Overheating or Failing Hardware?

[laevoth]

The issue I'm having is that lately the computer I built about 2 years ago has started to "Freeze" up during gameplay. The games as of late that I've played have been Fallout 3 and World of Warcraft.

I've never had issues with these games in the past but then all of the sudden my games are locking up and then freezing and the system doesn't shutdown it just locks (and would stay that way until a manual power off via the Power button). It also ends up repeating the last sound it played the very second it freezes.

Windows 7 doesn't reboot on its own and I didn't find anything related to the issue in the event log.

My specs are as follows:

Motherboard: EVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i

Memory: G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 280 SSC Edition 1GB 512-bit GDDR3

Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 12MB L2

Case: Gigabyte Aurora 3D (1x 120mm Front Intake Fan and 2x 120mm back fans)

Here is a reading of my idle temperatures:

Do these look off?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Your gpu is idling at 73'?
and cpu is idling at 60?
have you knocked your heatsinks at all recently?
Might be time to reseat your cpu heatsink with fresh thermal goo
Moto

 

[dndhatcher]

First step is check the heatsink fins on the CPU and GPU for dust. Do you ever open up the PC and dust it out?

Idle temps should be 40ish at most. Load temps should probably not exceed low 60s (and thats 100% loaded with PRIME95, not just gaming load).

73 is kinda high for a loaded graphics card, if thats an idle temp then its really bad.

 

[boiler1990]

I had that issue with my GTX 460s. Mid game, my screen would turn black and the monitor would display the "No video input signal" message, but the PC was still running. It's most likely an overheating issue with the GPU.

 

[laevoth]

I just got a new heatsink and applied some arctic silver 5 on it. I thought it was fine after that but the problem persists. I just continued my game in Fallout 3 and it froze.

If it was my GPU, what would I do to make it so that it's not running so hot?

Wouldn't it be strange that after so long it's just now starting to do this?

Also-- should i see about returning the GPU and seeking a replacement?

Here's a screenshot of my temps after a restart after a freeze.

Thanks!

 

[cpatel1987]

I just got a new heatsink and applied some arctic silver 5 on it. I thought it was fine after that but the problem persists. I just continued my game in Fallout 3 and it froze.

If it was my GPU, what would I do to make it so that it's not running so hot?

Wouldn't it be strange that after so long it's just now starting to do this?

Also-- should i see about returning the GPU and seeking a replacement?

Here's a screenshot of my temps after a restart after a freeze.
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9539/heatreadings2.png


Thanks!

Hello,
I'm a bit confused by the speedfan screenshot. Most likely, the CPU 0-3 readings are in fact the real CPU readings and not the "CPU" labeled one, I think thats coming from the Graphics Card?

Also, 90c for "system" raises a red flag to me. What is that component? Your GPU not idle isn't that high, some graphics cards are specced to handle up to 90c. I'm more concerned about the CPU and 90c reading.
What is that "system" reading? It should say somewhere in speedfan.

Edit: I'm curious to know what type of heatsink your using? And the big question, are you overclocking? If so, what are your temps nonoverclocked?

 

[laevoth]

I'm not overclocking at all. The heatsink I'm using is

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200056&Tpk=rosewill%20am3%20heatsink

I'm not really sure what the "System" reading is. I think it's an "unused" sensor that that is just regulating volts rather than heat since nothing else in my computer touches 90-100C

 

[cpatel1987]

I'm not overclocking at all. The heatsink I'm using is

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200056&Tpk=rosewill%20am3%20heatsink

I'm not really sure what the "System" reading is. I think it's an "unused" sensor that that is just regulating volts rather than heat since nothing else in my computer touches 90-100C

Ahh good to know. If one of the 120 mm rear fans is next to the CPU fan, and its still in your case, get rid of that rear fan. I think theres some countercurrency going on. I remember trying a similar design figuring it might decrease idle temps, but instead raised them. Switched to this and couldn't be happier:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106157&cm_re=thermaltake_cpu_cooler-_-35-106-157-_-Product

Its minimal, but gets the job done well. Comes prepasted with thermal paste also. My idles are at 32c on an e7500. It says its up to core 2 duo, but you can get away with using it on a core 2 quad. Otherwise, there should be something similar out there for the quads.

Theres one major con if you decide to use this CPU fan thats actually a big pro for me. Its NOT a pushpin install, you'll have to take out the motherboard, put a bracket underneath then screw it in. And not easily swappable either since you'll have to do the same thing if you change your CPU or CPU fan in future. But its a pro for me because push pins are the most troublesome for me personally and you'll get guaranteed contact with the CPU.

If you decide not to do the switch, take out the rear fan near the CPU and see what happens. Or better yet, switch back to the stock fan and see what happens since your not overclocking (my rule of thumb is you don't really need anything beyond the stock fan if your not overclocking). Your GPU temps don't seem to be too high since its on high load, but one thing that helps on these nvidia cards is manually increasing the GPU fan to 100% during gaming (using nvidia control panel, you may have to install nvidia ntune to get these settings). I've noticed the automatic fan isn't always spinning at 100% during intense gaming.

Regarding the 90c thing, heres a previous post: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255376-30-need-speedfan-readings-please . One poster was guessing a northbridge sensor. You can rule that out by checking the BIOS temperatures.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

^cp, You should be right on the 0-3 being correct temps, they're very close to the original temps posted by Op on realtemp and show the same 'pattern'.
any chance of swapping out the gfx card and seeing what temps another card reads?
Moto

 

[dndhatcher]

280s run really hot. They are hotter than the newer 285s. Only thing hotter is a 295.

Speedfan reports alot of invalid temperatures. That 90 degree temp is probably soemthing that doesnt exist on that PC. I have the same problem with it. I would toss it and download overdrive from evga.com for the GPU and coretemp for the CPU and use those.

 

[boiler1990]

Well first off, make sure you're getting enough air flow inside your case, so if you have extra slots for fans, put them in.

Secondly, I would use MSI Afterburner to crank up the fan speed manually and cool off your cards. It shouldn't be hitting 73 in a well circulated case.