All games crashing, Is this a PSU error?

elytista14

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Hello everyone,

Here's my pc specs, Pentium D 2.68ghz, 2 gb kingston ram, 2 Sata HDD, Nvidia 9500gt, ASUS P5Pl2 MOBO, and a generic power supply running on win xp sp3.

All games runs smoothly and just 2 weeks ago, every games i played, specifically Cabal Online, crashes just exactly 2 seconds after a successful login. Tried another game, Ragnarok Online, which i think has a minimum requirements also crashed same as Cabal.

The monitor turns black and all i can do is to press the reset button on my cpu for restart.

Tried Battle of Middle Earth 2 and it also crashed after 3-5 mins of playing.

I'm also into video and graphic design so i have the complete adobe suite cs5.

Everything works fine when i'm just on desktop browsing the net.

Problem is with games, my tech buddy suspects it's the generic orion 500w power supply that's causing the crash. I'm waiting for him so we could try his power supply to my system. We already tried my video card to his system and it's working smoothly. So i'm hoping it's ONLY the PSU that's causing the crash.

Any opinions or suggestions guys?

Thank you much!

Elytista
 
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It sounds like considering that then, that your PSU is not strong enough for the card you had. 9400gt is a pretty weak card. You said that the card worked in another pc correct? If that is the case and the old card is good, then I would say the power supply in your case cannot supply enough juice to it. You did mention it being a generic power supply, maybe try an antec or corsair, something to that effect, I bet you would have better luck.
Swapping PSUs is a good way to check, it might be, but your 9500GT doesnt use much power so its unlikely that its overloading it but your PSU might be dying so the load doesnt matter.

I would also suggest running memtest to confirm that it is not a memory issue.

Are you getting any blue screens?
 

elytista14

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im not getting any blue screens, everything works fine on windows, adobe. just games crashing after a minute or two.

yup, i hope it's the PSU cause i bought it very cheap not knowing by that time that it's important.
 

Wamphryi

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I would suspect the graphics card. If it is games only that cause the PC to crash then it is most likely the GPU giving out when it has to do 3D Rendering. The PC seems to hold up when only 2D is required. This could be the PSU failing to deliver when the card gets under load and or the card itself.
 

elytista14

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@ wamphyri

we already tried my graphics card to my buddy's pc and it's running smoothly with his games, capacitors are still ok.

@ mosox

i have it installed already and here's my current stats:

cpu temp: 48 degrees c

cpu voltage : 1.392v
core #1 load : 7%
core #2 load: 6%

gfx: 57 degrees c

 

elytista14

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months ago it's reaching 65+C, opened the case and cleaned the processors fan, then it dropped down to 49%,

i just opened the case of my cpu for now and positioned a fan straight to my pc.
 
All games are crashing, or only just the 3D ones? By "crashing", do you mean BSOD's and hangs, or do you mean reset/reboot cycles?

If only the 3D games are crashing, it could be either drivers or the power supply cannot support the higher 3D loads.
 

elytista14

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@jsc, well all my games installed here are in 3d, and ragnarok online is still technically a 3d game right?. they're cabal online, battle for middle earth 2, torchlight...

just after i logged in to the game affter the main menu, my monitor turns black and the sound flickered so it hangs, all i can do is to press my restart button in my cpu.

@ohiou_grad_06

i have a fan on my case and then another one for the hard drives, but for now im leaving the case open and positioned a fan straight to my pc.

**************

we already tried swapping a branded i master 500w power supply and still no luck, games still crash, also tried a new ram.

we bought a thermal paste and we'll try it later if it will do any good. harddrives also ok, so we're narrowing it down to motherboard or processor.
 

elytista14

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hayyys :(

tried the thermal paste but still no luck. games still crash.

@mosox

already cleaned all parts. no more dust on fans. the video card has a fan.


i guess we narrowed it down to motherboard and processor. need to find someone who has socket 775, any more suggestions please?
 

ohiou_grad_06

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You know what else you might try, check out on newegg, they have pci slot cooler fans for about 5 bucks or so. You might grab one and put in a slot just under your video card to help pull the hot air out of the case. Could help. That's what I've got on my rig, as well as a large side fan and one under the power supply. Running firefox while defragging the hard drive, my temps are....

Here's what I'm talking about, I think this is actually the one I have too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150006

If I'm not mistaken my video card fan only runs at like 20% speed by default, using a 9600gt btw.

GPU 41 degrees celcius
CPU 38 degrees---keep in mind stock speed, stock cooler, stock thermal pad for my amd.
 
Things to check - not in any particular order, just do whatever is easiest for you to do first

1 - make sure you have free hard drive space
2 - run memtest86+ and check for errors
3 - run HDD Regenerator to check for bad sectors (if you can't find that run seatools or som other hard drive diagnostic tool)
4 - if you can swap the psu with another do that
5 - run cccleaner to check for registry errors
6 - run virus/malware scanner
7 - clean windows install - you may have corrupt files or something (do this as last resort)
8 - re-seat all hardware components
 

elytista14

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nyayks, tested a 9400gt on my pc and it worked.

playing cabal online for an hour already without crash.

so there's a difference between trying a gpu on your pc and trying your gpu to another pc?
 

ohiou_grad_06

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It sounds like considering that then, that your PSU is not strong enough for the card you had. 9400gt is a pretty weak card. You said that the card worked in another pc correct? If that is the case and the old card is good, then I would say the power supply in your case cannot supply enough juice to it. You did mention it being a generic power supply, maybe try an antec or corsair, something to that effect, I bet you would have better luck.
 
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