No longer a graphics problem?

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=211270
If someone could please read this thread. I know it's a lot of information but unfortunately fixing this isn't as simple as it seemed to be.
I have been having some issues and the more research I do about it the worse it gets. I haven't pinpointed the problem, instead, now... I have more possible causes. The only thing I can think about is that the fan isn't going fast enough. I know it is spinning, I looked in to check, but the ATI overdrive display shows that it's not spinning at all. In fact, in speedfan, the only fan that's shown spinning is the CPU. Not only that, but I don't really know if it's spinning faster when I use the speed setting in Overdrive options.
The computer won't shut down while watching shows on Hulu while the game runs in the background, also, I've tested out playing the Star Wars Game for a bit and it didn't reboot. I am going to test out playing several different games to see what happens. I did just clean up remaining Nvidia drivers that were lingering.
Maybe that fixed it...
But just in case, I need to do some tests and I can't do them unless I can find a way to keep the computer from shutting down (shuts off as if power was cut off). Also Everest won't bring up some important information, like what my motherboard is. It also can't detect my BIOS.
My GPU doesn't get any hotter than 50 during graphically intensive games, so I wanted to find a way to raise the shut down temp, but I can't find the option in the BIOS, and I can't find out what the BIOS is.
All it says under my computer's specs is this
Motherboard
Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 9200
That's it.
Again, any tips would be great. This is frustrating.

 

PS, sorry, needed to add something.
I'm starting to think that the first temp+fan speed is actually the GPU not the CPU. DUh!
The GPU shows the fan is running. I think....
Right now running dragon age
42C for the GPU (if that's what it is)
and 48 for the processors. they have a huge heat sink and fan around it though. How are these temperatures?

 

Perfectly fine.
My CPU (Athlon x2) runs at around 35-45C
My GFX HD4890 runs at around 55-65C

Given you have a 4870? you actually have that running very low, they are known for high temps.

Both are perfectly acceptable.

So I take it you're still crashing out after some game play for no apparent reason?

Just as a final judgment on the temps issue, install http://majorgeeks.com/GPU-Z_d5796.html and run it ,I find it's a much more comprehensive prog than CCC or speedfan, but just for a third opinion on temps etc.
Again, you should open GPUZ then with it open, try to run a game for a couple of minutes and then minimize it to see temps.
Temps on GPU's drop quickly so it's best to get the reading as soon as possible from closing the game.

What version drivers do you have installed for your card?
Some simply don't work well.

Also since it's likely not a temp issue AND since you just put in a new PSU I would check the RAM, just to eliminate that too.
You have 2x 1gb sticks right?
Shut Down
Unplug
Hit power button to discharge mobo
Touch fingers on chassis or PSU case to discharge yourself
Remove both RAM sticks, blow out any dust,
put 1 back in and see what happens,
then regardless of the result remove that one and throw in the other one.

I'm gonna say it's unlikely it's the RAM but for the sake of a 5 minute test it's worth knowing for sure.

 

Just been rereading your other thread.

I get the impression your Star wars game shuts your PC down but you can run Dragon Age :Origins? at max?
RoM shuts you down but Sims 3 runs fine?

I'm starting to wonder if you have a bug.

You're running the heavier games fine but faltering on the lightweights.

Compatibility with Vista?
Have you reinstalled the games that crash you?

Are all games installed on the same HDD?

 

Sigh. I could have waited to post in panic, the clean up I did fixed it. SORRY! I let star wars run all night with no trouble, if it does it again somehow, then, I'll try and give my computer some chemo and clean out any possible evil spirits inhabiting it...
Why would a driver conflict completely shut it down though? It almost makes me think that it never was the PSU. Then again, it was good to replace it. At least I have 2 good components in this thing ha!
Well, thanks, at least I know a lot more now about what could cause shut downs. I just automatically thought it was going to be a hardware problem or overheating because it cut the power. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh!
Again, thanks to everyone for your help. I probably would have been scratching my head over this for a lot longer since there are so many things that could be the problem.

 

lol I think we assumed you already tried that, but then again assumptions is the mother of all.. foul ups lol
Glad you got it sorted, I must admit I was starting to wonder which is why I said about maybe having a bug.

Drivers are funny things, they can cause a very wide variety of issues from simple stuff like just not working to the weirdest things.

Tips for the future.

When new drivers are being installed, whether an update or new hardware.
ALWAYS uninstall and remove traces of old drivers.
Reboot
THEN install new drivers.

Whenever you have any form of odd issues, first thing to do is clean up.
Not only could this solve your problem but will also help your PC run better while trying to solve your problem.
It also eliminates Virus/Spyware scanners from picking up temp internet files which slows the whole process down.

After uninstalling things especially hardware, run some form of reg cleaner (I reccomend Ccleaner) to get rid of old junk.
It often helps to run it a couple of times as sometimes the first sweep wont find everything.

As for wasting money on a PSU, it's certainly not wasted, that PSU will see you good for a while and should you want to upgrade at a later date it's one less thing you will need to buy..... unless you heavy upgrade

 

Yeah, I know. First time I installed anything on a computer, including a graphics card, so it was mostly educated guess work. I was going to scrub the drivers clean, but then I was slightly coaxed into not worrying about it too much so I didn't. Bad on my part but a learning experience nonetheless.
Also, I had no idea a driver could do what it did. Scary thought! It is funny, I'm usually very meticulous about installing and uninstalling programs and keeping the registry clean etc... but I got too excited about the upgrades HAHAH!
I used to use reg cleaners on my laptop, but for some reason I was too afraid to try it on this system... then again, I never had trouble with them before. I guess it was all a result of a series of unfortunate events, but, in the end, the misunderstanding did get me to purchase something I needed badly, otherwise I wouldn't have. I realize now that the shut downs were all driver related because I couldn't even do a system restore because of the shutdowns (even during boot up!) until I quickly removed the nvidia drivers in Safe Mode.
Sorry to have forced you to read all that stuff for nothing!
But everyone gave me good information.
I probably had trouble removing the Display driver because I did the clean scan in safe mode, but booted it in normal mode, I think. Sigh!
I've gotten rusty.
I should have pointed out my driver issue in the first place. That's probably a tech support nightmare right there -- missing essential information!
Thanks again!

 

lol no problem at all, every word I read I learn a little more

It's also good you posted your steps and fixes as it may help someone who has the same issue

Just glad you're all fixed up

 

Well. It figures it wouldn't end. I tried playing guild wars and I was doing other things too, browsing the web, installing another game, and i checked the temperatures just to be safe, they were up to 52 for the cores, then I went back into the game and the computer shut down.
Back to square one?

Ok...
I ran the driver sweeper 5 times yesterday and I rebooted between them, and now Nvidia PhysX is back. Sigh... what's going on. Did Dragon Age Origins install it?

 

If this helps.
CAUTION: If a GPU is being used at or close to its maximum capabilities, or if the card is running close to 110 ºC, do not increase the GPU or memory clock speeds.
Can anyone please give me a clue on how to raise the shut down temperature thresh hold to something above 52. I'm just guessing that's the problem. The bios doesn't give me the option. Would the name of the motherboard show on the motherboard? Because it doesn't seem to be in the specs or recognized by my software.

 

HELP! Emergency?

One of my processors is pulling (according to speedfan) more than 3V! Sounds like that's not a good thing.
If this is the case, how do I fix it? Suggestions? :cry

 

Sorry I keep posting, but there's no way to edit anything after the time limit.
http://www.2shared.com/file/11944455/6cde4116/tempsetc.html

Here is some info you guys can look at. Anything look off?

 

Holy Problematic PC Batman!

The likelihood of your GPU shut down being set at 52C is virtually non existent.
If it's peaking at 110C and shutting down then there's a serious problem.

As far as I can see there's nothing untoward in your screenshot.

Download and install this....

http://majorgeeks.com/MemTest_d350.html

Then if it comes back 100% we should create an overview of whats happening and whats been tried.

At that point I think it's going to get tricky, but since it's so random I would still think it's some form of hardware prob, but I'm not ruling out malware just yet.

 

Thank you again for your patience. You have no idea how helpful all the information I'm getting from you, and other that have helped me, is.
I'm running the MemTest on my computer at the moment (2 instances), and they're both at 108% coverage. No errors so far. I had also run the Vista memory diagnostics tool earlier (not sure how accurate it was), a checkdisk (which had fixed a harddrive error, supid of me not to write it down, it seemed like a graphical issue actually, BITMAP something, I will see if there's a log somewhere). The memory turned out to be fine according to that, and is still showing to be okay with MemTest as well, I'll let it run another hour and then try to find the log for the checkdisk and run a defrag before going to bed.
It seems like, everytime I fix something and think it's done, it still does it. Then again, if it weren't for the shutdowns, I wouldn't have started maintaining the computer as well as I am now given I've fixed several issues so far.

Also, I checked the reliability and performance monitor in the Admin system tools and it actually shows a series of unexpected shut downs that started months before I installed the new hardware. They were very evenly distributed. The stability chart (starting from 6/9/2009) is pretty scary. It starts off great, but that's when I got my first BSOD.

There are several application failures up until 7/18/2009 which was followed by another disruptive shutdown on the 19th. More application failures (java, lxddcoms.exe, coh64.exe, somem games, vtmbrespatcher.exe) and then on 8/19 another disruptive shutdown. On the 29th the OS stopped working causing me a BSOD again. Same happened the next day. Same on the 6th, 7th, 14th... you get the picture. Then on the 19th of last month, I had my first Disruptive shutdown after the install. THen again two days later. Then again on the 26th... then thee days in a row on the 5th, 6th and 7th of this month.
I don't know if my system was just unstable all along or what. I understand errors pertaining to programs crashing but so many BSOD and OS failures are worrying me.
If this matters, sometimes I have to reboot my computer after turning it on because my ethernet adapter doesn't see the internet connection.

I'm looking at the Disk monitor and it is spiking on idle, like... a lot (if that means anything), also, the network shows an activity spike once in a blue moon, also, OMG I jsut had a memory spike way past the blue line up through the celing. Sigh, what does this mean?
Do you need any log information from anything? If so, I am not sure where it's all stored so I might need help with that.
Sigh...

 

Here you can see the errors, I'm moving them to a down loadable txt file since it's too huge.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mzkd0mb4mz5/event viewer.txt

 

Here's my checkdisk. Hopefully this doesn't fill the page up too much, but there are two other posts below that have more information on my system.

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
Date: 3/7/2010 11:30:43 PM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: MasterBlaster
Description:


Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is OS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
246144 file records processed.

1521 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

0 EA records processed.

92 reparse records processed.

321234 index entries processed.

0 unindexed files processed.

246144 security descriptors processed.

Cleaning up 2538 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2538 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2538 unused security descriptors.
37546 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35377240 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

609763327 KB total disk space.
264239368 KB in 194173 files.
107980 KB in 37547 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
372087 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
345043892 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
152440831 total allocation units on disk.
86260973 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
80 c1 03 00 33 89 03 00 33 3b 06 00 00 00 00 00 ....3...3;......
1c 0b 00 00 5c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....\...........
30 c7 21 77 00 00 00 00 50 23 18 ff 00 00 00 00 0.!w....P#......

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Wininit" Guid="{206f6dea-d3c5-4d10-bc72-989f03c8b84b}" EventSourceName="Wininit" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-03-08T07:30:43.000Z" />
<EventRecordID>27988</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>MasterBlaster</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is OS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
246144 file records processed.

1521 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

0 EA records processed.

92 reparse records processed.

321234 index entries processed.

0 unindexed files processed.

246144 security descriptors processed.

Cleaning up 2538 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2538 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2538 unused security descriptors.
37546 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35377240 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

609763327 KB total disk space.
264239368 KB in 194173 files.
107980 KB in 37547 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
372087 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
345043892 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
152440831 total allocation units on disk.
86260973 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
80 c1 03 00 33 89 03 00 33 3b 06 00 00 00 00 00 ....3...3;......
1c 0b 00 00 5c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....\...........
30 c7 21 77 00 00 00 00 50 23 18 ff 00 00 00 00 0.!w....P#......

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

Wow, thats a lot of text lol

Ok well I have to admit I'm seriously running out of ideas here.
Your event log is filled with all kinds of errors.
Mostly with failing to start aplications and Drivers (Ethernet driver being one of them, which would explain you having to reboot to get your internet working)

It seem to me that it's either hardware or some major operating system issues.

Since many applications are failing to load it's possible it's a HDD issue. Have you noticed any unusual noises from HDD's? Clunking or heavy grinding (they do grind a bit I know but I mean other than that?)

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_UBCD_d4981.html

This is a wonderful prog, it's pretty long winded in use and can be a bit scary to look at, but it has a HDD tester (brand specific) and several other diagnosis tests on it.
Not 100% sure what this version has since I have an older version.
You burn the .iso image to a cd and boot from the disc rather than your HDD.

Definitely worth a look through and see what you can come up with.
Run simple tests first since they take much less time. If they come back clean then you may run full tests. You can just run the full tests if you wish.

It might also be worth you running the MalWare cleaning tutorial in the MalWare section here.

Thats quite some work to go through but like I said, I'm kind of digging pretty deep.
If you have a spare empty HDD and a copy of Windows I would also suggest installing windows on that, (disconnecting your current HDD to avoid accidental loss of data), then if problem persists we would know it's not windows or your HDD and would be a hardware issue on the board.

 

Ok, I will try that. It's funny, it isn't happening really often, but I just wonder if it will eventually screw something up. Eh, at this point, as long as my new PSU and graphics card don't blow up, I will just deal with it. I haven't done any deep virus/trojan/malaware etc... scans, really. I had malaware attempt to install itself after I installed a free animation program (yeah, you get what you paid for) and Vista stopped it from installing and Symantec deleted it.
Well, I'll see what happens.

 

I just found out that the computer shuts down at cpu empt at 52 degrees. Hulu did it because it hogs 100% CPU and hits a threshhold. I'm buying a new cpu fan, but, I still will probably have to flash the BIOS (I DON'T WANT TO!!!) to allow options for changing the shutdown temperature to something more reasonable, which my current bios doesn't support.