Need CPU upgrade? And random crashes - help

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Bwickland

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Oct 24, 2016
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First time on here so apologize in advance if I use bad etiquette or am missing key information

I build a PC few yrs ago recently upgraded graphics card. But been having few issues. Mainly it seems to be running hot when playing games 70-75c playing total war. And in last 30-45 days I've had 6 crashes where it restarts no bsod the kernel-power error.


To my knowledge that can be a long list of things but was wanting to upgrade my CPU maybe anyways but had no idea where to start and wanted opinions.

Here my PC:

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W

PC Power & Cooling Fatal1ty Gaming Series 1000 Watt 80+ Gold Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance

ASUS P8Z77-V LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced - High Air Flow Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0

And just upgraded graphics to a
EVGA 1070

Was wondering if it could be my CPU causing shutdowns from being hot plus was thinking I need to upgrade that soon anyways.

Any opinions on if I should upgrade and maybe a recommended CPU to get as well as any trouble reshooting ideas for the kernel-power crashes outside replacing motherboard and CPU. Thanks

Oh also. After last crash (last night) when booting up I got a chkdsk error and it ran some diagnostic. Don't know if that's helpful or not.


Sorry for the edit I'm doing this on phone at work.
 
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A
I think it's the answer. Some are saying in under 2 years and you've been using yours for 4 years and have been using it quite intensively. But if you want to be thorough, you can borrow a PSU from a friend and use it while playing games for a while and see if the issue will happen again
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akimikage

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Aug 21, 2010
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First, you didn't say what's running hot. The CPU or the GPU? Do you have aftermarket cooler for your CPU or stock?
If it's the CPU, then have you cleaned your cooler and changed the thermal paste? If you have a stock cooler then that's pretty acceptable coz Sandy Bridge CPUs run hot at load. If it's your new GPU, then it could be defective. The crashes could be because of overheating

Second, that CPU is still powerful on stock or more if you OC it as I can see you have a motherboard and PSU that's capable of doing it
 
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Bwickland

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Oct 24, 2016
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1,510
Sorry I meant my CPU was running hot. I haven't checked new GPU. What's best way of doing that?

I have stock cooler for CPU.

And side note, you think upgrading CPU isn't big priority (pending everything running fine and it's not cause of crashing)
And running on the 8 g of ram still acceptable?
 
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akimikage

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If you have a stock cooler then that temp is pretty much on the mark. Sandy Bridge CPUs run hot during load and you're playing a CPU intensive game(Total War). If you think it's running hotter than before then you should clean your cooler and apply a new thermal paste. If you don't know how to, youtube it :)

i5 2500k is still a powerful CPU even for today's games at stock and even more if you OC it and 8GB of RAM is still good. As for the crashes, are you running windows 10? coz that OS is unstable as shi*. I tried it for almost a year and I've had more BSODs in that duration than when I was running windows 7 for years. Now, I'm back to windows 7 again :)
 
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Bwickland

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Oct 24, 2016
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I'm running windows 7.

Just nervous is all, im pretty new to this stuff.

I spose i will try and run some tests or figure out how to get some reads on my new GPU to make sure its not defective, ( only had the 1070 for about 3 weeks or so)

Not sure what other troubleshooting I should be doing.

Also the chkdsk thing, should I be concerned about that? I have no idea what that is or what happened and if thats related to the crash.

BTW thanks SOO much for these replies man, really helps a lot.
 
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akimikage

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Aug 21, 2010
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Yeah, no problem. About the chkdsk, that happens when your PC suddenly crashes or shutdown sometimes. There's no need to worry unless it happens frequently. As for testing your GPU, try running some benchmarking test and monitor it's temp and if it will crash or artifact
 
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Bwickland

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Oct 24, 2016
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1,510



So just to follow up,

I have ran some stress tests on both CPU and GPU nothing bad happened, temps stayed fine (75 was highest on cpu, 68 highest on GPU)

The ONLY time it would crash to reboot, was during playing games, I feel like that is revelant information. My only conclusion would be to check on PSU or maybe replace RAM - being that wouldnt mind getting new Ram anyways...idk. Just bugs me becuase I thought my PSU was a beast but maybe they only have a short shelf life, I do leave my PC running a lot.

Is there any worthwhile way to test my PSU without just swapping out for a different and seeing if that fixes?
My friend can bring his PSU over in a few days but was wondering if I could try anything until then.

And if there is anything else you recommend I troubleshoot and how.

Key Notes;

*Sudden restarts only during gaming. (Games played when restarts happened; twice on League of Legends, few times during Total War Warhammer, and several times playin Skyrim SE) All through Steam
*Each time it would happen temps for CPU and GPU seemed perfectly fine.
*No BSOD
*No other errors in event viewer only - Kernel Power 41.
*I do have psu pluggin into an old crappy surge protector. I just plugged directly into wall, will see if that does anything.
*Running Windows 7 Prof
*I checked MOBO bios it is OLD but dont know if its worth updating or if that could be causing it - Plus it kind of freaks me out the install process to update BIOS on my MOBO

Any input would be amazing, as currently I feel like the restarts are happening more and more often each week. Last night in Skyrim alone It restarted 4 times, and all of them were sudden, out of blue, no stuttering or anything, and with low Mem loads. I was monotiring Mem usage and it never went above 4.7G out of my 8G RAM. I really want to be able to play Skyrim etc.

Thanks in advance!!


 
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akimikage

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Aug 21, 2010
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I'm not an expert on PSUs but if you have a tool that measures the total output of your PSU's rail, you can use that. What tests exactly did you perform? I think it'll be beneficial to mention this, the only time I had this problem was when I still didn't know any better and bought a generic PSU and it didn't provide enough power and caused problems. Your PSU is really good but how many years have you been using it and how long do you run it continuously?
 
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Bwickland

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Oct 24, 2016
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Its the original PSU I bought when I built it. Which is 4 years old. And yea it runs a lot. I game a few hours a night. And last 2-3 years I haven't been shutting down at night so it would run around clock I would say 80% of the time.

As far of tests. I just ran evga's oc scanner. Which has like benchmark and stress tests and checks for artifacting and such.

I didn't actually run a stress test software for my CPU. I didn't know a good one but it's never gone above 75 even under heavy heavy loads.

So at this point I could use a recommendation to truly test CPU. And then any options to "test" PSU until I get my friends to swap out and check.
 
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Bwickland

Commendable
Oct 24, 2016
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1,510


Wow, yea some are same problem. I agree its high % chance, but i dont know if its 100% thats the issue. But I kinda figured I would need to buy a new one,

I guess do you recommend I just pony up and buy a new PSU and then see?

Would just hate to spend $120-150 and it still be something else.
(on other hand I suppose at some point even if its not PSU this PSU will need replacement tho...)
 
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akimikage

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Aug 21, 2010
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I think it's the answer. Some are saying in under 2 years and you've been using yours for 4 years and have been using it quite intensively. But if you want to be thorough, you can borrow a PSU from a friend and use it while playing games for a while and see if the issue will happen again
 
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