PC Crashes During Gaming !

[pocahontas81]

Hi All,

Sometime when I play games (like witcher, morrowind, football manager), my pc either crashes to the desktop or shows the blue screen of death or crashes completely or restarts automatically.

It is an overclocked machine and am quite stumped as to what the issue could be. Any suggestions please? I know this is a very broad issue.

My comp specs are:
Intel QX9650 – quad core (3 ghz);
4 GB RAM;
2 x Geforce 8800GTX;
Windows Vista 32 bit

thanks very much !
Anisha

[Niram]

your PSU? wattage and the voltage

and temperatures

[Lord Sirian]

Hi Pocahontas81, welcome to TSF.

Follow the steps located here and see if they fix the problem.

!---IMPORTANT: Please Follow These Steps Before Posting---!

If those steps do not solve the problem, post back with your system specs.

Information on posting system specs can be found here:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/558208-post1.html

[Aus_Karlos]

Undo all the overclock changes changes and see if the problem persists. You may have an unstable Overclock.

[pocahontas81]

thanks very much !

~Anisha

[pocahontas81]

Hi
I have fiddled around all day with Rivatuner, ATItool and EVGA Precision. Basically I have 2 Geforce 8800 GTX cards which were overclocked to 620/1000 by the manufacturer. However ATI's scanning for artifacts revealed constant errors (X Delta at Y Point) on this setting. SO I tried to reduce the overclock settings on EVGA and then check again for artifacts. Ultimately a 2 minute error-free run on Scan for Artifacts was successful for a 595/910 setting. However the temperature on the GPU on scanning for artifacts for 2 minutes, as well as on running 3DMark06 was around 94-95C! On running Scan for Artifacts for 10 minutes, the temperature went up to 105C in 9 minutes , which gave me a BSOD for obvious reasons. I even cleaned the CPU with compressed air to ensure that dust wasn't the issue. I have 4 -5 fans plus 3 corsair dominator fans plus liquid cooling, so overheating to this extent is surprising. Just to add, I installed nvidea's driver ver. 182.50 as I read it is supposed to be stable. I am completely stumped as to what to do next and would really appreciate some help!

[koala]

What PSU are you using to power two 8800s?

If they are factory-overclocked, they should be safe to run at full speed without having to underclock.

Is the graphics fan definitely spinning, and have you checked its blades for cracks?

Is the fan's speed set to 100%?

Is there a clear airflow path between the front and rear case fans, and are they positioned correctly?

[pocahontas81]

What PSU are you using to power two 8800s?
Coolmaster 1000W PSU

If they are factory-overclocked, they should be safe to run at full speed without having to underclock.
Thats what I thought originally but ATITool stated giving errors so I presumed I had to underclock

Is the graphics fan definitely spinning, and have you checked its blades for cracks?
It is spinning....what kind of cracks do you mean?

Is the fan's speed set to 100%?
Yes it is

Is there a clear airflow path between the front and rear case fans, and are they positioned correctly?
Could you elaborate on this please? I'm not really a hardware specialist unfortunately. The system was assembled by Scan computers. There is a fan at the back, 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom if I remember correctly. There is also liquid cooling. Does that help?

[pocahontas81]

Update: Now suddenly my GPU temperature is going up while I just have a couple of Internet explorer windows open. It reached 99 earlier so I rebooted...now its just reached 102 with 3 minutes of opening Vista and I have to reboot again!

[koala]

The fan blades are quite delicate, so whenever you clean them it's possible to bend or crack them without noticing. This can reduce the fan's ability to cool the card.

Most cases have a 120mm fan at the front of the case to pull cool air in and another 120mm fan at the top rear to blow warm air out. This layout allows the cool air to pass over the motherboard and cards, keeping them cool. Other fans are optional. But if you're using liquid cooling, and it's not faulty, heat shouldn't be a problem.

Next time you get a blue screen, copy down the full message and error code.

Try running the Rivatuner tests on one graphics card at a time to see if only one of them is faulty.

Is the computer still under warranty from Scan?

[pocahontas81]

Only had 1 year warranty.....so that's over unfortunately. The RivaTuner version I have doesn't have an option for testing . Blue screen error is something about tried to reset video driver but failed or something. BTW my GPU temp is going up again! and again without any activity at all!

[koala]

Turn the computer off and let it cool down, then remove one of the graphics cards and run the ATITool tests. Then do the same for the other card and post back with the results.

Try and copy down the full blue screen message if it appears again. The error message, file name and stop code will help us pinpoint the cause of the problem.


EDIT: What's the PSU's +12V reading in BIOS? If this is too high or too low, it could be contributing to the graphics card overheating.

[Niram]

my guess is that your GPU fan stopped working... happened the same to me

open it up and check the fans on both cards, if one doesn't work, remove the card

[pocahontas81]

Thanks All !

Something is definitely wrong with the graphics card but i have no idea how to remove it. It's connected to tons of pipes and am scared something will get screwed up.

I've booked something with 'computer nerds' but they are charging a lot.

Do you know about any other professionals in London who would be able to come home and take a look at the machine please? I spoke to PC World and they dont take care of custom-built machines.

thanks a bunch !
Anisha

[Mcninjaguy]

Its really easy to take out graphic Cards.

You need to take out the power supply leads (6pin PCI-E connections)


Take out the screws hold the card to the case.

There should be a little tab holding the card in place. You just need to pull up on it so the card isn't locked in place and gently but not too gently pull the card out of the slot.


Where it says #4 is your PCI-E slot (all motherboards are different. At the the end of the slot do you see the little piece of blue plastic extending out thats right beside the cmos battery (silver thing). You just need to pull the little blue tab up.

If you need more help please ask, and don't try to use the geek company as they will probably charge you something awful.

[koala]

Anisha, if your graphics card is connected to the liquid cooling system, don't try and take it out yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

[Aus_Karlos]

I use to go to PC World for repairs when i was to inexperienced to do it myself, that was back when i lived in the UK.
I remember if you were not a member with PC World then i think they use to charge $100 pound in total, Then you pay for any parts that need replacing.