Hardware PC Crashes Due To "Heavy" Gaming

Berthenk

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I've lately been playing Battlefield 3 again, and Assassin's Creed Revelations, too, as I finally got the crack to work properly. Yes, I'm a filthy pirate, hang me.

Point is, after a while of playing (it differs every time) my computer shuts off, as if the electricity was cut off. This is, however, not the case because the light that's connected to the same socket (it's one of these) still works.
When it happens, the music/sound stops; my monitor shows me it's not getting input from HDMi. Also I hear the fans powering down.
What bugs me about this is that this did not happen at all with MW2 back when AlterIW still worked, and Minecraft doesn't trigger it either. Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood used to run fine also.

I'll try and run some benchmarks and then report back if it happens.
 

Jamstruth

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And overheat would likely cause a BSoD before it caused a complete system failure. I've had a GPU overheat before and it caused a driver failure. Most likely cause is the PSU, you'd probably notice other glitches first if your mobo was failing.
 

Midna

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Some desktops and most laptops have heat sensors that will cut the power when they reach a certain temperature

But if this is your run of the mill desktop tower, you've probably got a failing part on your hands
 

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Doesn't sound like motherboard to me, unless it's the power phasing but that would cause a lot more problems than just shutdowns under stress. I think either power supply or overheating. More details (like what the temperatures are like and how long this has happened for) would help.
 

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By using speedfan you can see the cpu temps you gpu temps can be seen from the overclocking section of the driver software, at least that is the case with amd. if those temps are to high it may very well be the cause and if not, at least you know you are most likely looking at something else.
 

Berthenk

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Has been happening since about 1 month ago with the Diablo 3 beta launcher which crashed my PC. Fast forward about 3 or 4 weeks and it started with AC: R and BF3 too, though I didn't play either of them during those 4 weeks.

Forgot the specs too:
AMD Athlon II X2 240 (dualcore, 2,8 GHz, 65 watt);
AMD Radeon HD 6950 reference design;
4 GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz;
1 Samsung Spinpoint HDD;
2 extra fans;
OCZ 550W Fatal1ty Series Power Supply

I'll try using speedfan and the likes to take a look at the temperatures.

Edit: Just ran FurMark, CPU Temp1 maxed out at 68° celcius while the GPU got to 78° celcius. Seems pretty normal to me so I don't think it's the temperatures. I'll play some Revelations while keeping an eye on the temps.

Edit 2: During AC: R Temp1 got to 113°, GPU about 98°, and Core 98°. At least, that's what SpeedFan tells me. CPU got maxed out on usage, too. I didn't hear the fans that much though so I'll see if I can force them to do more work while gaming and hope that'll fix it.
 

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Chibi-neko
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I'm not surprised to hear the CPU got that high (being AMD) but for the GPU to go that high, I wonder about the ventilation of your case. It sounds to me like you might have heat pockets (pockets of static air that can only heat up and not escape due to lack of airflow) in your system.
 

qlum

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AMD cpu's are not significantly hotter than intel ones and if you get temperatures of above 65c on load there is usually something wrong with the cooling or ventilation setup 68c is still not damaging or anything just a little bit higher than you would want.
The gpu temperature really is a issue though and its not suprising that your system fails with these temps.
First thing you should try is to clean the gpu, maybe first remove the cover around the heat sink and then remove the dust as otherwise its quite hard to get it out, I would also recommend you to clean your cpu. In all likelihood this will not fully solve the temperature issue so I think it would be best if you looked for a new case or got some more fans for your current one. I had this issue myself when I was still using a OEM acer case and it really fixed everything.
 

Berthenk

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Wow, the heat probably fucked up one of my RAM dimms because using both of them, no video signal was sent through any connectors (yes, all of them, D-SUB/VGA, DVi and HDMi), both on the motherboard and the graphics card.
Using only one of them allowed me to boot properly and using solely the other one gave me a BEEEEEEEEEP. Now I've got only 2GB of RAM. :lol:

I'll see if I can clean some stuff up, however, I'm not sure about removing the cover of the graphics card, because that's probably going to void the warranty and I'm a bit hesitant about that.
 

marcus134

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I'm surprised to read that from you.
I'm not surprised to hear the CPU got that high (being AMD) but for the GPU to go that high

when he wrote that:
AMD Athlon II X2 240 (dualcore, 2,8 GHz, 65 watt);
65W = core2 duo or i3-2100, FYI i5-2500 = 95W

@[member='Berthenk']: What case do you use?
If speedfan reporting the temp correctly, I would be more inclined to believe that you have a ventilation problem or that there's a trouble at the level of your heatsinks
 

Berthenk

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The case is an Enermax Luxuray, without the fan above the CPU:
enermax_luxuray_20.jpg
It's horrible but I bought it because it was cheap and it looked nice. My HDD often made awful noise so I put some tissues in the space between it and the HDD cage.
Either way I'm upgrading really soon, to an Antec Eleven Hundred with an i5 2500k; I just need some more input on the PSU because at the moment I'm not sure it will survive.
The PSU I've got now has some modularity however there are still a fuckload of cables that I can't hide properly.
The Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator tells me I need at least 370 watt but I'll be damned if I simply go by that.
 

Berthenk

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Uuuuh...
AMD Athlon II X2 240 (dualcore, 2,8 GHz, 65 watt);
AMD Radeon HD 6950 reference design;
4 GB DDR3 @ 1333 MHz;
1 Samsung Spinpoint HDD;
2 extra fans;
OCZ 550W Fatal1ty Series Power Supply
At the moment I can't see if there's an air vent below the PSU, but it's mounted upside down and the fan blows upwards.
Here's a badly shooped picture of the airflow inside:
gallery_125443_893_288203.png

Red arrows are weak; the one on the right doesn't even have a proper airvent so there's no proper input of air to push
Blue is the GPU (obviously), once it's inside there's only one way to go, and that's to the left, out of the case.
Green is the strongest fan.
Yellow is the CPU.

Edit: there's a mesh with small holes beneath the CPU PSU, you fool!

Either way, supplies have been ordered so I will soon move away from shitty AMD performance, and this case.
 

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Chibi-neko
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That pic made me scream at my colleague seconds ago. The pic shows that the PSU does not have an upward facing fan, so it will be sucking air from the bottom (where you say there's an air vent). That's fine. It doesn't look like there's a front fan so its using inductive airflow. The GPU is being partially suffocated because of this. As for the PSU, you've correctly drawn that its an omni directional fan (or rather, sucks from all directions to blow up) but the case fans are directional and steal the air from the CPU, rendering it greatly inefficient. In short, the airflow is crappy and that's causing your heat problems - your upgrade is overdue.
 

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