My pc reboots when I'm playing games

[erokenshin]

Hello people, I live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and here everyday is extremely hot. I bought my pc last year (on march, I think) and this problem didn't occur very offen in august~september (this period is winter and we usually have 23°C ~ 28°C everyday) so I thought that it was a problem with some specific games. Now that we are on summer this problem is very common to occur (everytime that I play a game my pc reboots, sometimes in 20 minutes, sometimes in 2 hours).

Well, I tried to cool down my pc a bit. I bought a new case, some coolers and I replaced my CPU's cooler for a new and better one but the problem still persists. I ordered a VGA cooler but it didn't arrive yet. I don't think it's a problem with my VGA temperature. I went to the place that I bought the pc and they tested it and it didn't reboot once (they played Mafia II for 17.2 hours). They tested in a place with air conditioner so I'm sure that it is a problem with temp, but I don't know which hardware is giving me headache.

I think that it might be a problem with my psu or maybe my motherboard but I don't want to waste my money without asking people's opinion. I searched a lot of forums and usually they say that it's a problem with psu. Anyone can help me out?

CPU temp:
Before the new cooler: idle 60°C ~ 70°C
stress 85°C - 93°C
After the new cooler: idle 33°C ~ 42°C
stress 46°C - 52°C

VGA temp (still without the new cooler):
idle - 60°C - 70°C
stress - 76°C - 88°C

Motherboard and psu temp --->> I dunno

My configuration is:

- Power Supply – Seventeam ST-650P-AF, 650w, ATX 12V V2.2 (Dual +12V rails for newest system: Maximum output current 60A)
- Motherboard – Intel Desktop Board DP55WB, Socket LGA1156
- CPU – Intel Core i5-750 (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz)
- Zalman CNPS 10X Quiet (Cooler)
- RAM – 2x Kingston 2GB 1333MHz DDR3
- Video Card(s) – XFX GeForce 260 GTX 896MB DDR3 Black Edition (factory overclock)
- Hard Drive(s) – Seagate SATA 500 Gb
- Seagate SATA 1 Tb
- Cooler - 5x Cooler 120mmx120mm Cooler Master
- Computer Case - Cooler Master CM 690
- Operating System - Windows 7 Ultimate

 

[banthracis]

Temps should not be triggering restarts if they are accurate.

1. Do a prime 95 stress test, 12 hrs min.
2. Check to make sure RAM timings and v are set to manf specs in the BIOS.
3. Run memtest85 overnight for at least 8 passes to check RAM.
4. do you have 1 or 2 GPu's? That PSU is actually a 598W PSU not, 650. Second, its first +12V rail is 18A, so if you've stuck 2 gpu's on that rail, you may have issues.
5. How's the power in your home? Many places have intermittent brownouts during summer time due to heavy AC usage. Most devices aren't affected, PSU's however are. Could simply not be getting clean steady power during summer. Best way to figure this out is to plug PC into a UPS(One that can handle PC's load) and see if restarts still occur.

The fact that temps aren't high enough to cause restarts (if accurate, what software did you use?) and it worked fine when placed in the shop, points towards 5.

 

[erokenshin]

banthracis,

1- I stress tested my pc for 30 min using prime 95 and 20 minutes with OCCT;
2- I don't know how to do that... I'll look for some tutorials and see what I can do;
3- I did it and no problem was found;
4- I have just one GPU (didn't know that my PSU was 598w ='/);
5- I think it's normal. Anyway, I use a nobreak SMS 1200va (I had this issue even before buying this nobreak), but I'll give it a try. I'll change my room and I'll get a better UPS (I'll ask my father to help me since he knows about it).

I use Riva and OpenHardwareMonitor to see my hardware temperature.

 

[banthracis]

1. Were there nay errors during the stress test?
2. Instructions are in your mobo manual. Manf specs can be found on packaging for your RAM, or at the manf web site. Be sure to get EXACT model number.
3. Is this issue restricted to 1 game? or all games?

 

[erokenshin]

1- No, no errors at all;

2- I'll check it when I arrive home, right now I'm at work =/;

3- First I thought it was just with Portal using Steam, then I got this error playing Borderlands and then, Mafia II, Titan Quest Immortal Throne, Alien Swarm, etc (Steam games). Well, I tought it was Steam, but I was wrong. Deadspace and Prince of Persial The Forgotten Sands rebooted my pc too (and I do not have them on Steam). Anyway, I tried to play those games without any program running on background and no luck =/. Basically, all "heavy" games (using Steam or not) reboots my pc =/.

PS.: I had no problem playing Mafia: City of Lost Heaven (just rebooted once in 20 hours+ of gameplay) and no problem playing "light" games like World of Goo, Braid, RE 4, etc.

 

[banthracis]

What drivers do you have? May be something there.

Honestly though, GPU won't force restart until ~110C, CPU about the same. There's also parameters for VRM, etc temps (which Riva doesn't show I'm pretty sure), but in general unless you have aftermarket cooler on your GPU that you didn't get HS of the VRM's for, shouldn't be an issue.

Go DL furmark, and see what temps your GPU gets up to with it running. Check after 20 min or so. If it gets above 90C, then cause is potentially temp related. If not, we're gonna have to look somewhere else.

CPU temps are way under, so I'm not concerned there.

 

[erokenshin]

All my drivers are up to date (GPU and motherboard).

I ran furmark for 45 minutes and the results are:
First 15 minutes --->> from 60°C to 88°C
15 to 20 minutes --->> from 88°C to 91°C
20 to 45 minutes --->> 90~91 °C

When my GPU's cooler arrive I hope I won't be getting high temps like my CPU.

This weekend I will change my room to try the 5th item you pointed before =].

 

[banthracis]

Furmark actually looks fine. Remember it pushes a GPU harder than any game ever will.

I'm pretty sure at this point it's not a temp issue. Best bet would be unclean power. I suppose a bad HD is also a possibility, but very slim. You can run a check disk to make sure no bad sectors, but I doubt prob is there.

 

[erokenshin]

I did a check disk and no problem were found.

My VGA Cooler has arrived ='DDD. I'll install that asap ^^.

Well, I am preparing another room, with my father, to test the 5th item. This whole week I will not be able to use my computer =/. I hope that my next post will be a good news.

 

[erokenshin]

banthracis, it seems you were right. I played Assassin's Creed 1 on Steam for 13 hours and my pc didn't reboot at all. I'll try some other games that were rebooting, like Mafia II and Borderlands, and see if I am free from this problem xDDD.

I changed my VGA cooler too and my temps (both VGA and processor) didn't go above 60°C. I'll keep heavy games running even without playing to see what happens and, if I still have this problem, I'll come crying again =P. Thank you very much for your help and I hope I won't have this problem anymore xDDD.

Have a nice day.

 

[banthracis]

Glad to see it's solved.

 

[erokenshin]

Best answer selected by erokenshin.

 

[tomer ordan]

banthracis, it seems you were right. I played Assassin's Creed 1 on Steam for 13 hours and my pc didn't reboot at all. I'll try some other games that were rebooting, like Mafia II and Borderlands, and see if I am free from this problem xDDD.

I changed my VGA cooler too and my temps (both VGA and processor) didn't go above 60°C. I'll keep heavy games running even without playing to see what happens and, if I still have this problem, I'll come crying again =P. Thank you very much for your help and I hope I won't have this problem anymore xDDD.

Have a nice day.

Hello, my name is Tomer and I live in Tel aviv, after I'v done a few tests and visited a lab I think I am having the same problam as you did, can you tell me which VGA cooler you bought that did the job? I'd like to buy the same one to be sure it'll work, thanks either way, Tomer.

 

[fmaldonado]

Hello all,

Well, I also live in Rio and am having the same problem, sometimes the cpu even rebots while off games.
Note I have a proper fan place in front of the computer, AC on, and still restarting.

I the view even log I am getting Kernel-power 41 (63), usually because of high temperature and/or hardware problems. I have recently replaced all hardware (last one was the same motherboard Intel DP55WB, LGA1156) and there were all tested seperately last week and worked fine.

I think I might have found a solution, (am still testing), which is on the motherboards BIOS settings. On the performance tab, disable the TURBO mode. In a bigginers view, looks like its overcloking your processor. Mine is 2.93 GHz and it was running on 3.4 GHz. There are forums reporting this issue with this motherboard.

Please let me know if that will help you or not. I will post if here works fine.