Can't figure out why PC restarts when gaming?

Kaiju · 12 Jun 2007 at 23:52

Okay, today the computer restarted while gaming, well, I count it crashed and restarted 11 times today, all when playing 2142. I've reinstalled the game, i've resat my NB heatsink (it gets hot, so it's set accordingly) and i've defragged and checked drives for any problems. Also ran AV and spy progs. Nothing.

Now if a PC restarts when gaming, it's usually an overheating problem right. But given the temps below, it doesn't seem to be a temperature problem. Basically i'm stumped and can't figure out why the computer is restarting.

Any ideas would be great.

E4300 @ 3GHz - 52C max temp (Pi 24h stable, OCCT stable)
MSI 7600GT - 62C max temp (560, 700, stock)
OCZ 2GB - (memtest+ stable)
P5N-E Northbridge - (really hot, but have a spotfan blowing on stock heatsink)
3x HDD's (Raptor as OS/prog drive), 40C max temps on each

stickroad · 13 Jun 2007 at 00:04

Kaiju said:
Okay, today the computer restarted while gaming, well, I count it crashed and restarted 11 times today, all when playing 2142. I've reinstalled the game, i've resat my NB heatsink (it gets hot, so it's set accordingly) and i've defragged and checked drives for any problems. Also ran AV and spy progs. Nothing.

Now if a PC restarts when gaming, it's usually an overheating problem right. But given the temps below, it doesn't seem to be a temperature problem. Basically i'm stumped and can't figure out why the computer is restarting.

Any ideas would be great.

E4300 @ 3GHz - 52C max temp (Pi 24h stable, OCCT stable)
MSI 7600GT - 62C max temp (560, 700, stock)
OCZ 2GB - (memtest+ stable)
P5N-E Northbridge - (really hot, but have a spotfan blowing on stock heatsink)
3x HDD's (Raptor as OS/prog drive), 40C max temps on each

Revert back to your stock settings then see if it happens anymore.

Kaiju · 13 Jun 2007 at 00:08

stickroad said:
Revert back to your stock settings then see if it happens anymore.

Right-o mate, someone else just said the same thing. Perhaps my CPU's overclock has become unstable overtime.

I'll post back my findings with the CPU (and everything else that already isn't) at stock.

paradigm · 13 Jun 2007 at 06:59

What PSU do you have? Your symptoms were the start of my PSU failing.

Kaiju · 13 Jun 2007 at 07:02

paradigm said:
What PSU do you have? Your symptoms were the start of my PSU failing.

Seasonic 600W, so quite reliable.

My hard drive on occasion does seem to power down when loading up my desktop, where it would get to my desktop but no icons would load and then i'd hear the Raptor power down. I'd press restart and everything would load fine next time. Weird.

I'm now about to run 2142 now at stock.

paradigm · 13 Jun 2007 at 07:08

Kaiju said:
My hard drive on occasion does seem to power down when loading up my desktop, where it would get to my desktop but no icons would load and then i'd hear the Raptor power down. I'd press restart and everything would load fine next time. Weird.

I had similar, with my RAID array powering off randomly when accessing files, it eventually got worse and started giving me BSOD's. Eventually, the random power-offs started to happen when I'd have just finished loading windows, a few reboots and it would be fine, but now its dead.

Kaiju · 13 Jun 2007 at 09:17

paradigm said:
I had similar, with my RAID array powering off randomly when accessing files, it eventually got worse and started giving me BSOD's. Eventually, the random power-offs started to happen when I'd have just finished loading windows, a few reboots and it would be fine, but now its dead.

Hmm, I may want to look into RMA'ing my Raptor then. HDD Health shows the Raptor has some odd numbers.

Well, it seems my CPU overclock was the problem. Nearly three hours of solid 2142 and no issues to speak of. I did however lower my overclock rather than set stock from 3.0GHz to 2.8GHz. Suffice to say, I couldn't be bothered with testing from stock (lazy!), so if 2.8GHz gives me grief with the same volts as 3.0GHz, i'll just lower it again another 200MHz and keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks guys.

Amonlym · 13 Jun 2007 at 10:19

could be your ram giving up..

if i push mine to far pc often just re-boots rather than bsod...

if othos/prime arent hitting the dying adress in memory, it will never show up.
lowering fsb will reduce these errors tho.

so might be worth a memtest at 3000

Kaiju · 13 Jun 2007 at 11:38

Amonlym said:
could be your ram giving up..

if i push mine to far pc often just re-boots rather than bsod...

if othos/prime arent hitting the dying adress in memory, it will never show up.
lowering fsb will reduce these errors tho.

so might be worth a memtest at 3000

Memtest+ runs fine overnight.

Ugh, 2.8GHz just restarted while gaming. I guess i'm really going to have to run stock now.

E4300 stock.. hmm, if I remember rightly, that's <2.0GHz. Better find out.

Amonlym · 13 Jun 2007 at 12:05

hmmmm. sorry reread original post, you did mention is was memtest stable.

checked all power connectors are well seated?

back in the olden days with steaming hot AXIA's on KK266+R's and the like, this kind of thing used to happen and within a few weeks the atx connector became a melted mess...

could also be a fan-speed or voltage or temp limit set in bios thats just being triggered under gameing load (cpu+gpu). lots of +12v load dropping the rail volts just enough to pull a casefan below critical rpm, and mobo starts a shutdown

its not a bsod reset, and somehow auto re-boot o bsod has become ticked?
if its that, system log/bsod might give more info.

for now, make sure everythings well seated/plugged in.

Kaiju · 13 Jun 2007 at 13:08

Yeah, everything is plugged in fine, I double, triple checked after I resitted the NB heatsink. Thing is I never had this problem before the last few days. I bought the 7600GT second hand however so it could be on its last legs.

As for running at stock CPU/mem settings, its a no go with both at stock [AUTO] in the BIOS still restarting. I suspect it's the GPU now.

EDIT: Okay, i'm racking my brain as I know the PC restarts, but as i'm so used to it restarting, I think the last few times the PC has just gone black with a looping sound which would definitely indicate the GPU overheating @ 62C!

Anyway, i'll run 2142 one more time later on tonight and make sure it's either restarting or black screen O' death. I've been told the black screen is a typical nVidia problem they need to fix. Who knows.

Kaiju · 14 Jun 2007 at 01:36

Right, well it's definitely the black screen, it's not restarting. The sound didn't loop the last sound though, the sound was all there still, just black screening.

On doing some more research, it seems it's more likely it's a 2142 problem with X-Fi now.

There are two main modes in 2142, Titan and Conquest (+ NS assault lines) and apparently my X-Fi doesn't like Conquest much and the commander artillery strike as it creates static noises that i've found happening. This fits as i've played Titan the last few months and only recently moved over to Conquest. Gah!

This is a problem with the "game option" of the X-Fi, but if you use "entertainment mode," apparently it may work.

So I have to try:

a) X-Fi Entertainment Mode/Conquest - no crash, problem found, crashes, go to b)
b) X-Fi Game Mode/Titan - no crash, problem is Conquest, crashes, go to c)
c) X-Fi Entertainment Mode/Titan - no crash, problem Game Mode, crashes, clueless again

This guy has the same problem but his screen doesn't go black, as well as countless others.

http://www.totalbf2142.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21457&highlight=black+screen

This game is starting to get on my last nerve the more I read up on peoples problems.

Amonlym · 14 Jun 2007 at 09:19

i get punkbusted every time i restart the game... i pretymuch have to clean-install it every time i want to play.

its C+C Generals all over again xD

Kaiju · 14 Jun 2007 at 09:35

Amonlym said:
i get punkbusted every time i restart the game... i pretymuch have to clean-install it every time i want to play.

its C+C Generals all over again xD

Getting punkbusted is different though, i'm getting a black screen and looped sound foremost.

Try this: Punkbuster Fix Kit. Readme inside.

http://files.filefront.com/PB_Fix_Kitzip/;7693330;/fileinfo.html

Also, get rid of the cache in your 2142 folder. Basically delete the cache folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\xxx\My Documents\Battlefield 2142\mods\bf2142\cache

Matteysan · 14 Jun 2007 at 11:52

Have you tried removing the sound card & seeing if it crashes then?

I had a problem simliar to that but it was moons ago with my audigy 2 & Star Wars Galaxies, if i remember correctly i moved the card down a pci slot & the crashing was gone.

Don't know if that will fix your problem though.

Defcon5 · 14 Jun 2007 at 12:18

Kaiju said:
E4300 @ 3GHz - 52C max temp (Pi 24h stable, OCCT stable)

Super pi do you mean?

You need to test with Orthos, those progs only stress one core and not particularly well at that

Kaiju · 14 Jun 2007 at 12:35

Defcon5 said:
Super pi do you mean?

You need to test with Orthos, those progs only stress one core and not particularly well at that

Ahh, I meant Orthos, not Pi. Yeah, both cores were tested.

Mattey1 said:
Have you tried removing the sound card & seeing if it crashes then?

I had a problem simliar to that but it was moons ago with my audigy 2 & Star Wars Galaxies, if i remember correctly i moved the card down a pci slot & the crashing was gone.

Don't know if that will fix your problem though.

Hmmm, well I played 3 hours today after clearing the games cache. Maybe it was that simple. Will test it further when i'm not all gamed out.

It seems it is definitely software related now, but ya never know with these things until you've tested further. I'll try the game without soundcard next if it crashes again.