Restart Problems After a Hang

[MercAB3]

Having a bit of a problem with my rig recently where after the system hangs while playing a game, the BIOS won't initialize (or at least doesn't appear to be initializing) nVidia MediaShield to bring the RAID array online when I do a restart. This failure persists until I unplug the power from the machine, let it sit a minute, then plug it back in and restart. Any ideas on what might be causing this?


Basic System Specs:
Abit IN9 32-MAX (680i)
QX6700 (stock speed)
2x 2GB GSkill DDR2-800 (running at 533)
2x WD Raptor 150GB (in RAID 0)
2x EVGA GeForce 8800GT SSC (in SLI)
Creative SB Audigy 4
2x DVD-RAM drives
Thermaltake Toughpower 750W

 

[pogsnet]

Overheating issue. You must check if the cpu heatsink is properly bolted at the board.

It is either caused by cpu or video card. Did you check your temp reading either from bios or speedfan sometimes they differ?

If any case PSU is not powering your system enough please try experimenting removing those 2 DVD-RAM drives... why you need 2 anyway?

 

[MercAB3]

Checked the CPU temps. They seem fine. CoreTemp shows max of 61C, which is even below Intel's spec for maximum Case temp. Thing's been running solid since February.

Played a bit of Crysis to bring GPU temps up. Might be overheating there. Getting temps around 69-71. I'll drop the core speed on that and see what happens, but I've played Crysis for 4 hours straight before with no problems, so I'm not sure how much more effective that'll be.

I'm thinking the power problem might be the issue. Perhaps one of my hard drives is shutting down from lack of power, or just a general malfunction. This crap happened with a single 8800GTS while playing WoW before.

I'm thinking of trying a reformat and switching to RAID 1 and replace the power supply next week. I don't want to go beyond an 850W supply because anything more will overload my UPS. Think it'll be enough?

(Oh, and the 2 dvd drives is for redundancy, direct dvd to dvd copying, burning while gaming, etc. Just a habit of mine to always have two. One of them actually failed recently too!)

Thanks for the help, Pogs!

 

[evongugg]

Test the meory with memtest86+.

 

[MercAB3]

Memtest68+ passes with flying colors. Memory is okay.

The more I think about this... Pogs, your suggestions may explain the hangs, and that would be good to fix. But, I'm still confused as to why the MediaShield ROM BIOS won't initialize. What would stop that from starting up?