Computer Probs.....Guru's enter

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

I built a gaming PC a few months ago and its been awsome but now I have an issue

of it shutting down,like someone pulled the plug - usually happens when gaming...

But sometimes just random

any ideas? I was thinking either a bad power supply(OCZ) or MOBO(gigabyite)

Click to read more...

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

I built a gaming PC a few months ago and its been awsome but now I have an issueof it shutting down,like someone pulled the plug - usually happens when gaming...

But sometimes just random

any ideas? I was thinking either a bad power supply(OCZ) or MOBO(gigabyite)

that sounds weird, but anyways how big is ur PSU and what equipment are you running

perhaps your PSU isnt keeping up ie not enough wattage to run everything

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

due core e6850

gigabyte GA N650SLI mobo

2 gigs of OCZ Ram

300 gig HD

EVGA 8800 GTS

OCZ2700 PS 700 watts

dvd burner

simple,been working great till yesterday

then my 8800 exploded and sparked.....I put in a spare little vid card

and it worked great for a while but started crashing again and now barly runs.

I think its the PS crapping out

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

while ur gaming next time, physically feel ur equipment specifically your video cards heatsink, ram, hard drive, and processor heatsink

if anything is hotter than "a little warm" your computer is overheating

edit: also get some compressed air and spray inside your case for dust... dust buildlup will definitely cause overheating, especially inside the processors heatsink where you have the heatsink enclosed on both sides by a fan and processor, so the dust gets trapped inside

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

and why did your 8800 explode????

 

[DaveT 10+ year member]

If you really feel that it is the power supply then go to OCZ's support forum and start a thread, they'll take care of you.

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

If you really feel that it is the power supply then go to OCZ's support forum and start a thread, they'll take care of you.

The PSU is definitely a possibility but I want him to take care of the simple parts first before moving onto something like a PSU...

overheating can be checked in 10 seconds easily.

 

[tRidiot 10+ year member]

I had similar problems and after a couple of months found out it was my HDD. I bought a new MB, pulled and tested my RAM, tested my PSU, multiple Windows reformats... I got the BSOD more often than not, but I also got random freezes and hard reboots.

Now that I've pulled those two HDDs and am using a new SATA drive, it's running ROCK stable. I need to work on getting my OC back up there. Had a 1.8GHz dual-core Opty OC'd to 2.6+ on air. Not the most impressive, but I was pretty happy.

Not saying this is definitely your problem, just pointing out that sometimes the symptoms may point on direction, but the HDD was not really the thing I would have jumped on first. Really acted more like memory or PSU to me.

Good luck.

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

call dell tech support.

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

I did blow the dust out and it seemed to actually make it worse and shut down even faster after that......the Antek case has 3 huge fans,the 8800GTS has its own fan as well as the CPU...Lots fans and air in there...

 

[staypuff 10+ year member]

errrrrrrr..... your vid card exploded?????

WHAT THE ****???

dood first of all by your vid card exploding we need to find out why this happened.... vid cards just don't start sparking.... this may have damaged everything else in your system..... do you have another computer around either yours or a friend's that you can swap in parts and check them one at a time???

i'm thinking the vid card "exploding" damaged your motherboard....

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

after the vid card shorted (it was just a POP sound)

out I added a new one,a cheap card I got locally just to

confirm what was going on and it ran great but started acting up again a day or so later

 

[shadetree 10+ year member]

is your stuff overclocked and how high. if so could be thermal protection shutting it down. I had a rig do the same thing, just randomly cut out and it was the power supply. so if you've checked all basic check points such as pull and reseat ram,cpu, graphics card and any other pci cards etc. then it could very well be the psu.

 

[bk12321 10+ year member]

you guys are saying youve had the same problem and naming off symptoms.... there are like 100 things that could cause a computer to randomly shut down on its own...

the top 5 ive seen:

-bad component on the mobo

-bad psu (sometimes its just the PSU cable but not likely)

-overheating (90% of the cases caused by excessive dust)

-viruses/spyware

-and ram either not seated properly, not the RIGHT KIND, or just faulty

ive also seen a lot of video cards overheating because the fan wasnt plugged into the pins on the video card... so basically it was only being cooled by the heatsink

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

my card is not over clocked,it worked great right out of the box so I left it alone