Encountered a random PC freeze during gaming session.
Encountered a random PC freeze during gaming session.
It’s a good idea to refresh your bio. I’m not sure if there’s a recent update for your ASRock Z68 Ext3 Gen3, but keeping it current helps!
Could there be another cause for the crashes besides the driver? It might help to check updates or revert to previous versions.
Consider testing all possibilities if needed, though software seems fine here. If issues arise, use Autoruns64 to identify what started with your system. You might also encounter AV or motherboard-related software from Asrock. A quick tip: if a fresh install is an option, perform it on a separate drive just in case it isn’t the cause of the freeze.
Upgrade MSI Afterburner for enhanced fan settings, helping your GPU stay cooler. Consider lowering your graphics card's clock speed. Also, remove any dust from the GPU cooling fins. Your temperatures seem elevated—this isn't a major issue but worth addressing.
Also tested Mafia III but it keeps crashing. I already have MSI Afterburner and I understand the temperatures are high. I’ll attempt to lower the clock speed (sometimes games crash randomly, not the whole system). The driver rebooted, and it crashed into a solid color—usually the main color in the image I was seeing. I don’t know why that happens.
Suggest to restart your BIOS and disable any programs that could interfere or overwrite settings like Afterburner or Intel XTU. Inspect your system drive and especially your RAM for stability. As Linus mentioned long ago in some build logs, most stability problems usually stem from memory issues. The second most probable cause is an unstable overclock. Of course, there could be many other reasons as well.
I've looked into memory issues using the standard Windows mem check and it came back clear... I'll attempt to run any game with the iGPU (not great) so if it doesn't fail in roughly five minutes (the typical crash point), I can be sure it's the GPU.