I7 random shutdowns

[ruckus007]

So what's going on is that my computer keep shutting down in the middle of me playing a game. ONLY when in the middle of playing Black Ops or Fable 3 or whatever game. Usually about 30 minutes in. The PC seems to run as hot as 88C so i'm assuming off the bat that it's a heat issue. However, the rig's been ok for the last 2 months. This just started in the last 2 weeks. Please help!

Almost forgot to add:

OCZ 700w PSU
i7 Sandybridge 1155.
Asus P8P67 Pro
8gb Mushkin 1333mhz DDR3 ram
TWO EVGA GTX460 1GB running SLI
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM hdd for O/S
2TB WD Caviar 7200rpm HDD for storage
No overclocking. everything left at stock.
LG Bluray 10X BD-R drive.

 

[justnikky]

Could be a PSU fault or overheating graphics card. Check the fan on Graphics card that it is not clogged with dust which may slow it down to cause it to overheat.

 

[Ubrales]

Yes, time to clean your computer with a can of compressed air. The CPU and/or the GPU is overheating and the shutdown is a protective measure.

 

[ruckus007]

Can't be. I JUST got the 3d card with the i7. it's only been 2 months....

I actually changed the PSU to a 1000w - hasn't changed much. still shuts down. Just not as often.. I'm at my wit's end....

 

[Ubrales]

Did you do any overclocking? The shutdown is obviously a protective measure to prevent damage due to the overheating you mentioned.

 

[apache_lives]

how about RUN SOME TESTS

memtest
furmark
prime

also check your hsf is actually attached properly - if you pull at it it should not just pop off on any corner

 

[Gman450]

If you had done overclocking, then restore it back to stock settings.
Check your GPU heatsinks as well.

 

[ruckus007]

That's the thing. I have.

GPU's fine. CPU fan's good. memteest was good.

thought it may have been power issues and I switched tto a 1000w PSU

Still does it. i'm takiing aprt the rig to put in a new fan. will find out how it goes soon.

NOTE: this ONLY happens during gaming. NOTHING ELSE. and NO OC DONE

 

[Ubrales]

That's the thing. I have.

GPU's fine. CPU fan's good. memteest was good.

thought it may have been power issues and I switched tto a 1000w PSU

Still does it. i'm takiing aprt the rig to put in a new fan. will find out how it goes soon.

NOTE: this ONLY happens during gaming. NOTHING ELSE. and NO OC DONE

Every CPU, even ones with the same specs are slightly different.

During gaming, your CPU may be at a borderline voltage setting momentarily resulting in a shutdown. This can be solved by a slight (+0.050 V) increase in the voltage using the BIOS.

Do not exceed 1.350 Volts even though Intel will say something like 1.502 volts.

 

[ruckus007]

so I swapped out the OEM cpu fan and put in a CoolerMaster heatsink and fan in.
Then swapped back the original OCZ 700W PSU.

Ran both fable 3 and Black ops in windowed mode and had my temp sensor on. A LOT better now.

Ran both games in excess of 2 hours today - no shutdowns so far. Gonna try again tomorrow =)

 

[ruckus007]

Every CPU, even ones with the same specs are slightly different.

During gaming, your CPU may be at a borderline voltage setting momentarily resulting in a shutdown. This can be solved by a slight (+0.050 V) increase in the voltage using the BIOS.

Do not exceed 1.350 Volts even though Intel will say something like 1.502 volts.

It's set from stock at 1.22v (CPU voltage, yes?)

I've set it now at 1.35. we will see how it goes.


Thanks!

 

[Ubrales]

It's set from stock at 1.22v (CPU voltage, yes?)

I've set it now at 1.35. we will see how it goes.


Thanks!

Yes, 1.350 Volts will be fine for the CPU. However, do not exceed this no matter what Intel says. I have read enough posts and reviews on this Sandy Bridge CPU voltage topic. It is better to err on the side of the angels!

 

[ruckus007]

ok. Now' what it's doing is worrying me. I play Black ops today,and 20 minutes in, everything shuts down and the computer ends up GOING TO SLEEP. screen's all black, but nothing is running. everything is unresponsive. So I try to press the reset button. The red LED's for my CPU lights up for a sec, then the red LED for my Ram. Then I get 3 error tones from the MOBO. Won't respond. I then force shutdown by holding the power button, then ower it back on. The windows loads and tells me it's LOGGING BACK IN. Then proceeds to go back to black ops, in which I'm STILL IN THE GAME. Oh, and another thing, right in the middle of playing, the screen switches over to some sort of Windows 7 Media center startup screen. I'd have to physically close it and go back to the game. WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!?!

WTF?!?!?!?!?! I'm SERIOUSLY running out of options here.

 

[Ubrales]

You can try what I do when my computer acts weird. I boot into 'Safe Mode' and do a complete Anti-Virus scan, after which I do an Anti-spyware scan. This usually takes care of things until the next problem.

The most recent occurrance of this was last night when I could not log into Tom's Hardware. Everything else ran fine. This was the first time that this occurred on this computer. This morning, things are fine.

 

[ruckus007]

ran that already and everything'sfine.

I think I may have found the solution.....stupid me

i looked at the Asus software in windows that lets one muck around with fan/cpu/ram settings and found that the computer for some reason amped it up t 4.46GHZ!!! . I took it back down to the stock 3.4GHZ and will try again tonight.

 

[Ubrales]

ran that already and everything'sfine.

I think I may have found the solution.....stupid me

i looked at the Asus software in windows that lets one muck around with fan/cpu/ram settings and found that the computer for some reason amped it up t 4.46GHZ!!! . I took it back down to the stock 3.4GHZ and will try again tonight.

Make sure you do this in the BIOS, and don't let 3rd. party software control your settings.

Like your Asus, my EVGA has 'Eleet' - I use Eleet for quick changes to see how the system runs. Once I have found what settings I want, I make my changes in the BIOS.

 

[edmond419]

Go to control panel > power options > power saver

try playing the games again, but lower the quality settings slightly

 

[ruckus007]

so far so good. haven't had any issues. YET.

Edmond: I didn't spend money on an I7 and 2 3D cards so I can run at lower settings. But thanks for the recommendation.

until I can confirm my rig's stability, I will not OC it. Yet. =)

 

[edmond419]

Underclock it a bit