Why are my games stopping suddenly sometimes? I don't know why they keep breaking and not working again.
Why are my games stopping suddenly sometimes? I don't know why they keep breaking and not working again.
I have a friend who is having trouble with his son's computer. I want to help but don't know what the problem is. His copy of Windows 11 looks real, and nobody else can fix it either. Can someone please help him? "Tyler built his own gaming PC this summer. It works really well most of the time, but he gets bugs when playing some games. I have looked everywhere online and found many ways to try. None worked. Here is what happens: Fortnite crashes randomly about 15 minutes in. Rainbow Six crashes sometimes. Call of Duty Vanguard and Warzone crash every single time they start. Games that don't crash: Valorant, Madden 23, Red Dead Redemption 2." He checked the temperature and made sure it's not too hot. Red Dead Redemption is a huge open world game, so overheating would be bad if it was that cause, but that game never crashes. I think this might be a Windows 11 problem. We have tried everything we know about finding fixes online, except for changing to a fresh install of Windows 10. Here is what he has already done: Turned off fast startup, turned off automatic restarts, updated all drivers, turned the power on/off switch off, ran troubleshooting steps, turned off sleep mode, did scans for bad hardware, and upgraded windows to the latest version. His computer specs are: CPU is an AMD Ryzen 7 with 8 cores, Hard Drive is a Samsung 2TB SSD, RAM is 32 GB, Graphics card is GForce RTX 3050, Power supply is Corsair HX series with 1000W, cooler is liquid cooled called iCUE H150i Elite, and he uses two intake fans plus three exhaust fans. The operating system is Windows 11 Pro version v21H2, OS Build 22000.1042, on a motherboard from Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite.
Have you ever tried running RAM through memtest86+? You can run this from a USB stick or CD that has its own OS. It doesn't change your computer, but it takes care of things overnight. You could also test one stick at a time. If you have four sticks, for example, try checking the first slot with something that often crashes things. The parts look pretty good, so maybe this is software, but usually, these failures point to either RAM or the power supply. Both of those can cause random crashes in many programs. It is possible for just one driver to be the issue, so you might try some stress test tools to check if it works alone. Just like testing an SSD or a video card, see if the problem stops there. You should also think about heat. It sounds like this isn't the cause, but remember that corner cases exist, like a tiny bubble in the thermal paste making one part of the device stay warm while others are cool. Changing the paste might help a bit even if nothing else shows up. One thing I've seen is when a CPU pin gets bent or broken; then the power delivery pins aren't working well until you use more electricity, and it won't show any signs until later. If you want to check this, apply fresh thermal compound very carefully on both sides of the CPU and socket. Also, make sure there are no dirt particles inside even if there are no visible holes or broken pins (for example, in a ball-grid array). Most people don't have extra power supplies, but if you do and they are strong enough, swapping them out might help. The supply doesn't actually need to be stuck into the main case at that time.
I will tell him my answer. He is in a different place, so we are talking on Facebook. I need to ask about the power supply unit as well.
I'd love to hear what people say when they run into crash dumps. Almost certain that the problem is an Access Violation error. I have this exact issue myself! If you ever find a fix or even just the reason why games randomly crash while others don't, please let me know.
Please find the crash dumps made by CoD games, Fortnite, or R6S online. You'll need to check where those files are saved, maybe inside your game install folder or in Appdata. Once you locate them, try debugging them if you aren't sure how. If that's too hard, there are guides on the internet but mostly you just need to download and install Windbg (X64) from there. It should be straightforward. After we find out what those dmps say, it will help us figure out which part might be causing trouble.