Diablo 3 lockup 3 times in 44 days - help me pinpoint why...

[ctx]

Hi guys

Firstly here are my computer specs for reference:

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK
CPU: Intel i5-2500K
GPU: Asus GTX560 TI
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1600 (PC3 12800)
PSU: Corsair HX650 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Over the past 44ish days since the release of Diablo 3 I have logged up roughly 233 hours of play time.

In all of that time, the game has frozen exactly three times and I am desperately trying to figure out why as I play Hardcore mode (one life) and have lost a lot due to these freezes and I would like to be able to play knowing that the game will not freeze at some random point because of my computer.

The first freeze happened when I was using an older video card (7800GTX), but the second two lockups occurred with the new (560TI) video card. Same drivers were used for both cards (fresh install for each card, though).

Symptoms: When the game locks up, the game screen freezes in place and I cannot alt tab or close the game or anything, I simply have to hit the reset button on my computer. I am unsure what happens to audio when the game freezes as I have hit the reset button pretty quickly to potentially save my life in game.

Also, whenever I want to play I close all programs before running D3 and do not open anything again until I finish playing for that session.

Based on the fact that the game freezes in a way that I can't even alt tab and it just sits on the frozen screen until I reset, can I pinpoint from there what it could be?

Overheating CPU and/or GPU? Not strong enough PSU? If it were those it would happen far more often though, wouldn't it?

The fact that I am able to play for nearly 233 hours yet only freeze 3 times makes this hard to pinpoint I guess.

Any help is very welcome, I am willing to try anything to fix this problem. I am very eager to solve this.

[Linkin]

Start with 50 runs of IntelBurnTest on maximum stress. If you get any errors, your CPU overclock is unstable.

Run memtest86+ from a boot CD and let it run overnight. If it is frozen or there are errors reported, your RAM is unstable or not configured correctly.

Also test any other overclocks you might have (GPU, etc)

Check to make sure you have the latest most stable driver release.

Chechk your HDD's for bad sectors or other errors.

[ctx]

Originally Posted by Linkin

Start with 50 runs of IntelBurnTest on maximum stress. If you get any errors, your CPU overclock is unstable.

Also test any other overclocks you might have (GPU, etc)

Forgot to mention I don't overclock anything at all (though I did have to adjust ram to it's correct speed in the BIOS because it defaults to a lower speed) - should I still run this test?

Originally Posted by Linkin

Run memtest86+ from a boot CD and let it run overnight. If it is frozen or there are errors reported, your RAM is unstable or not configured correctly.

I will do this. I just put memtest86+ on a CD and boot with that CD? Or what kind of boot CD do I need. Sorry, not knowledgeable there.

Originally Posted by Linkin

Check your HDD's for bad sectors or other errors.

I will do this also. Should I only do this on the HDD that Diablo 3 runs from? I run it from an SSD (my OS drive), and have 2 other regular drives I use for storage only.

Thanks for the help.

[Linkin]

Get the ISO of memtest and burn it to a disc, make sure it is bootable, and make sure to either setup your BIOS so that it boots from CD first, or just press the button for the boot menu.

I don't think you'll need to run IBT if you aren't overclocking.

As for HDD's, scan all of them. Even if they don't have the game or windows on them, a hardware fault could freeze the system.

It sounds like RAM to be honest, though.

[ctx]

Ok cheers, will get on this as soon as I can today. Appreciate the help.

[Foxster]

Originally Posted by ctx

... (though I did have to adjust ram to it's correct speed in the BIOS because it defaults to a lower speed) - should I still run this test?

I had similar issues with stability with my current rig when I first built it, it would run perfectly stable for days or weeks at a time and it would just randomly crash - mostly when idle! I also had to adjust RAM speed in my BIOS even though the RAM I bought was on the compatibiliy list, I found that I had to update the BIOS to allow my system to correctly detect the speed of my RAM and this also improved reliability.

I also ended up having to update the drivers for my SATA controller - had to get ones from the chipset manufacturer as the latest drivers from ASUS were more than 12 months old and full of bugs! No more random crashes for me now!!!

[DarkForceMage]

If you have turned your sound channels up, turn them back to default. Caused glitching//lag in heavy combat for me and could be a contributing factor.

[ctx]

Originally Posted by Foxster

I found that I had to update the BIOS to allow my system to correctly detect the speed of my RAM and this also improved reliability.

Thanks for the tip, I might try updating my BIOS, just checked and it is version 02xx and the latest is like 0404. Probably a good idea! hah.

Originally Posted by DarkForceMage

If you have turned your sound channels up, turn them back to default. Caused glitching//lag in heavy combat for me and could be a contributing factor.

Do you mean in Diablo 3 itself? I actually ran on the highest setting for like 20+ hours until the first lockup, and while playing on that setting I got lots of sound beeps/glitches on certain sound files. After the second lockup I put it on 'low' (along with every other setting) and ran fine for over 100 hours of play time up until the most recent lockup, last night. I put it on the lowest setting ('lowest'?) today, so if that's the problem hopefully that will solve it. Actually thought I was free of my problem when I put the setting on low and had such a long streak without a lockup. :/

Since this thread I have updated to the latest video card drivers (was running second most recent). Tonight I will run memtest until the morning too.

After that I will move on to the other tests suggested in the thread.

Gonna fix this!

Thanks guys.

[DarkForceMage]

Yep in D3 itself, could also be a sound driver issue if yours arent upto date.

If you can't find a fix soon I would go as far as switching to onboard sound just to see what happens judging by the problems you had from turning sound channels up, as I didn't experience anything like that.

[walker_2003]

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer will be the cause I bet.

[Ninja_Harbinger]

Originally Posted by Linkin

I don't think you'll need to run IBT if you aren't overclocking.

Still do it because it might be the problem

[garetz]

sounds like a hardware fault, driver compatability or irq conflict. Could be either of those 3 things.

[Linkin]

I found that with an unstable CPU overclock (only very slightly unstable) I got sound and video card crashes. With memory, shit would lock up and IBT would pass, but memtest would catch it out.

[ctx]

Well memtest86+ showed zero errors. One test down.

So left to try/do:

1) Scan HDD's for errors (easily done, will do next)
2) Uninstall and remove the XtremeGamer and try on board sound.
3) 50 runs of IntelBurnTest on maximum stress
4) Update Mobo BIOS

Problem is, due to how rare this lockup occurs, it's hard to know if something I do has fixed it or not unless I simply don't freeze again. So I guess the best method for finding exactly is causing this issue is to only change one thing at a time, and if I do freeze, I know the most recent change didn't fix the problem.

I guess I could scan the HDDs and run IntelBurnTest as those are not making any 'changes' to my configuration. And if those turn out ok I'll just see how I go with the updated video card driver. If I freeze again, I can move on to the other options (on board sound, mobo bios etc).


Thanks again to all here, will get on these next tests.

edit:

Originally Posted by garetz

sounds like a hardware fault, driver compatability or irq conflict. Could be either of those 3 things.

How do I tell if I have an IRQ conflict? That is just when two devices are trying to share the same IRQ number, right? If so, the only one that stands out is... the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 TI is using PCI 16, and 'Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller' is also using 16. That an issue? See image here: http://i.imgur.com/i60fB.jpg

I have a bunch of yellow question marks too, but that is just from things I chose not to install when I installed windows on this new machine (PCI Simple Communications Controller, SM Bus Controller, USB Controller x 2). I don't think I have to install those if I'm not using them, right? When I installed windows on this brand new machine the only drivers I installed were ethernet/video/sound card. All I wanted.

[m0n4g3]

Originally Posted by ctx

Well memtest86+ showed zero errors. One test down.

So left to try/do:

1) Scan HDD's for errors (easily done, will do next)
2) Uninstall and remove the XtremeGamer and try on board sound.
3) 50 runs of IntelBurnTest on maximum stress
4) Update Mobo BIOS

Problem is, due to how rare this lockup occurs, it's hard to know if something I do has fixed it or not unless I simply don't freeze again. So I guess the best method for finding exactly is causing this issue is to only change one thing at a time, and if I do freeze, I know the most recent change didn't fix the problem.

I guess I could scan the HDDs and run IntelBurnTest as those are not making any 'changes' to my configuration. And if those turn out ok I'll just see how I go with the updated video card driver. If I freeze again, I can move on to the other options (on board sound, mobo bios etc).


Thanks again to all here, will get on these next tests.

edit:

How do I tell if I have an IRQ conflict? That is just when two devices are trying to share the same IRQ number, right? If so, the only one that stands out is... the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 TI is using PCI 16, and 'Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller' is also using 16. That an issue? See image here: http://i.imgur.com/i60fB.jpg

I have a bunch of yellow question marks too, but that is just from things I chose not to install when I installed windows on this new machine (PCI Simple Communications Controller, SM Bus Controller, USB Controller x 2). I don't think I have to install those if I'm not using them, right? When I installed windows on this brand new machine the only drivers I installed were ethernet/video/sound card. All I wanted.

I definitely would. SMB Controller is a must, Simple comms controller is a must too. USB Controller not really i guess.