cpu & components

[albacore]

my pc suddenly shuts down during and only during gaming every time i play. when i restart there is no message saying that windows had shut down incorrectly. i have gotten the latest nvidia drivers and tried playing from a clean boot. neither helped. cpu and gpu temps are good. the inside of the case is quite clean. i have a 2 year old pc club built system. athalon 64 3500, win xp hpme, 1 gig ddr 400 memory, 2-evga 7600 gt in sli(upgraded from 2-6600gt 6 months ago), gigabyte ga-k8n pro-sli mobo, allied 500 watt ps. this rig has worked well until a month ago. at first it took about an hour of play time before shutting down. now it's 10-15 minutes. any thoughts?

paul

 

[o1die]

Best bet is to start with a different power supply. I like the 120mm ones for removing heat. Allied isn't the greatest ps. I like antec, enermax, or fortron for value. Also just visually check the cpu heatsink to see if it's making good contact. I wouldn't remove it. Then you'll have to apply some thermal paste. If it looks ok, it probably is. If the power supply doesn't work, I would look at some newegg open box boards, if you can replace it yourself.

 

[smokedyou911]

yea, sounds like a dying psu to me.

 

[chookman]

I would also agree on the PSU if its in the 2 year old mark and its when you are running games (which is when the GPU's will draw more power). And you did make the jump from 2x6000series too 2x7000 series 500W may not be enough. Suggest looking at Antec Trio 120mm fans and 3 12V rails

 

[albacore]

when i went into extreme power supply i have plenty of power for my system. anyway, i tried running 1 gpu and it worked fine . i will try the other gpu but i expect the same results. if that is the case, then it is more likely to be a ps problem. could a mobo with a faulty sli cause this? maybe at this point i just need to try changing out parts starting with the cheapest and easiest.

paul

 

[chookman]

If you still have your 6600GT's you could put those back in to maybe test your SLI theory

Money is on the PSU not being enough grunt though

 

[albacore]

i sent the old gpus back to evga. my pc worked fine on i gpu intil this morning. it shut down just like before. what is the minimum size ps for my system?

 

[albacore]

i am always seeing systems for sale in pc gamer mag with dual 7 or 8 series cards powered by a 500 watt psu. when i spoke to tech support at gigabyte (mogo mfgr) he suggested that it could also be the ram. i bought 2 gigs of kingston value ram at frys but havn't installed it yet. newegg's ram reviews always show someone that installed new ram and it was either doa or it fired their system. maybe i should leave well enough alone. i have 1 gig of generic 2.5 cas latency vs 2 gig 3 cas latency? with an older system it makes no sence to invest in high power gaming ram. the latest nvidia drivers come with ntune which has a component stress test. could try this on the different parts? the guy at frys said shutdowns are usally related to cpu overheating. bios says the cpu temp is ok. the cpu seems the most complicated change out having never done it.