Hey Community
I decided to post this here as I have a hunch the problem may relate to my GPU. I recently built a system as follows:
- Asus p8p67 LE
- i5 2500K 3.3 GHz/core CPU
- Diamond HD Radeon 6970 2GB GDDR5
- Intel x25 40GB SSD (for boot and system software)
- Western Digital Black Caviar 1TB 6GB/s HDD (for everything else)
- 12 GB Kingston DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
- Thermaltake Black Widow 850W PSU
- Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Here is what is happening, in as much detail as I can recall. The system runs blazingly fast in Windows, while browsing the web and while pretty much doing anything. I have never had an issue with the system outside of gaming itself. I have tested with two different games to ensure it is not a particular game being hokey with my graphics cards. In particular I tested with Starcraft II (an RTS) and Rift (an MMORPG). For both games, I have jacked the graphics up to the max and I am able to play the games for, say, anywhere between 5-30 minutes (This is a very rough estimate. Sometimes the system freezes up almost immediately upon entering the game and other times it takes beyond a half hour to do it but, eventually, it always does). What happens is that the entire system will completely freeze and I'm unable to do anything at all. I have let it sit there for quite a while to see if it recovers but it does not and I always have to hard restart. Here are some other things I've noticed about the system in general:
- Sometimes after a system freeze and a hard restart, it will take me to an American Megatrends splash page prior to loading Windows which has a message of "Overclocking failed! Please enter setup to reconfigure your system". I have not overclocked anything to my knowledge.
- Sometimes when I start up the machine it will start up and, after a few seconds, stop completely (goes completely silent). A few seconds later, it will start up again and proceed through boot and into Windows. Sometimes it will even do this twice in sequence before it proceeds with the boot into Windows.
Here are some of the things I have already tried/verified:
- I have run Memtest to 100% coverage on all three sticks of RAM and there are no errors
- I have monitored the CPU temp both within the BIOS and by using a software utility called Core Temp. The temperature of the CPU, even during the middle of gaming, never goes above 75C and this particular CPU has a max of 98C so no problem there
- I have ensured all cables from the PSU are snuggly inserted into anything that needs power
- I don't know how to test the temperature of the GPU but I do have the side off the case and I have verified that both fans on the card are running and the temperature around the card doesn't feel that hot at all (using my hand nearby)
A couple more things. This is the specific card that I ordered:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103182
However, the card I received looks absolutely nothing like that one. The card I received is much more "open" (it does not have casing completely surrounding it and the casing it does have is a slightly transparent red). It has two fans and it has large copper tubes extending out and over across the top of the card (three of them to be precise). I even took a picture of the inside of the rig so you could get an idea of what it looks like (mainly the graphics card):
http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy327/RetPaladin/2011-04-03123127.jpg
You can clearly see the graphics card at the bottom of the case.
First of all, is it common that one would receive a part from newegg, tigerdirect or elsewhere that doesn't look at all like the part they ordered online? Secondly, what do you feel could be the culprit here? I believe I've effectively ruled out CPU, RAM and HDDs (in the middle of a scan of both my 40GB SSD and 1TB HDD atm and thus far no issues to report).
Sorry for the very lengthy post but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about the system or if there are any questions you'd like answered.
Thanks so much in advance!
UPDATE: I have now also ruled out GPU temperature as the problem as I found that the Catalyst Control Center offers this monitor along with a couple others related to the GPU.
I decided to post this here as I have a hunch the problem may relate to my GPU. I recently built a system as follows:
- Asus p8p67 LE
- i5 2500K 3.3 GHz/core CPU
- Diamond HD Radeon 6970 2GB GDDR5
- Intel x25 40GB SSD (for boot and system software)
- Western Digital Black Caviar 1TB 6GB/s HDD (for everything else)
- 12 GB Kingston DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
- Thermaltake Black Widow 850W PSU
- Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Here is what is happening, in as much detail as I can recall. The system runs blazingly fast in Windows, while browsing the web and while pretty much doing anything. I have never had an issue with the system outside of gaming itself. I have tested with two different games to ensure it is not a particular game being hokey with my graphics cards. In particular I tested with Starcraft II (an RTS) and Rift (an MMORPG). For both games, I have jacked the graphics up to the max and I am able to play the games for, say, anywhere between 5-30 minutes (This is a very rough estimate. Sometimes the system freezes up almost immediately upon entering the game and other times it takes beyond a half hour to do it but, eventually, it always does). What happens is that the entire system will completely freeze and I'm unable to do anything at all. I have let it sit there for quite a while to see if it recovers but it does not and I always have to hard restart. Here are some other things I've noticed about the system in general:
- Sometimes after a system freeze and a hard restart, it will take me to an American Megatrends splash page prior to loading Windows which has a message of "Overclocking failed! Please enter setup to reconfigure your system". I have not overclocked anything to my knowledge.
- Sometimes when I start up the machine it will start up and, after a few seconds, stop completely (goes completely silent). A few seconds later, it will start up again and proceed through boot and into Windows. Sometimes it will even do this twice in sequence before it proceeds with the boot into Windows.
Here are some of the things I have already tried/verified:
- I have run Memtest to 100% coverage on all three sticks of RAM and there are no errors
- I have monitored the CPU temp both within the BIOS and by using a software utility called Core Temp. The temperature of the CPU, even during the middle of gaming, never goes above 75C and this particular CPU has a max of 98C so no problem there
- I have ensured all cables from the PSU are snuggly inserted into anything that needs power
- I don't know how to test the temperature of the GPU but I do have the side off the case and I have verified that both fans on the card are running and the temperature around the card doesn't feel that hot at all (using my hand nearby)
A couple more things. This is the specific card that I ordered:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103182
However, the card I received looks absolutely nothing like that one. The card I received is much more "open" (it does not have casing completely surrounding it and the casing it does have is a slightly transparent red). It has two fans and it has large copper tubes extending out and over across the top of the card (three of them to be precise). I even took a picture of the inside of the rig so you could get an idea of what it looks like (mainly the graphics card):
http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy327/RetPaladin/2011-04-03123127.jpg
You can clearly see the graphics card at the bottom of the case.
First of all, is it common that one would receive a part from newegg, tigerdirect or elsewhere that doesn't look at all like the part they ordered online? Secondly, what do you feel could be the culprit here? I believe I've effectively ruled out CPU, RAM and HDDs (in the middle of a scan of both my 40GB SSD and 1TB HDD atm and thus far no issues to report).
Sorry for the very lengthy post but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about the system or if there are any questions you'd like answered.
Thanks so much in advance!
UPDATE: I have now also ruled out GPU temperature as the problem as I found that the Catalyst Control Center offers this monitor along with a couple others related to the GPU.