Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

PC Completely Turning off - Run out of ideas...

Tags:
  • Computers
  • CPUs
  • Cooling
  • Motherboards
  • Graphics
  • SSD
Last response: in Motherboards
Share
July 18, 2014 2:33:10 PM

Hi Guys,

I've been in a real pickle with my computer for ages now, and i've gone round the shops trying to fix it. The issues began after installing an SSD and migrating windows onto it from a HDD. What began happening was my computer would completely turn off after about half an hours (quite consistently) worth of playing games (DotA 2 for example). I would have to wait a while and unplug the power etc before the computer would turn back on.

After updating the bios, and everything else i could find to update, I thought i had eventually found the issue by installing a decent fan onto my CPU, and that seemed to stop the issues for a while. The problems however have returned. I've monitored temps on both gpu and cpu and they both appear fine.

I've just tried a complete re-installation of windows after formatting the ssd.
The issue is completely the same - turns off after about half an hours worth of playing..

A few questions:

COULD my SSD be the root of my issues (pc turning off during playing games) despite everything running fine outside of playing games?

Or is there no way my SSD could be related to these issues?

I would VASTLY appreciate any help, as this has been a real pain over a long time now, and i've simply run out of ideas.

Thank you Very much for any help or suggestions at all!

Intel Core i3 540 @ 3.07GHz
4.00 GB (2x 2GB) Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24) - kingston hyper something or other
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-H55M-D2H (Socket 1156)
AMD Radeon HD 6850 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner)
488GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00M9A0 ATA Device (SATA)
125GB SanDisk SDSSDP128G SCSI Disk Device (SATA-SSD)t

Cheers,

Rich

More about : completely turning run ideas

Best solution

a c 198 à CPUs
a c 120 V Motherboard
July 18, 2014 2:42:21 PM

ok...

THIS is the type of problem you eliminate all suspects with. one at a time. your problem first of all, is VERY indicative of something overheating. Typically overheating is the only type of failure that will cause a system to black screen power off (like someone pulled the plug). IF your system is powering down like that then I am 95% certain it's a temp problem

The problem is, it could be a temp problem for a number of different parts of your computer.
1) ssd
2) hard drive
3) motherboard
4) cpu
5) psu

those would be the main suspects. I suspect motherboard, gpu or psu would be at or near the top of the list for several reasons. when you added the ssd you probably changed the airflow in the case. if you had a marginal part on the edge of overheating, this small change in airflow could have been the trigger.

Now, how do we troubleshoot for temps when nothing is reporting hot?

1) we treat all the temp monitoring readings are wrong~ trust nothing
2) pop the side of your case off, and stick a room fan in the openning. put it on full speed, just let her rip. boot your pc and see if you get this crash again. If it doesn't happen again we have 100% certain proof positive something is overheating.

~ now we just gotta figure out what.

let me know what you find. i'll give you some ideas if it turns out temps aren't the issue.
Share
July 18, 2014 2:49:31 PM

Fantastic response, thanks alot! I'm going to drive immediately now and pick up a room fan from my rents to test stage 1 out and i'll get back to you!

Cheers, ill be back as soon as i've given it some rigorous testing!
m
0
l
Related resources
July 18, 2014 4:27:00 PM

I've put a room fan blowing into the case, and it seems to be doing the job! almost an hour of playing now and no crashing!

How do you suggest i proceed now?

Cheers!
m
0
l
a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
July 18, 2014 4:37:44 PM

deleted wrong post.
m
0
l
a c 198 à CPUs
a c 120 V Motherboard
July 18, 2014 4:39:39 PM

ok. now we gotta figure out what's overheating. the easiest way since we know SOMETHING isn't reporting it's temps right (or at all) is to start touching things in the case.

Touch the ssd, it should be warm - not hot... touch the hard drive... touch the psu... touch the cpu heatsink, touch the motherboard on it's heatsinks/spreaders if it has them... touch the ram... touch the gpu...

if anything it "hot" to the touch we probably have the culperate. nothing should be "hot"

if you can't tell then we'll have to just play with airflow. i'd start by getting a couple cans of compressed air and cleaning out all fans and heatsinks on your case (when it's powered off of course). don't ignore the psu... they can get dusty too.

then i'd test the fans. flick them with your finger, see that the spin silently and easily... when they get to the end of the spin, watch to make sure they "jump" backwards a small quarter turn... if your fans don't do either they're dying. test all the fans. a dying fan on a cpu cooler or gpu will kill the part eventually if you don't catch it. do the same for the case fans... we need to make sure your case is getting propper airflow.

Next if everything checks out... i'd examine moving around your hard drive/ssd, cause they're clearly harming your airflow... i'd also look at getting another fan or two and rigging them up inside the case to facilitate airflow. I had to do that before when i had no AC for a summer here in phoenix. Hard to run a computer when the ambient air temps are 40C-45C without some insane airflow.
m
0
l
July 18, 2014 5:24:22 PM

What software would you use to monitor temps? Also, would it be able to log temps up until crashing for example?
I only monitored the gpu and cpu temps by eye on my other screen while i played, but obviously it would then randomly crash at some point, so i never got to see if the temps spiked or anything. Should i be monitoring temps of anything else?

Pretty obvious i guess, but i had a touch around after i had been playing with the room fan blowing in, and i couldn't really feel anything that was that warm let along hot. I'm just waiting for my pc to shutdown (zillion microsoft updates due to reformatting), then i'll have an air dust around. One thing i wondered was that i do have a soundcard in a pci card slot, that sits right next to my graphics card, and does sit quite close to the fan outlet of the graphics card. Though im sure i removed this before to see if it improved the airflow, but the issue still prevailed.
m
0
l
July 18, 2014 5:57:37 PM

In my own suspicions, id image it is the motherboard if anything. The gpu seemed fine on temps, and i now have a decent pretty new fan on my cpu which brought its temps down by about 20°. As far as i've read, SSDs cant really overheat, and my other HDD isn't really going under much stress. I cant be as certain about my psu, though from feeling around it, it seems ok - also it is pretty new. Lastly, all i can guess is that the ssd is pushing the motherboard over the edge somehow. I can't see any heat sinks/spreaders on my motherboard so i cant see how to check for temps on it. Could it be possible my motherboard is a bit old for an SSD? However this is all pretty much novice guesswork on my part!
m
0
l
July 18, 2014 6:47:02 PM

Took my GPU out and gave it a good air can blow out to get some dust off the heat sink.
Tried playing my game again, and after 10 mins or so of playing, my computer turned off.
I then went inside and felt around, and the heat sink on my gpu seemed particularly hot.
So its looking like its the gpu.. what can i do to get my gpu cooler?
m
0
l
a c 198 à CPUs
a c 120 V Motherboard
July 18, 2014 7:28:30 PM

well it's an old gpu...

since it's old you won't hurt anything to play around with it a bit. (no warranty to invalidate i mean)

take off the gpu heatsink, they do come off. clean off all the contact points on both the gpu and all the vrms or ram that the heatsink touches. use 90% rubbing alchohol and qtips to do this. apply some thermal paste to all of those parts (arctic silver 5 is pretty good) reattach the heatsink, and give it a whirl.

Understand that a gpu will likely be the hottest or 2nd hottest part in your system. so just because it's hot that doesn't mean it's the cause (though since it's the only thing that's hot i'd say it's a good place to start). i would also pay close attention to the fan. the fact that the room fan was enough to keep the gpu cool speaks poorly for the state of the gpu's own fan. you might want to look into adding a fan in your case to add some airflow over the gpu if the fan seems alright.
m
0
l
July 18, 2014 7:37:41 PM

Rightio, i'll do both of those suggestions and see how i get on.
Thanks again for the help, i really appreciate it!
I'll get back on here once i've tested the new changes.
Cheers!
m
0
l
a c 198 à CPUs
a c 120 V Motherboard
July 18, 2014 7:42:51 PM

no problem. if it seems like the fan is dying on the gpu heatsink there are 3rd party heatsinks you can buy that will fit that gpu. but at that point it might just be better to get a new gpu.
m
0
l
!