Understanding and Troubleshooting Gaming Crashes: Analyzing HWInfo Logs for Effective Diagnostics
Introduction
Gaming on a laptop offers portability and performance, but it can also present unique technical challenges. If you’re experiencing frequent crashes or errors while playing demanding titles like Call of Duty: Warzone, it’s essential to methodically analyze logs and system data to pinpoint the root cause. This article explores how to interpret HWInfo logs and related system information to help diagnose gaming crashes, using a real-world example of a user encountering DirectX errors on a gaming laptop.
Laptop Specifications and Context
The system in question features:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H
- RAM: 16GB
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3050 with 4GB VRAM
The user primarily plays Call of Duty: Warzone, utilizing an external monitor and keyboard/mouse setup. Over recent months, they’ve encountered persistent “DirectX unrecoverable error” messages, which disrupt gameplay. Notably, initial attempts to resolve included cleaning and reapplying thermal paste, driver rollbacks, system formatting, and adjusting TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) settings, but these did not eliminate the problem.
Symptoms and Observations
- The error tends to occur after the first game launch; once it happens, crashes persist across subsequent games and menus.
- In Warzone, CPU utilization can reach 95-100%, while GPU temperatures stay below 80°C, with VRAM usage around 80%.
- Lighter titles like Green Hell exhibit similar issues despite cooler temps.
- Conversely, less demanding games like CS2, League of Legends, and Minecraft typically run without crashes.
- Event Viewer logs reveal specific related errors, notably:
The description for Event ID 153 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found…
Device: \Device\Video6
Error on GPUID: 100 (sometimes indicating reset or TDR-related messages)
Analyzing HWInfo Logs
HWInfo is a powerful tool for monitoring system hardware parameters in real-time. The logs include critical data such as GPU and CPU voltages, temperatures, clock speeds, and error counts. In the provided logs, snapshots taken immediately before and after a crash can reveal valuable clues.
Key points to analyze:
- GPU Temperatures: Are they reaching critical thresholds? Consistently high temperatures (>85°C) can cause thermal throttling or crashes.
- GPU and CPU Loads: Excessively high load combined with temperature spikes
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