Something causing complete shutdown

colin2238

colin2238

New Member
Hello every1 :) Lately over maybe the last month and a half ive been experiencing crashes during certain PC games causing it to just poweroff completley. GTA: SA, Farcry, both Battlefield 2 and 2142, and Prey are the only games ive seen to cause this crash. I first thought that it might be temps on the cpu or gpu to cause a temp safety shutdown but even at complete load it runs cpu at 42c and gpu 62c with case temp of 34c which I found out to be complelty within operating limits. Also I noticed that I can leave my desktop and regular windows operations running all day with no crash. Even Source Engine powered games (CS:S, HL2, HL2:LC, HL2:E1) never seem to have this crash happen. If anybody might be able to help lemme know I didnt really know where to post this. Thank you all :D
 
Sounds more like a power demand and supply problem rather then overheating. Video and sound drivers can play havoc as well as antivirus and of course any firewall or other protections you have running. But the last there would more likely see lockups or stalls when going to start not completely shut the system down. Are you ocing or running stock?
 
No OC'ing what so ever. Im using a 450w Powersupply that came with the case. But even then my Video card doesnt require a powerplug as it draws from the PCI-Excpress i guess. Ive seen driver issues before and like u said it usually just stalls or applications close out. However ive never seen it just shutoff lol. Im really scratching my head to this hehe.
 
An unstable supply and those that usually come with the cases are crapola! Some games will pull on resources heavier then others explaining why HL2 and some others are sliding by. Prey has the more intense look which places demand on video which then places demand where? the supply!

You could have a 1000w supply but simply no good if the power drops right off due to not having any good regulation! The one time I had a supply come along with the case it lasted all of 13 1/2 days! "crapola"! :mad: ggrrrr...! :P You need something better I guess if nothing else is found.
 
A flaky supply after 8 months would show a poor quality one. Besides cpu and video cards temps have you monitored board temps as well? While the cpu temp could seem normal I''ve seen where the board temps climbed. With a temp range set low the system would suddenly shutoff without warning during a game. The sound would be tied up there rather then seeing any flashing or hearing an audio alert.

When you pull power through the board that will get warm too. Board temps, flaky supply, or some board fault or need for a bios update if not a new battery are things to look at. When the original battery on the old build was on the way out there were some flaky moments until one day "nothing" when the power button was pressed. Put a new one in everything then worked fine until the cpu cooler's fan quit seeing the cpu cook!
 
Wow thats alot of problems lol. How can i test my mobo to see if it is heating up or the battery is dead. I really appreciate the help with this. I know basics of PC's but i dont know much about psu's, mobos, and bios/cmos. Any info on how to test these would be awesome
 
SpeedFan is one freeware used here that gives temp reading for both cpu and board along with the one or more hard drives you have installed. That also includes a fan speed configuration tool and a chart for monitoring temps over a period of time. The download link is on the top line of the second paragraph seen at http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php for the latest 4.32 version.

The hardware monitor seen in the bios is usually the most accurate since those are direct readings from the board's own sensors there. To see those you press the assigned key generally the "DEL" key when first starting the system to go into the bios setup program. On some model board you have to go into one section to then go into the monitoring section while others see that along the top as one separate area.
 
Are you familiar with a multimeter? A watt meter would be the actual item if you kbew how to place a load on the supply itself. Antec came out with a $10 supply tester that simply sits in a drawer here since it was never opened! :P Along with that the TP2 550w that sat around for about a year here while using the TP2 480w model runs super quiet after finally breaking the plastic wrap to see if the supply had any problems. The 480w makes a nice reliable backup supply now! :D
 
nope my system sits on a plastic counter top next to a acrylic painted wall.
Im thinking of getting a new powersupply cause im about 2 months from upgrading to a x2 5200 2gigs ddr2 800 and a 8800gts so ill need to upgrade but just scared lol
 
Due to something that happened earlier this week one thing that comes to mind when you are not seeing a temp problem or something easy to spot may not be a power problem but a power connection? When going to add another drive in and take the time to give the case a cleaning the thought of a larger supply sitting around for almost a year and not knowing if it even worked prompted the swap there.

For some reason the contact in the 12v cpu feed must have llifted a little inside the plug itself on the first try. Lights, cameras, action but not post screen while everything came on normally? When unplugging that and then lightly pressing it back in until the retainer clicked... "The show's on!". Everything was even quietier with lower temps! :D
 
I looked in my bios and noticed that my memory clock speed was all off (set to 667 when its actually 800) can bad memory settings cause instability like that?
 
If the model cpu you have runs at 667mhz it won't matter if you have DDR2 800 memory. The fsb will automatically run at the default speed. It was the same with the older Socket A boards that ran DDR400 but the only two models that ran at that speed were the Atholon XP3200+ and XP3400+ models there. If you ran an XP3000+ you would see the 333mhz total(166x2).
 
What happens there is that the board is what supports the 800mhz memory for a max 800mhz fsb. But with that model cpu the fsb is lowered to 667mhz. A mismatch of memory types or timings that are too fast for the board would most likely stall the system where you would crash before the desktop was even reached to answer the question on that.
 
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