CS:S Crashing

[metro]

Here's the puzzle of the week...

I've been having problems with Counter Strike: Source crashing seemingly randomly. It just happened to me today after playing for about an hour and has happened half a dozen times in the last few months. I haven't noticed any thing specific that triggers it. I have not noticed this in any other games, but I primarily play CS:S. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Symptoms:

• Repetitive "bamp"ing through my headset at ~180 beats per minute
• Loss of power to all USB devices
• Screen freezing

What I've tried:

• Dropping the OC on my video card to stock
• Dropping the OC on my CPU to stock
• New video card drivers
• Reinstalling CS:S

My System:

• Q6600 @ 3.0
• Asus P5QL-Pro
• 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix
• Palit Sonic HD4850
• 1TB WD Caviar Black
• 160GB Hitachi DeskStar
• Antec EarthWatts 650W
• Windows 7 Pro x64

 

[NUFAN]

Is there a usual amount of time til crash or is that random as well?

 

[JunK]

my suggestions are:
if its happening around the same times played, check your temps while gaming (tho CSS won't stress your rig out at all, but still) to make sure nothing is causing your GPU to really heat up and crash the game...if i remember right 4850s run pretty hot.
are there any error messages? computer freeze/crashes or just CSS?
umm if it doesn't happen with any time frequency i'd double check for viruses/spyware that could be effecting anything as well

 

[Ric]

Can you be in a little bit more detail?

Explain what happens when you loose all your USB power.

Do you loose it and then you exit the game and it comes back?
Or when it looses power you have to restart for it coming back?
Is it effecting ALL USB devices plugged in?

 

[metro]

Is there a usual amount of time til crash or is that random as well?

Sometimes I can play for a few hours an nothing happens. So time until crash is random.

my suggestions are:
if its happening around the same times played, check your temps while gaming (tho CSS won't stress your rig out at all, but still) to make sure nothing is causing your GPU to really heat up and crash the game...if i remember right 4850s run pretty hot.
are there any error messages? computer freeze/crashes or just CSS?
umm if it doesn't happen with any time frequency i'd double check for viruses/spyware that could be effecting anything as well

As said above, it is not really time dependent. I have a non-reference heatsink on my GPU which keeps it below 65C under full load (Furmark).

I get no error massages as the screen just freezes. I would assume that the entire computer crashes, not just the game. My reasons for thinking this is because of USB power loss. I am religious about scanning for viruses and spyware, and I do not download anything on this rig, so I would be surprised if I had some.

Can you be in a little bit more detail?

Explain what happens when you loose all your USB power.

Do you loose it and then you exit the game and it comes back?
Or when it looses power you have to restart for it coming back?
Is it effecting ALL USB devices plugged in?

When I lose all USB power the lights on my Logitech Illuminated keyboard and G5 mouse shut off. I also have a custom made USB light that runs off the 5V supply which also shuts off. As my keyboard and mouse are unusable, I can not ctrl-alt-del out of the game, I have to restart the computer to get power back.

 

[Toasteddude]

Sounds like a hardware failure since the computer locks up. Does this happen in any other games? Have you tried running MemTest?

 

[JunK]

hmmm sounds like something to do with the motherboard since all those things happen, and its time random....im not too sure

 

[Simon]

If all your USB's are crashing, i would check out to make sure your mother board or PSU isnt having any glitches or it may be defective in some way

 

[metro]

Sounds like a hardware failure since the computer locks up. Does this happen in any other games? Have you tried running MemTest?

I have not noticed this in any other games, but I primarily play CS:S. I have not run Memtest for a while, I believe that this OC is stable though as I ran Prime95 for 24 hours with no hours on a blend test. I'll pop in Memtest later today and see what happens.

hmmm sounds like something to do with the motherboard since all those things happen, and its time random....im not too sure

Maybe...? Well the GPU and sound card must still be getting power as the screen is still on and there is noise coming from my speakers. I'm thinking something must be getting caught in a loop otherwise I would guess the sound would be constant, so I'm thinking it may be the NB.

If all your USB's are crashing, i would check out to make sure your mother board or PSU isnt having any glitches or it may be defective in some way

How would you suggest I check that? I would assume the PSU is working properly as all the fans are still running, the GPU is still showing a screen, and there is sound coming from my speakers. I have an Earthwatts 650 PSU, so that's plenty of juice for my system.

 

[Harakan]

One thing you could try is check if there is a memory leak, for example bring up task manager and check it every 10 mins or so and make sure nothing is maxed out, with the quad core and 4 gigs of ram (even at stock) you should be using no where near the max. An other option i don't know if you've tried this, is just a simple re-install of steam/source. (i know its a lot of work, and like overnight downloading depending if you re-install all of your steam games), that's a bit of a long shot, but if nothing else it's something to try.

Also have you tried under clocking your card? sounds like your cooling is okay, but if you have been playing with overclocking giving it a break might be nice to your computer and in turn it'll be nice to you!

 

[Ric]

If you are unsure of your PSU, what I can suggest is that you do a test.

As I'm sure you're aware considering your discussion, just use another PSU to see if it still happens.

According to Google, some people stated that they had to update their BIOS to fix this and turn on USB Legacy drivers in BIOS if it is not on already.

I'll continue to search..

This is a common error within that style of ASUS mb's.

Now, I've got a question that might make you go "uh, wtf?"

But, your internet, do you use a wireless USB Adapter, a wireless PCI adapter, or an Ethernet cord?

 

[metro]

One thing you could try is check if there is a memory leak, for example bring up task manager and check it every 10 mins or so and make sure nothing is maxed out, with the quad core and 4 gigs of ram (even at stock) you should be using no where near the max. An other option i don't know if you've tried this, is just a simple re-install of steam/source. (i know its a lot of work, and like overnight downloading depending if you re-install all of your steam games), that's a bit of a long shot, but if nothing else it's something to try.

Also have you tried under clocking your card? sounds like your cooling is okay, but if you have been playing with overclocking giving it a break might be nice to your computer and in turn it'll be nice to you!

No memory leak that I can see. Memtest tells me I'm good (1 hour). I haven't under-clocked the card, just dropped it to stock. CCC doesn't let you go lower than stock.

If you are unsure of your PSU, what I can suggest is that you do a test.

As I'm sure you're aware considering your discussion, just use another PSU to see if it still happens.

According to Google, some people stated that they had to update their BIOS to fix this and turn on USB Legacy drivers in BIOS if it is not on already.

I'll continue to search..

This is a common error within that style of ASUS mb's.

Now, I've got a question that might make you go "uh, wtf?"

But, your internet, do you use a wireless USB Adapter, a wireless PCI adapter, or an Ethernet cord?

I'm 99% sure my power supply is fine as the PSU calculator says I need a 480W. I use an ethernet cord going to a D-Link router.

Do you think it's a USB driver issue? How would enabling Legacy USB help since Windows 7 supports USB?