[SlAy3r41]

Hello ppl this is my 1st post so plz be nice

Anyway to my problem which is as stated on the topic title,my pc keeps crashing.It has got me baffled,(not hard to do),my pc only seems to crash when playing on-line games,(doesn't matter which 1).I get a very bad looping noise & screen goes like a wall of solid colour.The only way i can sort this out usually is to do a "Hard Reboot" as otherwise it's just dead.I.E the HD light is not on at all,everything's unresponsive.As soon as I reboot all is fine.
I can play games in single player mode for hrs with no problems at all,as I can browse the net with no problems either.I will post my specs up @ the of this post.
Also plz see attached blue screen saver .Have also attached a "Speed Fan" screen shot & sreen shot of "who Crashed My PC".
I hope that I've explainded my problem clearly enough for some kind person to help me with this problem.Thankyou kind ppl .

PC Specs

OS- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU- Intel Core 2 Ouad Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
Ram-4GB Dual Channel DDR2 (2*1GB Corsair PC2-6400(400MHz) & 2*1GB Nanya PC2-5300(333MHz)
MB- Asus P5KC
GC-Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Ram
HD-234GB Maxtor
Optical Drives-1 Hl-DT-ST DVDRAM GH20NS10 ATA Device,1 VOM-12E48X ATA Device
Audio-Realtek High Definition Audio,on board sound.

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SlAy3r41

Couple of questions if I may;

What is the brand and model name or number of the PSU.
Can you see/hear the PSU cooling fan working.
How many case fans do you have and where are they mounted as in front, rear, side etc.
Has the system ever been overclocked in any way.

As a starting point I suggest that you un-check the Automatic fan speed box in Speedfan.

Next run HWMonitor and provide a screenshot for us so that we have a comparison to Speedfan http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html

There are no fan speeds showing but cooling fans are obviously present due to other stable temps showing, the high Aux temp reading could be the HDD or the PSU as only two examples BTW.

[phillpower2]

SlAy3r41

Couple of questions if I may;

What is the brand and model name or number of the PSU.
Can you see/hear the PSU cooling fan working.
How many case fans do you have and where are they mounted as in front, rear, side etc.
Has the system ever been overclocked in any way.

As a starting point I suggest that you un-check the Automatic fan speed box in Speedfan.

Next run HWMonitor and provide a screenshot for us so that we have a comparison to Speedfan http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html

There are no fan speeds showing but cooling fans are obviously present due to other stable temps showing, the high Aux temp reading could be the HDD or the PSU as only two examples BTW.

[SlAy3r41]

Thx for the fast reply phillpower2

As for the 1st question the PSU is a 750w Cool&Quiet,that's about 6yrs old now.I think the fan is working on it although to be fair I'm abit deaf,as for seeing it going to be fair it's hidden at the top of the case (case is a EZ-Cool,the 1 with the breathable dust shield on the side,again that is about 6yrs old now.
As for case fans i've got none installed,although at the min the side is off it.I've also got a water cooler on the cpu,which I could do with changing out as I don't like the fact that i've got to top it up,(although i've only ever done that once before as the alarm was going off on it.
The cpu was clocked for a little while,(was clocked to 4gb from stock),also the ram was too,but that proved to unstable so it's back at the clock speed now.The overclock was only done for about an hour before it was reverted back.
Also plz see the attached screen shot of HWMonitor.

Thankyou for your help this problem phillpower2,you is a star & i appreciate your help

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[phillpower2]

Thanks for the additional information SlAy3r41

In case of a bad MB setting can you restart the computer, go into the BIOS, select the default settings and then save and exit.

HWMonitor is also showing the same high temps as Speedfan + #2 core of your CPU is higher than the other 3 cores albeit marginally higher than #3 core, some of the other readings are clearly anomalous and hopefully another test will give a clearer idea of what the readings actually are.

Please run Speccy and post a url with your next reply http://www.piriform....file-to-the-web

While you do the above I will do some research on the PSU which BTW as it is 6yrs old may be be feeling it`s age.

You are welcome BTW

[SlAy3r41]

Hi again phillpower2.
I will look into bios settings,but I'm sure they are back at default setting's,although to be fair I'm a pc noob .But like i say last time someone looked at this,(my brother),it was set back to default with no overclocking on it at all.Please note though that I'm a complete pc noob so only know the absolute basics.I have tried to learn about pc repairing and what not,but nothing seems to sink in,(old age probably )
As for the "Speccy url here it is.Hope this help's you to help me.
Just noticed on my "speccy",that win defender is not running.I've set it on now.
http://speccy.pirifo...hEILqQX4pp8AbUc

Like i say I'm enternally grateful for your help.

Edited by SlAy3r41, 30 March 2013 - 01:37 PM.

[phillpower2]

Good evening SlAy3r41 and thanks for the url

Couple of things that I note from the Speccy report and both are possible causes of the crashes;
1: The +12V rail on the PSU is showing as being very low (see attachment below).
2: Your HDD is getting low on free storage space, you must always have between 15 and 20% of the HDDs overall capacity free all of the time, Windows needs this to copy data to and from and if it does not have it system instability can occur and in a worse case scenario the HDD can fail mechanically, to help with this I suggest that you go into Add/Remove programs and uninstall any software that you no longer use such as old games etc, let us know when you have done this or if you need help with it.

The PSU issue is more difficult to confirm as swapping in a known good PSU that has the appropriate power output is the only conclusive way of ruling it in or out as the cause of the crashes.

[SlAy3r41]

Thankyou phillpower2

You have been VERY VERY helpful.
I've done as you have said & cleared a load of old/unused programs/games from my HD as was your advise.
As for the PSU,I'm leaning towards that myself now,especially after looking at the PSU graph you attached to your last post & the fact that mine is running at 7.5v when the minium it should be running at is 11.4v.
I've spoken to my brother and as luck would have it he's just changed his out for a hyper-x psu.The 1 he's just changed is a 550w psu,so would that be powerful enough to run my rig?If so i will have to beg him for his 1 ,as i ain't got no money for 1.Wish me luck lol.

Once again I can't say thankyou enough for your time and effort you have put into helping me with my problem .

I will post up as soon as i can either get my bro's old psu or source 1 from else where.
Again thx for your help.It really is appreciated +10 from me

[phillpower2]

Some MBs have their own monitoring software which can cause 3rd party software to give out false readings, do you happen to have an ASUS monitoring software in use.

Another quick check that you can do is in the BIOS, restart the computer and keep tapping the appropriate key needed to access the BIOS, it may be the Del or Esc key for example, when in the BIOS look for something like "PC Health Status" see example attachment below, make a note of the temps and the +3.3V, +5V and the +12V readings.

NB: BIOS voltage readings.

The readings are not conclusive in the BIOS as the computer is under the least amount of load, if they are higher or lower than what they should be though it does suggest a PSU problem.

The 550W PSU would do nicely and you are most welcome BTW

How is the computer running at present.

[SlAy3r41]

Yep PC is running fine,but like i say as soon as i go to play on-line games is when it seems to do it.
Just to reiterate,I can play single player games such Tomb Raider 2013 on almost full graphics settings for 2/3 hrs at a time with np's what so ever.
But as an example i went to play MW2 online last night and as soon as it loaded the game it froze with no warning at all it was gonna do it,but then as I remember (going back 1/2 months ago it would be hit and miss,I.E sometimes it would play for an 1hr maybe more and at other times it would crash like it did last night.
As for the bios I will have a look tomorrow and take notes on the volts and post em up here for you to have a look at.
I don't think I have any Asus monitoring software running but i will check and get back to you soon.

Thx again for your continued help in what for me is a frustrating problem

[phillpower2]

I will look out for an update from you tomorrow when you are ready

Below is my canned text for improving the HDDs performance/freeing up some space, it will take you a while to complete so do it when you have time;


My first suggestion is to tidy up the data on your HDD so please follow the directions provided below starting with Autoruns http://technet.micro...ernals/bb963902

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
5: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
6: Attach to your next reply.

2nd: Download and run TFC from http://www.geekstogo...ds&showfile=187 your computer should automatically re-boot on completion but if not do it manually.

3rd: Defrag your HDD http://www.auslogics...re/disk-defrag/ a tidy drive is a faster drive, please note that I am not suggesting that you use any other product or service at the link.
Couple of other things to consider are what size HDD do you have and how much free storage space is available, you should always have between 15 and 20% of the overall capacity available, do not have more than 1 AV program running as it causes slowness as the programs fight for control of system resources, this can lead to instability and/or crashes.

What AV do you use, some use a lot more system resources than others Norton and AVG are excellent but very demanding.

To speed up your boot times find any unnecessary programs linked to start up "how to" below;

START -> RUN
type MSCONFIG in the RUN/Search box
then click OK

Click on the start-up TAB

Look at each line that has a check in the box, these are start-up items, with the exception of Windows programs and your anti virus software uncheck the ones you do not want to run at start-up.

[SlAy3r41]

Hi phillpower2

Just gone into MB bios to look at the voltages,all i could find was these as listed

VCore Voltage 1.232v
3.3V Voltage 3.264V
5V Voltage 5.040V
12V Voltage 11.984V

Hope this is what you needed ,sorry if I sound like a noob,but then I guess I am a little lol.
I will have a look at the below you suggested tomorrow


My first suggestion is to tidy up the data on your HDD so please follow the directions provided below starting with Autoruns http://technet.micro...ernals/bb963902

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.
2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".
3: Click on the "Everything" tab
4: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.
5: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop.
6: Attach to your next reply.

2nd: Download and run TFC from http://www.geekstogo...ds&showfile=187 your computer should automatically re-boot on completion but if not do it manually.

As for AV progs I'm running I only have windows Microsoft Security Essentails running.
hope this is suffice for todays AV attacks

[SlAy3r41]

Just a follow up to my last post.I've done all the above apart from defragging my pc which i will do tomorrow & post up when I've done that .
Also find theattached winrar file of the "AutoRuns",I'm sorry it's a rar file but this was the only way I could upload it.

Many thx Phill.Regards Nige

Attached Files

•  AutoRuns.zip   87.31KB   130 downloads

[phillpower2]

Hello Nige

Thanks for the BIOS details which are as they should be but just to reiterate;

NB: BIOS voltage readings.

The readings are not conclusive in the BIOS as the computer is under the least amount of load, if they are higher or lower than what they should be though it does suggest a PSU problem.

MSE is a very good AV so no issues there

Please upload the Autoruns log to http://www.mediafire.com/ and then post the download link (url) here.

How to use mediafire http://en.kioskea.ne...es-to-mediafire

Other people reading your topic looking for help will not need to mess about with win.zip etc this way.

[SlAy3r41]

Hi Phill.

Sorry about the rar file,here is the url for it.

http://www.mediafire...q483civud40c6nv

Hope that is what you meant.
I have done a full defrag on my my HD as you suggested.Does seem to be be a bit faster to boot up now .It was a bit lapse of me to not do defrag on a regular basis,I know it should be done on a regular basis to keep pc running faster .I've got it set now to do a weekly defrag.

Thx Phill for your advise yet again.Regards Nige

[phillpower2]

Hello Nige,

Nearly done, while I check the Autoruns log;

Please Run the PCPitstop.com OverDrive Full Tests

Here's how:

You must use your Internet Explorer for this procedure. (doesn't work so well in Firefox or others). If your machine is running Vista or Windows 7, you must Select IE to “Run as Administrator”. After completing PCPitstop OverDrive you can close your IE browser and re-open it Normally so that you are no longer running as administrator.

Go to: http://www.pcpitstop...pit/default.asp
Click on "Free Computer Check-up" listed below PC Pitstop OverDrive
In the User Login - Click on "Sign up FREE!"
You'll need to submit a valid email address and create your own password, then click - Create Account(button)

Now enter your email address and password to Log in, Select - Scan this system Now!(button)
You will then be asked to download an ActiveX component and allow it to install.
It is safe and does not compromise your privacy.
Follow the on-screen prompts to install the ActiveX and to allow the Full Tests to be run on your machine.

The Full Tests take about 2 1/2 - 3 minutes on most machines.
When complete, a Results - Summary - Recommended Fixes will be displayed.

Please post the URL internet address, from your Results, back here into this Topic Thread so that we can review the configuration and present performance levels of your machine.

Note: During the graphics 2D and graphics 3D testing, your screen will display some rapidly moving objects.
If you are sensitive to visual flashing, it may cause dizziness. Therefore, look away from the screen during that portion of the testing.

After reviewing the results we will be more informed and may be able to provide better recommendations for you to work towards improving your machine's performance.

While PCPitstop does offer a variety of Paid Products, the PCPitstop OverDrive testing is FREE. Please ignore the references to Paid Products. We prefer to provide manual solution instructions that you can apply directly to your machine.

Thanks to rshaffer61 for the PCPitstop information.

NB: An example of the url that we require and the information that it leads to http://www.pcpitstop...?conid=25271813

We can remove the url when we are done.