Posted January 26, 2017
An update on this situation:
The exact same problem reappeared only days after my last post here, and I couldn't play any games at all anymore, no matter what I tried (the only PC games I have are all from GOG). This obviously meant the Crysis installation couldn't be the reason after all, and nothing else was acting unusual, so the only possibility left was hardware. All the components had passed the tests I performed (including all the tests everyone in this thread suggested, even the ones after I last posted) except for one component that I could not specifically test in a reliable way to verify whether it was the problem: the PSU. Fortunately Black Friday was approaching, so I focused my research on the PSU I currently had, and what to replace it with.
The PSU in the system was a Corsair HX-750, about four years old. It was one of the more highly rated choices when I bought it, with the usual small percent of complaints, but I was convinced to go with it. Fast forward to Nov 2016, I find things have changed. The same PSU, and pretty much all the rest of Corsair's selection, are not as highly rated anymore. I read through hundreds of reviews on Newegg and Amazon, plus skimmed through the Corsair forums, and arrived at the conclusion that I was mislead. I even found others with the same problem with Corsair PSU's. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but will say that I decided not to bother replacing the PSU under the still valid warranty. On Black Friday I bought an EVGA Supernova G2 (the recommended replacement, and what I would've chosen anyway based on my research), and ever since I replaced the old Corsair with the EVGA the computer has not only been problem-free, but it's also running noticeably smoother and quieter!
I've been enjoying all my GOG games for a little over a month now with no further issues!
So.. the original suspected cause mentioned by Themken and Bethezar was correct, and thanks to the other suggestions I've given my computer a good cleaning (both dust and on-drive) and testing. Now to finish re-playing Crysis so I can finally play Warhead!
The exact same problem reappeared only days after my last post here, and I couldn't play any games at all anymore, no matter what I tried (the only PC games I have are all from GOG). This obviously meant the Crysis installation couldn't be the reason after all, and nothing else was acting unusual, so the only possibility left was hardware. All the components had passed the tests I performed (including all the tests everyone in this thread suggested, even the ones after I last posted) except for one component that I could not specifically test in a reliable way to verify whether it was the problem: the PSU. Fortunately Black Friday was approaching, so I focused my research on the PSU I currently had, and what to replace it with.
The PSU in the system was a Corsair HX-750, about four years old. It was one of the more highly rated choices when I bought it, with the usual small percent of complaints, but I was convinced to go with it. Fast forward to Nov 2016, I find things have changed. The same PSU, and pretty much all the rest of Corsair's selection, are not as highly rated anymore. I read through hundreds of reviews on Newegg and Amazon, plus skimmed through the Corsair forums, and arrived at the conclusion that I was mislead. I even found others with the same problem with Corsair PSU's. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but will say that I decided not to bother replacing the PSU under the still valid warranty. On Black Friday I bought an EVGA Supernova G2 (the recommended replacement, and what I would've chosen anyway based on my research), and ever since I replaced the old Corsair with the EVGA the computer has not only been problem-free, but it's also running noticeably smoother and quieter!
I've been enjoying all my GOG games for a little over a month now with no further issues!
So.. the original suspected cause mentioned by Themken and Bethezar was correct, and thanks to the other suggestions I've given my computer a good cleaning (both dust and on-drive) and testing. Now to finish re-playing Crysis so I can finally play Warhead!
