Shutting down

[JayCee6828]

Can anyone tell me wher to start looking for the solution to this problem.

 

My computer has started shutting down by itself but only when playing FSX - it usually happens after about 5 minutes play.

 

The screen goes black and the fans stop, it is as if it has completely shut down except for the fact that the green power light indicator turns orange. This has only recently started happening FSX used to play fine for hours. I have air dusted everything so there is no dust inside although it does seem to indicate overheating.

 

But what is overheating, the processor, the graphics card or the power supply.

 

The only way I can get it back on is to turn off at the mains so the orange light goes out, none of the buttons on the front have any efect, and then back on after a few minutes.

 

I am using Windows 7 with an AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black edition @2600Mhz and a ATI Radeon HD 3600 series graphics card.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi JayCee, it could well be a heat problem, do you have Speedfan? if not download and install it, let us know what it shows.

You can download it from here,=

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

Click on the blue "Speedfan 4.43" to start the download.

Once installed it will analyse your system and produce the readings, if you can show a screen shot all the better, if not, note them and post here.

 

Nev.

[JayCee6828]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]505.vB5-legacyid=1124[/ATTACH]Thanks Nev, I have uploaded a shot taken a couple of minutes ago. I hope you can see it OK.

I did try having PC Wizard running while playing FSX and yesterday it played for ages without shutting down but the temperature got as high as 72.5C for the processor cores. I think this must be the problem as I think it will shut itself down if it reaches 80C.

 

Trouble is what to do about it as PC Wizard also showed at least 3 of the 4 cores were running at 100% most of the time.

Would a better graphics card take some of the load from the processor and if so would you be able to recommend one; I currently have an ATI Radeon HD 3600.

 

Another oddity was this morning I clicked to oopen a directory in explorer and the screen went black and I couldn't get any response even though the green power light was still on and the fans were still running indicating the computer was still on; I had to trn off at the mains and reboot to get it useable again - could that be an indicator of a dodgy graphics board? I have made sure it is properly seated and there are no loose cables around.

 

Thanks for your help.

[Plastic Nev]

Temp 3 is a lot too high at 87C but not sure what that is, though it could be the graphics processor on the card.

It indicates there is a problem with cooling. Is there a fan on the graphics card and does it run OK?

If it does, are the fins on the heatsink it is mounted on clear of dust? If it is clean, it may be a poor contact between the heatsink and graphics processor, it may be curable if the finned heat sink can be removed and fresh thermal paste applied.

All that though is if that temp3 is the graphics, as I say I am not sure.

A way to find out would be remove the card and run on the motherboard graphics, then check what temp3 shows with no graphics card in.

Or hang on till someone else comes on who may know for sure what temp3 is.

Nev.

[JayCee6828]

Hi Nev,

 

The card is quite clean as it has been airdusted.

 

I always thought temp 3 was the PSU but like you I don't really know.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, have you tried removing the graphics card and then looked at what temp3 says then? In my machine, because there is no card, temp3 registers as being some silly figure below freezing because there is no card to measure. However different computers may use temp3 for a different purpose, hence why I am not sure. Hopefully someone will be more knowledgeable along to help us out on this. The one area I am pretty clueless is graphics, as I am mainly sound rather than picture.

Nev.