Upgraded to an SSD and now games crash my computer?
March 29, 2016 6:22 PM Subscribe
I got a SSD for Christmas and finally got around to installing it a couple weeks ago. My computer seems to run great, but now certain games that used to run fine crash my computer completely. Details inside.
When I installed it, I was able to get my HDD down to under 250 gb, the size of the SSD and mirrored it. The computer runs well, and I can't seem to get it to crash from load (ie opening a ton of videos in Chrome). The games do seem to be the more load intensive ones, but ones that used to run perfectly well. For example, I've been playing Rocket League a bunch before and after, and it crashes every 3rd game or so nowadays. When it crashes it just immediately goes down, full black screen and the computer stops. The only warning is sometimes it will stutter right before it goes down. Another example, I've been trying to play Dark Souls 2, which ran perfectly fine on my system the last time I played it a few months ago. Now I can get 10-20 minutes into a game and it will crash, same way as with RL. Unlike Rocket League, where it seems to crash most often right after a goal is scored, DS2 has crashed while I just leave the character sitting at a bonfire while I eat dinner.
On the other hand, I've played Invisible, Inc and a few other, smaller puzzle games and had no trouble. The only non steam game I've played recently is Magic: The Gathering Online and it's been fine, arguably better than before.
When I installed it, I was able to get my HDD down to under 250 gb, the size of the SSD and mirrored it. The computer runs well, and I can't seem to get it to crash from load (ie opening a ton of videos in Chrome). The games do seem to be the more load intensive ones, but ones that used to run perfectly well. For example, I've been playing Rocket League a bunch before and after, and it crashes every 3rd game or so nowadays. When it crashes it just immediately goes down, full black screen and the computer stops. The only warning is sometimes it will stutter right before it goes down. Another example, I've been trying to play Dark Souls 2, which ran perfectly fine on my system the last time I played it a few months ago. Now I can get 10-20 minutes into a game and it will crash, same way as with RL. Unlike Rocket League, where it seems to crash most often right after a goal is scored, DS2 has crashed while I just leave the character sitting at a bonfire while I eat dinner.
On the other hand, I've played Invisible, Inc and a few other, smaller puzzle games and had no trouble. The only non steam game I've played recently is Magic: The Gathering Online and it's been fine, arguably better than before.
I had some strange Windows behavior which, as far as I could tell, was the result of the mirroring process not going quite as it should have when I moved to an SSD-- permissions not transferring properly, or something like that. Formatting and reinstalling from scratch (actually, installing Windows 10) solved it.
posted by alexei at 7:21 PM on March 29, 2016
posted by alexei at 7:21 PM on March 29, 2016
Response by poster: Well I decided to run the stress test, thanks for that tip. It seemed low, and I was looking through the numbers when I noticed a max GPU temp of 107 C. It turns out when I put in the SSD I pushed some cords around then didn't secure them well and one of the cords was touching the GPU fan and keeping it from spinning. After fixing that, the score instantly jumped and I've been running Dark Souls 2 for over 30 minutes without issue. I think the case is closed, thank you for your help!
posted by DynamiteToast at 7:23 PM on March 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by DynamiteToast at 7:23 PM on March 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
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But it really sounds to me like you've got maybe got a video card issue, not a SSD issue. Try running The FurMark stress test and see if that also provokes a crash.
A failing drive *could* cause the whole black screen and computer stop, but it's more likely that you'd get some strange errors when trying to read files, not a whole system crash, since the running code is mostly in already memory.
posted by dis_integration at 6:29 PM on March 29, 2016