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need help troubleshooting a system that's started crashing

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  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 15, 2013 10:10:15 AM

Hey folks,

I've recently started having problems with high end games crashing on my system, and I could use some help troubleshooting. Programs are SWTOR, DCUO, Star Trek Online, Fallen Enchantress and Rift. I'm not having problems with Titanquest, Torchlight 2 and Civ 4. All of these programs, with the exception of Fallen Enchantress, have run great in the past. I'm not having any problems with normal usage; ie. surfing, MS Office, running maintenance apps, etc.

Now, the programs play for 10-20 minutes and then crash to a black screen, with the audio hanging. I have to do a hard reset on my system to reboot. I've tried rolling back my video drivers, I've ran windows 7's memory test and I've dusted the inside of my computer. I have not yet wiped my OS and set up a clean system. I set up HW Monitor and ran Furmark and my GPU's heat maxed out around 95-100c.

I'm not sure if my system is overheating (all of my hardware is the same as before when the programs worked) or if my PSU is dying. It doesn't feel like a driver/software issue, but I'm not positive. I'd appreciate some input.

I'm running Win 7 64-bit on a Intel Xeon X3460 2.8 GHz, 8.00 GB of DDR3 ram, EVGA P55SLI E657 mobo, Geforce GTX 295, on-board audio. I've 2 hard drives, an SSD drive for my OS and the big games, and an SATA hard drive for data and more casual games. My PSU is rated for 950w. This system was homebuilt almost 4 years ago.

Any suggestions?

More about : troubleshooting system started crashing

October 15, 2013 10:18:05 AM

95-100C temps? I think you're overheating with those temps. Try 80C-85C as threshold for overheating GPU.
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October 15, 2013 10:22:25 AM

I agree. I think the GPU is overheating as those temps are too high. Remove the card and gey canned air and blow out around the heat sink. There could be a lot of that in the finsd of the heat sink over the GPU. Be careful to keep the fan form spinning as you could burn out the bearings in that thing. You might also want to check to see if the fan is spinning on the card.
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