Another cry for help - computer restarting during gaming

[Zvalan]

Good evening!

It's another one of those 'help meeeeeeeee!' threads and for that I would like to apologise! I'm having a rather vexing issue that I cannot seem to get to the bottom of. for the last month or so, my PC has been suffering from an annoying restarting problem during gaming. It does so without warning. No BSOD, just a sudden black screen, computer dies for 1-3 seconds and then reboots and asks whether I'd like run in safe mode. Problem happens far more often with Crysis 3, BF4 than CS:GO, Wargame Airland Battle or WoW. This does not happen when the PC is left on or i'm browsing the internet.

Please note, this PC was assembled for me by a friend. Although I can replace parts I'm far from technical.

What i've done so far:

• Stripped PC down, removed CPU cooler, clean existing thermal paste and re-apply new paste.
  
• cleaned all fans of dust.
  
• removed GPU and given the slots a jolly-good blow.
  
• removed RAM cards and blown in the RAM slots.
  
• Inspected for any blown or leaking capacitors...none found
  
• Run Furmark...GPU has reached maximum temperature of 79C. No restarts.
  
• Run windows memory test on boot up, no problems found.

I suspect it's PSU based but I'd welcome some extra opinions.

So my rig (Built xmas 2011)

CPU - Intel Core i7-950 @ 3.07GHz
CPU cooler - Cogage True spirit
Motherboard - Foxconn Flaming Blade GTI (What a name...) X58 chipset
RAM - DDR3 triple channel -total physical is 3GB
Video - AMD Radeon 6870 on stock clocks. Sub-vendor is Sapphire.
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
SSD - OCZ-VERTEX2 ATA Device (operating systems is on this)
HDD - SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device
PSU - BeQuiet...that's all I know. I can see any stickers on it, but on looking at the FAN underneath the PSU says BeQuiet across the fan/grilling.

I've checked Event Viewer and this is the error I get.

- System
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}
EventID 41
Version 2
Level 1
Task 63
Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2013-12-08T21:51:47.180008200Z

EventRecordID 430918

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer Dave-PC

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18

- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

So if anyone has any suggestions as to how to fix this, please help me! If you can recommend any hardware that you would recommend updating please also let me know. I've lost track on what's good and what's not so good these days!

 

[troops]

It does sound like the psu, ive had similar before with the psu overloading.
Maybe ask your friend for help does he have a psu you can borrow to try.

 

[wazza300]

How much vtt voltage? Might be called something else on that board but its for the integrated memory controller

 

[Zvalan]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the response. These are the voltages from Speccy on the MB.

CPU CORE 0.944 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.152 V
+3.3V 3.328 V
+5V 5.134 V
+12V 12.160 V
-12V (4.416) V
-5V (6.400) V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD 5.027 V
CMOS BATTERY 3.248 V

Maybe ask your friend for help does he have a psu you can borrow to try.

Already asked - doesn't have a spare one and his PC is on permanently for bitcoins :*(

 

[wazza300]

Memory controller voltage is low imo,I would try atleast 1.25v (may need more) then see if its any better

 

[EdgeDs]

Almost certain that is the psu not handling the stress under gaming

 

[DaleTheWhale]

What wattage is the PSU?
PSU might be fine, especially if running furmark and not crashing.

 

[Zvalan]

Memory controller voltage is low imo,I would try atleast 1.25v (may need more) then see if its any better

Hi Wazza - thanks for this. I've amended the settings and will test it out...when i get an opportunity to play over the weekend. Work means no gaming during the week

@ ThaReaperGuy - I inherited the PSU and Motherboard from aforementioned friend...both were about 9 months old when I bought them off him. unfortunately there's no stickers on the PSU that I can see, all I can tell you is it that's definitely a BeQuiet unit and the finish on it is a gunmetal metallic silver

I've text my mate to see whether he can remember what it is.

Any thoughts on my system and any areas where I should potentially invest (minus solving this annoying problem)?

 

[olivier renault]

Check voltages on memory, chipset, and CPU. These components can degrade a little over time. If all else fails, bump them up a notch, or reduce your overclock.

PSUs degrade too, but it's harder / impossible to be sure. At least you can run stress tests on memory, CPU, like memtest86+, OCCT prime95 / IntelBurnTest for CPU burn, checking for temps, errors and instability.

GPUs usually crap out in different ways. screen corruption, display driver crash, but you can run a long Unigine Heaven test, use MSI afterburner or other software to monitor GPU temps and, GPU usage and VRAM usage and voltages.

There is also the possibility of a random component gone bad, such as audio chipset, network adapter, drive failing, which start to behave badly under stress / temp. Harder to detect.

Also double check your connectors are firmly secure. a SATA connector that's a bit loose can that starts to vibrate under stress cause weird instabilities.

OS can do an shutdown / BSOD in case the voltages are too low, which is usually a good indication the PSU is on the way out. Look around for BSOD codes and what they are related to.

 

[wazza300]

is it still crashing with memory controller voltage at 1.25v?

I ran mine at 1.32v when I had my x58 board,

 

[Zvalan]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the help so far. Tried it tonight running higher voltages on the MCV. did crash during Crysis 3 but i didnt get much time to test it out for a long time to see whether the frequency of crashes remains the same.

Will let you know over the weekend.

 

[Rainagul]

Most of the guys above have suggested more or less what I was going to say. However, if you need a spare PSU to test to rule out if that's the cause or not then let me know, im one town over and have got a spare I can drop off

 

[wildman]

are you sure its not the AMD drivers crashing / casuing an issue. event ID 41 is the Kernel error if my memory serves me correctly and indicates that computer was shut down abnormally and isn't necessarilly the actual error, but is an event that is recorded after something else has gone for a burton.

I was getting a boat load of these a while ago and I caught it completely by chance as it happened while I was alt tabbing out of FM2011 and the ATI xyz driver has stopped responding message popped up and then my rig hardlocked. When I checked the event viewer it just showed a critical error with Event ID 41 and task 63 referencing kernel power the machine shut down abruptly.

Not sure how to resolve it though. I have OCed, underclocked, cranked voltage, lowered voltage on my 7950's and I still get this issue intermitently.

Definitely not the PSU as I only recently swapped over to a new TX850, have also tried the XFX 850 and XFX750 spares I ahve kicking around and the same thing happens. Likely that one of the 7950's is dying, but I am going to do an overhaul next year so I just live with it for now.

The only thing is its really random, Machine can go for days with no issues and then one morning I'll come down and its hardlocked. Rig stays on almost 24/7 folding and probably crashes once / twice a week.

Its also not temp related as my whole righ is under water and the 7950's / 2500K never break above 60 when I am gaming and folding and low 50's at night when its just folding

 

[olivier renault]

are you sure its not the AMD drivers crashing / casuing an issue. event ID 41 is the Kernel error if my memory serves me correctly and indicates that computer was shut down abnormally and isn't necessarilly the actual error, but is an event that is recorded after something else has gone for a burton.

I was getting a boat load of these a while ago and I caught it completely by chance as it happened while I was alt tabbing out of FM2011 and the ATI xyz driver has stopped responding message popped up and then my rig hardlocked. When I checked the event viewer it just showed a critical error with Event ID 41 and task 63 referencing kernel power the machine shut down abruptly.

Not sure how to resolve it though. I have OCed, underclocked, cranked voltage, lowered voltage on my 7950's and I still get this issue intermitently.

Definitely not the PSU as I only recently swapped over to a new TX850, have also tried the XFX 850 and XFX750 spares I ahve kicking around and the same thing happens. Likely that one of the 7950's is dying, but I am going to do an overhaul next year so I just live with it for now.

The only thing is its really random, Machine can go for days with no issues and then one morning I'll come down and its hardlocked. Rig stays on almost 24/7 folding and probably crashes once / twice a week.

Its also not temp related as my whole righ is under water and the 7950's / 2500K never break above 60 when I am gaming and folding and low 50's at night when its just folding

Sure you don't have a loose connection somewhere?

 

[wildman]

Sure you don't have a loose connection somewhere?

100%. Its the first thing I checked as I had a similar problem 2 years ago and it was due to the CPU 8pin being loose. This time I think it is actually one of the 7950's dying as the trigger appears to be the crashing of the ATI driver, then when Windows attempts to recover to prevent the need for a re-boot I get a hard lock.

 

[AtaRo]

Have you disabled auto restart so you can see any bsod or other errors it threw up.

 

[covenantuk]

Run MemTest - sounds like RAM failure or PSU.

 

[Krisali]

Almost certain that is the psu not handling the stress under gaming

+1

Sounds like the PSU is failing. I had the same issue a while back

 

[Zvalan]

Have you disabled auto restart so you can see any bsod or other errors it threw up.

Done that now - PC posts no BSOD, just black screen and a restart.

Something else I've noticed...can't buy MBs or my processor anymore! Is my system essentially defunct if I was to look at upgrading?

Guess I ought to find out what PSU I'd best be looking at buying!

 

[Zvalan]

Most of the guys above have suggested more or less what I was going to say. However, if you need a spare PSU to test to rule out if that's the cause or not then let me know, im one town over and have got a spare I can drop off

Thanks mate - I'll take you up on that offer. Despite the fact I have no idea whatsoever how to remove or plug a PSU in.