Computer crashes while playing games. CPU seems to go above rated GHz

Question

I recently started seeing my computer freeze for a second or 2 every now in then when I’m playing games on about full load. This never used to happen and now it is concerning. It does it pretty often just randomly.

I was using SpeedFan to check my temperatures to see if everything was normal and it looked it. My GPU was at 67c full load, and core which im guessing CPU was at roughly 50c. Now I also heard that HWmonitor was better at reading temps so i installed that and it was showing that my CPU temp was 55c on idle. This started to concern me. So I tested it out and played battlefield 4 for about 15 minutes and my CPU got to about 76c.

At this point im wondering if it was always getting this hot and I was just to ignorant to realize it and that is why my computer is now freezing while playing games because of damage being done to the CPU. (I bought this PC around 1 1/2 years ago). So I did some research and learned that maybe it could be a virus. Did a full scan and found nothing.

So I then went into my error logs and ive noticed something reoccuring for the past 3-4 months. There is this error that keeps happening and it states this:

wuaueng.dll loaded but took abnormally long time (26 seconds) to be serviced by the OS. This problem is likely due to faulty hardware. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

This has me extremely worried and now just dissapointed and upset. I have recently upgraded to a MSI GeForce GTX 970 and would hate to also buy a new CPU.

I’m not very good at this and I’m sorry if it���s a lot I just dont know where to turn. Also have noticed that the GHz of the CPU is going over 3.4GHz just sitting at idle and when I play games it stays at 3.7GHz and that the CPU usage is at about 20% on idle and with high frequencies

PC specs:

• CPU: AMD A-10 7700K Quad Core 3.4GHz
• GPU: MSI GTX 970 4GB

Answer 1

The CPU is going over its rated GHZ because in fact your CPU is capable of clocking to 3.8ghz using Turbo Boost technology. It is totally safe.

Use AMD Overdrive for temperature estimation on that CPU; AMD CPUs have been known to provide strange results to CPU temp measuring programs. If you want to independently verify the temperature Overdrive is reporting, run the PC with your case side off, and while playing a CPU-intensive game that normally stutters for you, carefully place your fingertips on the metal fins of the heatsink side (careful not to touch anything else!) while the game is running. If you can't keep your fingers there for more than a moment due to the heat, you may assume that the high temps reported are close to true.

If true, the temperature on that CPU is rather high, which does indicate it is throttling due to overheating, which would definitely cause issues for you. You may not have noticed this earlier because you just upgraded to the new GPU, which is going to expose CPU throttling stutters, which are qualitatively different from the hangs you experience in games when your GPU is the bottleneck. However, there is a good chance that no permanent damage has been done. I recommend completing the following maintenance procedures:

1. Open your PC and clean it out, paying special attention to any dust that may have accumulated on fans and heatsinks in the interior.

2. Remove the CPU fan and heatsink assembly, clean off the old thermal paste from both the CPU and the heatsink bottom with a used dryer sheet from your laundry, then put new thermal paste on and reinstall the assembly.

3. Given that you have recently installed a large new GPU, make sure that it is properly vented - ideally, one or more 80mm+ fans should be sucking air out of the case directly below or to the side of the GPU, since it is likely not a blower itself (non-reference models seldom are).

4. Given that you have high idle CPU frequencies, find and uninstall running programs on your PC that you don't need, or configure them to not start when your computer boots.

5. Check your HDD SMART status using CrystalDiskInfo and use CrystalDiskmark to attempt to run a benchmark on it - if the SMART status fails, or if the benchmark fails (not performs poorly, but actually FAILS), then you may have a dying HDD which would account for the slow .dll load.

6. When you do get a moment, disable the GPU on the A10-7700K in BIOS (you will need to look up how to do this in your motherboard manual. This will help reduce temperatures on your CPU since you are not using that GPU for anything - you are using the GTX 970 instead!

7. Because that specific .dll file is associated with the Windows update service, try temporarily disabling Windows Updates to see if the problem goes away or is mitigated by that. If it is, manually update Windows and resolve any issues with that service before proceeding. If the problem persists, perhaps the simplest solution, without me being there to recommend something more specific, would be to reinstall Windows.

8. Make sure the old GPU drivers are uninstalled and your current GPU drivers are up to date.

9. Failing all else, replace the CPU with a new one like the AMD Athlon X4 845/860K/870K/880K - any of those four CPUs will be relatively cheap and offer superior performance to the A10-7700K, with lower temperatures. You may need to update your BIOS before using any of those, so make sure to do that while you still have the old CPU.

Answer 2

Wait for windows update to finish updates. Change clock rates and voltages to safe values. Do not set high clock rates or voltages for RAM. Enable heat saving technologies like coolnquiet for extra stability.