My PC freezes randomly (Graphic Card Issue)

[Irtaza]

System Specs:
CPU:Intel QX 9650
RAM: 4GB 800 FSB
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P43-ES3G
PSU: Antec 500W total 44amps on 12v rail
GPU: XFX 5830
OS: Win 7 64bit

My system mostly hangs on startup and everything freezes even num lock does not work. But sometimes it works perfectly I ran kombuster on full load for 5 to 10 mins and the system worked without a hiccup. I also played BF3 on medium high settings for an hour. The temps during the game did not exceed 60C.

The card have heating issues therefore I changed the fan speed to 86% from AMD catalyst centre which keep the temps within limits.

Note: I have 4850 as well and when I use it the system does not hang so I am pretty sure it is a GPU problem.

Sometimes the card shows artifacts during startup (When windows is loading various softwares) and then system freezes. But amazingly the card does not show any artifacts when running on 99% load!

 

[laviniuc]

how old is that psu? antec psu -s are usually solid... try to run furmark and prime95 each separately and then both at the same time to max out the ram/cpu and gpu separately.

 

[Irtaza]

how old is that psu? antec psu -s are usually solid... try to run furmark and prime95 each separately and then both at the same time to max out the ram/cpu and gpu separately.

I don't know how old it is as I purchased it second hand but I forgot to mention that its 80+ Bronze. I ran both the stress test simultaneously and there was no problem at all.

I personally think the issue is with the initial fan speed. The fan runs slow till AMD catalyst is loaded which might cause a temp spike for short period of time. I tried to further cool down the GPU with the help of 90mm fan but that didn't help much in terms of lowering temperature.