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- Joined
- 5 Jul 2011
- Posts
- 82
Hi everyone,
I built a new PC about 6 months ago and have been having problems with random rebooting whilst playing some 3D intensive games. I can play burnout paradise for hours with no issue but Bad Company 2, Batman, Crysis etc. all cause crashes. Now I know this is commonly diagnosed as a PSU problem but I'd appreciate if you'll let me give you a little background.
The reboots take the form of the screen going black (or occassionally vertical striped lines) for a few seconds with sound looping then the computer reboots and posts. On a couple of occassions I've had to power down the PSU at the back for 10 seconds to get the on button to work but usually the computer restarts itself.
The PSU (XFX 750W Black Edition) and GPU (XFX XXX HD4850) were both bought from a store which I now know sells end of line / refurbed XFX products so I know either of these could be dodgy. I have checked all connections a number of times, reinstalled drivers (and completely reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64) but still the problem persists.
I've monitored temperatures just prior to reboots and GPU is usually less than 70 degrees, CPU is sub 50 degrees.
I have discovered that I can greatly increase the amount of time before the system reboots by underclocking my card to 599MHZ core and 900MHZ memory. This is what makes me worry that it may be the graphics card at fault (possibly faulty VRAM...?).
However, when the computer is off but PSU is on I can hear a definite capacitor whine which I'm pretty sure is from the PSU itself.
My problem is that I can't really RMA both PSU and graphics card and I don't have another system to test either in. I've contacted the vendor and they are happy for me to post back the PSU to them for testing and replacement if found faulty but my worry is it might be the graphics card at fault (or frighteningly something else!).
Thanks very much if you're still with me and sorry for the long post (especially since it's my first one!). Any experience or advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.
Rob
I built a new PC about 6 months ago and have been having problems with random rebooting whilst playing some 3D intensive games. I can play burnout paradise for hours with no issue but Bad Company 2, Batman, Crysis etc. all cause crashes. Now I know this is commonly diagnosed as a PSU problem but I'd appreciate if you'll let me give you a little background.
The reboots take the form of the screen going black (or occassionally vertical striped lines) for a few seconds with sound looping then the computer reboots and posts. On a couple of occassions I've had to power down the PSU at the back for 10 seconds to get the on button to work but usually the computer restarts itself.
The PSU (XFX 750W Black Edition) and GPU (XFX XXX HD4850) were both bought from a store which I now know sells end of line / refurbed XFX products so I know either of these could be dodgy. I have checked all connections a number of times, reinstalled drivers (and completely reinstalled Windows 7 Pro 64) but still the problem persists.
I've monitored temperatures just prior to reboots and GPU is usually less than 70 degrees, CPU is sub 50 degrees.
I have discovered that I can greatly increase the amount of time before the system reboots by underclocking my card to 599MHZ core and 900MHZ memory. This is what makes me worry that it may be the graphics card at fault (possibly faulty VRAM...?).
However, when the computer is off but PSU is on I can hear a definite capacitor whine which I'm pretty sure is from the PSU itself.
My problem is that I can't really RMA both PSU and graphics card and I don't have another system to test either in. I've contacted the vendor and they are happy for me to post back the PSU to them for testing and replacement if found faulty but my worry is it might be the graphics card at fault (or frighteningly something else!).
Thanks very much if you're still with me and sorry for the long post (especially since it's my first one!). Any experience or advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.
Rob