[agentosage]

I just recently built a new computer for the purpose of gaming.  First, I played Skyrim, I was running it on ultra at 1920x1080 for about 20 minutes, and then my computer suddenly froze and it wouldn't let me do anything, forcing me to press the power button on my case to turn it off. Also of note, there was a loud, constant buzzing noise coming from my monitor's speakers after it froze.

 

I thought it was just a problem with Skyrim, but then I played Payday 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive and the same thing happened, not sure if this matters but by this time I had my headset plugged in and there was no buzzing noise when my computer froze.

 

 

My processor is the AMD FX 8320 and I am using the stock CPU fan that came with it, while I was playing these games it was extremely loud. Naturally, I assumed that the freezing was due to my CPU overheating. So to confirm this, I downloaded CPUID HWMonitor and ran it while I was playing Payday 2, the readings showed the CPU was under 60 degrees celsius the entire time, my computer still froze after a bit.

 

So now I'm wondering if this really is because of my CPU overheating or not? What else could it be?

 

I also ran Prime95 and that ran for about 5 minutes until my CPU reached 67 degrees celsius and then my computer froze again.  There is only one case fan that I have installed, located at the rear of the case.

 

Is this freezing due to my CPU being overheated or is it something else? Specs below

 

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

 

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor

 

GPU: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card

 

Motherboard: ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+

 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8gb (2 x 4gb) DDR3-1600 Memory

 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPN Internal Hard Drive

 

PSU: Rosewill Hive Series HIVE-750-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified

Edited by agentosage, 23 March 2015 - 04:31 PM.

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Hello agentosage... and


A few questions to help us get started on your trouble-shooting:

Are you running the most up to date driver for your graphics card?

Does this same problem occur using the built-in display adapter?

[Fusionbomb]

Hello agentosage... and


A few questions to help us get started on your trouble-shooting:

Are you running the most up to date driver for your graphics card?

Does this same problem occur using the built-in display adapter?

[agentosage]

Hey, thanks for the welcome.

 

Yes, I am running the current drivers for my GPU.

 

And I'm sorry, but what is the built in display adapter? Right now I just have it connected to my monitor via HDMI cable.

 

Also, I just purchased and installed a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU fan today.  The temps have reduced by 5-10 degrees celsius but my computer still freezes when playing games or after running Prime95 for 5-10 minutes.

 

Update: After playing Dishonored for 30 minutes, my computer crashed again (surprise, surprise).  But this time, when my computer was starting up again the DRAM LED on my motherboard lit up and there was a short beep that kept repeating. I pressed the MemOK! button on my motherboard and the computer started up fine, no problems.

Edited by agentosage, 24 March 2015 - 08:41 PM.

[Fusionbomb]

agentosage,


You may not actually have an on-board graphics (built in display adapter), so please disregard that part.  Thanks for providing the additional information.


If you will, please reboot the machine into Safe Mode.  Once in Safe Mode, in the Run Box, copy and paste
mdsched to run the built in RAM test.


If you're unsure how to get into Safe Mode, the easiest way for me to tell you is to click Start> type "msconfig" in the search, and hit Enter.

The second tab at the top should say Boot, click that and at the bottom left there will be a check-box for Safe Mode and it will prompt you to restart after checking that and hitting Apply/OK.


Please let us know the results.  =)

[agentosage]

I did as you said and ran the memory diagnostics, it passed both times and no errors were found.

 

Update: I also ran it two more times, testing both sticks of RAM individually, still no errors found.

 

Update #2: I was able to play Payday 2 for an hour and a half on the lowest graphics and the lowest resolution until it crashed. This time, instead of the screen freezing and the computer fans still running, my computer straight up shut down.  The computer restarted itself and when it came back up I took a look at the Event Viewer and under Windows Logs, Systems it showed that there was a critical error, the source was Kernel Power. This is what it said: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." So could this be a power supply problem?

 

Apparently that Kernel Power error has been showing up everytime my computer freezes and I have to shut it down with the power button...

 

After doing some reading online, I think this may very well be a problem with my power supply... Any way to confirm this before I go out and replace it?

Edited by agentosage, 25 March 2015 - 04:20 PM.

[phillpower2]

Hello agentosage,

 

Something for you to do while Fusionbomb is offline;

 

Download Speedfan and install it.  Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.  The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.

If you are running on a vista machine, please go to where you installed the program and run the program as administrator.

 

 (this is a screenshot from a vista machine)

 

 Download then run HWMonitor and post a screenshot so that we have a comparison to the Speedfan results, details from here

 

To capture and post a screenshot;

 

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

[agentosage]

Hey thanks for the help, here are the screenshots:

 

 

 

Edited by agentosage, 25 March 2015 - 09:18 PM.

[phillpower2]

Speedfan is not showing much + you need to expand the HWMonitor screen as much of the information is missing, can you do this and attach it to your next reply please.

 

Additionally;

 

Please restart your computer and check the temperatures/voltages in the BIOS, no screenshot is required just make a note of the temperatures and the +3.3V, +5V and the +12V and post them with your next reply.

 

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.

 

It is getting late here in the UK and I have an early start in the morning so going offline shortly, hopefully Fusionbomb will be back and can check your temps for you, til tomorrow and good luck.

[agentosage]

I updated the screenshots in the previous post.

 

Here are the temps from BIOS

 

CPU: 104.0F/40.0C

 

MB: 89.6F/32.0C

 

And the voltages -

 

CPU: 1.284V

 

3.3V: 3.312V

 

5v: 5.12V

 

12v: 12.25V

 

I'm thinking about going to Best Buy tomorrow to pick up a Corsair CX 750w PSU, if that doesn't fix the problem then I'll just return it.

Edited by agentosage, 25 March 2015 - 10:10 PM.

[Fusionbomb]

Good morning agentosage,


Apologies for my rather delayed response, and thanks phillpower2 for picking up my slack.  I, too, am leaning towards the possibility of a bad PSU.  When a PSU is failing, there are many flaky symptoms that can occur including the ones you have experienced. 

I'm a tad ignorant when it comes to temps/voltages, but if I'm not mistaken your CPU voltage seems to be running slightly lower than it should be.  I believe most times the numbers we should be roughly looking for are 3.3V, 5V, and 12V.  If you'll notice, your CPU seems to be running on less than half of the required voltage.

To be honest, if it's not the PSU then I'm not sure what it could be... if you can buy a new one to test it (and return if it doesn't fix), that may be a good next step to take.  Please just keep us updated if the replacement PSU solves the issue. 

Good luck! 


Edit:  After researching a bit more, I found that sometimes it's normal for processors to run on as low as 1.3V... so it's possible that the PSU isn't the cause.  =/

Before running off to buy another PSU, I was wondering if you might launch some games/programs before running SpeedFan again and showing us a screenshot of it then, so we can see the temps of the parts when they are being stressed/used.

Edited by Fusionbomb, 26 March 2015 - 09:10 AM.

[agentosage]

Here is a screenshot of HWMonitor while I was playing Space Engineers at maximum graphics:

 

 

The Hyper 212 EVO that I bought seems to be doing a pretty good job at keeping things cool. However, I only ran the game for about 10 minutes as I didn't want my computer to crash on me.  That said the temperatures still seem fine to me.

Edited by agentosage, 26 March 2015 - 09:53 AM.

[Fusionbomb]

Those temps seem fine to me.  Maybe the CPU voltage isn't an issue either, but I have no other ideas at the moment. 

If someone else knows something feel free to chime in... I will have to do a little more thinking/research.   ;/

Edited by Fusionbomb, 26 March 2015 - 10:18 AM.

[agentosage]

Just installed my new power supply, the Corsair CX series 750m. It seems to have fixed the problem so far, just played Payday 2 on ultra graphics for a couple of hours with no crashes. I'll wait a couple days before I conclude this though.

[iammykyl]

Gday.

Your PSU results actually looked good, but if new one fixes the issue, the old one may have had a problem we could not detect.

 

Please run Prime95 again. 

[agentosage]

I ran prime95 for roughly an hour and the cpu temperature capped at 62 celsius (I was also watching videos while it was running) and there were no crashes. With my old PSU my comp would've crashed 5 mins into running prime95.