Hard Crash

Phage

Phage

Phage

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Kent
Hi All,

I've just upgraded the box to a SSD and CF the 5870. The spec is below. The new machine boots fine and happily will chunter away at Unigine and 3dMark Vantage. OC settings are unchanged, and I'm running the 10.10 WHQL drivers.

Soooo, last night it was time to test the new performance. Firing up BC2 was much faster. Playing, there were the usual network dropouts but nothing unusual However, after a little while I started to notice some tearing and then the game crashed to desktop. Real temp showed 56C on the CPU, but I didn't have GPUZ running.

Firing it up again, I left GPUZ running thinking the GPU temp was possbly a problem in CF. The next time it crashed GPUZ showed temp of 76C and CPU was unchanged at 56C. Third time lucky ?

This time it crashed hard. Locked up, all inputs were unresponsive, picture frozen, and I had to hit the reset to get it to stop. However, it didn't come back from the reset. No fans, no image, nada. Just the glow of the mainboard power switch and CMOS reset button.

I unplugged the power, cleared CMOS and tried again. Nothing.
After a few mins the LEDs stopped flashing and it booted (Yay). The machine went into startup repair, not something I'd seen before. The report produced showed no errors, just an unspecified config change. As this was a new install this seems unlikely. It was now quite late, and I left it as being able to boot at least albeit with no OC.

What do you think ?
Temps ? Seems unlikely...
10.10 is a bad driver ? Possibly.
PSU dying ? How can I tell ?

Thanks in advance.
 
Am i right in thinking that you have added another card and crossfired it ?
if that is the case this would be my first port of call, remove one card and see if it changes anything.
next try removing just the SSD.
also run memtest just to rule out the memory.
 
Yes - I think it's most likely GPU temps. Looking for another silent fan for the front of the case. Any recommendations ? Everyone's out of stock on the Noctua NFP-12 which I had been using
 
I'd say it might be lack of enough power, your PSU should be 850 if you do o/c. Power calc shows me 738W power draw, it might cause hangups. Try stronger PSU.
 
Personally I would test the graphics cards by themselves and see the results. If the problem persists then you know it could be something to do with them but its unlikely. If the problem goes away you know it was your xfire setup.

Power might be an issue, but unless you have a more powerful power supply to hand its going to be expensive to find out its not the problem. Have you tried going back to drivers that are known to be good, such as the 10.4a?
 
biuro74 said:
I'd say it might be lack of enough power, your PSU should be 850 if you do o/c. Power calc shows me 738W power draw, it might cause hangups. Try stronger PSU.
Click to expand...

I thought that initially, however he lists 2 PSU's in his sig, which lead me to believe he is running them both in his main rig. :)


If the OP could confirm which components are running off which PSU I am sure that would be a help as well
 
Errrrrm. There's only the 750w Truepower in the sig.
Power calc ? is that a website or a back of the fag packet by yourself ?

I'll try both the older drivers, and the old take the side off and point a desk fan at the innards to see if that helps.

The OC is now off, but I wouldn't have thought that it would have made much difference to total power drawn.

EDIT: I found a power calculator site that gives me a max draw of 591w
http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
Not likely the PSU unless it's dying.
 
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So PSU seems to be good, if you run games @ stock speeds and hangups occur. BTW I've read about this PSU and in fact it could have been signed as 900W, but due to <80% efficiency under overload it's "just" 750W ;-)

Have you tried to check chipset temps ?
 
biuro74 said:
So PSU seems to be good, if you run games @ stock speeds and hangups occur. BTW I've read about this PSU and in fact it could have been signed as 900W, but due to <80% efficiency under overload it's "just" 750W ;-)

Have you tried to check chipset temps ?
Click to expand...

Yes, per the OP I was running GPUZ and Real temp. Just after the crash CPU was at 56C and the GPU at 76C. However I suspect that this was either the lower card, or was cooling rapidly.
Is there anyway to log top and bottom card temps and tell which is heating up ?
 
Phage said:
Yes, per the OP I was running GPUZ and Real temp. Just after the crash CPU was at 56C and the GPU at 76C. However I suspect that this was either the lower card, or was cooling rapidly.
Is there anyway to log top and bottom card temps and tell which is heating up ?
Click to expand...

you could try evga precision it will allow you monitor the temps of each card seperatly although ive never run it with ATI based video cards.
 
Is your BC2 updated with the latest patch? Mate had the same thing and he updated and no more problems.
 
1Day said:
Is your BC2 updated with the latest patch? Mate had the same thing and he updated and no more problems.
Click to expand...

Interesting....I'll have a look tonight. But I think it is fully updated from the clean install.

Right. I think, this is going to require my L33t Blue Peter skillz to make up some ducting. Before I launch my re-discovery of cardboard, scissors and sticky-tape, does anyone know if there are indeed any commercial ducting products ?
 
Phage said:
Interesting....I'll have a look tonight. But I think it is fully updated from the clean install.

Right. I think, this is going to require my L33t Blue Peter skillz to make up some ducting. Before I launch my re-discovery of cardboard, scissors and sticky-tape, does anyone know if there are indeed any commercial ducting products ?
Click to expand...

Local hardware depot under plumbing/ air conditioning
 
Oh dear...
imag0087a.jpg
 
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