Computer restarts when using video-related...

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Hi all, I need some help!

For the last 8 years I've been running:
Windows XP
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.83ghz
EVGA Nvidia GTX 280
4gb ram
Asus P5K Premium motherboard

I built this computer ages ago for gaming and for the first 3-4 years it worked flawlessly. However it then started to have BSOD and restart whenever I did any gaming and sometimes during video playback on certain things, like certain online streaming (and SOMETIMES when I played .mkv video files but this was rare for it to crash when watching films etc). I figured the GPU was acting up but I never bothered to try and fix it cause it never crashed if I did other stuff - the strange thing is I even used it for video editing and encoding and it was fine (using Avid Media Composer, heavy video transcoding etc was fine, never ever crashed) but it would crash if I tried gaming so I just gave up on gaming for the last few years. I got it to the point where it might crash like once a year or something.

Earlier this week I decided to finally update my OS (I'm slow I know) - so I bought some new harddrives and extra ram. Now I'm running:
Windows 7 64bit
8gb ram

I did a clean install on the new SSD drive of Windows 7 64bit. Everything seems fine except now, the computer is restarting on it's own again and I barely push the GPU or other stuff. There's no BSOD - it just restarts automatically. It happens sometimes when I'm on youtube and I can trigger it by just opening a .mov quicktime file. I also tried playing games again - I installed Steam and tried playing left 4 dead 2 and it just restarts the computer. The strange thing about the video playback though is that it doesn't always restart straightaway when opening a video, I can't explain it but it's not like a 100% guarantee to restart if I open a .mov quicktime but it's likely it will (that's the case so far). I've used Avid Media Composer to edit and transcode/encode videos and it never crashes when I do this, nor does it crash when I use photoshop. This is strange to me cause these things involve the GPU and it's fine, but the computer DEFINITELY restarts when I try to play a game.

I don't think it's overheating, the temperatures have always been fine, CPU cores are running at 36-40c, GPU at 40-45c, harddrives are at 20-25c. I have been using temperature monitor software to see at what temperature the GPU is at when it restarts and it's just in the mid-40s. It doesn't even get a chance to get under load before the computer restarts.

I've tried the following:

-installed latest drivers from Nvidia - it still restarted since I've done this
-ran FurMark to stress test the GPU - it DID NOT restart when doing the test, I let it run for 5-10 minutes, the temperature went up to over 100c whilst doing the stress test, fully under load and it stayed operating, the computer DID NOT restart
-I checked the voltage in the BIOS - all looks okay. The +12v was reading just above 12v (when I use HWMonitor, it says my +12v is running at 8.866v - I don't think this is reliable though and that's why I checked my BIOS)
-I ran Memtest - I let memtest run through 1 pass, took 45 minutes and results were good, no errors
-tried to use MSI Afterburner to increase/decrease voltage of GPU to see if that works, no matter what I do it still restarts

I'm trying to narrow it down to see what it could be. I thought maybe if it's not the GPU, then the PSU? Is there a possibility that the GPU is not getting enough power from the PSU? or too much power? The fact that this used to happen in my old OS (winXP) means that it's a hardware problem, right? I don't know what else I could do to figure out the problem. Any help would be appreciated!

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

I also ran stress test with Prime95 on CPU and FurMark on GPU both at the same time, the computer did not restart and it held the tests fine. However, I just tried to start up a game on Steam again and literally 2 seconds into the game's logo intro, the computer restarted.

I don't think it's software related as this used to happen on the computer before I even switched to windows 7 earlier this week.

Could it be PSU?

Anyone?

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

Check in Event Viewer...

Win+R
type "eventvwr" >enter
on left pane - Select Windows logs>system
on right pane - Select Filter current log...
Check the boxes for Critical, Warning, & Error > OK
Look for the last Critical warning, and check the other events before it......There may be an indicator as to what is causing the BSODs.

Let me know what you find.

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

All the critical reports are the same - Kernel Power - event ID 41 (task category 63). I think these are all from when the computer has been restarting by itself since this new install. What does this mean?

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

All the critical reports are the same - Kernel Power - event ID 41 (task category 63). I think these are all from when the computer has been restarting by itself since this new install. What does this mean?

What are the events before the Kernal Power ones? There may be an indicator in there. something is causing the PC to reboot....could be your PSU....could be a device. Could be RAM. What else do you see before the power message?

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

There's nothing else in the Critical section of event viewer - they are ALL Kernel-Power / event ID 41. That's all there is (unless you're asking me to look somewhere else and I'm confused?). It just looks like it's logging all the restarts.

How reliable are the stress tests? I ran CPU/GPU stress tests and it didn't restart. I also ran memtest to test the ram and it ran through one pass (45 minutes) and no errors were found. I find it strange that these are fine but as soon as I try to open a game on steam, literally 2 seconds into the game's intro animation it restarts. I haven't even started playing it yet, just the intro animation!

I read somewhere that when starting a game, the computer will try and start drawing more power for the GPU and CPU and that could cause the computer to restart, IF it's the PSU...

Apart from the games, everything else seems to run fine...

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Okay spoke too soon, this computer just restarted again after I posted the previous reply and all I was doing was watching youtube...

It wasn't doing this back when I was running XP. So annoying.

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

Pailong1 :

Well if there are no other apparent factors causing the power failure, then you have to surmise that it is down to the PSU.

You could try disconnecting any unrequired peripherals...i.e. Optical drives, additional storage drives etc. and run the system to see if it still crashes. If so.... then the next biggest power draw would be the GPU...so pull it out and (if possible) run on your integrated graphics and test it again.

At this stage it sounds like it might be your PSU dying, or else the GPU is disagreeing with it.

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

Good idea. I already disconnected my firewire 800 PCI card and my extra PCI sound card, so that's two cards out of the computer but it's still restarting. I took out my GPU and cleaned it and cleaned the PSU too but problem still persists.

I guess the main difference between my old winXP setup and this new win7 one is that I put in an extra sata harddrive when I decided to upgrade to win7 - maybe you're right, the extra drive might be pulling more power from a dying PSU. I'll try disconnecting all the extra harddrives and running it just with C drive.

The only thing I can't do is pull my GPU as my motherboard has no onboard graphics. I've had this computer for 9 years now, the really annoying thing is that for the first 3-4 years, I could play games with no problems and this never used to happen. Years 5-9 it happened, and if the PSU was dying, wouldn't it be dead by now? Is it possible that it is slightly broken but still is capable of running the computer just without gaming? As I mentioned before, I even used this computer to do heavy video encoding/editing in the last 2 years and it was fine. I'm now hoping that the extra harddrive is drawing too much power from the slightly worn out PSU...

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

The only thing I can't do is pull my GPU as my motherboard has no onboard graphics. I've had this computer for 9 years now, the really annoying thing is that for the first 3-4 years, I could play games with no problems and this never used to happen. Years 5-9 it happened, and if the PSU was dying, wouldn't it be dead by now? Is it possible that it is slightly broken but still is capable of running the computer just without gaming? As I mentioned before, I even used this computer to do heavy video encoding/editing in the last 2 years and it was fine. I'm now hoping that the extra harddrive is drawing too much power from the slightly worn out PSU...

Well don't be disheartened just yet.....The PSU could still be fine. Coincidentally I was having sudden shutdowns just like you only last week. So I rebuilt my system from the motherboard up, and re-pasted the CPU/heatsink, removed all of the dust and cleaned all the fans etc.

I believe the root cause for me were two really old failing SATA hard drives both 10+ years old! I removed them and made sure that I used decent SATA cables to reconnect my remaining hard drives. (remember to reconnect the same drives into the same sata ports, or you'll lose your drive letter mapping and possibly require an OS reinstall if it loses the MBR)

There is a chance that the extra HD is just straining a 12v connector too much. So also connect the power cables up logically. Hard drives all in series on one 3-way 12v cable etc.

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

Okay, just disconnected all extra harddrives, leaving just the main C drive and also disconnected my Blu-ray optical drive. Literally was only running C drive, GPU. Booted the computer, started steam and double clicked on a game, it didn't even load up properly, just the small dialog box loading the game and it was about to go into the game and BAM! The computer restarted. I guess it's not the extra harddrives.

Could it be my GPU and DirectX not running well together? I'm just shooting in the dark now...

What is it about running a game that makes my computer restart immediately? And now, it SOMETIMES will restart with youtube, not all the time though.

I don't know what else to do to narrow down the problem. I could buy a second hand GPU and try that, since the models that I would want for my computer are all old now so it would involve going on ebay and finding a cheap second hand GTX 280 or similar (maybe 295).

If it is the PSU then I would go ahead and buy a new powerful PSU but before doing that I just want to narrow it down even mroe.

Any more suggestions?

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

Any more suggestions?

OK so its definitely narrowed down to PSU or GPU now. It appears that when the GPU attempts to draw more power i.e. when opening a game or using Youtube it will crash. Right?

Do you have a secondary PCI 6 pin connector on the PSU that you can test on the card?

It may be best to try and borrow or buy a cheap little VGA card....it doesn't have to be a powerhouse, just something to test in the system to see if it is stable without the 280X.

I had a 280X and it died. I Think the VRMs burnt out. Those cards run hot & power hungry. Mix that with an aging PSU and there could be a slow decline in the required power output on the PCI-E connection.

So test with a cheap VGA card.....if stable.....then consider getting a new decent PSU.

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

Thanks for the ideas. Correct it restarts/crashes when I try to open a game. With regards to YouTube, it doesn't always crash but randomly will, can't replicate the YouTube crashing with control but with games, it's guaranteed.

I'll try buying a cheap GPU from ebay and testing it out. You also had a GTX280 die? I read around and apparently, a couple of people mentioned that the GTX280 was badly made and died out alot. Unfortunately I don't have any spare PCI 6 pin connectors around to test the cabling.

If I test with a secondary GPU and it still crashes, then I guess it's likely to be the PSU, right? I hope it's not something like the motherboard or CPU, which I doubt it is.

It's a curious thing though, cause the GPU stress test using FurMark doesn't crash the computer. Doing both CPU and GPU stress test doesn't crash it either - wouldn't these stress tests cause the GPU to draw more power?

Using editing software like Avid or Adobe Premier doesn't cause crashing either and those are heavy on the graphics card but I guess gaming is heavier. It's quite strange to me.

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

It's a curious thing though, cause the GPU stress test using FurMark doesn't crash the computer. Doing both CPU and GPU stress test doesn't crash it either - wouldn't these stress tests cause the GPU to draw more power?

Using editing software like Avid or Adobe Premier doesn't cause crashing either and those are heavy on the graphics card but I guess gaming is heavier. It's quite strange to me.

Well if you consider that the stress tests would mostly be push the GPU, whereas any games will also be utilising the VRAM a lot more, so it could be that when the VRAM is being used, the power draw increases more than it would just for GPU use alone.

As I was saying, I think my VRMs fried on the 280X....probably because the power draw through them was heating up too much. I'm going to oven bake it soon to see if I can get it back to life.

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

Hmm I see.

Just wondering, would a new GPU work on my old motherboard? Like if I buy something cheap like the Nvidia GT 710 or even something like a GTX 970? I know the speeds would bottleneck in my system, since mine is PCIE 1.0 I think, and newer cards would be PCIE 2.0 or 3.0 with DDR4/5 ram but would it still be compatible (backwards compatible I guess?) and just run in my system at the slower speeds?

Neur0nauT · Feb 17, 2017

You can check to see if a certain card will bottleneck with this handy tool: Bottleneck Calculator

Just fill in your specs, and the card you are thinking of adding to check. Then you will just have to search and see if it will be compatible with your older mobo.

Pailong1 · Feb 17, 2017

Neur0nauT :

Damn my CPU isn't even listed in that bottleneck website! It's pre-i3/5/7. It's a Core 2 Duo Quad.

Pailong1 · Feb 22, 2017

Thanks for all your help. In the end I think it was the motherboard but I'll never know cause the computer is dead now! I decided to build a new computer after all these years.

Neur0nauT · Feb 23, 2017

Pailong1 :

It sounds like you got a good run from it anyway.

Good luck with your new build!

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