For the past two months, I've been trying to run a heavily modified version of GTA V on my Alienware 16 Aurora gaming laptop. The game usually runs for around 30 minutes before RagePluginHook appears, followed by a crash to desktop. I've already tried several dependencies, including heap, pack-file, and resource adjusters. I suspected my 16 GB of RAM was the problem, so I spent several hundred dollars upgrading to 32 GB, but the crashes continue. In fact, the stability seems inconsistent: the first session after the upgrade lasted more than an hour, but later sessions crashed within about 10 minutes, all during the same evening. Most crashes produce no dump file or useful Event Viewer entry. What should I check next?
2 Answers
Start with a proper memory test rather than assuming the upgrade solved or caused the problem. Run Windows Memory Diagnostic, or preferably a bootable test such as MemTest86, for several passes. Also make sure the new RAM is fully seated and compatible with the laptop. A failing or unstable module can cause inconsistent crashes.
Monitor the laptop while playing with HWiNFO64 running in the background. Keep an eye on CPU package temperature, GPU temperature, clock speeds, and thermal throttling. If the temperatures climb into roughly the 95–100°C range and the crash follows, overheating or power limits may be the cause. If temperatures look normal, the next suspects would be the mods, RagePluginHook, or a conflicting dependency, so testing with fewer modifications enabled would help narrow it down.
I’m running Windows Memory Diagnostic now. I wasn’t sure whether there was another memory test I should use.