PC seems to crash during GPU usage

[sandol]

Hello,my pc seems to crash everytime i use processes that requires any much out of the graphics card.

Specs:

CPU: i5 960
GPU: GIGABYTE 4850 1gb
PSU: 600W
Ram: 8gb


The problem started of when i tried to play World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2. I thought it was something wrong with these two games, but my pc seemed to crash in every game. Also programs like google Sketchup. When my computer crashed, everything gets black, a static noise appeared and i got bluescreen. So after my first restart, i found it obvious to upgrdae my graphics driver and i scanned my pc to see if there was any important upgrades, so i downloaded a service pack(windows 7 64) and a couple of others. After restart, the problems still appeared... I had to "force" restart my pc and after a couple of restarts, everything just got worse and worse. 3 rows of red dots appered on the screen during boot, and sometimes many white or alot of colourful dots and it crashed during reboot. At last it wouldn't reboot at all. I tried to open up the pc to remove dust in case of heat problems and i rewired some wires. I finally got it to start as it did, but my pc still crashed at games, and had alot of wierd dots on the screen.Sometimes, the monitor would'nt "catch-up" and sendt me error messages "Check signal cables". When my monitor finally catched up, i started my pc in safe mode, and restored it. I even tried all "restore" points, with no luck. I also tried the startup repair option, but neither did it work.

What do you think could be the problem? Maybe the graphics card?

My pc worked for a couple of weeks ago with all the games, but after i moved, it did't unfortunatly. For about a year ago, i got a new prossecor i5 960, but as i said, it's a year ago so there maybe something else which is the problems.

Personally, im not an experienced pc tech. Someone i know built it and he had good experince with pc's so im sure he built it alright. however, it's difficuilt to contact him nowadays.

I've spent atleast 8 hours, going on forums and the web to see what i could do, but im still stuck, so i hope you could help me!

If it is the graphics card, it's not a big deal, as im planning to buy a new grpahics card for battlefield 3

Thanks for looking and answers!

 

[beenthere]

Download Memtest86+ and run it from a floppy, CD or flash drive to check your RAM. If it shows no errors, then you can download OCCT and stress test your CPU/GPU to see if you have heat or other issues. Use Core Temp to check the CPU temps as other software can provide inaccurate temps. You could also have a PSU issue even though your Vid card doesn't draw a huge quantity of power. What model PSU are you using?

 

[AdrianPerry]

Sounds to me like your PSU is topping out. What brand of PSU are you using? If its a cheap "generic" one, im almost certain that will be what's causing your problems.

 

[cats_Paw]

PSU is the first thing id check as well.
Then id check the drivers, there might be an issue with the windows/ati drivers enering in conflict (did this begin after updating your drivers perhaps? or after a windows update?).

If you have at home anotehr GPU (an old one) you could try it as well. its possible you overheated your gpu?
Have good case ventilation? checked the gpu temperatures in stress?
If your Gpu gets very hot, one option is to change the thermal paste (ofc do only if you know how ).

Thats about my ideas.

 

[sandol]

My PSU is: Silwer Power: SP-600A2C 600Watt

I'm going to try these programs you listed. I just don't see how a software could measure temps without sensors?

I had an older graphics card: Gigbyte Radeon x1300, from my media center pc. I read on a forum that it was a good way to check if my currently graphics card was destroyed. I installed it in my primary pc and it now runs ok. I can play games at lowest quality, and that means that my motherboard, cpu and probably PSU is OK? However, some games gets error, like starcraft 2, but i think it is because i need to upgrade driver on it, which i wont do xD.

Thanks for fast respnse! I'm going to try to stress test my "main" graphics car (Gigabyte 4850), test ram and see what i get.

Maybe i should unninnstall catalyst center? When i try to install or uninstall a driver ittells me that the location does'nt exist...

My porcessor is: i5 760, not 960, sorry xD...

 

[Guest]

First thing I would do is check the system event log and see what was going on just before each of the crashes

 

[AdrianPerry]

PSU actually has a pretty solid review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2308/9 So possibly that isn't the issue.

 

[sandol]

=), i just looked up the log, dont understand much, but i copied it, so if anyone want the info, i can send it to you as an event log file =)

 

[sandol]

Getting difficuilt, jus to start it when i use (4850) as GPU, also the card feels extremely hot when i touch it with my bare hands, the pc has be on for like 5 mins... Its much hotter than the x1300 after playing games on it

 

[ScrewySqrl]

sounds like its overheating the video card, had this happen with my old 512MB 4850 a few weeks back.

Download the catalyst control center from AMD, and force the GPU fan to 100%, and monitor GPU temps in games (CPUID makes a hardware monitor program that'll monitor the GPU temps).

If necessary, you can underclock the system to reduce temps.

 

[sandol]

It's a passive GPU, so no fan exists there xD hahaha...

 

[sandol]

I dont think it's nessecary to run OCCT on my CPU, but my pc blue screened on the GPU test, and to "Cats_paw", my pc started to crash before i updated drivers. Now, i get this error message: "Failed to load detection driver".