jorgito

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not so sure if this belongs here - but anyways:

for some odd reason all games i try to run (as of a week ago) are causing a restart (no blue screen - even tho its enabled) - i tried updating to newest directx removing and reinstalling audio and display drivers - no success so far - the games just restart the system at any time (even before the video card goes into 3d mode - when im in menus etc.) - its not a specific point in the game - sometimes i can actually run the game and then itd restart after a min or two.

my comp is an e6300 with a gig of ram and a 1900gt card on winxp.

i have no idea whats causing the restarts and how to handle it - so please any help would be appreciated!

thanks in advance :)
 

kiwik

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Check for dust building in your heatinks and power supply. They lead to unstable overheating components.

I had that problem with my X1900XT this summer. I cleaned my heatsink completely and didn't have a single random reboot since.
 

jorgito

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its a generic psu - 500w max and i think the 12v rails are 25amps, i had no problems with it whatsoever in the past year... also i tried rolling back my system to 2 weeks ago and still the games crash - so i guess its not a drivers problem... any ideas?
 

coret

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You might also want to make certain the graphics card is still seated correctly in the slot - unlikely it's come loose but still worth a check.
 

mike99

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Check all fans running. Run a monitoring program for GPU. Run Speedfan and check temps and 5V and 12V for stability. PSUs deteriate with age, and that video card peaks at 10A. Try running 3DMark06.

Mike.
 

jorgito

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what should i look for in 3d mark, and also where do i find my psu temps? cuz my system temps seems all normal - the card doesnt even begin to heat when the restarts happen ( its on 55c in idle and max 75c in 3d mode)
 

jorgito

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temps and voltages:

temps:
cpu: 32c, mobo: 32c, gpu: 57c, aux:43c, hd: 32c

voltages:
cpu core: 1.3v, aux: 2.64v, +3.3v: 3.33v, +5v: 5.59v, +12v: 12.83v, +5v: 5.04v, VBatt: 2.05v
 

llama_man

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In order of likelihood (I think):

Over heating
PSU is on it's way out
Memory problem

You can test the latter by taking the side of the case off. If it takes longer to crash, then the chances are your rig was overheating. This can be fixed by getting more/better fans and sorting out your cable layout.

If you have a PSU from an old rig, or can borrow one from a mate, try it out. If your problem fixes itself, get yourself a new PSU. It's not worth risking other components worth 10x the value of the PSU by struggling on with a dodgy one.


Test your memory using a Memtest or similar. Peeps in the memory section who know a lot more than me will be able to help you.


Edit: have realised I've just echoed Riser's post...
 

Badarthur

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Yea that is what ide do is check for overheating like your box first then the video and then the cpu and the psu. With poor box ventilation you could have severall heat problem's. If your like most of us you have had the same boxes for a wile now and the older boxes' wernt designed for the higher temps that the newer component's are reaching.I have a set of matching ChenMing tower's with 5 80mm fan's and I cut out one of the side fan's and put a 120 in it pointng at the cpu and video card. Also I upgraded my psu to a 700wat OCZ gameXstreme that has a much better power than my 550 wat Antec 2 that i took out. Replacing the older case fan's with high flow 12volt fan's like thermaltake smart fans may be noisy but that do a much better job. like has been said before pull the side cover and put a desk fan pointing at it. And see what happens. And good luck. BadArthur
 

jorgito

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well... im pretty sure its not overheating as all the temps are normal and the restarts happen ONLY in games (even after a few seconds running not even entering 3d mode) - what would be your guesses? vid card or psu? or maybe still are driver problem?