Computer randomly freezes when playing games

My computer just randomly freezes when playing certain games. It has happened to me in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Call of Duty 4, and Blacklight: Retribution. It has not happened to me with other games like Tribes: Ascend yet, which leads me to believe it is a software-side issue related to maybe DirectX or PhysX?

Also, temperatures seem stable. I used RivaTuner combined with MSI Afterburner, and at the time of freezing with BF: BC2, it gives: 62C, 67% GPU usage and 78. 8FPS. During the session the max I have seen was 65C and 97% GPU usage.

On Blacklight: Retribution, I've heard other people complain about the problem too. This is why it is such a mystery to me, is this actually a driver problem, or more a game problem? I've been able to play these games for long until I re-installed Windows 7 (because it was growing too full and slow). Before I had a 32bit Ultimate version, and now 64bit.

Specs:

O/S: Windows 7 64bit Ultimate
CPU: Intel i5-750 @ Default 2.66 GHz
GPU: ASUS EAH5770 1GB
PSU: CoolerMaster Real Power M520 (520W)
MB: Gigabyte P55M-UD2
Catalyst Control Center version (in "About"): 2012.0214.2218.39913

Solution 1:

Intermittent freezes can be very frustrating and difficult to pin down. Heat problems are a common cause, so you're on the right track by checking temperatures. Here are some other things that I generally check:

  • GPU Stability: Try a benchmarking/stress tool like FurMark.

  • Hard Drive: A flaky drive can certainly cause crashing. You'll sometimes see signs of storage problems in Event Viewer, but it's not a bad idea to run a scan or two. While the basic Windows scan is worth running, a tool like SpinRite does a more thorough job.

  • Memory/CPU: Give your machine a good long taste of a memory tester like MemTest86, or a torture test tool like Prime95. Prime95 can be tweaked to focus on CPU, memory or a blend. The SystemRescueCD includes MemTest as a bootup option, and includes a number of other handy tools as part of its stock ISO image.

  • Power: This was never one of the top items I'd consider for a freezing PC, until it caused a frustrating bout of intermittent freezes for me. Check your BIOS hardware monitor or use a standalone tool to make sure the voltage levels reaching your motherboard/processor/etc are reasonable. In my case, I had a loose connection between the power supply and motherboard. I was pulling my hair out until I noticed that one of the rails was reporting suspiciously low voltage in the BIOS hardware monitor. It wasn't enough to prevent booting or basic usage, but the machine regularly froze in games. Re-seating the power cable took care of the problem completely.

Solution 2:

  • overheating (most commonly from overclocking, try set it back to original/default values)
  • dusty environment (try opening your case up and make clean it from dust that collected there over the years)
  • air-flow (make sure that your cables are not on the way of fan blowing air in and/or out)
  • faulty hardware (the only way to find which peace is to replace one by one (most likely cpu/memory))
  • power (psu) - 520w may not be enough to power up all your hardware (video card usually eat a lot of power especially while you're gaming and very little while you're doing basic windows stuff)
  • software (windows "features" aka bugs (try re-installing windows) or if you have extra hdd, install windows there and your game and try it out (to rule it out))