Computer restarts while playing games with no warning

[Blekk]

Hi,

I've got a problem, as can be seen from the title. Anyway, I have recently started playing Red Orchestra again, and 4 times now my computer has restarted with no warning, and also when it starts up again there are no alerts or anything.

Also, it is weirder because when I am running games on high settings, it obviously heats up the card and the fan runs fast for about 30 seconds and the stops.

But some times at the point the fan usually slows back to normal, the computer just restarts.

Also, when just playing the World In Conflict Demo, on Very Low settings, because I didn't want to chance anything higher than the lowest (it looked crap by the way), it cut out, and the fan on the card wasn't running fast or anything.

Anyone got any ideas? Is it cooling? Power supply failure?

(There is also another problem that my computer doesn't restart unless I leave it off for about 15 minutes, but that's a whole other kettle of fish).

Thanks in advance.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Chances are that this is either heat or RAM; and either of these on the main board or the graphics card.
The fan you hear - which one is it? PSU, CPU, VGA? It could be that the component that is overheating is not the one controlled by the fan you hear changing speed.
Start with the basics and make sure all the fans are clean and the airways clear. You could get a can of compressed air and blow the dust bunnies out the heatsinks. I do not recommend using a vacuum cleaner.

 

[Rik]

Just to add to what AlberLionheart says, get speedfan from the downloads section here on TS and use it to monitor your temperatures for a while.

 

[Blekk]

Thanks for the help, I will get speedfan.

I just realised that it doesn't actually restart the computer but just puts the monitor to standby and the loops the last audio outputed, such as this last time in World Of Conflict it was a bit of a sound of explosion over and over again.

So is this more likely to be RAM than anything else, in light of this new info?

Thanks.

 

[Rik]

It could well be a driver issue, make sure you have the latest graphics card driver installed.

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

Some kind of heat buildup problem. Go through you cooling devices. Especially put you finger (after you ground it) on different parts of the graphics processor to feel the heat. Your CPU may very well be sharing the heat problem and that will give you all kinds of strange problems. All in all if you are serious about gaming you will need to get a larger, gaming case, with plenty of room for cooling. Get the trial version of EVEREST Pro and download that. It has the feature that will allow you to monitor your GPU and Mainboard. PC Wizard lets you monitor your CPU core as well as the activity of both cores of your cpu (f you have 2 cores). This way, when your PC stops showing the game and is back on desktop, you can view those temps.

 

[Blekk]

Thanks for all the responses, I will go down to the local computer shop in the next few days and get a Zalman GPU fan for £20 and then take it back if it isn't the problem.

I will need to upgrade soon anyway, (old cpu and only 512mb RAM), but I didn't really want to have to upgrade my graphics card.

I will get those temp monitors also.

Thanks again all,

I'll report back on any developments.

 

[Blekk]

Hmm, just used speedfan and left it running for about 30 mins. Haven't tried playing a game because of this rather worrying temperature, although I don't know what it is for:

It can't be my graphics card temp (at least I don't think) because The Catalyst Control Centre tells me that the card is running at 59 degrees (celcius).

Any idea what this high temp can be and if this may be the problem?

Also, is there a way of making speedfan record the temperature info into a .txt or something because obviously I can't see the temps while playing a game.

 

[Rik]

Get everest home edition from this link - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html - and see if you get similar results with that.

 

[Blekk]

Where are the tools for measuring the temperature on everst home edition please?

 

[Rik]

Hit the "computer" button then the "sensor" button.

 

[Blekk]

Thanks rik,

Looks like that 82 degrees (celcius) is real:

It's kind of scaring me.

The thing is, CCC Overdrive and ATITool are telling me the GPU is around 59-61 degrees (celcius), so I don't know where the 82 degrees (celcius) has come from...

...Any ideas?

 

[Rik]

Re-start your machine and have a look in your bios and see if it shows any temperatures. The fact that Everest calls it auxiliray may mean that there is no sensor there and that it could well be a false reading.


You could also try removing the side of your case to see if that temperature changes at all.

 

[Blekk]

It just keeps flitting around 80-83 degrees (celcius) even with the side off. I will do the BIOS thing later, because for some reason if I turn my computer off, I can't turn it on for another 15-20 mins because of an error code, but that's another matter.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Looking at the Everest readings on my system i see that this is also showing a temp way over the rest of things - CPU 30c - GPU 65c. I do not have an AUX value.
I don't think my GPU sensor works or even exists as there are two PCiE cards and only one is showing.

 

[Blekk]

Since putting the clocks back to normal in AtiTool and then using the CCC Overdrive feature to overclock, I have had no system lock-ups in games. Overdrive didn't clock the card as far as AtiTool had previously done, so I think it is safe to say that it was an overheating issue on the card.

Please help me with my next problem in this thread: https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?p=498999#post498999


Thankyou for your time and help all.