Computer freezes 5 minutes into the game

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desnyki

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Aug 17, 2009
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It's actually more complex then what the title says. The computer freezes after about 5 minutes into most games but after restart i can play the same game without any crashes or freezing. The way it freezes and the screens turns into funny colours points towards the graphics card overheating, but then why wouldn't it crash after the restart? I formatted the disk and installed newest drivers for my invidia card but it keeps doing the same thing, so im guessing it s not a software issue. I also tried cleaning the video card from dust, which doesn t really mean i cleaned it properly. It s hard to get inside the casing.
 
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It could be a couple of things. It could be your PSU on its way out. The second start kicks it in but when first start shows the problem. So what is your PSU brand and watts?

Next problem is your GPU's fan is not working durning first boot and like the PSU on second boot fan begins to work. If it was a heat problem it would happen all the time nomatter how many restarts there are.

If you had MSI Afterburner you could at the same time while you are playing your game up in one the corners it will display your temps fps and fan speed and usage. I will link you to it and it user manual.

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/images/Afterburner%20User%20Manual.pdf
 
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the power supply is an ocz 700w, and the graphics card is an nvidia gtx280. The gpu fan definitely works. I m also thinking it s the psu but is there any way to find out besides putting in a new psu and seeing if it all works? that d be too much work.
 
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Tricky one this. It's not so hard to try another PSU if you have one, often you won't need to take the existing one out, just balance the new one on the edge of the case and swap connections over. But, that requires buying another psu unless you can borrow one... Better if you have a voltmeter and can monitor the voltages before freeze and after once it settles. Does your mobo have an integrated GPU you could try? Did your temps look good?
 
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Before i start swapping parts and testing, let me share another piece of information i recently found out. After the freeze the games start working weird. What happens is that the character in the games runs in slow motion, it s hard to notice at first but it does happen. Everything else in the game seems to run fine. If i play a multiplayer game, after a few minutes punkbuster kicks me out of the server because of the slowmo. This does happen in all games im currently playing. After a few days it returns to normal where i can play usually for a day untill next day i get a freeze again and the slomo starts over. I really need help with this since it s summer and i broke my collar bone, so the only thing i can really do for the next few months is play games.
 
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Did you download Speccy? Might be a good idea to post your voltages, select motherboard and all will be revealed, in particular your 12 & 5V rails, I imagine if they're low it would affect the whole machine. Also try to compare voltages whilst the machine is running prior to a freeze, then after when it is running near normal but a bit slow. It would also help to know more about your machine, I'll be away for about 7 hours, but I'm sure someone else will help meantime.... Need as much info as you can get tho...
 
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Are all of your drivers up to date and I don't just mean the GPU? There is your sound, bios, and mobo drivers. Is your ram good? have you taken out the sticks and tried to run them one at a time?

I will link you to a memtest 86+ to chenk your ram. Also I will link you to MSI Kombustor so you can do a stress test on your system and see how that bench mark will help.

Then there is a driver sweeper to really clean out all the old drivers from your GPU's After using this then try reinstalling them and use coustom install then clean install. And see how that goes. You have three driver sweepers to choose from. Good luck to you.

http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.ozone3d.net/msi_kombustor/

http://download.cnet.com/Driver-Sweeper/3000-2094_4-75219868.html

http://performersoft.com/dr.php?brand=Updated&gclid=CKmppoaHna8CFUZgTAodTzOD4Q

http://phyxion.net/item/driver-sweeper.html
 
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pic of my specs
http://i.imgur.com/JNZDe.jpg
the psu is the ocz 700w

I don't need a driver sweeper, i recently formatted my disk and installed all up to date drivers. My problem existed before the format. I haven't played with the physical parts, i m going to run some tests right now with the software provided by you guys.

EDIT

Okay so i found out a pretty big problem with my computer. I was running the msi kombustor and the gpu was at 80C which seems high but tbh that s what it always ran at with no problems. Then i checked the cpu temperature and it was at 74C which i thought was really high so while still running the kombustor i opened up the computer and pressed my cpu heat sink against the cpu and the temperature fell down to 56C. I have a big heat sink (the zipang scythe) and im pretty sure one of the pins is broken not holding the cpu sink well enough, or maybe it s just so big i can t put it in properly. I guess the question is, could it be possible that the cpu overheating is causing these problems?
 
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Overheating it is then! From what you said it would seem there's not enough downward pressure between the sink and the top surface of the CPU indeed. And to be sure it would cause your probs. I'm not familiar with that particular combo of CPU and cooler, but I'm sure there will be plenty out there who will be. If no-one comes back in this thread start a new one...
Your voltages look ok to me, though I think Speccy has confused your CMOS battery with your 12V rail!
 
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the pins are terrible, i just broke 3 of them trying to put the heat sink back on. Right now i just have the heat sink resting on the cpu running not pinned in. Can someone recommend me a good heat sink with different type of pins, this heatsinks way too big to pin it back in, im already pissed off with bleeding hands as it is.
 
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i already have one of the heatsinks listed there, do you know where i can get only the latch part? Also bad news, even with the heatsink positioned well, my game just froze.
 
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This is getting really annoying, now i dont have sound in the game and i can t play any movies or songs. But there are system sounds, and a different game also plays sounds, this is so random i don't know what to do.
 
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I am sorry to hear that. At this point if you are not comfortable with working on your rig then I would put it in the shop. Or just do a quick fix the best way you can and buy a new rig.

You could get one very close to yours now and use the parts to make it better. If you don't know what you are doing you could cause it all to not work at all. I don't know if you are good at fixs of PC's

This is the only reason I suggested it. I do wish you good luck on this one.
 
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Sounds likely that there has been some damage to either cpu or the mobo solder joints below the cpu. Constant overheating/cooling causes the joints to develope hairline cracks and eventually becomes a 'dry joint' which won't pass current. This would explain your problems inc. running slow. I would lean towards replacing the mobo for that reason, and hope the cpu survived.
 
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A little update. So far I've replaced the cpu heat sink with the stock fan. The scythe zipang was so big i never managed to get one pin in properly. I've also replaced the graphics card with a radeon hd 6870 (little note: I ve received it from the engineer that designed it at an amd conference. really good card) These changes completely fixed all my issues. Next step is adding my ssd.
 
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