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Bizarre, seemingly inexplicable problem with computer restarting under load

Tags:
  • Crash
  • Computers
  • Graphics Cards
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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October 17, 2014 10:18:17 AM

Hello all.

I built my own computer some time ago, and for a period it worked well, but then began to crash and restart itself while under load. Not heavy load, mind you. Even decade old games like Half-Life 2 and Painkiller are enough to crash the system. I can boot up any game, and within 15-30 seconds the crash will happen. Internet browsing, video watching, and so on is no problem. What is strange, is the lengths I've taken to try to solve this problem.

- I bought a new graphics card and installed it. The problem persisted. I RMAed my new graphics card just to triple check, and the problem persisted with the third card. My current card is a GTX 650 TI Boost.
- I bought a new power supply, certain that it was the problem. But nothing changed. My new power supply is the XFX 550W.
- I reinstalled Windows on a new hard drive.
- I removed my processor, cleaned it, reapplied new thermal paste very carefully, then put it back in.
- I opened my computer case and pointed a box fan inside while testing it. Since my case is a little Antec P180 and I have five hard drives inside, I thought ambient air temperature could have something to do with it. Nope.
- I ran MSI Afterburner and cranked my fan speed to 100%. This also did not help.

At this point I'm convinced it has to be my motherboard somehow, but I was also convinced it was my power supply and video card. Before I pull the trigger on yet another new component I'd like to ask if there's something else I might be overlooking?

Here's my full build at the moment:
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 445
Mobo: ASUS M4A78LT-M LE
RAM: 4GB Kingston
Graphics: GTX 650 Ti Boost
PSU: XFX 550W
OS: Windows 7

When I reboot I get the "Windows recovered from an unexpected shutdown" dialog box. I'm not sure if the info they give there is useful at all, but I do have a minidump file and other numbers I don't know how to interpret or if they would even be useful.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

More about : bizarre seemingly inexplicable problem computer restarting load

October 17, 2014 10:27:52 AM

Update you graphics card driver.
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a b U Graphics card
October 17, 2014 10:32:41 AM

Run memtest86 on your RAM. If you are in 1T command mode, change to 2T.
Check the SMART report with CrystalDisk info to see if it has cautions.
You arent overclocking, or trying to unlock the 4th core are you?

Bad ram could cause a bad win install as well.

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October 17, 2014 1:32:59 PM

Thanks for the responses. I just ran memtest for a few hours and got no errors. I have uninstalled and reinstalled my graphics driver several times. I haven't overclocked or tried to unlock the 4th core. My BIOS doesn't appear to have an option to change command mode. I'm not sure what you mean by the last suggestion though. I'm not familiar with CrystalDisk or Smart reports?
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