Computer shuts down during gaming sessions - black screen, fan won't spin when turned back on

Xboxliver2012

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Oct 19, 2013
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Over the last few weeks, my computer has been turning off after about thirty minutes to one hour of gaming. The screen goes black and my headphones silent, then I hear a repeating noise through my headphones which stops after a few seconds. All fans keep spinning but the computer is unresponsive; for example, I can normally turn my keyboard's back light on and off with the scroll lock button, but after the screen turns black the back light is stuck either on or off. Pressing the off button once won't turn it off, I have to hold it down. Pressing reset does nothing.

My computer has three fans, all of which came with the case: Two 120mm fans, one at the front and one at the back, and one 140mm fan on the side. If I turn on my computer immidiately after it dies, the side fan won't spin even though its orange LED will light up. I have to wait at least a couple minutes for the fan to work again.

I recently downloaded SpeedFan 4.52, and according to it my GPU is too hot. I checked its graphs and my GPU's temperature went up to 76* C (at least, because that was the temperature I got when I turned the PC back on the last time it happened). When not gaming the temperature dropped to about 48* C.

I built my computer a year ago, and have recently cleaned it. My specs:

CPU: FX 6300 Black Edition
GPU: ASUS R9 290X
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ 970
SSD: ADATA Premier 480GB SATA III
RAM: 2 X 4 GB Ballistix Sports DDR3 1600
PSU: EVGA 650W GQ
Screen: 25 Inch 2560X1440 Acer G257HU
Case: DIYPC Zondda-O
Keyboard and Mouse are the Cooler Master Storm Devastator Combo

One option I considered was buying a 140mm fan to replace the one that came with the case, that is the one that won't spin if I turn the computer on right after it dies.

Thanks for your help.
 
Solution
Pretty safe, yes. I would grab MSI Afterburner or another GPU controller software of your choosing and set a custom fan curve on it and see if that will keep temps down. If they don't, I would then check if your fans are indeed spinning, and if they are not, you will need a new cooler. If they are, however, you'll want to try reseating the GPU cooler (assuming that if you set a new fan curve, the temps do not drop).

genthug

Honorable
Play a game that normally crashes it for ~10-15 minutes, and take the temp of the GPU(while you're still running the game). ~50C idle is very hot, and it's somewhat concerning that when you booted up your GPU was still 76C.
 

Xboxliver2012

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Oct 19, 2013
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I got a maximum of 92 degrees,the temperature was rising most of the time, and the idle temperature seems to be around 54. Is it safe to assume that my problem is the GPU overheating?
 

genthug

Honorable
Pretty safe, yes. I would grab MSI Afterburner or another GPU controller software of your choosing and set a custom fan curve on it and see if that will keep temps down. If they don't, I would then check if your fans are indeed spinning, and if they are not, you will need a new cooler. If they are, however, you'll want to try reseating the GPU cooler (assuming that if you set a new fan curve, the temps do not drop).
 
Solution

Xboxliver2012

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Oct 19, 2013
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10,510


Thanks for your quick response. Do you know if ASUS has a program like that, considering my GPU and Motherboard are ASUS?
 

Xboxliver2012

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Oct 19, 2013
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Ok thanks for everything. I'll try Crimson first, then Afterburner.
 

Manish Tewari

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Jul 10, 2014
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Any update on your problem, what did you try what worked and what did not - care to explain !
 

Xboxliver2012

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Oct 19, 2013
19
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10,510


Oh my God. It seems my GPU's fans were not spinning at all, because as soon as I used Afterburner my computer got much louder, but my GPU's temperature never rose above 60*C when gaming. Thanks so much for your solution!