19 replies to this topic

[Boggart]

Okay so here's my situation: A while ago I bought a few games for my PC which I can't play because whenever I try to, my computer would shut itself off.

My first assumption is that it overheats due to improper fan...cooling. However my dad and I took it apart and cleaned it up and the fans are working fine. I think I have 3 or four of them.

The thing is, my computer never shuts off unless I play a handful of games, and only those games. I can play for about 15 minutes before the computer shuts itself off.

Any idea what the problem is? Do I need a new CPU? Is it a videocard problem (doubt that). Do I just need more/better fans? I'll try to add pertinent information when prompted since i literally don't know how much information I should leave... :3

Thanks,

Boggzorzggartaianbog.

[Donaldmax]

Really does sound like overheating. My fan broke a while ago and sometimes my computer would just shut off. I doubt it's the CPU or videocard. Check your computer settings and all active processes. You should really send it to the shop to get it fixed or if you have warranty, thats better.

Try this:
Restore it (factory reset or something)
Basically reset the computer. You lose all your info so back it up.
I reset my computer and the fan problem stopped for me and my computer didn't shut down.

[Boggart]

Well I've played games like WoW and Age of Conan (while a shitty game it requires a lot of power) so I'm guessing the fans are good. I really don't know why all of a sudden the fans would be inefficient to play games like Left 4 Dead 2 >_<

[Faintingcow]

Try doing a benchmark that stresses your computer, like IntelBurnTest, if this doesnt crash your computer after an hour or so, then its the game, if it crashes, its most likely overheating, you can monitor your temperatures with CORETEMP

Also, if that intelburntest doesnt crash your computer and your temps are good, you could try monitoring your video card temperatures, as if this overheats it will shut off your computer as well

[Boggart]

Faintingcow, on 03 July 2011 - 09:13 PM, said:

Try doing a benchmark that stresses your computer, like IntelBurnTest, if this doesnt crash your computer after an hour or so, then its the game, if it crashes, its most likely overheating, you can monitor your temperatures with CORETEMP

Also, if that intelburntest doesnt crash your computer and your temps are good, you could try monitoring your video card temperatures, as if this overheats it will shut off your computer as well

Okay, thanks so much! assuming that it is overheating, what should I do to rectify this? O.o Assuming all fans are working, should I get more fans? bigger? WHAT DO? D:

[Faintingcow]

Boggart, on 03 July 2011 - 09:16 PM, said:

Okay, thanks so much! assuming that it is overheating, what should I do to rectify this? O.o Assuming all fans are working, should I get more fans? bigger? WHAT DO? D:

Well, the thermal paste (theres a thin goo between your heatsink (big piece of metal) and the cpu) the thermal paste and get cracked or old, or your heatsink could be falling off just enough to not make good contact, if it doesnt make good contact, then there isnt good heat transfer, if it is overheating, you can PM me for more help.


You need to find the source of the problem before I can start offering you solutions to it.

Edited by Faintingcow, 03 July 2011 - 09:31 PM.

[Tetiel]

My Sony VAIO has the same issues. I can play WoW, but god forbid I play Starcraft 2 or else it rages at me. I've had a previous model and it did the same thing. The fans they put into laptops generally suck. It's problematic for me as this is the only computer I have to do my work stuff on and the fans have completely died. I've had to go out and buy a laptop cooling device for it. You can buy them at Futureshop or Best Buy. It's like a stand you but under it which has fans and allows proper air flow. It also has the ability for you to do intensive things on your laptop without burning your crotch if you actually use it... on your lap.

I have been using this for about 8 months now and it works awesome:
http://www.bestbuy.c...4e4c2c9cc84en02

[Faintingcow]

Tetiel, on 03 July 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

My Sony VAIO has the same issues. I can play WoW, but god forbid I play Starcraft 2 or else it rages at me. I've had a previous model and it did the same thing. The fans they put into laptops generally suck. It's problematic for me as this is the only computer I have to do my work stuff on and the fans have completely died. I've had to go out and buy a laptop cooling device for it. You can buy them at Futureshop or Best Buy. It's like a stand you but under it which has fans and allows proper air flow. It also has the ability for you to do intensive things on your laptop without burning your crotch if you actually use it... on your lap.

I have been using this for about 8 months now and it works awesome:
http://www.bestbuy.c...4e4c2c9cc84en02

I think he's using a desktop computer, as you cant really see 4 fans in your laptop...

[Tetiel]

Faintingcow, on 03 July 2011 - 10:37 PM, said:

I think he's using a desktop computer, as you cant really see 4 fans in your laptop...

No, you're completely right. I misread his first post /facepalm

That's what I get for attempting to read things at 2:30. Sorry about that Boggart v_v

[Boggart]

Faintingcow, on 03 July 2011 - 09:30 PM, said:

Well, the thermal paste (theres a thin goo between your heatsink (big piece of metal) and the cpu) the thermal paste and get cracked or old, or your heatsink could be falling off just enough to not make good contact, if it doesnt make good contact, then there isnt good heat transfer, if it is overheating, you can PM me for more help.


You need to find the source of the problem before I can start offering you solutions to it.

Alright I'll do these after I get home and I'll PM/post here. Thanks again!

Tetiel, on 03 July 2011 - 10:40 PM, said:

No, you're completely right. I misread his first post /facepalm

That's what I get for attempting to read things at 2:30. Sorry about that Boggart v_v

Haha it's not a problem xD At least I learned something. I appreciate the effort

[MetalVender]

You could try playing one of those games for a few minutes and then exit it and try to view your hardware temps using speccy from piriform.com

[Tsvete]

My casing was too small for my configuration and even with new cooling system the PC was shutting off. I bought server casing and now everything works fine. What's your configuration?

Btw I use Hardware Monitor to check the temp while I'm in game.

[necospes]

Check the temperature of your CPU with SpeedFan or something to see if it's the CPU that is overheating. Post your temperatures at idle and while running your games.

Did you take the heat sink off when you were cleaning the fans? Taking it off and not reapplying thermal paste is a bad idea.


You may need to take off your heat sink, re-apply thermal paste, and put it back on (I had to do this once when I noticed my CPU was running extremely hot at idle).
If that doesn't work, you're probably going to need to buy a new heat sink and fan.

Just checking, but are you sure your computer can handle these games? And you are not overclocking or anything?

[Faintingcow]

I like how people tell him to check his temperatures like I did, normally speedfan isn't accurate so I would use coretemp if you have an intel processor

Necospes, if his computer couldnt handle these games, then it would simply freeze or be really laggy, not restart or shut down his computer.

Edited by Faintingcow, 04 July 2011 - 10:57 AM.

[ToxicS]

If it turns out its your graphics card, I have a gtx 275 you can buy

[LemonSundae]

If you are using win7, there's an option that during an event of a system crash, the system shuts it self down or restart automatically. Turning this option off might help.

[ToxicS]

LemonSundae, on 08 July 2011 - 05:17 AM, said:

If you are using win7, there's an option that during an event of a system crash, the system shuts it self down or restart automatically. Turning this option off might help.

At that point, it will probably freeze anyway

[LemonSundae]

Toxic-Snipe, on 08 July 2011 - 05:19 AM, said:

At that point, it will probably freeze anyway

Hm true, but games like L4D2 are infamous for its bugs due to the short release time. So the game would probably freeze while windows should still be fine.

It could just be those specific games you play and not the hardware itself. Running multiple Super-Pi and putting all your core on 100% for a while. Then check your core temperatures, if your core temperatures are fine then move on to check your graphic.

Run 3DMark, with Gpu-Z to monitor graphic core temperature.

Remember to Isolate the problem, not speculate.

[Boggart]

Hmmm, sorry to bump this but I just have an update :3

Okay so I ran intel burnt test for about 1 minutes and my comptuer is doing this:

Spoiler

Bah: Core #0, 78C, Low: 49, High: 78. Load: 100%
Core #1: 77C, Low: 51, High: 78, Load 100%

I honestly have no idea how to interpret this. Should I try and stress it more?

Also, this might sound really stupid/noobish, but the computer is nowhere making the same sounds that it does when it's about to shut itself off. Is that some sort of indicator at all? xD

Edited by Boggart, 22 July 2011 - 09:22 AM.

[DoNotAnnoyMe]

Anniie, on 04 July 2011 - 03:36 AM, said:

My casing was too small for my configuration and even with new cooling system the PC was shutting off. I bought server casing and now everything works fine. What's your configuration?

Btw I use Hardware Monitor to check the temp while I'm in game.

that might be the cause in case your cpu heat sink and fan are actually applied and working properly.
it's not just the heat transport from the cpu itself to the surounding air that's important but also the heat transport within the case and between the case and the suroundings.
especially there may be the following problems:
1) the air flow through the case isn't strong enough or not present at all (in this case properly applied fan cases creating an air stream through the case may help)
2) the fan cases aren't applied properly (e.g. those at the top/front/back/whatever are all creating an air flow in the same direction (either into or out of the case) which prevents a proper stream from one side to another (e.g. in the case at the front and out at the back))
3) the sourounding of your case is simply too hot (I had that problem especially during the summer in my old appartment - when the room temperature is already at 30-35°C this can lead to serious issues if there aren't enough measurements taken)

necospes, on 04 July 2011 - 03:48 AM, said:

You may need to take off your heat sink, re-apply thermal paste, and put it back on (I had to do this once when I noticed my CPU was running extremely hot at idle).
If that doesn't work, you're probably going to need to buy a new heat sink and fan.

I wouldn't recommend someone not perfectly knowing what he's doing to remove the heatsink and trying to replace the thermal paste.
1) it's very easy to break the cpu completely by improperly removing the heatsink resulting in a cracked cpu
2) applying new thermal paste can be tricky as well because if you didn't apply it properly it'll result in an inhomogenous heat transfer which can heavily shorten the life time of the cpu as the cooling may not work properly
3) re-applying the heatsink itself can be tricky as well because if it's not applied properly it may not be giving good contact with the heatsink resulting in a similiar problem as 2) or even in no recognizable heat transfer at all

LemonSundae, on 08 July 2011 - 05:17 AM, said:

If you are using win7, there's an option that during an event of a system crash, the system shuts it self down or restart automatically. Turning this option off might help.

that's for BSODs (Blue Screen of Death) and disabling the automatic restart at those points is mostly for those who know how to interpret the error messages you see there (e.g. it helped me to figure out that my windows setup wasn't working due to a missing network driver which resulted in the root device not being mountable upon boot (iSCSI device)) so not really helpful in this case, even though it could help checking whether it's a panic poweroff by the bios due to heat thresholds being reached

finally as someone already stated: you may also want to check your bios configuration for the following things:
1) ensure that overclocking functionality is disabled if there are such options
2) ensure all fans are enabled and are in the proper modes (e,g, "performance" vs "silence" - as your system is overheating you want more performance instead of more silence)
3) ensure the temperature thresholds are configured properly (e.g. for some obstacle reason the threshold for a given temperature sensor over which a panic is issued may be configured too low for the hardware you have (consider the manual of your hardware components to find out which values are safe there))

finally you may also want to check that the temperature sensors are actually functioning properly. in some cases they may be defect and report wrong temperatures or if the contact is somewhat broken they may just go missing during operation which could as well result in a panic