I'm trying to resolve a hardware issue which is as follows. I've spent days trying to work it out without coming here with questions but I am at a complete loss as to how to solve it.
During gameplay (and only during gameplay) the computer shuts down after a short period. This period is anywhere between 1 minute and half an hour from the moment the game is started. The monitor goes into standby mode but the lights on the PC itself remain on and the fans keep spinning.
The specs are:
P4 "Prescott" 3.2GHz
2GB (2X1GB) Geil DDR400 Value Kit
XFX Geforce 7800GS (purchased as B-grade from OCUK)
Abit IS7-E2 motherboard
Zalman Flower 9700 cooler
Western Digital SATA 80GB
Seagate Barracuda IDE 120GB
2 Optical drives
A USB hub
A 12GB external HDD
USB mouse
and finally this is all powered using a generic 500W PSU.
Temps:
CPU temps are: 53-55 rising to 70 under load
GFX temps are: 50-53 rising to 70-75 under load
HDD temps are: 40 for both drives
Motherboard temps are: 35-40
I have looked on the side of the PSU and it's got 17A on the 12V rail...I've run SpeedFan on the PC and while doing other testing/checks I set up an alarm to beep when +3.3V drops below 3.3, +5V drops below 5 and +12V drops below 12. During about 20 minutes I got several periods of beeping for about 30 seconds at a time when the +12V dropped to 11.95 or so - this was not under any sort of strain. Currently the +3.3 is at 3.34, +5 is at 5.13, +12 is at 12.10, -12 is at -7.01, -5 is at -3.64. I will try monitoring fluctuations under load when I've finished writing this.
Attempted solutions:
1) I've tried unplugging all non-essentials and running it that way. Same result.
2) I've done a clean install of XP and initially it seemed OK but shut down again after about an hour just as I was about to pat myself on the back.
3) I've reseated the CPU, heatsink, reapplied AS, reseated the gfx card, cleaned the CPU fan and the card fan of dust. Temps went down a touch (to the ones stated above) but shutdowns still occured.
Complicating, confusing and thoroughly mind-boggling factor:
As stated above the 7800GS was purchased from B-Grade here at OCUK. After a few months I bought CoD2 and first started noticing the problem. I also noticed that something (probably the card) would make a screeching noise when I looked at particular textures in CoD2 and looking away stopped the screeching.
I reseated the card and the screeching stopped. Now the WEIRD thing is: I only noticed the problem when I turned my settings DOWN from playing it on DX7 with all the settings on extra, AA @ 4 and AF 1280X1024 to DX7, all settings on low, no AA/AF and 1024X768.
I have verified this and the shutdown problems do NOT occur when settings are increased but begin to occur rapidly when they are turned down.
These shutdowns do not happen on other games (BF2142, BF2, Call of Juarez) but did occur on STALKER very rarely and also occur on Civ4 so much so that I can't get through the tutorial.
My personal suspicions are with the PSU but unfortunately the only possible replacement is a 350W generic PSU which came with the case.
I will try to monitor the PSU voltages under load but I did notice that the shutdowns would occur when the temps on the card/CPU are below 70 which rules overheating out since these old chips do run very hot.
Does anyone have any other ideas for me short of splashing out 70 quid on a PSU to find out it wasn't causing the problem?
During gameplay (and only during gameplay) the computer shuts down after a short period. This period is anywhere between 1 minute and half an hour from the moment the game is started. The monitor goes into standby mode but the lights on the PC itself remain on and the fans keep spinning.
The specs are:
P4 "Prescott" 3.2GHz
2GB (2X1GB) Geil DDR400 Value Kit
XFX Geforce 7800GS (purchased as B-grade from OCUK)
Abit IS7-E2 motherboard
Zalman Flower 9700 cooler
Western Digital SATA 80GB
Seagate Barracuda IDE 120GB
2 Optical drives
A USB hub
A 12GB external HDD
USB mouse
and finally this is all powered using a generic 500W PSU.
Temps:
CPU temps are: 53-55 rising to 70 under load
GFX temps are: 50-53 rising to 70-75 under load
HDD temps are: 40 for both drives
Motherboard temps are: 35-40
I have looked on the side of the PSU and it's got 17A on the 12V rail...I've run SpeedFan on the PC and while doing other testing/checks I set up an alarm to beep when +3.3V drops below 3.3, +5V drops below 5 and +12V drops below 12. During about 20 minutes I got several periods of beeping for about 30 seconds at a time when the +12V dropped to 11.95 or so - this was not under any sort of strain. Currently the +3.3 is at 3.34, +5 is at 5.13, +12 is at 12.10, -12 is at -7.01, -5 is at -3.64. I will try monitoring fluctuations under load when I've finished writing this.
Attempted solutions:
1) I've tried unplugging all non-essentials and running it that way. Same result.
2) I've done a clean install of XP and initially it seemed OK but shut down again after about an hour just as I was about to pat myself on the back.
3) I've reseated the CPU, heatsink, reapplied AS, reseated the gfx card, cleaned the CPU fan and the card fan of dust. Temps went down a touch (to the ones stated above) but shutdowns still occured.
Complicating, confusing and thoroughly mind-boggling factor:
As stated above the 7800GS was purchased from B-Grade here at OCUK. After a few months I bought CoD2 and first started noticing the problem. I also noticed that something (probably the card) would make a screeching noise when I looked at particular textures in CoD2 and looking away stopped the screeching.
I reseated the card and the screeching stopped. Now the WEIRD thing is: I only noticed the problem when I turned my settings DOWN from playing it on DX7 with all the settings on extra, AA @ 4 and AF 1280X1024 to DX7, all settings on low, no AA/AF and 1024X768. I have verified this and the shutdown problems do NOT occur when settings are increased but begin to occur rapidly when they are turned down.
These shutdowns do not happen on other games (BF2142, BF2, Call of Juarez) but did occur on STALKER very rarely and also occur on Civ4 so much so that I can't get through the tutorial.
My personal suspicions are with the PSU but unfortunately the only possible replacement is a 350W generic PSU which came with the case.
I will try to monitor the PSU voltages under load but I did notice that the shutdowns would occur when the temps on the card/CPU are below 70 which rules overheating out since these old chips do run very hot.
Does anyone have any other ideas for me short of splashing out 70 quid on a PSU to find out it wasn't causing the problem?
Must be the card...