Unknown hardware crash.

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2 May 2012
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Hi Overclockers' community. I have been having some issues with my PC and I wondered if anyone had seen a similar set of circumstances before. I'm not very good with computers but I've had a go and still cannot find the root of my problem.

Basically my computer is running fine on the desktop, watching videos and surfing the internet. However whenever I start a game it will crash within 10 minutes (sometimes the instant it loads). The crash consists of my monitor prompting me with " Entering power saving mode". At this point my computer is unresponsive and the sound is hanging. The only thing I can do is hold the power button to get it to turn off.

I checked my Event Viewer (windows 7) and it listed a critical error when I crashed, "Kernal Power Failure No. 41". I read up on this error and it seems to be quite ambiguous with regards to the cause.

As a result I have stressed my hardware to try and find out which part is faulty ( after updating the drivers on my graphics card). I used GPUz to log the temperatures of my card before a crash and it was 65 degrees, using Furmark I stressed it to 90 degrees and it recorded no faults whatsoever. I used Linpack and OCCT to stress my CPU and it never went above 75 degrees (the cores, the CPU apparently never went beyond 65) and all my linpack results matched (I did the stock 20 cycles).

I don't really know where to go from here, so if any of you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.


P.S I bought my PC from overclockers and it came overclocked. I have been very happy with my consumer experience. I've had the PC 3 years and it has run flawlessly until my recent problems. I realise I will probably have to replace a piece of hardware which I am more than willing to do, if only I knew which part was broken.

Systems Specs

"Titan Falcon" Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz @ 3.40GHz Quad Core DDR3 System

Gainward GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Single PCB)

Dell UltraSharp U2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor

The Power Supply is Corsair 650 Watts

EX58-UD3R Gigabyte motherboard
 
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Hmmm I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a blue screen, one time it crashed I saw the BIOS screen for a fraction of a second but once the monitor turns off I can't get it to come back on.
 
"Kernal Power Failure No. 41". This might just indicate the fact you turned your pc off with the power button. Check events before this.
 
Service Control Manager Error 7026 is another one that seems to coincide with my crashes, any idea what it means?

I really appreciate the help and quick responses.
 
Try disabling speedstep and try to play a game, see what happens.

Service Control Manager Error 7026 this is normally associated with boot drivers.
 
Have you updated your drivers lately, as in the on board sound? graphics drivers?

Also how long has your windows operating system been running without a fresh install?

Is windows up to date and what version of windows are you using?

What game is causing the problem?

Hmmm I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a blue screen, one time it crashed I saw the BIOS screen for a fraction of a second but once the monitor turns off I can't get it to come back on.
If the back ground was blue and it was a quick flash that is most likely a ''blue screen crash'' (google that and it will show you what it is).
 
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Have you updated your drivers lately, as in the on board sound? graphics drivers?

Also how long has your windows operating system been running without a fresh install?

Is windows up to date and what version of windows are you using?

What game is causing the problem?


If the back ground was blue and it was a quick flash that is most likely a ''blue screen crash'' (google that and it will show you what it is).

Hi, I just looked it up no I don't believe I've ever seen a blue screen when it has crashed, I havent had a fresh windows install since I got my PC 3 years ago.

My Windows version is Windows 7 Home Premium Version 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)

Pretty much any game ( the ones I recall trying Heroes of Newerth, Fallen Earth, Kingdoms of Amalur. The only game that didn't crash, at least for the 25 minutes I played was Braid)
 
Hi, I disabled speedstep and I'm still crashing. I went on my BIOS screen to and it came up with a red box that said there had been a boot failure due to overclocking :S.
 
3 years without a fresh install is quite a while, it could be a cause of it.


Other option is to check how much vcore the cpu is getting which you can see in the BIOS somewhere, it could just need raising ever so slightly to get your stability back as I have seen a few people say they need to up the vcore on systems after a year or so running to remain the stability, it could also be PSU degrading.
 
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