PCs

[pevil2000]

Gah I hate pcs *sigh*

I'm trying to get to at least 90, preferably 100, so I'm not holding up my two mates for doing ARoP. So what does my pc decide to do? Develop a problem.

I NEVER have problems on this pc. Ever. Last couple of weeks, it starts randomly restarting/bluescreening/disconnecting from games. Some nights I'm fine. Others I can maybe log into a game before it dcs/bsods/restarts.

It's needed a reformat for a while so the other day, after all the usual virus scans/registry checks etc that you do, I finally got around to backing up all my data and reformatting. Great, Wednesday evening I was back in Istaria and levelling up for a few hours happily. This morning I try to log on... get kicked out after 20 minutes or so, then keep on getting kicked out the instant I get back in. Then a random restart. I sigh and go to work.

I come home from work, switch pc on then end up watching dvds for 4 hours. Come back, it's still running fine. Go to open Firefox... restart. I fear the worst; tonight I'm running Memtest and praying it's a problem with one of my sticks of RAM. If not... it's looking like it's a new gfx card for me. Nice as it will be to have an excuse to upgrade (not that a GeForce 7950 GT is exactly bad ), I'd really rather not have to spend the money!

And not only that but my two guildmates will have to wait at least another couple of days for me!

[Nidhoggr]

If memtest is inconclusive, I would check the Event viewer in windows. It does sound like a memory problem though.

[pevil2000]

Well left it overnight, no errors on Memtest. Guess I'll be after a new GFX card, though I will check event viewer, thanks Nid.

Most of the time when it was bluescreening it was a STOP error which I believe is usually a driver thing, usually to do with nv4.dll (graphics display), so I tried uninstalling/reinstallng the driver a few times, but having done a complete reformat and having next to nothing on the pc/brand new drivers for everything, I'm starting to think it has to be hardware related. At least it's payday on Friday.

[Vahrokh]

Did you try to:

- open the case

- slam a tabletop fan before the opened side


Come summer, this is going to be a widespread issue that can cause what you see.


Another very frequent cause of the same, expecially on summer, is power supply being unable to power the video card. If you just changed / overclocked video card, this might be your issue, you'll need a bigger one.

[pevil2000]

Aye, tried the fan, had my case with one side off for the past week anyway (I'm lazy ) but it's even doing it on cold, rainy days. Haven't changed my vid card for over a year and I don't overclock.

Only thing is I put some new RAM in a couple of months ago (extra 2gb) and I was worried at the time that I may have touched some of the circuits on the gfx card (usually very careful but it happens sometimes) though it seemed to run fine for a good month and a half after that so I doubt I did

Any more suggestions are always welcome! Also if you have any links to graphics cards; I like my nVidia cards, looking atm between a 9600 and an 8800GT/GS; can't find any benchmarks with the 9600 in though I did find that the 8800Gt/GS seems to be top of the nVidia range up to that number, but I also know sometimes the top number isn't always as good as the best of the lower series. Looking to keep the card quite 'cheap', so if its around ~£150 or less, that's good

[Nidhoggr]

What is your PSU make and model. All PSU are less efficient at higher temperature, compounded with a older and possibly damaged PSU it could cause a BSoD linked with your GPU.

You can rule out memory if you are getting a nv4.dll stop error. Its the GPU, more than likely. Whether its a power related issue or not, is still to be determined.

[pevil2000]

Ugh I forget what the power supply is... I think it was a 450v, the model I have no idea (too lazy atm to check either ). It did survive a summer in my ex's parents loft though,a nd believe me, it was HOT up there. No windows + the heat coming up from the rest of the house, so it should be fine here now, still I'll check at some point and let you guys know, see if it is likely it's that.

actually now I think about it I may have replaced it last year... had problems at one point with the machine not switching on at all but I forget if I did or not... if I did then I certainly got a more powerful one than I'd had before.

[Fratricide]

If your using a 450w to push your system, you are at most running at bare minimum power levels for your hardware, and your PSU will be working overtime to support your whole system. Especially if you plan on boosting your vid card from a 7k series to an 8 or 9k series, you should really look at upgrading your PSU first, and your GFX card second, as the new GFX card will require a bit more juice then does your 7k series.

If you have a good quality 700w or better PSU you should have no problems running either an 8k or 9k series nvidia card, regardless of what the suggestions are (So long as your not trying to push SLI with it).

Make sure what the PSU is first and let us know.

[Vahrokh]

Totally agree with Fratricide.

450W is way undersized and will choke exactly when you play 3D games, with unattended blue screens, computer just turning off, random and strange behavior and so on.

The fact it "survived" an hot summer only says it has a good thermal / overload internal protection against frying, not that it provides for current enough.

In fact it's very possible that it'll cut off / reduce power to the motherboard and expecially off the video card to not go roast when you demand more current than it can transform.

[pevil2000]

Hmmm well I will check then and I have Thursday off, so if it's a low one I'll head into town and pick up a higher PSU. Fingers crossed that will solve it! Thanks guys, will keep you posted

[Vlisson]

never touch a running system

after i learned this lection after some real bad days all is fine ^^

[pevil2000]

Well I checked it today, was indeed still a 450w, so have ordered an 800w PSU; should arrive on Saturday with any luck. Cost nearly as much as a new gfx card though *mutter*

[Fratricide]

lol... yea.. with luck (crossing fingers) the new PSU should alleviate much of the issues, if not all of them, that you were having with the sub powered one. If it is as I believe it is, (crossing toes now too) you should see a slight performance increase as well, because your system is now not being strangled for power.

[pevil2000]

heh let's hope so, it turned up today so will install it in a few mins and then give it a test run all day long

[Mimir]

Aye, tried the fan, had my case with one side off for the past week anyway (I'm lazy ) but it's even doing it on cold, rainy days. Haven't changed my vid card for over a year and I don't overclock.

Remember to close the case, most PCs need the case closed to route the air correctly.

[pevil2000]

well so far so good (kinda), had 2 hours of play on horizons with no restarts, though I have had 4 disconnects. Even had music playing for over an hour at the same time, plus a few msn windows and firefox. So hopefully it's ok. We'll see, will try it with Oblivion and another couple of games over the next few days. I'll get the side back on it too!

[pevil2000]

Or not. Getting unbelievably annoyed now, gonna post a DXDiag in a bit. Just had one blue screen, but after getting kicked from hz an uncountable number of times because of that stupid vault bug. Got disconnected with it open, now can't get it to close; closing it directly crashes the client, if I attempt to close it with V after making sure I'm fully loaded in game it still either crashes the client or, if I successfully log out, still opens when I return to the game.