Gaming PC Keeps Crashing!!

[Tbowl]

My ABS gaming PC always crashes without any warning. It crashes more often when I play games, like Battlefield 2142 and even lower end games like Gunster. At first, I thought it might be overheating but when I started my computer today and just surfed the web, it crashed as well. I don't know what happened. I have SLI but I shut that off as well. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Processor
2.6 GHZ
NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GTX SLI (256 MB)
2 GB (2x 1GB Kingston Sticks)
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe MOBo

ANY help would be appreciated. I appreciate any comments or suggestions you pros may have. Thanks so much for reading this!

 

[F1N3ST]

Power Supply, what is it?

 

[dmill89]

Power Supply, what is it?

Post the brand,Watts,and Amps(12V rail) of your PSU.These can be found on the label.

 

[Tbowl]

Enermax ATX 12V Ver.2.0
Model: EG565P-VE (24P)

115V/230V, 50-60Hz 12A/6A

Hope that's enough

 

[dmill89]

That's plenty .(you only have 1 video card right?)If you have 2 you are close to max. I believe your problem is either overheating or driver errors.

 

[Tbowl]

I have 2 Geforce 7800 GTX video Cards, but I turned off SLI. Just yesterday my computer was shutting off automatically every dang 30 minutes. It happened today as well.

As for driver errors, what might they be and what can I do to fix them? Thanks again for your help!

 

[dmill89]

Make sure you don't have the newest drivers they have lots of errors. I'm not sure exactly which ones to avoid (I have an ATI in my gameing rig and the old Geforce FX5200 in my server hasn't been updated since it was installed).
Download Everest to get an Idea of your temps . Clean all the dust off your heatsinks and you may want to consider putting on new thermal compound or possibly upgradeing the stock heatsinks if you system is out of warenty. Is there any set time that it normally turns off(30 mins, an hour,etc) this could point to overheating?

 

[Tbowl]

In fact, I just opened up the computer to clean all the fans. I tried to take out the PSU to check it out (it was extremely hot) but couldn't pry it away from the computer because it had some stupid protective bar (and a bunch of cords I couldn't pull off). I tried my best to clean the PSU, and it was really hot then.

As for a set time, it really varies. Last Friday, it ran well for the whole day. The weekdays, they ran crappy, and today crashed as well.

As for the drivers, i haven't updated them in a while.. is there any set that I should have that are stable?

Thanks again Dmill, I really appreciate it.

EDIT

It crashed again... "sigh"

I don't know what the hell is wrong. Should I get a new PSU? What's the best one out there? Or should I give the comp to Geek Squad and ask them to fix it?

 

[dmill89]

PSU hot?In that case it may be PSU related. One of the easyest ways to determine weather your PSU is the problem is to strip ithe system down to the basics(motherboard,cpu, one ram stick,one video card,one HDD) and see weather or not it still shuts down randomly If it does the problem is likely deeper than an overloaded PSU.If not your PSU is almost certainly the problem. How old is this system? Makesure to examine all the capacitors on the components to make sure none are buldgeing or leaking. The Geforce 7800 GTX is a power hogg (it actually uses more power than a 7900gt or 7950gt because it is less effiicent)so you may want to consider an upgraded power supply anyways. Here are some recomendations:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703005 (More than enough to power your current system and made by the best PSU manufacture out there.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703006(if you plan on a video card upgrade soon this will give you the necessary head room for that)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104015 (a little cheeper but not as good[still one of the top 4 manufactures])

The problem seems to be that while your old PSU has 535 watts It only has 2 12v rails with 18A each for a total of 36A on the 12V rails which is sutible for 2 7600s or less but is underpowered for two 7800GTXs. The PSUs I listed above all have 49A or more on the 12v rail(s) which is more than enough for your application.

EDIT:The PC Power & Cooling PSUs are currently a little cheeper at PC Power & Cooling's website than Newegg. Here are the links:
http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S61EPS
http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S75EPS

 

[Tbowl]

It most probably is the PSU problem. The funny thing is that it has been running fine for the year that I have this PC. It's just been recently that it's been acting like a doozy.

And wow, the PSUs are pretty expensive.. but I guess I'll have to upgrade to stop this PC from hiccuping all the time.
Thanks so much dmill.

If I get it soon, is the installation any difficult?

 

[dmill89]

It most probably is the PSU problem. The funny thing is that it has been running fine for the year that I have this PC. It's just been recently that it's been acting like a doozy.

And wow, the PSUs are pretty expensive.. but I guess I'll have to upgrade to stop this PC from hiccuping all the time.
Thanks so much dmill.

If I get it soon, is the installation any difficult?

Part of the problem is that PSU's degrade over time (about a 10% loss each year) so if it was just enough to power the system with no headroom initialy a 10% degradation would lead to lack of power and errors,crashing,etc.