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[Advice Needed] GPU Problems.

Associate
Joined
3 Jan 2014
Posts
170
The Problem
This morning I turned on my computer as usual, went to open up some Arma played it for a while, all fine. I switch to Counter Strike: Global Offensive and must have been playing for 25-35 minutes when I had the "cancerous" sound to my ear, a loud, unknown noise, that noise of when your system crash's with the sound looping through your headset.

I quickly muted my headset to hear my GPU (Gainward GTX 780) pumping out air, the fan's seemed to be running max for 5-10 seconds until the system rebooted.

I left my system to cool down, in the process taking out each of the 3 tray fans giving them a good clean. I turn my computer back on and boot up LA Noire and I can played that quite content for a good 2-3 hours.

I boot up battlefield 4 and I get the same crash as above.

Programs recently installed?
I recently got a spanking new monitor, keyboard and headset, due to this I had to install some software so I could use the "G Keys" (macro's) on my keyboard, this software is "Corsair Gaming Software".

Thought's & Actions
I am pretty confident this is something to do with heat? However I was not certain so I decided to install "SmartFan" to monitor the temperatures. When playing it never goes above 55'c, it actually stays more around 45-50. As I am writing this it is idling at 36'c.

I am pretty certain it is to do with the graphics card because it literally turns the fans to full speed, I can clearly hear it for a good 10-15 seconds after the crash.

Not too long after it will reboot.

---

If you require any more information, please let me know/advise me on how I can get that information.
 
1: If your overclocking anything stop doing that & run at default speeds.

2: What PSU do you have ?
A weak PSU can cause symptoms like this.

3: Some games put more strain on your PC than others which is why you can run LA Noire its undemanding.
 
1: If your overclocking anything stop doing that & run at default speeds.

2: What PSU do you have ?
A weak PSU can cause symptoms like this.

3: Some games put more strain on your PC than others which is why you can run LA Noire its undemanding.

I am running at stock speeds, I am not too knowledgeable when it comes to hardware so I don't like messing with things like that.

I have just shredded my whole system, cleaned everything and rebuilt it, this time I actually took the time to manage all the cables, 6 hours later I am sat at my computer. I have been playing DayZ for around 20 minutes and it's reached a max temperature of 67'c.

No crash's, restarts or errors however my system has been idle for just under 24 hours. Ill continue to play as normal and post any problems. I seem to be idling at around 30-40'c which to me seem's perfectly normal, if it was a problem with the GPU (overheating) surely the idle temperature would be high also..

One thing I did do was swap around which PCI-E cable's I was using, as I have two set's from my PSU.

My whole system is as follows;

Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom GLH 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
Gigabyte Z87X-SLI Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply
Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive
TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD
Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case
Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler

I forgot to say but thank's, help is much appreciate from anybody, you guy's are such a big help when it comes to PC advice.
 
Just happened again, after 20-30 minutes on playing DayZ standalone, the same problem occurred, the temperature was at around 75'c.
 
wait did you locate the source of the noise ? or is the noise from the headset ?
does your pc crash or is it you who reboots it ?
i am a bit confused
use msi afterburner to monitor while gaming your gpu, and WHinfo for cpu.
you can also try to do a system restore to a time everything ran fine, incase there is a software pooping on the party
 
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wait did you locate the source of the noise ? or is the noise from the headset ?
does your pc crash or is it you who reboots it ?
i am a bit confused
use msi afterburner to monitor while gaming your gpu, and WHinfo for cpu.
you can also try to do a system restore to a time everything ran fine, incase there is a software pooping on the party

Good shout, I totally out-ruled a software problem. I am going to re-install windows and wipe everything, I am not in a mood to **** around diagnosing each piece of software.

Will post here when it's all done.

As regards to the sound, its the crashing sound. When your system crash's you get a nasty churning sound, not coming from the computer or components but the sound of (music, games etc) looping.
 
I didn't have a windows disc handy so I just did a simple restore and for some reason my temp while gaming has literally just hit 40'c maximum, no crazy rises or drops, I don't understand how software could cause that?..

Ill post if the crash's happen again.
 
System crash'ed again this time while playing DayZ, 100% sure it is the graphics card, it crash's, the graphics card pumps out air, let's itself cool down then automatically boot's up, all other temp's are fine it's just when a high demanding game opens, the temperature raises around 1'c a second until the system crash's at around 80...
 
ohh to me this sounds like thermal past issue, the fans are working apparently but cant cool fast enough the gpu that keeps rising up every sec untill it reaches temp limit then shuts down, although i thought gpu supposed to lower frequency not completly shutdown.
well this is my guess, maybe someone can confirm or have better theory.
the solution to this is simple by reapplying thermal past on the gpu like for cpu, but then you need to know if this cancels your warranty or not if you have one.
 
ohh to me this sounds like thermal past issue, the fans are working apparently but cant cool fast enough the gpu that keeps rising up every sec untill it reaches temp limit then shuts down, although i thought gpu supposed to lower frequency not completly shutdown.
well this is my guess, maybe someone can confirm or have better theory.
the solution to this is simple by reapplying thermal past on the gpu like for cpu, but then you need to know if this cancels your warranty or not if you have one.

Thanks for your response, I am not up for tampering at all with the GPU because if I **** up, I am out of pocket, it's still in warrant only 5 months old so..

I have been browsing the net/videos/music for the past 8 hours and it's fine. Minute I turn on the game it takes a ****, I have a feeling it's a fault with the GPU, basically an RMA job..

Use afterburner etc set your fans too 100% see what temps are like

The problem is mate, this should not be happening, so I am not really prepared to edit my settings for it to break in a month's time again. I think it's an RMA issue, but I am not the expert so i'll give that a go and post the results, worth a try I guess.
 
can you try the card in adifferenct pcie slot? i had a similar problem and turned out it was my mobos 1st pcie slot, ran fine in the second one!

I can do sir, infact I will do that now. I am trying to squeeze every troubleshooting method I can within the next 48 hours. I don't want to have it RMA'd to find out I have to pay money for it back, thanks very much for your advice.
 
can you try the card in adifferenct pcie slot? i had a similar problem and turned out it was my mobos 1st pcie slot, ran fine in the second one!

This didn't work mate, I had some changes though;

Idle/Light Browsing
Lowest: 30'c
Highest: 35'c
State: No Crash

Counter Strike: Global Offensive
Lowest: 30'c
Highest: 41'c
State: No Crash

DayZ Standalone
Lowest: 40'c
Highest: 75'c
State: Crash

Battlefield 4:
Lowest: 50'c
Highest: 80'c
State: Crash

I have swapped the card from one PCI slot to the other, swapped the PCI-E cables around. Done a system restore, tried adaptive V-Sync/V-Sync in-game, re-installed the drivers..

Something different happened when crashing, I would get a few weird jolts then white long oblong triangle glitches/error's on the screen, a second or two later I will get a black screen and hear the game in the background with its sound looping. Now I can only describe this as like putting a mobile phone in a blender.

I am pretty much certain it's going to need an RMA at this point...
 
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Rma your gpu if you aren't confident in cracking it open and repasting. Sounds like it is either that or your psu but you need to replace one or the other to find out. I'd also do a clean windows install. After the number of crashes you've had, your installation is likely corrupted.
 
Has the hallmarks of a duff PSU imo.

I guess ill flip a coin, PSU or GPU right?

Rma your gpu if you aren't confident in cracking it open and repasting. Sounds like it is either that or your psu but you need to replace one or the other to find out. I'd also do a clean windows install. After the number of crashes you've had, your installation is likely corrupted.

I have ordered Windows 8, when that get's here im going to toally wipe my system, it's about time anyway my SSD is pretty full.

What sways me towards the GPU is the fact that all the problems seem to be more GPU related, the reason I say this is because graphical glitches in-game and the fact the GPU pumps out air..

I am just going to be annoyed if I have to pay for the GPU back if it's tested not faulty, I am hoping it's the GPU as it's a simple fit, where as the PSU I have to literally dismantle my system :(

Thanks for all the help either way, will be sending off the GPU tomorrow, I have my RMA all sorted!
 
Have you got an old gpu that you could run with to isolate the problem? Doubt it's software, could be psu, more likely the gpu from what you're saying.
 
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