Windows freezes and bsod while gaming (Win 8.1)

Has been traced to drive problems (not driver!) and heat. You write as if reinstalling will fix this, why not do that but my bet is it won't.

A Web Speccy report may reveal disk problems. If you don't read those reports, post a link to your report.

Here's how: https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web

Entry 01 is showing read errors. What else? Seek Error Rate is also showing errors.


In a rare find here, I wonder if the HDD might be OK. I don't see relocated sectors so for this one I'd try a new SATA data cable.

I see BIOS is out of date and https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A78LMUSB3/HelpDesk_BIOS/ does write the update calls out "Improve system stability for FX-8320" in the next to latest version. I'd get that done too.

A first pass of the Speccy seems OK for now. Didn't read it deeply as I wanted to see if there were drive issues which I've found connected with the error in question.

or isnt the latest bios version 2101, the same as i have right now?
Also, when i started my computer this morning, it was slower than usual and when i checked the event viewer, it was full of errors "The Multimedia Class Scheduler service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"
I tried to restart service but it ended up with error 1053: "The service did not respond in a timely fashion" when attempting to start, stop or pause a service

2.12.2014 versus the Web Speccy. If you think it's current, call it done.

The errors are typical with disk drive issues. The service starts or tries but gets hung up in disk reads.

Did you try a new SATA data cable? The reason I think this is in the numbers. I usually chuck Seagates into the bin but this one might be OK. Only one way to tell.

I attached new sata to HDD and booted, i dont know what happened but i couldnt connect to the internet for few mins(yellow exclamation mark flashing on the network icon), logging in took longer than usual and generally windows seemed a lot slower and more unresponsive
Thinking about reinstalling windows and updating this if the dpc_watchdog_violation happens again

The drive is reporting errors that are a prelude to its death. Put the old cable back.

I can't guess if you have shiny new cables or not but this is about the second time I've seen this sort of report worth a try. But it is a Seagate and I don't think it will do more than give you troubles.

i swapped the old one back and windows seemed to calm down now, as what i can see from the event viewer

That calls the cable suspect. Was it new? I'm not there to look at what it looks like.

The drive errors in the report are there plus it's a Seagate that we see all the time. I was hoping it was some cable issue but I'm not there with my PC medic bag to try what I carry.

Now it could be motherboard but usually when a Seagate has bad numbers, it's the drive. Do you have any other drive to try?

if that was a brand new cable, im gonna go and buy one tomorrow
Do you mean that the HDD dying could affect the whole system which is installed on the SSD?
I dont believe i have any others

From my reading so that means you use the Seagate for apps.

That's what most do. So there's a lot on that drive.

But if you want to try just running on the SSD, power down, remove the data cable (just one end is required) and test.

If it continues to do the DPC errors it's either the SSD or the motherboard. I don't suspect the SSD as it's report is clean.

ill install Bioshock and update if anything happens in the morning

About a hour of gameplay and no crashes occurred so i plugged the HDD back in and installed Bioshock back to that, oddly yet again about hour and no crashing or feezing
I might try a bit heavier game on SSD, something like Dying Light which also made windows bsod happen too
Heres minidumps of earlier crashes, if that helps
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f3p1qejur58gywi/Minidump.zip?dl=0

hour and a half of playing Dying Light on SSD, no crashes. I plugged HDD back in again and played Bioshock more, no crashed still.
Im right now wondering what else could make my system Bsod, its usually when im playing almost any game

As we know HDD sector errors and sector relocation only happens on a sector or block write.

This is why you may have gotten into the clear here. The SMART values are still iffy to bad.

But the weird values to me point to cable or motherboard then drive issues. It really doen't nail but my best guess is since there are no reallocations in the SMART area, I'm leaning to the errors being caused by cable, board or if someone is overclocking, overclocking.


I didn't see any overclocking signs in any report but want to share my thoughts here.

How long would you estimate lifetime of Seagate HDDs? Ive had this one about 3+ years now
I was planning to replace my both drives in summer and maybe motherboard too, so lets just hope that the HDD wont die before that
I have only my GPU factory overclocked but i dont think that has anything to do with this

Backblaze had a 23% failure rate in one year on some models. Seagate reliability has been worse than most makes. But if you have a good one, it lasts many years. It's not forever since it is a mechanical device and even SSD is going to wear out.

Again, the errors are a bit odd without a clear sign the drive is failing. It points to possible cable or motherboard issues but doesn't rule out the HDD.

Sorry that it's unclear but what is clear is that errors like this can create unexpected Windows hangs, delays and BSODs.

and i havent experienced any crashes oddly
Now wondering if any windows update fixed it or something