PC Shuts down while playing BF3 Beta looking for some advice pls

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Hi, I have made a few posts in the forum over the last week or so asking for advice on upgrading my pc to allow me to play modern games, in particular at the moment BF3. In at nutshell it appeared that I could stick with most of what i had but was worth looking into a new graphics card. With this in mind I replaced my aging 8800gt with this new 6950.

I managed to gain early access to the BETA for BF3 yesterday, which nicely coincided with my card turning up. I installed the card and installed the new drivers that have been made specially for BF3. Started the game up and it ran fine for a while (say 30 mins or so). Unfortunately my pc just turned itself off all of a sudden.I disconnected and tested each compnent for the basics, power etc and things seemed fine, built my system back up with the new card and managed to turn it on again with everything seemingly fine. Had another go at the game and after say an hour or so same thing happened and it shut down.

I was monitoring the heat on my new graphics card, thinking this may be an issue. I noted that while playing the game the GPU performance was at 99%, the GPU temp topped out about 69-71 degrees (normally about 40 degrees idle it seems)but the fan never went above 45-50%. I didn't think that these temps, although high, were anything out of the ordinary, but was suprised by the fan speed.

Basically I dont know what to do next. It has been suggested in here that my PSU may not be ideal and a friend has advised me that this is the most likely problem, but i wasnt sure. So I was hoping someone could maybe point me in the right direction of what to do, test, change etc pls. I would like to have a go at the game, and am not sure why i cant run it with my current spec...which is..(everything is running at stock and i actually turned down some graphics settings from the ones it auto detected)

OS Win 7
CPU AMD Phenom II x4 955
RAM 4GB GSKILL f3-12800CLT
HD only running 1 500 GB at the mo, usually two
GFX link
PSU FSP Blue Storm AX500-a (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/bluestorm_5.html is a link to a review which shows most of the details)

I know a little about pc's but nowhere near enough to determine my problem here or what to do so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you :)
 
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Hi thanks a lot to you both for getting back to me...and for getting thro the wall of text..i just wasnt sure what details you may need, so gave them all :confused:

Stupidly I didnt have monitoring set up on my cpu temps, I will set them up have a go and see what I get and post back.
 
Soldato
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Could be the PSU indeed.

try 3dmark 11, prime95. If both OK seperate, but not OK together (for 100% GPU and CPU), then your PSU would probably be the cause. May even run into trouble running 3dmark 11. If you gonna use furmark, dont overclock the card to minimise risks.
 
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Soldato
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when i first read your OP, i was sure it was the PSU, but after reading the review, im skeptical as to what it could be now

i'd definitely run a cpu monitoring program
 

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C64

Soldato
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How old is the psu though I don't rate fsp at all have 2 of them and they can barely output 200w now.
I'd suggest one of the corsairs or antec power supplies as a replacement
 
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Thanks a lot to all of you that are trying to help ;)

Ok just played the BF3 beta for just over an hour solid, set the fan speed to 75% before i started, and ran Core Temp. The game 'auto' detects my system with a selection of high and ultra settings. I had it on high before it went the last time (which has some settings down from what it autodetects) and set it to medium all round this time. After an hour playing.

CPU max temp was 62 degrees (using coretemp ver 1.0)
GPU max temp was 62 degrees as well (used gpu-z ver 0.5.5.)

and yes i did double check to make sure i wasnt taking one reading twice by mistake, which i first thought. :)

Now i turned up my gpu fan and set the graphics settings a little lowermperhaps changing 2 things at once wasn't wise for a comparison but I didnt want to chance frying anything. The PC also did NOT shutdown this time. tbh i have no idea what I can gather from this? :/

oh and my pc components, new graphics card aside are all a couple of years old at least, some possibly older.
 
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Go into the Control Panel and look for Event Viewer, choose the System option. Trawl through the messages - if it's a power issue you'll have something along the lines of power lost unexpectedly.

You can also right click on my computer in explorer choose advanced settings and tell it not to reboot on failure - if it's not a power issue you'll get a bluescreen with a bunch of text. Tell us what that says.
 
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Go into the Control Panel and look for Event Viewer, choose the System option. Trawl through the messages - if it's a power issue you'll have something along the lines of power lost unexpectedly.

You can also right click on my computer in explorer choose advanced settings and tell it not to reboot on failure - if it's not a power issue you'll get a bluescreen with a bunch of text. Tell us what that says.

Hi, thanks for your help.

I looked through the event logs around the time of the crashes, I had taken a rough note of the times, and there was the critical error...''The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.'' present around the time that I got the pc up and running again after both the shutdown.

I have changed the setting to no longer reboot on failure, if it happens again I will note the BSOD message if i get to see one, tho in both cases that it crashed before there was no restart and the pc just died, as if there had been a power cut. Also the 'on/power' button on my pc didnt work for a period of time. ( I gave it 15mins or so to cool down but still nothing, it worked again after about 30 mins or so). Not sure if its a timed response, or set to a specific temp...or something completely different.

PS Ran 3D Mark 11, got a score of about 4797 (which was comparable with similar set ups) and seemed to have no obvious problems running it.
 
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Soldato
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Hi, thanks for your help.

I looked through the event logs around the time of the crashes, I had taken a rough note of the times, and there was the critical error...''The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.'' present around the time that I got the pc up and running again after both the shutdown.

iirc that's a standard response from windows at startup, when it detects you didn't shut down windows properly last time (like switch off directly with power or reset button, blue screen, ect... It's more of a consequence than the cause.

I have changed the setting to no longer reboot on failure, if it happens again I will note the BSOD message if i get to see one, tho in both cases that it crashed before there was no restart and the pc just died, as if there had been a power cut. Also the 'on/power' button on my pc didnt work for a period of time. ( I gave it 15mins or so to cool down but still nothing, it worked again after about 30 mins or so). Not sure if its a timed response, or set to a specific temp...or something completely different.

That does sound like a PSU problem to me :) IDK really, these problems are always hard to track without having to swap components one by one. Since it's stable now, then I suppose it doesn't matter.
 
Soldato
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Now i turned up my gpu fan and set the graphics settings a little lowermperhaps changing 2 things at once wasn't wise for a comparison but I didnt want to chance frying anything. The PC also did NOT shutdown this time. tbh i have no idea what I can gather from this? :/

something overheating on the graphics card? VRM / memory? Could be a marginal thing.
 
Soldato
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200W+ graphics card causes 285W@12v PSU to collapse shocker. :/

Code:
........................+3.3V  +5V  +12V1  +12V2  -12V  +5VSB

Maximum Output Current  30A  28A  15A  15A  0.5A  2.0A

Maximum Combined  .....160W  285W  6W  10W  
                    ....... 445W	16W

Time for a new PSU as this one isn't designed to run modern high power systems.

Linky
 
Soldato
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200W+ graphics card causes 285W@12v PSU to collapse shocker. :/

Code:
........................+3.3V  +5V  +12V1  +12V2  -12V  +5VSB

Maximum Output Current  30A  28A  15A  15A  0.5A  2.0A

Maximum Combined  .....160W  285W  6W  10W  
                    ....... 445W	16W

Time for a new PSU as this one isn't designed to run modern high power systems.

Linky

I seen this (18A 18A 80 plus) and thought it was a rebrand of a OCZ StealthXStream II 500W with an extra PCIE connector thrown in.

But it looks more and more like an ancient design more in line with the other review. Says here

the maximum allowable currents on +5V, +3.3V and +12V rails are 28, 30 and 15+16 amperes, respectively (like in other ATX12V 2.0 units, the +12V rail is split in two outputs here).

So yeah, it's inadequately powering your system, and a risk as well.
 
Soldato
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You need to get a better PSU.

It's a shame that you didn't visit you other thread again, cause it was updated with info that your PSU is not up to the job, as it only deliver 285W at the 12v rail, not the 372W suggested by one of the member.
 
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Sorry been ill today , so not been on before now. Wow! not sure what to say , but THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all of you who have taken the time to add in some info or advice.

It is very helpful to now know what my basic problem is, as Marine-RX179 (Thanks for your continued help and support mate, appreciate it) said, it was a bad oversight on my part not to notice there had been more info added to a previous post i had made, in my defense last I looked it had slipped down a few pages and I assumed was a dead topic. Not very clever on my part, sorry. My forum skills are a little rusty.

I would imagine that my next question will be an abvious one:rolleyes:, but what PSU would you suggest would be a good purchase?

Obviously it has to power my existing system, but I may at somepoint upgrade and may well when prices drop add a second GFX(if i get a different mobo etc). These are all just ideas at the moment but i would like to try and buy a PSU that would be a little 'future proof' but without going ridiculous as i stretched the boat out to get this GFX and will have to beg, borrow and steal to get a PSU.

Thanks again all of you for your time and help:D
 
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