Computer Cuts Off During Some Games!

I have been able to play WoW at max settings (shadows, multi-sampling, particles, etc..), MW2 at max, spore at max, minecraft at max, and starcraft II at ...high... with 50-60 fps (monitor's highest setting) and no issues, but today I tried to play Age of Empires Online, and after an hour, my computer cut off and restarted. I changed some settings in the game and tried again and after 10 minutes, it reset once more. The third time, I set my cpu fan to manual-maximum ( thinking the intel safety functions were cutting it off at a certain heat ), and it cut off after 10 minutes again. The time intervals are a rough estimate, of course.

this problem only occurs on windows 7 (i havent used anything else for long enough time to recreate the outcome). CPU temp doesnt exceed 55C on anything i've done (heavy gaming). Case is open currently and has 2 fans and several ventilation openings all over it. Graphics card is hot to the touch, but I cant think of any way to cool it better....

My specs are :
Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 rev 2.0 bios-F11
Intel Core i5-655k 3.2gh (not overclocked currently)
( 2 physical cores, 4 virtual,
core 1 temp : roughly 26C
core 2 temp : roughly 32C
at idle )
Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler
Diablotek PSDA600 DA Series 600W Power Supply
8gb (2x4gb at 1333)
Radeon HD 6950 2gb (flashed to 6970)

OS: Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux 10.10, OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.6
win7/unbuntu on HDD 1, OSX on HDD2.

One Final Thought: I've heard Wow and minecraft (the two games I use most) are CPU-dependent, and not so much GPU dependant. Could it be that Age of Empires Online is Graphic card-optimized, putting more stress on the GC and it's overheating causing the mobo to cut off?

 

UPDATE:

problem still persists, but I have replicated the results twice while watching temperatures. card temperature never exceeds 68C; cpu core 1 stays around 30C and core 2 stays around 40C. I dont think it's an overheating issue.

 

Hi Seyeco & welcome to the Major Geeks forums,

Can you explain this a little for me first of all, how did you do it & why? It would seem to be the obvious culprit if the GPU's BIOS doesn't work with the actual GPU. Something like that may also have void the warranty :confused

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Oh, i dont know how to mark this as solved....

It was the power supply. My then-current power supply was a 600W, but it would shut off whenever a peripheral needed additional power (like with the 6950's 2 - 2x3 connectors), but I put a 550W in of better quality, and it hasnt cut off at all with additional overclocking and the same games.

As for the 6950-6970 flash, it's not hard, there's a ton of forums that explain how. Briefly, you download a 6970 bios for the brand of card you have, then (after backing up your current bios) you use a program like winflash to switch out the bios. Restart the computer and it should work.

The reason why this specific card can do this is because it IS the 6970 hardware with software-locked shaders. A catch to it is that i've heard some of the newer radeon HD 6950 cards have this exploit fixed. The warranty can be voided if you arent careful, but if you buy it from XFX, you get a lifetime warranty on anything you do to it (short of taking a bat to it). AND FURTHERMORE!!! it has a dual-bios feature built in with a physical switch to allow you to boot safely into a backup copy of the 6950 bios "should the primary bios become corrupted or damaged".

 

Oh right, well I'm glad you got it sorted I've been banging on about underpowered/low quality PSU's for a long time now as being the culprit for... I'd say 3 out of 5 non software shut off's, so it would have been my next question

That's very interesting, excellent way to get more bang for your buck as they say :-D I bought all my ATI cards from Sapphire, I like there Vapor-X tech & Toxic/Atomic editions are second to none for cooling IMO, but I have heard XFX have their notable strengths too... food for though I guess Though if you want lower GPU temps I replace the TIM with Arctic Silver 5 & my 4870's drop by 15-20C once it had settled, truly amazing stuff.

Hope to see you around the forums again,

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

ya, i've been looking into aftermarket cooling for this thing. I thought it was worth mentioning that XFX actually supports user-swapping of cooling on their cards.

but thanks for your reply!!!!! And i'll definitely get some arctic silver (now that i know to look for 5 :-D)

 

An interesting thread. Just goes to show that watts aren't the answer but quality is. I'd still change out that 550W though, you're near the edge already and with capacitor degradation with time......

 

Diablotek power supplies are among the worst on the market. I had a client with a Diablotek unit labeled for 850w (a quick check showed it was unable to actually produce over 320w MAX continuously, about 360w peak; this is on a unit labeled for 850w). As soon as ANY game was started, the PC would reboot. I replaced the garbage power supply with an Antec 650w EA650 and the problem disappeared. My take on this is that Seyeco's power supply is such a huge piece of junk (no offense intended), that it is causing problems and should be replaced with a quality unit. Good brands are Antec, Corsair, ThermalTake, most CoolerMaster models, Seasonic, SilverStone, newer Kingwin units. A QUALITY 500w unit would run your rig flawlessly.

No offense to Seyeco, but a power supply SHOULD NEVER be the component where you decide to save money. Your $200+ video card, your $150+ motherboard, your $80+ hard drive, your $200+ CPU, and everything else are given life by the power supply. If you cheap-out on the life blood of your PC, your simply saying "give me problems and potentially damage my expensive components". Without a power supply, a PC is a very expensive pile of silicon that collects dust, so why would you want to risk your expensive gear with a $30 power supply?!?!?!???!!!!?!? (yeah, I looked it up, and $30 was the highest price I found).

Long rant, short version: the power supply is perhaps the MOST important component in a PC. DO NOT cheap-out on the power supply!!!!!

 

Damn it man, I'll pray at your altar anytime!:-D I've gotten blue in the face trying to put that point across!

 

Check out this review of a unit from Diablotek rated as 1050w. The unit burned up and failed completely when trying to produce under 600w of power. Yes, it died when asked to produce just over HALF of its "rated" output. Do some research of "Diablotek" and you'll see that they are truly evil units.... made by the devil himself to bilk the uninformed out of their hard-earned money.

 

:-o I just read post #4 above (yeah - I 'skimmed' through after reading the first 1-2 posts - my bad). So - I was right.

I hate to admit it, but I like to gloat. rolleyes :-o

To the PC world at large: if a 600w power supply costs less than about $70US, you'd best do some research BEFORE buying. If a unit labeled for 600w is under $50US, be VERY concerned and do A LOT of research.

Brands you should NEVER buy: Logisys, Diablotek, Visiontek, Powmax, Bestech, Coolmax, iMicro, Raidmax (some of the NEW models might be OK), Deer (are these even made anymore?), EchoStar, most Rosewill units, Linkworld, most ePower units, most HEC/Compucase units (there are true HEC units that are pretty freekin good- this is where RESEARCH applies).... I think the list of PSUs that are :crap is MUCH MUCH MUCH longer than the list of PSUs that are top-notch. The fact that some PSU makers have some kicka** units and some lame units kind of confuses the scenario... for example: Topower released the "Power" line up a few years ago: the "PowerBird" series and the "PowerTrain" line-up; these are high-end units and priced as they should be (maybe a bit too high at the time). However, in the years after 2009/10 the Topower company released some very mediocre-borderline-crapola units. The same applies to Coolermaster; some of their units are EXCELLENT, others are average to just below average. So it's hard to know a good PSU based on name or specs alone. On the other hand, some brands have NEVER EVER had a quality or average unit, and these brands have ALWAYS produced VERY poor quality units that have fake specs. I listed a few earlier. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any laws relating to the truth in power supply labeling, there should be, but there isn't. So, if an 800w power supply is only $60.... DO NOT BUY IT!

Maybe there should be a Power Supply Forum here at MajorGeeks?

 

Hey, it's a good lookin' unit though. Both my machines run on Corsair TX750's, obviously seriously OC'd with all CPU/GPU's running at %100 LOAD 24/7.

The i7 930 is just into its 3rd year now with all that abuse. I don't think for most folks have to go there but man, the thing just hums along.

OK, they might trip my breakers once in a while but it's not their fault. I just suck too much juice and need a rewiring.

Look at this guy.:eek All i7 930's. Damn, cars are cheaper than that setup.:drool 6500 Watts

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=152398&d=1293975443

 

Be careful with aftermarket coolers, I remember allot of people toasted their 4870 VRAM cause the after market coolers either used very poor cooling for them or left them out completely.

It's amazing stuff, but you need to apply it right or it might not even work as well as the stock TIM, there are loads of guides on YouTube for applying it & if you look at their website they have instructions too

I agree 100% I had a 650W CoolerMaster PSU with my first 4870 & it's so awesome that it didn't sweat when I got another & ran them in Crossfire, in fact I'm still using that same PSU for my 6870 :cool Never underestimate or cheap out on the PSU, you can be cheap & risk all of your expensive equipment or you can buy a quality PSU & use it for a very long time & save money in the long run, not having to buy 4 crap ones to find a good one at the end of it & on your electricity bill :-D

Same here, I tell everyone & nobody listens. They learn a little about PC's & suddenly they start telling me that they need the best CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD, Sound Card, Blu Ray Burner etc & then the put in a 400W PSU from WinPower or something that was designed for School PC's from 1999, then they wonder why they burn up! I mean really :clap

I think that'd be a great idea, users can post their specs including PSU after about 3-6 months fault free running & then we can compile a list of PSU's for different users, everything from Video Editing, Rendering, all the way to extreme Eyefinity gamers. That way we can just point people in the direction of "X" PSU for said use

Are you running Skynet on that?!? :eek

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Hehehe, that's not mine. The guy folds with that setup. Damn, at $500 a pop, do the math. He was going to setup another 27 i7 930's but then Sandy Bridge came along, I don't know what happened after that. Now back to power supplies.

 

That's pretty insane power consumption, I guess it's for the greater good though


:major2-Bit-Geek:major