First, here's my rig, which I just put together about 1 week ago:
16 GB of Corsair RAM
Intel i7 Quad Core 3.4 Ghz processor (not unlocked I'm pretty sure)
Two Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 video cards (1 GB each)
ASUS Maximus IV motherboard
Two Samsung BX2231 monitors
Here's my problem. I have a bunch of games on Steam. Lately I've been trying to play Half-Life 2 and Mass Effect 1. I have the graphics set to the highest possible settings on both games. Recently, after about half an hour of playing either of these games, both monitors will go black for a couple seconds, and then turn back on and start switching through their channels (analog, HDMI 1, HDMI 2). I am forced to hard boot my computer to get it back onto the monitors. I have tried unplugging the monitors from the wall and from the back of the computer and then plugging them back in, but that has no effect.
A couple days after I finished putting together my computer, I got a new sound card. In order to get the sound card to fit onto my motherboard, I had to move both of my video cards and my network interface card. This screwed up my whole computer, so I formatted the hard drive and re-installed all of the drivers and started over. I have only been encountering this problem since I did that.
Is it possible that my CPU is over heating (I have a Corsair H70 liquid cooler) and that's causing the problem? Is it that my graphics cards aren't plugged into my motherboard fully or adequately? What could be causing this problem? Any advice would be much appreciated. Hopefully I don't have to restore my hard drive again.
(Note: I have only encountered this problem when playing games, and only when playing games on Steam. I haven't tried playing any other graphically intense games on a different platform. And, I have only encountered this problem while playing Mass Effect and Half-Life 2, though I imagine it would happen with other games as well.)
16 GB of Corsair RAM
Intel i7 Quad Core 3.4 Ghz processor (not unlocked I'm pretty sure)
Two Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 video cards (1 GB each)
ASUS Maximus IV motherboard
Two Samsung BX2231 monitors
Here's my problem. I have a bunch of games on Steam. Lately I've been trying to play Half-Life 2 and Mass Effect 1. I have the graphics set to the highest possible settings on both games. Recently, after about half an hour of playing either of these games, both monitors will go black for a couple seconds, and then turn back on and start switching through their channels (analog, HDMI 1, HDMI 2). I am forced to hard boot my computer to get it back onto the monitors. I have tried unplugging the monitors from the wall and from the back of the computer and then plugging them back in, but that has no effect.
A couple days after I finished putting together my computer, I got a new sound card. In order to get the sound card to fit onto my motherboard, I had to move both of my video cards and my network interface card. This screwed up my whole computer, so I formatted the hard drive and re-installed all of the drivers and started over. I have only been encountering this problem since I did that.
Is it possible that my CPU is over heating (I have a Corsair H70 liquid cooler) and that's causing the problem? Is it that my graphics cards aren't plugged into my motherboard fully or adequately? What could be causing this problem? Any advice would be much appreciated. Hopefully I don't have to restore my hard drive again.
(Note: I have only encountered this problem when playing games, and only when playing games on Steam. I haven't tried playing any other graphically intense games on a different platform. And, I have only encountered this problem while playing Mass Effect and Half-Life 2, though I imagine it would happen with other games as well.)
