Games crashing out after 15ish mins

I recently purchased a new computer:

WINDOWS 8
- Power Supply: Corsair GS 600w PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz Ivybridge CPU
- Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
- Cooler: Alpenfohn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drive: 500GB HDD & 120GB SSD
- Graphics Card: gtx 260
- Sound: Realtek 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)
- Optical Drive: OcUK 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Drive

For some reason all of my games crash (cod4, borderlands 2 and Counterstrike source) are crashing after I have played them for around 15 mins. The games aren't too high demanding for my gcard. Core temps seem to be fine, Drivers up to date.

I also got a bsod twice recently, dpc_watchdog error?

Does anyone know why this might be crashing and how to fix?

Could you provide the reliability monitor reports of the crashes? To do this, go to the start page and type "reliability," select the "settings" listing on the right side and then click "view reliability history." From there, find where the game crashes are listed, double click on a listing, and copy and paste what is written there. If it's easier, paste them into a separate .txt file, put those into an archive, and upload to here.

As for a general solution, I would first suggest that you return your stuff to stock speeds and see if the issue still occurs. A potentially unstable overclock can cause all sorts of funny things to happen with the system.

Thanks for your reply. I have attached a variety of the reports for you to have a look over.

I did turn off my overclock a few days ago and haven't had any luck

What version of the Nvidia driver do you have? If it's not the most recent WHQL, update to it. If it's a beta driver, roll back to the latest WHQL. If it is the latest WHQL, try a fresh reinstall of it. It seems to me like a graphics/driver issue that's causing the BL2 and CoD4 issues.

HI Kirbs

I have the most recent driver 310.90 and just crashed out of COD twice.
Other forums are suggesting it could be punkbuster for cod4. I will try other games

What kind of hard drive do you have? An SSD? Make/model?

It's PunkBuster, and from what I've read about the issue sofar, pbcl.dll seems to be responsible for the iw3mp.exe crashes, being the faulting module
Conclusion: PunkBuster is broken on Windows 8. Will EvenBalance make a fix? Keep your fingers crossed..

I run a couple cod4 servers so i have some additional serverside log info to go with what happens when i crash:

[01.27.2013 17:31:09] Malfunctioning PB Client (slot 11) - Ignoring Cvar Queries
[01.27.2013 17:31:11] Lost Connection (slot #11) xx.xx.xx.xxx:xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (VALID) BOB

however logs aren't always displaying this malfunction pb client entry so im now getting my hands on some crash reports.

Help us getting CoD/UO & CoD4 PunkBuster fixed on Windows 8! - TEK9 Networks

Faulting application name: iw3mp.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4859a219
Faulting module name: pbcl.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x50522bb2
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000d8f53
Faulting process id: 0x12ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce1dcfd1b91ba7
Faulting application path: F:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\iw3mp.exe
Faulting module path: F:\Program Files (x86)\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\pb\pbcl.dll
Report Id: 7e2e64e0-89c3-11e2-be94-d43d7e4911f2
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I already get kicked after a few seconds.

Edit:

I organized some updated files from a Chinese (?) website, as it takes forever via PunkBuster and now I get the same crash as you.

This is the reply from EvenBalance who makes Punkbuster when addressed about this issue:


And it's their standard reply because I have seen other people post the same thing

So in all honesty I wouldn't count on a speedy fix, if any.