Shutdowns in the middle of anything 3d

[orphan]

My computer shuts down in the middle of every game or 3d application there is. Everything i have is updated, including my bios. The thing is it never used to do this before so maybe i should roll back my forceware to when it did not shut down. In quake 4 it shuts down after 13 minutes of play and in ragnarok its does it in 4 minutes. I have a 3d screen saver and it causes shut down as well in around 15 minutes. I have already discovered that my psu and my video cards are not the problem. I heard that forceware had some shutdown issues with multi threading but 6xx supposedly fixed it. Is anybody familiar with this? Please, any suggestions are welcome. 8O
I'm going to go roll back my forceware now.

 

[cleeve]

Could be your power supply is dying, too.

Out of curiosity, what's your GPU temperature?

 

[Mobius]

Sounds like excessive heat to me.

But does the video get corrupted at any point prior?

Does it blue-screen? Just turn off? What crash mode are you experiencing?

 

[orphan]

What are your specs?

AMD athlon 2.2ghz 64bit 4200+
Vapochill Micro
eVGA 7900gt x2 sli @ 550mhz (Only pieces oc'd)
Antec Truecontrol 2.0 550w psu
Asus A8n SLI premium
74gb WD raptor
300gb Maxtor Diamond
Corsair x2 1gb XMS ddr400
Air cooled: x3 80mm, x2 120mm

But does the video get corrupted at any point prior?
Does it blue-screen? Just turn off? What crash mode are you experiencing?

Absolutlely nothing happens prior to shutdown. No clues, no artifacts. Its just BAM! Its the same shutdown as if i were to power it off myself. I built this machine 4 months ago. Excessive heat isn't the problem either.

Out of curiosity, what's your GPU temperature?

GPU temps are 51 and 55. Shut down problem began before i had these cards. (Installed current video cards 1 week ago)

Could be your power supply is dying, too.

I can stress this machine all i want and it wont shut down. Only happens in 3d apps. What's wierd is there is a time pattern for each different game i play.

 

[parlee]

ur computer is prob set to restart on all errors... theres a way to change it but icant remember where.. that could be the problem... 55c isnt hot at all for a gpu, id clock it back to stock to see if it crashes during 3d, if its factory overclocked id find out the stock settings and do it... if its not heat or the restart on error then i duno ask some1 else

 

[cmptrdude79]

Step 1: Isolate.
Step 2: Replace
Step 3: Test

You have already replaced your graphics cards, so we can consider them effectively "isolated." That being said, you could be having issues with yoru CPU, motherboard, RAM, Hard Drives, Optical Drives, or add-in cards. So, you need to remove everything non-essential from your computer and test again.

If the problem persists, pull a RAM chip, and re-test. Repeat this procedure for every component in your computer. If you make it through every removable component, then you know it would be either the CPU or motherboard. Post back with your results and we can go forward from there.

Good luck.

-J

Edit: Forgot to add to check your BIOS and driver versions. Might just be an out-dated BIOS or drivers. I've seen stranger things.

 

[cleeve]

I'd be taking a long, hard look at your power supply if you're getting crashes in 3d games...

especially if your temps are low.

 

[smedlin]

When I play FEAR, I have the same thing happen from time to time. My rig (which is only a few weeks old), will just power down. But I think it's the game itself that "crashes" and for some reason my rig shuts down.

 

[orphan]

I'd be taking a long, hard look at your power supply if you're getting crashes in 3d games...
especially if your temps are low.

Cleeve, my bios tells me my voltages are way below normal but it also tells me my cpu temp is very high when it is in fact cool. I dont know what to believe.

 

[cleeve]

My advice is simple: test your machine with another power supply.

It might work, it might not, even if it does at least you'll rule out the possibility... but I've had & seen similar problems, and the PSU was to blame.

 

[orphan]

What kind of psu should i get? Isnt 550 watts sufficient for my setup? My motherboard manual tells me that it is...
Everyone, recommend a power supply for me!

 

[cmptrdude79]

There are a number of good power supplies out there. Thermaltake, Antec, SeaSonic, PC Power & Cooling, FSP, and even Rosewill are reputed to make good power supplies. Take your pick.

As to your second question, 550Watts should be enough, but if you are experiencing significant voltage droop, then your power supply is not up to the task. By significant, I mean anything outside 5% to 10% of spec voltage, and even that is a little extreme.

Post back with your voltages at idle and load and let's see how bad they are...lol.

-J

 

[swifty_morgan]

Wattage sounds good but, ..... Amperes.......... higher the better. Two of those cards, try in the 20+ range for each rail if you are tempted to replace it. Go over to newegg and see if they spec amperage, or is there anything in the data sheet that came with the cards ?

 

[mdd1963]

"But I think it's the game itself that "crashes" and for some reason my rig shuts down.
"

No driver or software issues that I am aware of will cause a computer to simply power itself off abruptly....

If it's not power suppy related, or an intermittent short from mb to case, then it's the mainboard...

 

[mdd1963]

"I have already discovered that my psu and my video cards are not the problem."

I think I'd be testing that rig with one video card at a time, which also will reduce your peak power requirement by about 90 watts...

I have a hard time believing that an Nvidia driver could cause a rig to power itself completely off!

 

[orphan]

Post back with your voltages at idle and load and let's see how bad they are...lol.

I used Asus' PC Probe II to measure these voltages.

IDLE:
Vcore= 1.38
+3.3= 2.91 (occasionally 2.90)
+5.0= 4.52
+12.0= 11.46

On load, the longer i play the game, the more the voltages decay and into the dreaded shutdown.

LOAD:
Vcore= 1.36
+3.3= 2.88
+5.0= 4.49
+12.0= 11.46

Is the power supply noticably hot after a shutdown? How long do you have to wait before the system will power up again? If the system doesn't fire up again instantly, then odds are your power supply overheated and shut down to prevent damage.

My powersupply is always putting out hot air but i just thought that it was normal for a psu. I've never tried powering my system back on right after the shutdown because i'm afraid of hurting it so i turn it back on after waiting atleast 10 seconds. I'll try it though if someone tells me that i'm not risking my hardware just to see if it doesnt power up right away.

and PC Power is hands-down top of the heap with the TurboCool line.

I cant afford anything of the turbocool line. I already sold my daughter and one of her kidneys just to build this machine.

Wattage sounds good but, ..... Amperes.......... higher the better.

noted.

I think I'd be testing that rig with one video card at a time, which also will reduce your peak power requirement by about 90 watts...

I have, it shut down though i am still confident my psu is what's wrong.

Now i'm going to go check out these power supplies that have been suggested to me. :twisted: (With amperes in mind)

 

[clue69less]

The 600w Seasonic sells for about $170. It's going to be hard for you to dodge that kind of expense for the capacity you need, and power supplies are one item where you definitely get what you pay for.

I've been having some PS issues lately too and have spent too much time on the phone and in email talking to PS tech people, searching forums, etc. It's interesting to me to see how many PS manufacturers out there are building new high-watt, high current models and these folks are telling me it is in response to SLI and the new high-current VGAs. Apparently, tech folks are hearing of problems with single X1900XT and XTX cards, 7900GTX and GTX SC and obviously more often with SLIs of the above.

 

[pharoah]

yay orphan finally after 3 seperate threads on this told what the problem is id go with what cleeve said test it out