Computer problems Help

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am having trouble with my desktop computer. It started yesterday when I was playing Old Republic the game went 5 minutes and then the computer crashed. Well I then tried system restore, went back to and older driver, and then put in an older video game card that I still had and same problem. I did notice the video game card seemed very hot when I took it out and I don't know if that was normal or not. I have three fans in my computer though so I am not sure why it would be overheating. A few minutes ago, I put it on a different PCI slot just in case that could be the problem. The computer is updating drivers so it will be a while before I will know if that did any good. I have a Dell XPS 630i Duo Core computer with 4.00 GB of Ram. I am running Windows 7 64 Bit. My Video Game card is A Geforce GTX 460. The power supply is 750 watts If you need any other information that might help let me know. I really can't figure out what might be the cause and I am afraid I am going to have to bring it somewhere to get it a diagnostic on it. I guess it could be the power supply, but I thought it would then do it when I running other programs but I have tested other things on my computer and it seems to be running fine. If anybody could give me any advice I would be very grateful.

Edit
Changing PCI slots didn't work so I am not sure what to do next.

[Morgan Evanar]

The video cards will run very hot while playing old republic. It has a number of built-in protections.

Have you tried the latest nvidia driver from Nvidia's site?

[Jedi Master Carr]

The video cards will run very hot while playing old republic. It has a number of built-in protections.

Have you tried the latest nvidia driver from Nvidia's site?


Yep, however I should have pointed this out but I test two other games and it did the same thing, although it took a little longer. I am wondering if maybe one of fans are broke or something.

Edit I am running my PC diagnostics right now (thank god I have a laptop and it runs Old Republic but I try not to play it too long on it). I am hoping I get something from one of these diagnostic programs that will help me figure it out without resorting to bringing it somewhere.

[Yog]

1. You should describe the crash a bit more. Do you get a bluscreen? Does it freeze? Does it reset?

2. Does this happen every time after playing a few minutes on hardware intensive games?

I recommend downloading and install
http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/hwmonitor/1.18-setup.exe

(uncheck adware at install, post screenshot of temperature readings / fan speeds / voltages)

[Yog]

Step 2, test your hardware:

IntelBurnTest
http://majorgeeks.com/IntelBurnTest_d5987.html
Will push system components such as CPU, northbridge and memory to the limit. Does computer crash?

Install and run:
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/
Will tax your graphics card. Does computer crash?

Monitor temperatures while testing.

[Jedi Master Carr]

1. You should describe the crash a bit more. Do you get a bluscreen? Does it freeze? Does it reset?

2. Does this happen every time after playing a few minutes on hardware intensive games?

I recommend downloading and install
http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/hwmonitor/1.18-setup.exe

(uncheck adware at install, post screenshot of temperature readings / fan speeds / voltages)

When the crash happens it goes to a black screen, I can hear a humming noise. It takes anywhere from 5-20 minutes but yeah on graphically intense games. I will download these programs and then post the screenshots.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Here are the screenshots of temperature, voltage, and fan speeds
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/804/screen1po.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/96/screen2to.jpg/

I can't get the images to show up not sure why.

Edit
I ran both tests. The first test ran fine didn't crash after 10 attempts. The temperatures never got above 77-78. Now the second test was different. I wasn't sure what to run, so I ran it first on 720 and it didn't crash but it got up to 87c and it gave me a score of 1976. Then I ran the Burn-In Test at 16x9 resolution and it crashed after a few minutes after it pasted 100C.

That sounds very hot to me and it went up way too quick. So I am wondering if the fan is working on it or if one of the other fans are working right. I did notice the Fans ino 0 seemed low and three of the fans listed for FansPWM were at 0% not sure it means they weren't working or they don't exist. Now I did try to play Old Republic on my old graphics card but that thing was a GT 240 so it might have crashed because it was crap. It did last longer than the newer card. I was able to play for about 25 minutes.

Could it also be the drivers? I had downloaded the beta drivers for the GTX card and then I went back to the 285 drivers to see if that would work. Somebody from NVDIA told me to uninstall the drivers and then reinstall them after a restart. Should I try that or would that be a worthless endeavor?

[Yog]

It does not hurt to update drive. By all means, do that right away.

However, it very much seems like a temperature / failing fan issue on your graphics card. Even the idle temperature is way too high, at 60, when it should be more like 30-40C. 100C is just insane if you have the MSI version (I think that is what you have?). It should be more like 60C at full load.

Some examples:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi_n460gtx_hawk/15.htm

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-460-review/13

[Yog]

Thinking about it some more, you could actually have a temperature issue for the whole system, because 77-78 is very hot for a E8400. And both cards are crashing...

[Jedi Master Carr]

Is there a way to make the fans run faster? I tried changing the settings in NVIDA control panel but it wouldn't let me. Or do you think the fans are just not working right? I guess I could get another fan to help keep it cooler.

[Yog]

You may be able to that with the software speedfan (http://download.freewarefiles.com/files/installspeedfan445.exe) (also great for temperature monitoring). Other than that, might be an option to control it in BIOS.

Yes, you could also improve or replace cooling solution. Or if you have an active warranty for the GPU, you may be able to get the whole card replaced.

However, I really need to underline the point that both the CPU and GPU temperatures are worrying. (perhaps due to poor cooling in the computer case?)

[Jedi Master Carr]

I will look at speedfan. Could there be a problem with the heat sink? I was reading some about it and the articles mentioned something about paste around it. Maybe the problem is that or one of the fans are broken. I have noticed the two main fans are both in the front and are blowing out the front. Should I just take it somewhere to get it looked at? I don't mind paying 25 bucks just to find out why. Unless it is something very complicated, I probably could fix it myself.

Edit
looking at speedfan only two fans are listed and one seems slow to me 1000RPM. It also doesn't mention the powersupply fan which I know is there. I think I might have bad fans based on these readings.

[Yog]

If I were you, I'd try to visually inspect the fans to verify which ones are spinning, when computer boots up. You can do this by taking the case lid off. This has another interesting side effect as well, because when the case is open, temperature in the case will be closer to room temperature. May be worth trying to put computer hardware under load while it is open, to see how it affects crashing and how it affects temperature readings..



Should I just take it somewhere to get it looked at? I don't mind paying 25 bucks just to find out why. Unless it is something very complicated, I probably could fix it myself.
You could do this, but it does not hurt to investigate a bit first beforehand. :)


looking at speedfan only two fans are listed and one seems slow to me 1000RPM. It also doesn't mention the powersupply fan which I know is there. I think I might have bad fans based on these readings.
I have this suspicion too.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I will definitely inspect them again, however I have discovered something. I was trying to adjust the fan speed in my BIOS and I couldn't figure out how to do it so I read my manual. And it said you had to do it in NVDIA control panel. The fans were set to 1% and 7% which would explain why it was running so hot. It told me to adjust them to 55%. The Temperature is now down to 36C for the GRU and 43C for Temp 1. Those sounds about right. Fan 1 is now going over 2083 so that is better as well. I am going to monitor them for a few days to see what happens and will also manually inspect them.

[Yog]

The Temperature is now down to 36C for the GRU and 43C for Temp 1.
36C is about normal idle temperature for the GPU. Very good! :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

cool I am not too worried now and think it is under control. Just need to continue to monitor it. At first, I wondered why did it get overheat now, but I wonder if it was overheating before and I just never realized it. I did notice that some of my games would crash to the desktop sometimes and that could have been why that was happening. It probably just got so hot that it couldn't even run any graphically intensive games here in the last week.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I have played Old Republic and so far it hasn't crashed after playing it for about an hour. However, the temperature is rising farther than I like. It got up to about 85C. I still wonder if the card is defected or something. I will probably have to look in the case though to check a few things. I am still not sure if both fans are running. One of the readings seem off to me, and I wonder if the fan isn't working. If only one fan is working it would probably be why I had to put the other fan up so high.

[Atreyu]

If push comes to shove you could always just try this ...

http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/computer-fan-1.jpg

:p

[Jedi Master Carr]

If push comes to shove you could always just try this ...

http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/computer-fan-1.jpg

:p

lol that would be one way. I was looking around online it did see some huge cooling units although they aren't cheap. I might still buy another fan, but I am going to look at the case to make sure no cables are in the way blocking the airflow.

[Morgan Evanar]

You can get some much more inexpensive CPU coolers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200056 . Fans are also reasonably priced on newegg. The stock E8400 cooler sucks.

[Crusader]

@Atreyu

Always remember that from an engineers point of view opening up the case is always a bad idea since then your coolers do not create a combined stream that sucks air in and blows it out of the housing in a defined direction. Once you open the case the case your coolers are only not cooling your internal parts but the entire room as well and this is a battle that they most likely lose!

It is kind of ironic though that we are designing an entire series of inverters at our plant here that only uses fans for heatsinks while the system boards are only cooled by convection (a passiv air stream).

[Jedi Master Carr]

You can get some much more inexpensive CPU coolers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200056 . Fans are also reasonably priced on newegg. The stock E8400 cooler sucks.

cool I will consider getting one of those. I just think the fans in my computer are poor quality.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well the video card is still overheating for Old Republic. I have no problems with any other games. I am reading the old republic forums and it seems like other people are having the same problem. It looks like a patch caused this overheating or something and certain video cards are overheating. Maybe it will get fixed with tomorrow maintenance. I guess I could buy another fan to keep the video card even cooler.

[Atreyu]

@Atreyu [+ stuff]
|I

Dude, it was a joke. Lighten up a bit. Obviously I'm not seriously suggesting that JMC rip of the side and attach a full-blown fan to his computer (hence the ':p' at the end).

[Crusader]

^^sorry

I have seen too many people actually doing that on LAN parties.