Oc'd Pc crashes after months HELP please

[erdinger]

Hello together. My Pc crashed today and made strange noise... Here the Whole story.

A few months ago I overclocked my Cd2 E6300 to 2.6 Ghz (with your help).

The system was running great and I decided to buy a new Graphics card. It is the Zotac Geforce 9800gt Amp! which has a single slot cooling solution. Again no problems but the card got kind of hot when playing for long time(83C+).

One weak ago I changed the position of my PC. I put it further away from the heating body but nearer to a "wall" of my table there are approx 15cm distace to the wall.
At the backside of the Pc (only 1 exhaust fan) are the whole cables(salad) and a subwoofer.

The only problems I had were the PC running slower after some hours of work (downloads/winrar....).

My systems Specs:
Core 2 duo E6300 (2,6ghz oc)
Asus P5b motherboard

4gigs Kingston value ram(dual channel)
Zotac Geforce 9800gt Amp! (Oc'ed by Zotac)

A 550 Watt no name Psu (only half a Year old, came together with a Pc case)
250 giga Samsung hd.


Today A friend of mine came over and gave me his external Harddisk. I had big data traffic.
I took more then 15 gigs of his data, and copied 8 gigs of it onto the Usb device of another friend.
I then installed Mirror's edge (without restarting) and wanted to shut down the pc.

It took ages to shut down so I just put it out manually after 30 min's or so (3 sec power button push).
The next time I tried to shut down the Pc the same thing happened. (maybe freeze while Shutdown? or installed game +data which gave to much work to windows).

However the third time it worked perfectly, so I didn't bother anymore and played Mirror's edge.

After half an hour or so The Monitors turned Black! a few sec's later the Sound started repeating itself. (system crash)
I pushed the restart button but nothing happened(except of the sound stopping). Pushed it again waited for the BEEP of ther motherboard, but it didn't come.

Some seconds later i heard three beeps from the motherboard(or more). It sounded like a warning so i Immediatly suted down the pc (3 sec power button push)

1 Min later I tried booting again, and everything worked great (and still does) to be shure that the Oc'ed Cpu isn't the prob I'm running Prime 95 Small fft for more then an hour now and it didn't crash. (the Graphic cards at 64 (idle) the Cpu 54 (Speed fan only installed no adjustments). But I have to admit that I placed the pc a little bit further away from the wall and opened the window (VERY COLD) for 1 min to cool down the room.

What do you think is the reason for my pc Problems?
Please help me solve them. Is there any connection? Should I clock the Cpu lower? Bring back the Gpu and get a new one?

Kind Regards Erdinger

 

[erdinger]

Sorry for double post.

I Played the same scene of the game again. This time after only 5mins the Graka got 84C hot Cpu only 47. and the game crashed. However the Pc still worked and I could finish the Application.

And another thing i forgot to say is that my room is pretty dusty could this be the prob?

 

[Fruity]

And another thing i forgot to say is that my room is pretty dusty could this be the prob?

In a word, 'yes'.
I reckon dust is the number one killer of computers!!

 

[erdinger]

hmmmm do the others agree? because in my eyes it doesn't make to much sence that dust only desturbs the pc when playing good graphic games.(but I could very well be wrong)

What is the best way to "take away" the dust?

 

[core i7 ownage]

Bye to hardware, Hello to software.

Could this friend been giving you a viruses?

 

[core i7 ownage]

Bye to hardware, Hello to software.

Could this friend been giving you a viruses?

 

[core i7 ownage]

Sorry for triple post.

 

[erdinger]

No it wasn't viruses he is a sefety freak and always uses kaspersky antivir (and I do the same)

and I'm running the pc for hours without any problems... but the last two times I played a hardwareeating game it crashed (prime 95 no crash) as mentioned above so I think it isn't software...

Dust, too hot Graphics card or Instable game which caused my pc to crash once is what I think is most probable..

I also have to say that it was hotter in my room then usual when the pc crashed... still cold in comparisom with summer...

 

[core i7 ownage]

Mmm, wait til summer comes and your room getting hot then test if it crashs quicker than winter...

If it is then its too hot for your graphic card; underclock it.

 

[erdinger]

I've got waranty on the graphic card... and it's overclocked by the manufacturer...

the only thing I could "underclock" is the cpu but it is easaly primestable....

Could it be that the Graphic card heats the interior up so strongly when playing that the cpu gets to hot?

Isn't 85 degrees to hot for a graphics card?

 

[Fruity]

Best way to clear out dust is to open the case and carefully get a vacuum cleaner nozzle inside. I also use a small static free brush to brush down components (it actually came with an electric razor cleaning set!).
Start on the lowest possible vacuum power setting lol. Definitely worth doing. Also look at fitting fan filters - they're only a few pounds and will save a lot of trouble in the long run.

Wheather it's the cause of your crashes is another matter, but i absolutely gaurnatee that if you are using your PC in a dusty room without fan filters, it WILL eventually kill the PC.

 

[erdinger]

... you say dust filters cost little and help alot but I used the pc 2 years without opening it up (now its 2 and a half years old) and it worked great! never ever ever had problems, and my room was often very dusty. However I will always take the time and clean the pc. I think that I also have to imrpove the airflow in the case.

... played the game again and after some minutes the game crashed... maybe the game is playing jokes with me.

 

[dokk2]

I dunno ,,if it was me I would begin to suspect that no name psu,also check it too for dust which I have seen kill the air flow into the psu's box and kill the computer,,REMEMBER the psu is the single most important part of your computer,,so do not be a cheap skate when purchasing a new one go for the gold,,LOL...

 

[erdinger]

yes my new pc will have a named power supply....

Please tell me what the it meens when the pc BEEPS three times (maybe more) after trying to restart it with the restart button, because that's the only thing which makes me fear for my pc...

Today I've opened up the cast and Opened the window and balkony door so that 5C cold air joined the room... the Gpu and the Cpu where freezing cold and the game still crashed after 5 min so i think the game just crashes and need to be patched. The big thing I don't understand is why I got a blackscreen first time the game crashed.

 

[Fruity]

Are your beeps similar to this?

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-198897_12_0.html

 

[erdinger]

WoW i think it was one long and two/thre short ones as mentioned in the link

 

[x_2fast4u_x]

frummpy psu could cause sparratic system instability. Even though the power output is sufficent.

What happens when a GPU/PSU starts to wind up it uses a little more juice, and a frumpy PSU could choke up and cause a system crash, however when you go to restart it the parts on the system are throttled down, when you get in windows and start running a game or something the needs increase.

Also i've noticed, when transfering such large files though a USB (external hard drive) Theres an increased chance of file corruption. so you might think of re-coppying the game over to your system.

Another though is that the new GPU is to blame, perhaps it is not stable, even though the factory is the one overclocking does not mean its 1000% stable, so try puting a diffent card in and trying that. I've had this problem where my display driver/addapter will stop responding when it gets to hot or runs to fast.

P.S.
my guess is the latter of the 3 because the only variable that changed was the new GPU, so perhaps it can run stable in windows but after a few min of game play it because unstable in mirrors edge.

 

[Onus]

A layer of dust in your system will decrease its cooling capacity, like having a not-so-comfy blanket keeping it warm. Sucking up dust with a vacuum cleaner, however, is NOT how to get rid of it. All that dust going up the hose will generate static, which can kill your PC. The best way to get rid of dust is take it outside on a clear day and blow it out with a can of compressed air.
Remove and re-seat your RAM sticks, and other connectors while you're at it.
Add at least one more fan to your system. While it is part of your case cooling, the PSU fan isn't meant to do all the work to cool a system that includes an overclocked GPU. Add an intake fan at the front and/or another exhaust in the rear or top.
And yes, that no-name PSU is probably not capable of anywhere near its labeled rating, and likely puts out erratic voltages, especially as it heats up. Dust may be part of the cause, but in any case replace this PSU. Antec, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, and Seasonic are among the more reliable brands. If you can buy from Newegg, you can get an Earthwatts 430 for $55 now, or an Earthwatts 500 for $70.
I've seen some recommendations on the new, inexpensive OCZ Fatal1ty PSUs, but comments I've read on one of the jonnyguru forums is that they're made by Sirtec and should be avoided. YMMV; I'm still waiting for an actual technical review on them.

 

[erdinger]

I'm not going to invest money into the system, And my Psu and Graka were good enough for crysis...

I've found out the the Physix acelleration is the reason why the game always crashes... (Mirorr's edge Physics unpatched are no good) I've took that option off and the game runs.

Everything got explained to me.... The game crashed due to physix, the card is 85C because it has 1 slot cooling! but the only thing i still dont get is why the hell the Pc crashed that day and started beeping.

Since the Pc's performance is good in other games (cod4+5 Crysis) I don't bother anymore as long as it doesn't crash.

I will sure clean my PC in the next hollydays and maybe get a second fan, but replacing the Psu is a to big investment for a two year old overclocked machine...

I will build a new pc soon and there I will use good parts only.

Thank you for your answers