# PC Freezing with buzzing noise while playing games



## satishkore (Feb 20, 2012)

Hello All,

I have built my own PC and I've been facing random freezing with buzzing sound issue while playing almost all games (Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed II and Revelation, CoD - MW 3, and Black Ops, Batman Arkham City and recently Saints Row 3) this freezing issue is really random and can happen anytime during gameplay. 
I've updated all drivers (graphics, sound, BIOS etc). One thing to note is some of these games work without freezing for hours when I set Affinity to two CPUs but when I start playing Saints Row 3 with Affinity set to 2 CPUs the games becomes very slow and if I increase CPUs then it freezes after few minutes. I've tried to reseat the heatsink with thermal paste added two cabinate fans one blowing out and one in but this has not solved my problem. 
I ran HWiNFO64 tool and saved log file of various readings while playing Saints Row 3 when freezing issue happened and I do not see any heating problem.

I would really appreciate any help to solve this issue.

following is my PC specs:

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 8170 Mb
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 307199 MB, Free - 207903 MB; D: Total - 215517 MB, Free - 135097 MB; F: Total - 220159 MB, Free - 147193 MB; G: Total - 210886 MB, Free - 210790 MB;
Motherboard: Intel Corporation, DH61WW
Antivirus: ESET Smart Security 4.2, Updated and Enabled

Thanks.


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## tom6049 (Aug 6, 2007)

What brand/model power supply are you using? A cheap no-name 
power supply can really wreak havoc on a gaming machine.


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## satishkore (Feb 20, 2012)

Hi tom6049,

Thanks for the reply, I am using CoolerMaster 700W PSU, I don't see the model number on PSU. do you think this could be a problem?

Update: attached the picture of PSU specification visible on side sticker.


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## Deviouz1 (Feb 21, 2012)

satishkore said:


> Hi tom6049,
> 
> Thanks for the reply, I am using CoolerMaster 700W PSU, I don't see the model number on PSU. do you think this could be a problem?


best way to test your powersupply is to use a multimeter. a good guide for that is here--> http://www.devhardware.com/forums/p...a-multimeter-how-to-use-it-to-test-75111.html

if you dont have a multimeter and dont know anyone who might lend you one, some programs, though notoriously unreliable, do exist that you can use. there are also actual power supply testers that many techs use, i have one in my garage but unless you live in/near charlotte NC that wont be much help.

as for some other thoughts, when you put thermal paste on what kind did you use and how much? did you remove the old stuff first? if so, how? regardless, HWMonitor from CPUID is fairly good for boards with thermal monitoring capabilities. you may want to run that for a while during gaming, play for a while and then exit before it crashes to see if youre heating up significantly. its got a min/max so you can see what temp youre at at idle and what it reaches under stress. i see that you used HWINFO64, ive no experience with it so ive no idea what its accuray is but what were the temps was it recording?

one other thought, which the buzzing may indicate and would explain all the symptoms you metioned other than the processor affinity for Saints Row, is a failing hard drive. you may want to play with the side of your case off so that when the buzzing starts you can possibly hear where its coming from easier. if it is from the drive you may want to back up your data and replace it asap.

as far as the saints row part, what cores are you setting it for?

and is the buzzing coming from the pc or the speakers?


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## satishkore (Feb 20, 2012)

Thank you Deviouz1 for the reply and for offering to use your multimeter but I live in Bangalore, India a different continent all together .

I have not applied thermal paste myself a computer technician did it for me, so I don't exactly know type of thermal compound he used and how he applied. But as far as CPU temps are concerned it is between 60C to 62C (yeah! I live in fairly worm place where room temperature can be around 20C to 25C this time around), I have captured HWMonitor logs (attached in my first post) during game play of Saints Row and when freeze happened.

The buzzing sound is coming from speakers not from PC, and it happens for other games too if I don't set the affinity. For Saints Row I've set the affinity to Core 0 and Core 1 but then games runs very slow, so I've set Core0,1,2,3 where games runs smooth but freezes anytime during 10min to 30 minutes gameplay. 

I will see if I can get my PSU checked with multimeter by some electrician.


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## Deviouz1 (Feb 21, 2012)

definitely have someone check the PSU

see what happens when you set affinity to only one core.

i did take a look at those monitor logs and found this, which seems to be the temp that it stopped monitoring at/where it froze: 36.0 °C,36.0 °C,74.0 °C,66.0.

from what i understand the i7 is safe under 80c but that its best practice to keep it under 70c. personally, temp readings kinda scare me. just to rule out a thermal issue, run your monitor again while running Prime95. be sure to keep an eye on it because prime can bring the pain. if you start seeing your temps climb up to/over 80-90c or if it freezes again once it gets up past 70+c then we may have found your issue.

just on a hunch have you or anyone else ever OC'd this processor or the gpu? im wondering if a previous overclock may have slightly damaged the cpu causing it to fail at lower temperatures.

also, im finding it kind of difficult to figure out which temp readings are from your GPU. i know the CPUid HWMonitor tracks that as well and GPU's are just as capable of freezing a pc as a cpu and possibly at lower temps.

also, im pretty new here (2nd day lol) and while im fairly confident in my methods, i know that there are far better minds here than mine so i would encourage anyone else who has any ideas to speak up.


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## satishkore (Feb 20, 2012)

Thanks Deviouz1, the temps that you saw was for GPU, CPU temps were 61.0 °C, 61.0 °C, 57.0 °C, 59.0 °C (Core #0,1,2,3). To see GPU temps I guess one need to check columns "GPU Thermal Diode", "GPU TS0 (DispIO)", "GPU TS1 (MemIO)", "GPU TS2 (Shader)" and kinda figure out which is what.

And the CPU and GPU are brand new and never been OC'd, I ran Prime95 yesterday for 30 minutes and during that the CPU temp was alarming, it reached 85C so I stopped it (but it did not freeze or slowed down my PC), not sure if that kind of temp is normal for Prime95 test (if you need log I can attach it here).

And for most games my CPU is anywhere between 50C to 65C which I guess is normal for my kind of environment.

I will try assigning one CPU while setting affinity and will let you know the result.


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## Deviouz1 (Feb 21, 2012)

this may sound a bit odd, but try disabling your audio device in your device manager while playing for a day, assuming it will let you play with no audio device installed that is. if it wont try playing with the volume all the way down/muted. it could be as simple as a flaky driver giving you a headache. 

how long have you had the pc and has it ever not had this problem? if so, when did it start? anything you can think of that happened just previous to when you noticed the problem?


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## satishkore (Feb 20, 2012)

this PC is 4 months old and I had this problem since the day first, the only game that did not freeze my PC was "Medal Of Honor" that game worked without any changes in affinity, rest all games have freezing issue with buzzing sound (same symptoms for all freeze instances). Once it freezes nothing works, so I have no other choice than hard resetting the PC.

I noticed one more thing in HWMonitor logs, my GPU utilization is almost 100% but GPU Fan is running @ 56%, does anybody know if it is normal? I am just checking all possibilities.


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## Deviouz1 (Feb 21, 2012)

<scratches head>

hate to say it but im kind of at a loss. i have read a few places that audio drivers can cause problems like this, are you using a sound card or is it onboard?


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## satishkore (Feb 20, 2012)

Deviouz1, thanks for all your help. This weekend I will test my PSU with multimeter and will let you know how it goes. I am using onboard sound card and I also have ATI Redeon 6770 HD graphics card sound but I have disabled it because I don't use it.


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## Deviouz1 (Feb 21, 2012)

enable it. you dont have to use it, just enable it. see if it helps. not saying it will by any means but ive seen some bizzarro stuff in the past. you just never know sometimes. besides, to be honest theres no real reason to disable anything unless you know its causing a conflict with something else. at least, not in my experience.


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## TrentonMarquard (Oct 17, 2011)

Make sure your computer is fit to run the game smoothly and efficiently before downloading, installing, and playing a game. If it is not fast enough, it could cripple your computer or cause it do somewhat "funny" things such as making an eerie sound.


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