All games freezing at regular intervals - this example Cyberpunk 2077

[Rcanis]

Since I was delivered the prize after winning an Intel-sponsored competition for an ARC750 gaming PC , the gaming experience has been very patchy. Every 2min to 45min games launched from Steam will freeze, usually with a background buzzing sound. I then have to restart manually.

Confirmed experience with Witcher 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Portal and - for this example - Cyberpunk 2077. I'm usually running in High settings without RTX, well below what the benchmark settings in games default to or the performance that ARC750 claims to deliver.

Often the games freeze during gameplay, but it sometimes even happens when in the gaming start-up menu.

This has been going on for months.

Before the freezes, all CPU and GPU temps are normal - I've got loads of case fans, fans on GPU work, and water cooling on the CPU.

In eventviewer and logs there are often BEX64 errors, but also lots of Bluescreen and LiveKernelEvent errors

I have tried with older and the latest drivers, using DDU in Safe Mode each time to delete previous driver versions.

I've done clean Windows reinstalls. Latest BIOS, ensured Rebar on etc. and done multiple passes of SFC /scannow, Windows Memory Diagnostics and MemTest 86. All have passed with no errors.

I've also tried manually setting the pagefile higher than installed RAM, rather than letting the system manage, and have tried with Data Execution Prevention turned on and off.

My feeling now, having exhausted so many other options, is that the GPU may be faulty. I would welcome confirmation of this, or alternatively suggestions for other tests and settings I haven't already tried to resolve the issue.

Unfortunately I don't have any other graphics cards to swap in to compare the performance of the system.

Currently running gfx_win_101.4972 after a clean driver reinstall after DDU safe mode yesterday.

SSU scan is attached from my most recent freeze today.

I also have a LiveKernel memory dump file, but when I try to attach it here, I get this error message: 

• The attachment's whea-20231206-1127.dmp content type (application/octet-stream) does not match its file extension and has been removed.

[Bandit8623]

Just something to try.  memtest isnt the best memory tester.  can you give prime95  a try?

https://www.mersenne.org/download/

this would rule out ram and cpu mem controller if it doesnt crash for an hour.  1 hour is a good rule of thumb.  

for serious stability i run this 8 hours,  but for your case 1 hour should be good as its crashing alot in games.  

cheers

[Rcanis]

Thanks @Bandit8623 

I just tried running the Prime95 Torture Test, but using custom settings as detailed here: Prime95: What FFT sizes to test for RAM stability? : r/overclocking (reddit.com)

I ran it for 60 minutes, and while the system itself didn't crash or freeze I did notice that 4 of 14 workers experienced fatal rounding errors and stopped. Not all right away - first one after about 5min, then 15min and then 50min and 55min.

So there's obviously some instability there. Because of the FFT sizes I used,  RAM looks like it could be the cause. But I'll run a 60min test with the small FFT sizes to test just the CPU as well. Then I guess next steps are to unplug the memory sticks and run two at a time to identify a possible culprit there.

I was going to look at also doing a separate stress test of the GPU using GpuTest - Cross-Platform GPU Stress Test and OpenGL Benchmark for Windows, Linux and OS X | Geeks3D.com

Any views on the usefulness or otherwise of this tool?

[Bandit8623]

@Rcanis 

this does confirm a cpu or mem problem.

are you using xmp memory profile?  if so i would try to turn it off and see if you get those same errors.   

if you are not using xmp try turning that on.    

is your ram in the qvl for your board?  reason i ask if its not, xmp doesnt always work as intended.  btw whats the ram kit you have?

sometimes upping voltage on the ram can help,  but thats down the road.  need to find stability with stock settings first.  4 sticks also can be harder to get stable- sometimes need more voltage.  

make sure no oc settings are turned on for the cpu as well.  ive seen some motherboards enable oc that can cause issues too.

i have not ran that gputest before.  need to get ram and mem controller stable first before running gpu tests as those gpu tests are reliant on the cpu and ram to provide the correct data.

let me know i can help further.

[Andres_Intel]

Hello Rcanis,

Thank you for posting on the Intel communities. Given that your Intel® Arc™ A750 Graphics is crashing and freezing when you play Cyberpunk 2077, kindly respond to the following questions so that we can better understand the issue:

• I see you mentioned that you usually run games in High settings without RTX. Take screenshots of the game settings, to replicate the issue as accurately as possible in case we need it.
• When Cyberpunk 2077 crashes, do you receive an error message?

I see you have the same issue with other games, since there are different games, to keep this thread organized and help you in the best way please open a thread for each game.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Bandit8623]

@Rcanis 

any update?  im curious if you got the bugs figured out?

[Rcanis]

Hi @Bandit8623 , thanks so much for your input. You've definitely got me on the right track with using Prime95 for memory test instead of the other approaches, and the tips about QVL compatibility for motherboard.

I'm running VENGEANCE® RGB PRO 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit — Black (corsair.com) 

which as you've guessed is not on the QVL for the ASUS TUF Gaming Z790-Plus WiFi motherboard.

I'll probably now look to replace it with 2 x 16GB DDR5 sticks from the QVL. But in the meantime, turning off XMP seems to have helped. Passed a 2hr RAM torture test on Prime95 and a 30-min gaming session with no freezes.

I'll monitor and do another longer stability test, and might look at increasing voltage from 1.2 to 1.3

@Andres_Intel thanks for responding. It's looking like this isn't a GPU issue at this stage, but I'll start another discussion with more details if that changes.

[Bandit8623]

@Rcanis 

my ram isnt qvl but i have fine tuned it to work (I have xmp off and manually set 20% of the settings).      since u can boot with it on xmp then i would try to just up the voltage .1 v each boot till its stable.  your ddr4 can easily handle up to 1.4 v.   use hwmonitor to monitor ram temp .  

save you some money   lots of forums on ram overclocking/stability

GL

[Andres_Intel]

Hello Rcanis,

Thank you for your response and clarification.

I will be paying attention to this thread in case you need any help related to this issue that can be caused by the graphics card.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello Rcanis,

Did the issue persist after turning off XMP?   

I would like to know if you still need assistance.    

Best regards,   

Andres P.   

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello Rcanis,

We have not heard back from you, so we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Best regards, 

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician