Topic: Power outages?

[Timenn]

Lately I've have this problem that whenever playing a game (a resource demanding one) the computer completely shuts down after a while. It seems to happer quicker when the weather seems to be hotter (go figure  )

Currently I can't play for 10 minutes, but other times I can play for 2 hours without problems. It happens with totally different games (Heroes V and Oblivion) I suspect something is wrong with the power supply, but can anyone give some sort of confirmation on that? If it is the power supply I'll return the computer to the store for repair before the warranty expires, but I just want to be sure so I won't make a fool out of myself.
Could also be one of the ventilators, but they all seem to be running.

Thanks for any help.

[Doc Nyar]

Take the case off, put an external fan next to it and have it blow cool air inside.
If that solves your problem, it's heat..

[Phoenix]

Take the case off, put an external fan next to it and have it blow cool air inside.
If that solves your problem, it's heat..

you can always try to put it into the fridge..

[Timenn]

Tried it, didn't fit

I will go out to buy an external fan then, I guess I could use one with this weather. Although today there seem to be alot of clouds in the sky.

[Bako]

what might also be a problem is ... is the PC hooked up to any of the power groups in your house that has alot of usages (like the group of the kitchen for say) ... if this is the case, maybe wise to try and extend the power feed to another group and try it again ...

[Timenn]

I stumbled upon that topic once while searching the internet. I tried changing the group as the pc and frig/oven where both hooked up the same group, but it didn't make any difference. Later I heard that it shouldn't matter as the electric current provided through the power network should be more than enough for all kinds of equipment (which makes sense)

Lately my video card fan has been making weird noises. It's hard to describe but it sounds like it isn't able to spin at top speed. I haven't tried an external fan yet (as I have none) but I'll return my computer to the store anyway, as the warranty is about to expire (in case it isn't my video-card)

[number6]

I would definitely agree with Doc's assessment that you have an overheating problem. Especially when you mention the graphics card fan making strange noises.  You definitely want to let the repair people know about your suspicions as far as the video card is concerned. I would even make sure they have a copy of the game to run on the system to recreate the problem.

[Phoenix]

Lately my video card fan has been making weird noises. It's hard to describe but it sounds like it isn't able to spin at top speed. I haven't tried an external fan yet (as I have none) but I'll return my computer to the store anyway, as the warranty is about to expire (in case it isn't my video-card)

Try to clean it..
after a while dust gets into it, causing the fan out of its balance or not to be able to spin...

[Bako]

ok, now that your videocard fan is having problems .. yea I do agree that it does sound like an overheating problem and you probably did good getting it back to the store before the warranty ran out.
The only reason I mentioned the power issue is because I ran into this situation where I had 2 different PCs plus 2 fridges on the same group and this caused the newer PC to shut down when both were on and running WoW (which is a high demanding game) and it seems that the current dropped and therefor causing these problems on my 'new' PC.
After moving it to another group (the one for the bedroom) it stopped having this problem.

So this is why I advised it. I know I'm a seperate case (with 2 PCs and 2 fridges) but just wanted to inform you.

Hope everything will work out with the PC when it comes back from the store mate.

[Timenn]

I appreciate all your help.

Try to clean it..
after a while dust gets into it, causing the fan out of its balance or not to be able to spin...

The video card was already very clean, tried the remove the last dust from it, but it doesn't appear to make any difference. Typing this while the noise has reduced, it seems to vary.

I will return it the store tomorrow then, sorry if I look a little reluctant, but it requires some logistics to move that case around the city.

There is one thing else I found on the internet, it seems like a defective temperature sensor in the BIOS could trigger the shutdown for thinking the CPU is too hot (while it is not) A solution would be to update the BIOS drivers. Normally updating drivers is a recommended thing, but does the same count for BIOS drivers?

[Phoenix]

I presume updating your bios..

It can go well, but also very wrong...
If it goes wrong, you ####-up your mobo..

I had also a noisy videocard a while ago, maybe your fan is not completely well attached. Have a good close look, you can see wheter its in the right place or not..
move it around a little with your fingers, you will notice it I think...
I pushed the fan down onto the card, there sound a "click", I placed the card back into my computer, and havent heard it ever since..

[Timenn]

I tried finding that "click", but to not found. The fan seems to be attached tightly to the card.

Hm, I rather take my chances with the store than risking my mobo. I asked someone else and he advised against it too.

[Timenn]

Update. Holidays and such had me delayed in dealing with this problem.
I did return it to the store, and they couldn't recreate the problem, so no progress there. Only that the hardware seems to work fine.
I did mention the video card's fan sounding weird, and they replaced it with a new one which sounds allright now.

I've been trying other things, like replacing power cables, but that didn't help either.
Actually, the computer shut down once when working with a Window application, or even playing a DOS game (though with VDMS emulation) but it worked fine for several hours playing another game, that did demand alot of resources.

Such inconsistency in shutdowns sounds to me like some conflict on a certain software level. As final measure I intend to completly reinstall everything, but before doing that I would like trying reinstalling drivers and codecs.
How can I check if I removed all video and audio drivers and codecs? Over the years I've installed quite a few, and though I installed them all to the same spot, I can't see whether I truly removed a codec/driver or just a part of it.

[Timenn]

Another update:

Driver reinstall didn't work. Actually the 91.31 NVidia drivers seemed to screw up more than they did better than the 84.43 beta drivers I was running. So that left me to one final software solution possible. The total reinstall of my computer. So I went on deleting the partition of my primary disk (yea, I did backup) But when I went on formatting it so I could install Windows on it again, it had the same type of shutdown, after only 4%!

That left me to conclude that it most definately be a hardware problem. I first tried replacing my new memory banks with my old one, didn't do the trick. Then I figured it could be the hard drive and went on installing Windows on my secondary disk. However after reinstalling I still encountered this shutdown.

So I went on exploring the problem of overheating (like Doc mentioned) I downloaded a small monitoring program (Everest) and went on with a CPU stress test. The temperature for the MoBo was always the same (35 degrees (That's Celsius ofcourse, stupid Fahrenheit)) but the temperature of the CPU went up slowly. From 53 degrees to 65 in like 8 minutes (did I mention I have a AMD XP 2500+ CPU?) and then... shutdown...
So now I have a guaranteed shutdown whenever I do that stress test, whenever the measured temperature reaches 65 degrees it shuts down. I doubt that the reading is accurate, but I know that the temperature increases and very likely that is the cause of the problem.

I will return the computer to the store again, this time I have a better scenario for them to test on, this CPU stress test. I don't care if the program I used is not accurate enough, all I know is that I can cause a shutdown with it and the read temperature keeps rising.

[Timenn]

And hopefully the end:

Got a call yesterday that my computer was ready. The main thing they did was replace the thermal paste of the CPU, and since then everything went fine. So I retrieved the machine today and ran a test myself right now.
The CPU temperature started somewhere at 35 degrees, went slowly (logarithmic) up to 52 degrees. By that time the increase in temperature per minute was minimal, if there still was, and a big difference with the speed it increased with before the repair.
It will be till after the weekend till I can try some overnight tests, but I'm pretty sure the problem is solved.

That's all folks...

[Doc Nyar]

Cool, glad it got solved