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Hello MajorGeeks! I come to you, unfortunately, with bad news... However I humbly ask for your expert advice in helping with my problem...

You see, for whatever reason, and this only applies to the hardcore games (graphic-wise) as far as I know, my monitor shuts down to power save mode about 30 minutes/1 hour into gameplay...

A more detailed description is that after 30 mins/1 hr gameplay, the monitor goes black, stating it's going into power save mode, and after a brief moment the sound starts to loop. I have had this problem with Left 4 Dead 2, and more recently All Points Bulletin (demo.) I had temporarily fixed my L4D2 issue by turning off the PhysX driver for Nvidia. However, it did not solve my problem with APB. Thinking it was RAM-related, as I was far overdue to update anyways, I bought 1 more GB of RAM for my CPU. This solved nothing.

My specs:
Dell Dimension E510
Windows XP
Pentium D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
3 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT

If there's anything i've left out, please let me know, and please please PLEASE help me! From what i've played of APB, it's very fun! Haha!

Thanks in advance!
~NekoStar

 

The monitor turns off when it's not getting a signal from the video card, which means the problem is the card, not the monitor. You can verify that by simply hooking up another monitor and watch it do the same thing.

Are you monitoring you GPU temperatures? Next time t happens, turn off and unplug the computer and then reach in and touch the heat sink on the card. I have two 8800 GT cards, and those things are dust traps if I ever saw one. Blow all dust out of the fan and heat sink, and see if the problem stops.

You can use Riva Tuner to monitor your temperatures and fan speeds. You might simply need to put the fans on 100% when you play your games.

 

Yeah, I knew it wasn't the monitor... and I use compressed air to clean cpu innards recently, but perhaps not well enough...

I'm not sure what a heat sink is, buuuut I shall try Riva Tuner to test it... problem is, I can't test when it happens since whole CPU crashes, but I can try before, or after... dunno if that'll help. :/

Thanks a lot for the reply though! It seems no one wants to help me, so it's refreshing to actually get some help.

 

Hmm... Riva Tuner says core temp for video card is 92-93 celsius. =_=
And ambient temperature is 60 degrees.

That's too high ain't it?...

 

Way too high! :eek

Get the dust out of that heat sink as soon as you can! You may need to remove the card to get to every part of the heat sink, but it's probably best to do that so you can get to every part of it. You've very lucky the card hasn't been damaged. Ambient temperature of 60 is also too high... what kind of computer is this? Pre-built or custom? How many case fans do you have?

 

Not sure what the heat sink is, but i'll dust clean every part of it. XD

It's an old computer. When I got it, it was refurbished, and that was long ago. No case fans. :/

 

Thanks for chiming in, Halo!

Well I went to Office Depot and bought some more compressed air, took the video card out, cleaned it (Not with a brush at all, just the air,) and made sure the cords were as out of the way as possible (I'm not sure how to move some of them out of the way. It's physically impossible.)

And upon starting my cpu, the video card started at about 59°C, but even as i'm typing this reply, it had climbed to 66°C, where it seems it might stay, though the degrees are climbing slowly... (is now 67.)

So it IS lower than 92-93, so that's good, but seeing it increase like it is, i'm afraid it's only a matter of time before it gets back to that area... (68°C now)
I suppose I can take some advice i've gotten and leave the case open when gaming, and just hope that keeps it low enough... (69°)

Dunno if there's any room for a fan, but I suppose it could be time to just man up, take my video card, ram, and power supply? and get a new CPU (One with case fans?..... Now at 71°C)

 

The lower temperatures are good, but at the same time, as you're typing the card is a temperature that is slightly higher than my 8800GT reached when running very graphics-intense games. When you run a game the card has to work a lot harder, and that makes it hotter, so you are right that it's only a matter of time before you run into problems again.

I think its safe to say the under-lying case of the issue is the lack of case fans in your computer. A video card like that is a considerable heat source, and without good air flow in the case it will cause problems. Taking the side off helps, but it's not just enough to open it up, you need to get the air moving. Think cooling yourself in the dead of summer... just rolling down the car window doesn't make that big of a difference until the car starts moving and creates a breeze.

Common "poor mans's cooling" solutions include taking the side off the case and aim a small desk fan at the critical spots. Good short-term solution, not a good one long term.

You're right, if you want to play games on this PC, you will have to get a new case with better cooling, or at least install a few case fans. Your best options would be to look around and see what would be the more cost effective solution, and then go for that. Note that adding fans to your current case will probably only help if you have enough mesh-covered openings to let the air go in and out. Circulating 95C air over your components won't cool them, you need one vent for air intake at the bottom, and one vent for letting air out as close to the top as possible. Heat rises, so you want to work with the laws of thermodynamics, not around them.

We've got a very active hardware forum that can help you select and assemble parts once you've made up your mind, or you can just keep it in this thread. We're here to help.

 

Nekostar, how's your temperature situation holding up? Any news or updates?

I did some research on your Dimension E510, and I have to say that case is not very well designed at all. Not only is there no room for fans, but there is no room for airflow either. I can definitely see why you had difficulties with rearranging the cables. Taking the side off and aiming a small fan at the air just above the video card will help, but in the long run, you might need a new case. The problem with moving the insides of an E510 into a new case is, of course, the huge CPU exhaust pipe thing, that won't let you just unhook and reattach it to the new case.

I hate to say it, but you might have a considerable project in front of you if you want to get a new case and move everything.

 

Hmmm... Well the temperature hasn't caused crashes just yet. I haven't been able to test if APB will cause crashes, cuz the demo is over, but playing Left 4 Dead 2, the temperature will go from 77°C to a 81-83°C and not crash at all.

So I may have resolved the problem just by cleaning the fan. =_= (Which in my opinion, just seems pathetic on the 'technological' standpoint that dust would slow down a cpu....)

Anyways there's no problems as far as I can tell. I have Riva tuner running when I play, so I can monitor the temperatures. I am working on procuring a tower case from my friend, and if nothing seems to fit, or if it seems nearly impossible, then I'll just stick with this CPU till it happens again. At that point, i'll just buy a new CPU. X3 Thanks both of you SO much for all of your help. I REALLY appreciate it.

 

You might have, actually, if the temperatures stay the way they are. Heat is bad for electronics, it causes performance dips and eventually damage, and the dust in the heat sink acts like a fur coat that traps the heat inside the chips on the card. Essentially it adds a layer of efficient insulation to something that desperately needs free airflow. End result is problems.

Glad to hear you seem to have got it cleared up and fixed though.