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Solved Six Month old PC, keeps crashing on games... giving me a black screen!

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Hello. I have had my PC now for around six months, a friend built my PC for me from the parts I ordered online.

Up until around three weeks ago everything was going well, it ran all the games I couldn't run but wanted to before on my older PC.

Here is my Speccy: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/OSWSols5uPancSlEuH4dlH5

I have ran into an issue when running the majority of my games, my PC will do one of the following things after around five minutes:

A: The screen will go black, I can still hear my games running in the background, but the screen will go black and the fans in my case will enter 'overdrive' almost, becoming really loud, or alternatively it may be my GPU fans kicking in, I am not too sure.

B: The entire PC will reboot, reloading with my login screen being a very strange resolution and grey in colour. after exactly two restarts without fail each time, the grey screen disappears and the resolution returns to normal.

At first I thought it was maybe to do with graphics drivers - I have uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them, and it has made no difference. I then thought perhaps it was because my hardware was getting too hot, whilst running games I checked the temperature, my GPU would reach 67 and my CPU hottest was around the 57 mark.

I then looked at system information, I noticed it said:
'System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32'

From this I assumed that I was running a 32 bit system, however after running Speccy it tells me that I am running a 64bit operating system - I then concluded that it was not because I am attempting to run games meant for a 64 bit operating system on a 32bit operating system.

I have ran a memory diagnosis on my PC, the results came back and it said that there were no issues found.

I have scanned for viruses, nothing was found.

I have changed the power management settings to balanced just to see if it was something to do with me choosing the 'better performance' - it is still doing it.

I am going around in circles, my friend who built my PC has no idea what is wrong - and thus, I have no idea what is wrong.

Any help is appreciated, I spent a lot of money on this PC just so I could play the games I never could, and so I could play any newer games that may could out that I would want to play.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Caesar W
 
Hello CaesarWinslet,

Can you post the brand and model name or number of the PSU.

We need to check to confirm the readings but so you are aware Speccy is reporting bad voltages.

Power Profile
Active power scheme: High performance

I suggest that you change the Windows Power Plan to Balanced, High Performance is a form of overclocking that is known to cause stability and overheating issues and the setting should only be used for gaming type notebooks that have a discrete GPU that needs the extra power.
 
Hello CaesarWinslet,

Can you post the brand and model name or number of the PSU.

We need to check to confirm the readings but so you are aware Speccy is reporting bad voltages.

Power Profile
Active power scheme: High performance

I suggest that you change the Windows Power Plan to Balanced, High Performance is a form of overclocking that is known to cause stability and overheating issues and the setting should only be used for gaming type notebooks that have a discrete GPU that needs the extra power.

I have changed the active power scheme to balanced and it seems to have fixed the issue - my PSU is a corsair 650w Gold - would you recommend me upgrading my power supply unit?

Thank you for your help
 
Good news, any further problems we will check your temps and voltages but no need if things are ok, if you do need to post back, can I ask that you do not quote every reply, we have to read the whole post and if there is nothing new to be read it wastes your time and ours.

Gold efficiency rated Corsair PSUs are among the best so less likely to cause issues, two provisos though, they are not older models that are out of warranty and they are not from the CS range as even though Gold efficiency rated Corsair only recommend the model be used with basic desktops + they are only covered by a rather short three year warranty period.

You are welcome btw :)
 
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Hello again Phill, my PC has just restarted again this is after around 3 hours of game play, it reset at around 2132 GMT.

I've checked in the event viewer if that would be any use and the most recent error under 'system' is 'The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly'.
 
Apologies for the delay getting back to you.

Typical of something overheating, can you run the computer for a while and then do the following for us;

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.

speedfan.png


So that we have a comparison to Speedfan, download, run and grab a screenshot of HWMonitor (free).

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... after typing in any response you have... click on Upload a File to add the screenshot.

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.
 
Sorry Phill I do apologise, I was absolutely wrecked all weekend. I've come back to it and decided to take the glass panel off of my tower. It seems to have solved the problem, which makes me think that there wasn't enough air flow or something I have no idea...
 
No problem and thanks for getting back to us (y)

It would appear that the problem was indeed an overheating one then, the pull/push method of cooling works best, fans at the front draw in cool, clean air and fans at the rear expel the hot air pretty much like a car exhaust, side and top fans are an added bonus and should not be used instead of either a front or rear cooling fan.
 
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