard drive , not nvme or ssd ) particion problem .

If first two cause the problems u more likely have to restart your PC when the problem appears .

 

[claval]

Hi Claval

First of all .... Can u get out of the game to the windows or u have to force restart your PC ? Did u tried any other games ? Both games installed to the same hard drive ( HDD , SSD , nvme ) ?

Few thing can cause this problem .

-System memory or VRam malfunction . VRam problem easily recognisable because the picture on your screen falls a part ( lots of horizontal lines )
-If u use HDD ( mechanical hard drive , not nvme or ssd ) particion problem .

If first two cause the problems u more likely have to restart your PC when the problem appears .

The pc is completely frozen. No input control as I wrote, so the only option is to restart it.
I also tried World of Warcraft (classic and retail) but didn't encounter the problem, probably because they are less demanding in terms of resources.

About the possible causes you listed:

• - There is no horizontal lines. As I wrote, in one case the screen freezed in game. In the other I got a black screen.
• - I only have 2 SSD, as you can see from the spec I posted

Hmm.. Red Dead might not be the best game to use for PC stability testing as it's had a lot of problems since launch including crashes and so on.

Good point. I also had another session last night and no crash whatsoever.

The fact you're getting it in another, different, single player game means there certainly could be an issue here.

The first things I'd check would be that drivers (Nvidia GPU, and the 'Gaming Centre' or 'Control Centre' software that helps run the laptop) are properly installed. And check temperatures.

Drivers updated. First thing I did when I got the laptop was to perform a full "utility" run, installing latest drivers (windows and nvidia) and utility software.

Sweep the GPU drivers with DDU and perform a clean install downloaded from the Nvidia/Geforce website.

Clean Installing Graphics Drivers

Hi All, A clean installation of your Graphics drivers tends to be the "go to" fix for a lot of graphics issues due to the fact that it is so simple to do and can resolve numerous software causes quickly. I would suggest using a tool called DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), this is a straight...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Make sure the Gaming Centre or Control Centre app is running. If it's not, download and install it from your main PC Specialist account.

It is in the system tray so I suppose it's running but I didn't really mess with it. Is there an instruction/documentation somewhere?
edit: I'll try and reinstall the drivers from scratch this weekend as well.

Use something like HWinfo to monitor and log temps. If you're happy configuring it, MSI Afterburner (which includes Rivatuner Statistics Server) can overlay temperature and other info on your screen while running games.

Perhaps download and run the free Firestrike benchmark (and the stability test if they have that in the free edition). You can get it on steam or from the 3dmark website. And Monitor your temperatures for the CPU and GPU while running that.

I downloaded HWInfo but didn't check it as last session was going fine for over 4 hours. Anyway it's in the system tray as well, I'll check on it periodically.

I'll download the firestrike benchmark now and the stability test and perform some test with them.

One thing I noticed is that the fans seems to always (nearly) immediately start upon launching a game at what seems to be high/max speed. I don't know if that's precautionary or symptom of something wrong.

Also, there is a button to switch between modes, just beside the power button (it has a little speedometer icon on it) that has two leds... what does it do? I remember the "turbo" button from early 90s computers but I'm not sure it is the same thing

 

[Oussebon]

First thing I did when I got the laptop was to perform a full "utility" run, installing latest drivers (windows and nvidia) and utility software.

Where did you source the drivers from, and what utilities are you using? Are you using any kind of driver management software?

 

[claval]

Latest update for windows from the update center and latest nvidia from the nvidia geforce experience.
Rest was utility as in 7zip, notepad++, etc. etc.

I didn't update drivers using the windows device management as they tend to install the microsoft version that sometimes are messed up.

 

[ExistedName]

Try remove one of the memory module and test it out . If the problem still renaming swap the memory module and test it again .

 

[claval]

Try remove one of the memory module and test it out . If the problem still renaming swap the memory module and test it again .

I'm gonna perform every software test first and then start messing with the hardware. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[claval]

Just to update, I ran the fire strike benchmark (2-3 times, every time resetting the hwInfo limits registered) and these are the values shown by HWInfo after it finished the last run:

Also, no idea if this also can give some info, these are the result of the benchmark: https://www.3dmark.com/fs/21256191

I have requested the ARCTIC thermal paste as well in my build. Are these numbers adding up with an application of that product? I understand that a benchmark is meant to push the hardware to the limitbut those red numbers are not really something I like.

 

[ExistedName]

Run Aida64 stress test least 20-30 min. and monitoring at same time . This test stressing your cpu + system memory as well . If anything wrong with those two u will find it . Pick temperatures are a bit tricky because cpu temp rise so quick so your cooling can't react that fast . That's why important run tests longer period ( constant full load ) because that helps u to see how good your cooling is .

 

[claval]

Run Aida64 stress test least 20-30 min. and monitoring at same time . This test stressing your cpu + system memory as well . If anything wrong with those two u will find it . Pick temperatures are a bit tricky because cpu temp rise so quick so your cooling can't react that fast . That's why important run tests longer period ( constant full load ) because that helps u to see how good your cooling is .

Hey, downloaded Aida64 Extreme (trial) and let it run for 30 minutes (timer set on my phone) but on crash or freeze of any sort. Temperatures were stable as well, here is a screenshot as apparently the "save" button only does that... :-/

The spikes were probably when windows was trying to switch background while everything was being beaten into submission by the test running... but hey, that is a super important thing to do as we all knows.

I'll add that I tried playing Star Wars Jedi - Fallen Order as well and didn't encounter any crash or issue of sort.
Kept also playing RDR2 basically every day (really love the western theme but the game is a little repetitive) and experienced another crash, this time instead of a black screen and buzzing sound, the screen froze in game (as staring at a snapshot of the game) and the same buzzing sound came out.

I must say that after several posts and search around I start finding people complaining about similar issues and most of them suggest deleting some config file that is going to be recreated by the application on the next launch.

Considering that every benchmark or stress test I'm throwing at this laptop doesn't seem to trigger the issue, at least I feel like the problem must be on the software layer (otherwise things like Aida would have made it happens again).

My guess at this point is: nVidia drivers (already happened in the past) or DirectX having some bad day.

I'll run a couple more Aida later today to see if I can see something happen but I don't want to stress test too much a new laptop just for the sake of it.

 

[claval]

Alright, update: No more freezes until just a moment ago. I was playing World of Warcraft. Quite the non-demanding game as I play it with medium-low setting to avoid the messy effects.

The real interesting (and concerning) thing I noticed is that once the laptop freeze, even "hardware" input freeze totally, like the double tap to enable/disable the touchpad but more concerning, the switch to enable/disable performance mode.

As it's a physical button, I would have expected that to keep working and instead the leds were not changing at all. Frozen as well.

 

[claval]

Tried a clean install of the video drivers (intel and nvidia) after cleaning up using "Display Driver Uninstaller".

I'll update if the issue persist...

 

[claval]

Just updating that so far so good since I performed a clean uninstall of the nvidia and intel drivers and installed from scratch.

I'll consider this issue resolved if I don't see other freezes for a week or so from now.

 

[Oussebon]

Keep us posted. Worth logging with PCS anyway in case there is a further issue down the line that turns out to be related.

 

[claval]

They suggested as well reinstalling the driver after a cleanup.

Since then I've only had a laptop freeze with buzzing sound in RDR2 which seems to be a relatively common issue with the game (deleting a config.xml file should fix it and since I've done it, no more freeze happened).