@Gemmawho Several of the readings in your hwinfo log looked concerning to me, both in that they could explain the game crashes and that the hardware shouldn't be behaving that way. (The short version is that the processor isn't running at its expected speed and is thermal throttling before it's necessary, and that some other values are wildly off where tehy should be.) So I asked for a second opinion, and that opinion is that you should run a couple of benchmark tests and see how the laptop does.
Steam offers a 3DMark demo that includes Time Spy and Firestrike. Please download the free version (no need to pay) and run each benchmark. Let me know whether the laptop crashes, and if not, please link me the results from each test. You don't need to run hwinfo at the same time, and in fact it's best to not run any other apps when benchmarking.
@puzzlezaddict so I ran both tests. Time Spy ran fine and this is the link to the results
http://www.3dmark.com/spy/22322674. Then Firestrike seemed to be running fine but then suddenly crashed during the combined test and I had to hard reset the laptop.
@Gemmawho That's certainly interesting. Please run Time Spy and Firestrike again, this time with hwinfo logging in the background. After Time Spy is done, wait a couple minutes before starting Firestrike.
Please also use a timer and write down the timestamps for when you launch each benchmark and when each section of the benchmark starts. You don't have to be perfectly accurate; anything within a few seconds is fine.
@puzzlezaddict so the Time Spy test crashed about 20s into it this time. First time I forgot to start logging on hwinfo, but the speakers started making a loud noise (not sure I tested with the sound on last night) and then I got a BSOD with the stop code Machine_check_exception. I then had to hard reset it as it got stuck on the BSOD. Restarted the laptop and ran Time Spy again with hwinfo logging this time. Launched the test at 2:13s and it crashed at 2:33s. No BSOD this time but the speakers made the same loud noise and I had to hard reset the laptop again. Fire Strike seemed to run exactly the same as last night. Launched at 2:41s, graphics test 1 started at 5:46s, graphics test 2 started at 6:31s, physics test started at 7:19s and the combined test started at 7:57. It crashed during the combined test at 8:18s and I got another BSOD with the stop code clock_watchdog_timeout. Had to hard reset the laptop again with the BSOD up as it got stuck at 21%.
Here are the links to the hwinfo logs for both tests:
https://mega.nz/file/554QxTab#aQo4TmeZc32fZhesvfbb39Z_SrX5dJcgpMXpvTJgHxU
https://mega.nz/file/0hYBzA4T#hfvx3I7h0ee8wrwyhRktOdN3Mb7wm1P8jMgd6cFT4BI
Feels like I've somehow ended up with a dud laptop!
@Gemmawho Honestly, you might in fact have received a defective laptop. If you'd like, you can try reinstalling Windows, as in, a clean wipe and a fresh install. That might well fix the issues. But it might not, and you may need to RMA the laptop entirely.
@puzzlezaddict Thank you. I'll try that and then if I'm still having problems I'll contact ASUS to get it sorted. Thank you for all your help and advice!
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