Computer shuts down while gaming, fans still blow at full speed.

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Esa1996

New Member
So yeah, this happened. I'll give you all the details I can and I'll hope you can help me out with this.

Problem? Whenever I play any games the computer suddenly shuts down without any warning. Began happening earlier today and I've been able to recreate it twice with playing War of the Roses and twice with a GPU benchmark. With WotR it takes around 5-10 minutes, with the GPU benchmark it takes somewhat less (Perhaps 2 minutes) The GPU temperatures were 72 and 71 at the times of the shut downs with the benchmark and around 50 to 60 with WotR.

What happens after? The light on the power button stays on and the CPU and GPU fans begin spinning at full speed. The fan at the back that blows air out of the computer also keeps on spinning.

The computer seems to remain in this state forever (I only waited for around a minute for something to happen but nothing did). To get it out I have to shut it down by pressing the power button for around 5 seconds or so.

I was listening to music from Winamp on the two first occurrences (Both with WotR) and the next time I opened Winamp the "Library was corrupted". I had no problem copying my files back into it though. No library corruption when I didn't have Winamp open during the shut down.

I reverted back to a previous NVIDIA driver at some point but it didn't fix the problem.

I shut down the computer, switched off the switch in the PSU and pulled out the plug. Haven't tried recreating the problem after this, but while doing it I noticed that the orange light on the motherboard behaves strangely. Before, when I switched the power switch, it took around 5 - 10 seconds for the orange light to shut down. Now it takes around 2 seconds, then it's dead for perhaps a second before lighting up again for maybe 5 seconds. Then it finally shuts down completely.

Perhaps worth mentioning that the computer was built in the summer of 2013.

So. Any ideas what's wrong?

Computer Specs:

PSU: Corsair 650W 650TX v2 ATX2.2
CPU: Intel Haswell i5-4670K, LGA1150, 3.4GHz, 6MB
MOBO: Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H, LGA1150, Intel Z87, DDR3, ATX
RAM: Kingston HyperX LoVo 8GB (2 x 4GB), DDR3 1600MHz, CL9, XMP
GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB GDDR5, 2xDVI/HDMI/DP, P
 
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Esa1996

New Member
johnb35 said:
What case do you have? What do you have for case cooling?
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Fractal Design R4. One fan at the back pushing air out, one at the front pulling it in. Open fan places without fans, one at the front, two at the top, one at the side, one at the bottom.

Personally I don't think it can be heat related as my neither the CPU or GPU ever go above 70 while gaming, only with benchmarks. Both tend to stay in around 60 with the heaviest use I put them to. GPU has 3 fans, and processor has the stock cooler.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Hm, usually an overheating situation would actually 'turn the PC off'. It sounds like you're just getting a black screen or no video output as opposed to 'computer shuts down'. ;)

Do you get any Windows events or BSOD logs around that timeframe?
What driver are you using that you reverted to an older one? Did you try the newest one?
 
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Esa1996

New Member
beers said:
Hm, usually an overheating situation would actually 'turn the PC off'. It sounds like you're just getting a black screen or no video output as opposed to 'computer shuts down'. ;)

Do you get any Windows events or BSOD logs around that timeframe?
What driver are you using that you reverted to an older one? Did you try the newest one?
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Haven't had a BSOD in a long time. And yes, I get a black screen and no video output, not a total shut down. Plus the fans that go insane. I was using the newest driver from NVIDIA but switched to the previous one. It doesn't seem to have fixed the problem though. Neither did the "computer total shut down" when I took it out of the plug as I just had one more black screen of something when playing WotR.
 
kam

kam

Member
Have you tried different RAM? I had a PC at university not too long ago have the same problem, it would start up and run for about 5 mins and as soon as I would open an application like say for example Google Chrome or Firefox and it would shut down and every fan would seem to run at full speed (there were only two). I changed the RAM a couple times and then it worked fine so maybe you can try that? Keep in mind that this was a dell desktop, one of the ones you would lay flat and typically would have the monitor on top. http://www.compufactory.nl/products/catalog/images/iamsellp7725085n1.jpg
 
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Esa1996

New Member
kam said:
Have you tried different RAM? I had a PC at university not too long ago have the same problem, it would start up and run for about 5 mins and as soon as I would open an application like say for example Google Chrome or Firefox and it would shut down and every fan would seem to run at full speed (there were only two). I changed the RAM a couple times and then it worked fine so maybe you can try that? Keep in mind that this was a dell desktop, one of the ones you would lay flat and typically would have the monitor on top. http://www.compufactory.nl/products/catalog/images/iamsellp7725085n1.jpg
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I haven't tried different RAM as I don't have any. Can you test it with any programs? The computer seems to run fine with photoshop and a 36 000 x 18 000 (Quite insane, yes I know :D) drawing open that takes around 7 gigs of RAM (As close to a RAM stress test as I've gotten). All in all, so far the only situation where it has shut down has been while playing WotR and while GPU benchmarking. Haven't tried a CPU benchmark yet. In normal use I can use it without any problems.
 
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Esa1996

New Member
A CPU benchmark didn't do anything at least yet. I let the temperature go to 75 C, which took around 2-3 minutes I think with every core at 100% usage. Around the same time it takes for the GPU benchmarker to make the computer go black.
 
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Esa1996

New Member
Agent Smith said:
Maybe you have a defective GPU?
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Could be. If I had to guess I'd guess either that or the PSU. Today, however, has clearly been a good day. The computer hasn't shut down once and I even managed to run the GPU benchmark twice (stopped at 75 C on both times) and play WotR for an hour or so without problems. Don't know how it can change so much without any real reason.
 
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Esa1996

New Member
It seems to be working now. Hasn't shut down a single time today even when I purposefully tried to make it do so. No idea what could have fixed it if it's truly fixed. Anyway, I'll bump this thread if the problem comes back.
 
kam

kam

Member
Esa1996 said:
It seems to be working now. Hasn't shut down a single time today even when I purposefully tried to make it do so. No idea what could have fixed it if it's truly fixed. Anyway, I'll bump this thread if the problem comes back.
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Maybe it was the PSU as I'm assuming you left it off for a while before trying again? If the problem persists I'd just go for a new PSU as they're the cheapest of the two (between the GPU and PSU), but your GPU is a little out dated so who knows. Good luck man :)
 
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Esa1996

New Member
kam said:
Maybe it was the PSU as I'm assuming you left it off for a while before trying again? If the problem persists I'd just go for a new PSU as they're the cheapest of the two (between the GPU and PSU), but your GPU is a little out dated so who knows. Good luck man :)
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It was off for the night. Everything's been working like normal today. Yeah, if it comes back I might get a new PSU as it's cheaper. I'll get a new GPU someday too as it's getting old like you said but if I can avoid it I probably won't do it just yet. Haven't changed anything yet from the original build I did back in June 2013.
 
Punk

Punk

Moderator
Staff member
Esa1996 said:
Haven't tried it but I will if the problem returns. Thanks.
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Yes if the problem comes back, run Memtest on each stick seperatly by removing the other ones before booting on Memtest. let it run for at least five hours per stick, that way you'll be sure to have a proper result (I usually let it run while i sleep).

Test your HDD too, what brand is it?
 
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Esa1996

New Member
Punk said:
Yes if the problem comes back, run Memtest on each stick seperatly by removing the other ones before booting on Memtest. let it run for at least five hours per stick, that way you'll be sure to have a proper result (I usually let it run while i sleep).

Test your HDD too, what brand is it?
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Well, the problem returned :D Worked for 1,5 half days without problems though. HDD is Western Digital. I don't have any empty CDs at home so I'll probably try the Windows built in memory diagnostics tool instead of Memtest.
 
Punk

Punk

Moderator
Staff member
Esa1996 said:
Well, the problem returned :D Worked for 1,5 half days without problems though. HDD is Western Digital. I don't have any empty CDs at home so I'll probably try the Windows built in memory diagnostics tool instead of Memtest.
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I would recommend buying a few blank CDs (they're not expansive anymore) and running Memtest. I'm not so sure about Windows memory diagnostic tool :)

Here is where you can get WD Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows to test your HDD:

http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx
 
Darren

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Punk said:
I would recommend buying a few blank CDs (they're not expansive anymore) and running Memtest. I'm not so sure about Windows memory diagnostic tool :)

Here is where you can get WD Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows to test your HDD:

http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx
Click to expand...

Expansive = A large area/thing that expands a lot. (Expansive vocabulary of swear words or an expansive field.)
Expensive = Something that is pricey or has a high expense.

:D

+1 on doing memtest. The built in diagnostic tool is... passable, but I would highly suggest doing the real memtest.
 
gamblingman

gamblingman

VIP Member
Esa1996 said:
Well, the problem returned :D Worked for 1,5 half days without problems though. HDD is Western Digital. I don't have any empty CDs at home so I'll probably try the Windows built in memory diagnostics tool instead of Memtest.
Click to expand...

You said western digital, but what size and model, how old is it? You need to run a diagnostic on it with Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows: http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx

Install and run the quick test then post the results.
 
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