PC keeps shutting off

kloud135

Honorable
Jun 26, 2013
8
0
10,510
This only started happening recently, and I haven't made any hardware changes in the last several months. I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice, as I have little idea as to what my problem is. When I'm playing a game (I've only noticed it with one game in particular, Rift, but then again this is the only graphically taxing game I've played recently), occasionally my screen will go black, all sounds will stop, and everything will be unresponsive as if the computer had just turned off even though the machine is still running. I can't do anything when it is in this state, including turn it off. The reset and power buttons do nothing (even when holding them down), and the only way to turn off the computer is to flip the switch on my power supply, which makes me cringe every time I have to.

As I said, I've only had this happen when playing Rift, but haven't tested any other games that would stress my PC. Sometimes I can play the entire day without any problems, and sometimes it happens the instant that I hit the character selection screen (and I had it happen twice within five minutes or so). It's never happened while in Windows.

Here's what I've tried/checked (not much as I'm not sure where to start):

  • ■ I updated my video card drivers to the most recent release. They were a few versions behind before the update, but the patch didn't seem to fix anything.
    ■ I've checked both the CPU and graphics card temperatures directly after the PC stops responding, and both seem far below any unsafe levels. I thought that overheating might be an issue seeing as we're in the middle of summer now, but after looking at the readings I see no reason to think that temperature is the problem.
My brother mentioned that it might be a failing power supply. I don't have another around the house that I can check with, but if anyone thinks that might be the issue, I can buy another.

PC specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor, 3.20 GHz
HIS AMD Radeon HD 6950 2Gb Video card
Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard
FPS Group Everest 800 Power Supply
OCZ Reaper HPC DDR3 4gb (2x2gb) memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA hard drive
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III SSD
Asus VE278Q 27" LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 2 ms (main display)
Hanns.G HZ251H 24.6" LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 2 ms (secondary display)


Thanks for reading. I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give.
 
Solution
Those temps are excellent. The reason there are so many different CPU temps is because there are core temps, CPU temp recorded under the heat spreader, TjMax temp, and socket temp. They all will vary. Best to go by the core temp.
Another option is to use AMD Overdrive and go by the Thermal Margin. http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4645-amd-overdrive.html
That will tell you how close you are to the point the CPU will begin to throttle down its freq to save itself. Usually, that is at or near the TjMax temp.

After re-reading your initial post, I have to say... it could be several things. I know that is no answer, but the symptoms could be from the game itself being buggy and freezing the system making it unresponsive... to a...

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
It could be the gfx card failing. Or getting too hot and shutting down. But before you replace the PSU, see if any of these solutions work.
1) update your virus pgm and run a full scan. Same with Malwarebytes for malware. https://www.malwarebytes.org/
2) run a memory test with Memtest. At least one full pass on each stick of RAM individually in the 1st slot recommended by the MB manual. http://www.memtest.org/
3) if your CPU is OC'd, set it back to stock speed

It does indeed sound like a filing PSU. FSP is a good name, and that unit is more than enough for the system, but any PSU can fail.
 

kloud135

Honorable
Jun 26, 2013
8
0
10,510


Thanks for your response clutchc. I finally got around to following your advice this week.
1) By "virun pgm", I can only guess you meant virus protection? I did a full scan with a fully updated AVG and also with MalwareBytes, and both picked up nothing.
2) Ran Memtest on each stick over the period of two nights. Both did ~8 passes with no errors.
3) I've never overclocked the processor (don't even know how to).

I looked into the heat issue a bit more. Under stress, my processor sits around 65-75C (these are Core Temp readings), and the GPU around ~60C (from Catalyst Control Center). I tried looking up "unsafe" temperatures for my processor, and found many different answers varying from staying below 60 to not going above 80. I'll note that I'm using the stock CPU fan/heatsink. Are these temperatures any reason to worry?

Other than that, I can't think of anything else that would be causing the problem.
 

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
Those temps are excellent. The reason there are so many different CPU temps is because there are core temps, CPU temp recorded under the heat spreader, TjMax temp, and socket temp. They all will vary. Best to go by the core temp.
Another option is to use AMD Overdrive and go by the Thermal Margin. http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4645-amd-overdrive.html
That will tell you how close you are to the point the CPU will begin to throttle down its freq to save itself. Usually, that is at or near the TjMax temp.

After re-reading your initial post, I have to say... it could be several things. I know that is no answer, but the symptoms could be from the game itself being buggy and freezing the system making it unresponsive... to a failing component on the MB, PSU, or gfx card. Your components are all top of the line, so it isn't cheap parts failing. Although even the best wear out eventually.

You've tested the system memory, so it should be safe to rule that out. But without actually swapping out components, it will be hard to narrow down. I might suggest stress testing the system with:
1) Another high end game
2) Intel Burn Test http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4965-intelburntest.html
3) An Overnight run of Prime95 http://www.mersenne.org/download/

If 2 and 3 don't cause the issue to repeat, I'd be inclined to suspect the game Rift.
 
Solution