PC shuts down when watching video.

[cdriccio]

Hello all,

Recently I'm having a problem with my PC where when I play a video off the hard drive, it shuts down completely. I haven't gamed on it in a while, but I'm assuming it would do it while gaming also.

I saw some threads on here talking about drivers so I made sure those were updated. Then I considered cpu and gpu temperatures.

My cpu temperatures are fine... hovering in the 30s Celsius.
My gpu however... I'm not sure what to think about this one.

First... I'll say I have a 2011 PC. I'm running dual Radeon 6850s in Xfire.
gpu 1 seems to idle around 80 degrees with the fans at 100% according to the monitor.
gpu 2 seems to not even register a temperature (0 degrees and 0 load) but it says the fans are running at 20%.

When I kick off a video, gpu 1 steadily increases in temperature but gpu 2 does nothing.
With in just a few minutes... gpu 1 is at 99 degrees and gpu 2 is doing nothing. I stopped the video there and the gpu temperature immediately started to decrease.

And the load on the gpu never seems to go above 5%.

So my questions are:
1) Am I correct in believing that my gpu 1 temp is too high?
2) is it normal for the second gpu to do nothing in situations like this?

Thanks,
cdr

 

[DrGreen]

80c idle sounds very high. You may want to give the computer a good cleaning, make sure there is no dust build-up. Also make sure your case also has good airflow, there could be a lot of hot air not being pushed out by the fans.

 

[cdriccio]

80c idle sounds very high. You may want to give the computer a good cleaning, make sure there is no dust build-up. Also make sure your case also has good airflow, there could be a lot of hot air not being pushed out by the fans.

Well I opened her up and she does need a cleaning.
But more importantly than that... seems as if the card in question ... the fan is stuck. I'm going too take it out and see if there's anything I can do about that.

That said... the fan on gpu 2 is running fine. In a crossfire scenario ... can i just switch the positions of the cards, or is there a master/slave jumper that has to be moved, in order to make gpu 2 the primary?

Or is the primary just the one I have the monitor hooked into?

For the time being, I turned up the speed on my case fans and it seems to keep the temp in check while the video is playing (94 degrees).

 

[DrGreen]

Well, that could be a huge issue, clean it to your best ability. Your fan could be dead or just plugged up with dust. Make sure all the fans are cleaned and it has a smooth air flow in and out of the case.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe to make your GPU 2 primary just plug it into your first PCI-E slot and run the monitor off of it.

 

[unksol]

If the fan doesn't work don't use the card. Period. Making it the secondary GPU is not going to do you any good if the fan doesn't work

 

[DrGreen]

Yeah, the dead fan plus your GPU not even registering as you stated, the card is most likely done for.

 

[cdriccio]

I know the dead fan is an issue... I'll be looking into that tonight when I actually have time. My main question is whether or not it is normal for gpu2 to do nothing if gpu1 isn't being heavily utilized.

Looking at this as a replacement for the 2 of them...
http://www.frys.com/product/8517889?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Thoughts? Trying to stay in the 150 to 200 range.

Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[DrGreen]

The Gigabyte R9 380 4GB is a great choice, and for $200 is a steal! Its average price is $320 on most sites. I would hop right on that.

Radeon 6850 is only 1GB of VRAM, so the R9 380 is double the VRAM of your Radeon 6850 SLI setup. Which should, as people like to say 'future proof' you for all games in the next 5+ years.

Also, do some research on your CPU to see if it will bottleneck the R9 380, a simple google search and you should find the answer. If it does, i'd recommend an upgrade.