This problem has slowly built up over the last month or so. Occasionally while playing Dota 2, the PC would instantly restart. It seemed to happen more right at the beginning of the match after I load in, during teamfights and at the end of the match. At first I thought it was a Dota 2 problem, I verified the game cache and eventually moved it over to my SSD. I tried playing Oblivion, and it reboots after a few minutes of gameplay. Running Furmark also produces similar results. It may be worth noting that previously it would only crash occasionally, while now it will crash as soon as intensive rendering is happening. Rarely, I would boot the PC and there would be funky ass distortion flickering all over the place - a second restart would restore it to normal. I instantly thought it was a GPU problem, but after the steps I've taken I'm not so sure. Perhaps MOBO or PSU?
Troubleshooting so far:
- Updated GFX card drivers. Same results.
- Less intensive programs such as Counter-Strike: Source and Minecraft do not cause a reboot.
- I tried swapping my GTX 570 for an ATi Radeon HD 5770 from my other PC and have had similar results, except rather than an instant restart, the screen will be covered in vertical coloured lines for ~5 seconds, then restarts.
- Note that both these GFX cards run games and Furmark fine when I tested them in the other PC.
- I tried with the first RAM stick taken out and the other left in, and vice versa. Same results.
- Thinking there may not be enough power for the GPU, I tried unplugging the 2 non-essential drives and tested. Same results.
- I ran Hot CPU Tester Pro, and it reported my CPU at 100% efficiency with no errors. (I did stop it early however as my CPU Temp (60C) warning sound was blaring and I wanted to sleep.)
- I ran MemTest86, It reported no errors. (I did stop it about 60% of the way through as I needed to use the PC.)
- I tried using the onboard graphics of my motherboard - It was unusable as the screen would constantly flicker to black over and over.
MBO: [B]Gigabyte GA-880G-UD3H[/B]
CPU: [B]AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.40 GHz[/B] (Idle: 35C, Load: Up to 60C)
RAM: [B]RIPJAWS 8.00GB DDR3 (2x 4.00GB)[/B]
GPU: [B]EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280 MB[/B] (Idle: 38C, Load: Up to 80C)
PSU: [B]SilverStone Strider SST-ST50F-ES 500W[/B]
PCI: Some sound card I couldn't be bothered looking at.
SSD: 60GB (Windows)
HDD1: 1TB (Steam)
HDD2: 500GB (Misc)
What does Facepunch suggest? Should I let the diagnostics finish 100%? How can I test my PSU or MOBO? Please help! I need to play Dota 2, it is my life.
From the other... two or three threads with similar issues, and my own machine with the same thing, its very likely the PSU.
However your PSU brand is on GiGaBiTe's list of "ok" PSU brands... Fuckit I'd wait for him to stroll around.
[editline]21st September 2013[/editline]
ohhey yeah that might do it.
As PSU's get older, their ability to provide the rated wattage decreases. An upgrade might be in order.
[QUOTE=thespectator;42260903][img]http://i.imgur.com/O4R3r5K.png[/img][/QUOTE]
That's very odd, as the PC that tested OK with the GTX 570 has the exact same PSU, and it's an OLDER one. It says right there it only ever uses 219W. My CPU is rated for 125W. The remaining 156W should be plenty for my drives and fans. If it was an overloaded PSU, wouldn't it completely shut itself off rather than reboot?
Could it be anything else?
[QUOTE=Shifty Pete;42260919]That's very odd, as the PC that tested OK with the GTX 570 has the exact same PSU, and it's an OLDER one. It says right there it only ever uses 219W. My CPU is rated for 125W. The remaining 156W should be plenty for my drives and fans. If it was an overloaded PSU, wouldn't it completely shut itself off rather than reboot?
Could it be anything else?[/QUOTE]
Always ignore power specs on product pages because 99% of the time they're wrong.
The GTX570 has a 230W TDP, which means this is the maximum draw under normal conditions. But in certain situations it can pull far more than that. The same goes for the Phenom II CPU, a 125W TDP, but I've seen them pull up to 180W.
Under normal circumstances, a 500W unit would be enough. But it isn't enough during those peak load scenarios, especially if the PSU is old. I would get a new 600W unit just to be on the safe side.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42261394]Always ignore power specs on product pages because 99% of the time they're wrong.
The GTX570 has a 230W TDP, which means this is the maximum draw under normal conditions. But in certain situations it can pull far more than that. The same goes for the Phenom II CPU, a 125W TDP, but I've seen them pull up to 180W.
Under normal circumstances, a 500W unit would be enough. But it isn't enough during those peak load scenarios, especially if the PSU is old. I would get a new 600W unit just to be on the safe side.[/QUOTE]
While I see your point, this PSU is not even 6 months old, and everything's been working perfectly fine in high-resource games up until the last few weeks. It's also a very efficient PSU, as you no doubt already know: [url]http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/SilverStone-Strider-ST50F-500-W-Power-Supply-Review/548/9[/url]
As I said before, if i'm not mistaken - If the power supply was overloaded, wouldn't it just shut off rather than reboot? And what about when I put the 5770 in - that card only requires a 450W PSU, yet the system would still reboot!
I very much doubt it is the PSU - however, I'll borrow a friend's 700W PSU and post results when I can. Until then, I'm going to run a full memtest and give my system a long-needed windows reinstall and see if it makes a difference.
[QUOTE=Shifty Pete;42261740]As I said before, if i'm not mistaken - If the power supply was overloaded, wouldn't it just shut off rather than reboot? And what about when I put the 5770 in - that card only requires a 450W PSU, yet the system would still reboot![/QUOTE]
When a PSU is loaded down to its rated limit, the voltage output on any of the rails can become unstable and fall out of the ATX spec. At this point it can cause things like reboots because the hardware can't tolerate the fluctuations in voltage/ripple.
Another thing that can cause a PSU to go out of spec is heat. The hotter the MOSFETs are in the PSU, the less efficient they are. In most ATX towers, the PSU sucks the hot exhaust directly from the CPU fan, which causes the PSU to run even hotter than it normally would. The Phenom II is a monster furnace under load and exacerbates the problem.
Through the use of some strange voodoo techniques...
[t]http://files.1337upload.net/100_0243.jpg[/t]
...known only to few,
[t]http://files.1337upload.net/100_0244.jpg[/t]
I managed to power the GPU with a separate PSU...
[t]http://files.1337upload.net/100_0246.jpg[/t]
...and validate the lack of power as the issue.
[t]http://files.1337upload.net/100_0247.jpg[/t]
Thanks for the help, guys. I should've listened earlier.
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