Maximum PC

Hello and Happy New year

my son and I are back to playing computer games now that winter is here.
something, and I am guessing its heat related is shutting down my system when we play

system specs
Intel I7 920 @2.67GHZ
EVGA LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel Motherboard
Window 7 64 bit
6 GB corsair xms3 DDR1600 [3x2 gb sticks]
corsair H50 Hydro CPU cooler
GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win (Fermi) 2GB 512-bit
OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-256G 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Operating system on this one
Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" storage drive
3 120 cooler fans
LIAN LI PC-V1200Bplus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PC Power cooling Silencer 750 Quad power supply

system is 2+ years old, upgraded to this video card and added the SSD last Jan and did not have any issues
now a year later I'm having heat related shut downs when I play the same games , Skyrim, Lego Batman 2

I have taken the system apart, vacuumed and air blasted the system clean, I found a huge fur ball between the CPU cooler and fan which lead me to think it was heat related. I have also cleaned and reapplied Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound to the CPU and cooler. I thought my issue was fixed but 5 days later when my son was firing up his game it started back up again

I have EVGA Precision X up and running to ramp up the GPU fans from what I can tell the GPU idle temp is around 40c and moves up into 60c under game load

I'm stumped as what to do now.
Not sure if my power supply is adequate, some Google leads say check or replace it
Not sure if the CPU cooler is acting up, its 2+ yrs old, when I was reapplying the thermal compound I heard air movement in it [ I have aquariums I am familiar w air in intake tubes] but it went away once the system was fired up
Not sure if I have a bad video card and should check w EVGA tech support

any help is welcome and appreciated

thanks

Cecilio

Check Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> System (Left pane) for any errors. In particular Bug Checks, since this is a BSOD.

event viewer is saying event ID 41 computer has shut down
not much help w that one

here is the short version of the log

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 1/1/2013 7:20:41 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Cecilio-PC
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

as to kleininstein, heh Skyrim is my game and my 9 yr old is on Leggo Batman, the point being that the crash isn't limited to a GPU heavy load game I downloaded the latest Evga drivers last week when the crashes started I will check the status of the other hardware today [or tomorrow]
as for AV or spyware, I am using Norton , i will run a sweep tonihgt see if anything gets caught

thanks for the input still looking for a solution

Sounds like a bad video driver install, try this:

To uninstall/install a Nvidia or AMD driver:

Download the new driver.

Download Ccleaner and install it.

Shut off your anti-virus!!!

Uninstall the driver and say no to restart.

Find and delete the AMD/Nvidia folder, then empty the recyclebin.

Run the registry section of Ccleaner, when it is done reboot the computer.

Cancel the two popups

Shut off the anti-virus!!!

Install the new driver and reboot as required. This should give you a clean install of the video driver. I have done it this way for years and it works well for both AMD and Nvidia.

If the above don't work for you, try going back to a point in time using the Restore Option to a date it was running well.

Nasty

so I've done a sweep for AV or spyware, nothing came up
i have done a clean install of the video drivers as Nastyman suggested
i did a system restore to 1st of Dec, oldest restore point

contacted Corsair on the CPU cooler, they only warranty for 2 yrs and didn't have a life expectancy on the cooler
checked w EVGA on the graphics card they say make sure i have Precision X downloaded and running

I'm left thinking maybe my power supply card says minimum of 700 my power supply is PC power and cooling quad 750 rated for dual 8800 GTX cards, i thought it should be adequate its going on 3 yrs more or less and the graphics card is close to the rated ceiling of it

any other suggestions out there

thanks

graphics card only calls for a 550w psu to run a whole system, you should be able to add another one and still be well within the limits of the psu.

if your cpu cooler has heat pipes, there is liquid in the pipes that turns to gas and is cooled back to a liquid which could be what you are hearing.

I would be tempted to do some benchmarking, video, memory (memtest) and system, it will stress the systems enough to perhaps narrow down the culprit

The next step I would take is remove the side of the pc, get a house fan and aim it right into the opening and turn it on high. Play Skyrim (incidentally I have 175 hours logged into that game and not done by a long shot), if the game plays with no problems, you have a heat issue. If the game crashes it may be the power supply because when they are full on they only supply 80% of the rated output due to heat and electrical component degeneration over time. When new not so much in component degeneration.

Nasty

Are you running your problem game through STEAM ?

Steam has nothing to do with it, I have been running that game for a hundred plus hours with no problems what so ever.

Nasty

i seen you updated your vid card drivers..did you update them thru EVGA or Nvidia?

it makes a difference!
i would try the newest Nvidia drivers,and follow Nasty's install guide..its my rule of thumb.

but it most def sounds like a heat problem.

how did you reapply artic silver?

i must agree the stuff works great!

all


thanks for the input
i downloaded the drivers from Nvidia Website
reapplied the thermal compound by removing the old 1st w 97% rubbing alcohol putting a small pea sized drop on the heat sink
and spreading it thinly around

I replaced the power supply w Corsair HX850. this seems to have solved my issue. my son has played both games for up to 1/2 hour w/out the system shutting down. i had another qwerky issue that I thought was unrelated to this issue that the computer would turn itself back on when I would power it down. Both issues seemed to have been resolved my the new power supply. PC power website the old unit has a 5 yr warranty on it, mine is 3+ yrs old. I think i may contact them to see if this unit is covered and if it is fixable

thanks for the help

Cecilio

cecilio

PSUs can bring you to tears with some of the things that happen when they start to malfunction. Good to hear the system is up and running!

Nasty

This seemed like a "herp derp" to me (on my end). PSUs going bad causes so many problems it's not funny.