Unusual PC Crash

[rborowik]

I have the following hardware: -

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte GA-EP45T Extreme Motherboard
OCZ PC3-10666 DDR3 Reaper HPC C9 4x2GB
Nvidia 260 GTX

aswell as 3 HDDs and a branded 800W power supply (cant remember the brand though).

The problem is that when running the pc standard it crashes randomly within games, sometimes as soon as the level loads, others after 4-5 hours of gaming.

I have overclocked the CPU to 3Ghz with the aim of going higher and since this the computer now doesnt crash at all. I have read elsewhere that this motherboard cant have a big drop in the voltages under loads compared with others, could this have caused the crashes????? BTW the voltage is now at 1.36v

If this isnt the case, would anybody have any ideas as to why this would happen??

 

[rborowik]

Just thought i had better add that im using a titan fenrir cooler

 

[AKM880]

Have you been keeping track of your temps while playing these games? Have you tested that the overclock is stable?

 

[rborowik]

Wow thanks for the quick reply. I have been keeping track of the temps, before the overclock i was getting 37-39 degrees across all four cores and after i get 38-41 on all cores. I have tested its stablility by running prime95, small FTT for 3 hours with no errors. I have also played games for about 12 hours since the overclock with no problems.

 

[rborowik]

sorry i realised that i have a typo or two in there add 10 to all my temps, kinda tired as wasnt thinking properly, lol the idle temps are 25-27C on all cores and during prime 95 small FFT test the load temps are 51-52C on all cores

 

[one-shot]

I have the following hardware: -

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte GA-EP45T Extreme Motherboard
OCZ PC3-10666 DDR3 Reaper HPC C9 4x2GB
Nvidia 260 GTX

aswell as 3 HDDs and a branded 800W power supply (cant remember the brand though).

The problem is that when running the pc standard it crashes randomly within games, sometimes as soon as the level loads, others after 4-5 hours of gaming.

I have overclocked the CPU to 3Ghz with the aim of going higher and since this the computer now doesnt crash at all. I have read elsewhere that this motherboard cant have a big drop in the voltages under loads compared with others, could this have caused the crashes????? BTW the voltage is now at 1.36v

If this isnt the case, would anybody have any ideas as to why this would happen??

Have you checked the stability of your system with programs like Prime 95 and OCCT? I recently overclocked my i7 920 to 3.6GHz and tested with 21.5 hours of OCCT and stepped up to 3.7GHz and tested with 17.5 hours of Prime 95 Small FFTs with no errors/warnings. Also, check the temperatures of your CPU with Core Temp, because you have a Kentsfield CPU. Run the program I mentions with small FFTs and let us know the temps.

 

[rborowik]

Thanks I have started the Prime95 small FFT test as you mentioned an hour ago now, im heading out the door in a min and will leave it running. The temps are currently: -

Core #0 55C
Core #1 55C
Core #2 54C
Core #3 54C

its that ok?

 

[one-shot]

I would recommend running it for at least 8-10 hours. Let me know what happens after that.

 

[AKM880]

^+1. I run mine for 12+ hours.

 

[rborowik]

Atfer 14 hours of Prime95 running small FFT for almost 14 hours with no errors and the max temps are: -

Core #0 55C
Core #1 55C
Core #2 54C
Core #3 54C

it actually got colder in my room today so the temps dropped from the time i started the test by a degree or two.

 

[one-shot]

Ok, now let's try and test the memory. You can use OCCT or Prime95 Blend. I would let that run overnight and see what happens.

 

[rborowik]

ok will do its actualy 5 am here atm so ill leave this test for another 12 hours then

 

[AKM880]

I also heard that memtest is good for testing memory.

 

[rborowik]

The blend test of prime ran for 16 hours before i cancelled it, no errors and lower temps than the previous test.

 

[AKM880]

Nice, glad to hear its running good

 

[one-shot]

Well, from these tests, we've eliminated the CPU and RAM. The problem usually happens after awhile but sometimes randomly. It sounds like a PSU issue. I would purchase a new PSU as a poor quality/cheap PSU can reboot randomly. I would get one as my next step and most likely your problem will be solved.

 

[Twoboxer]

In Prime95, do you have "RoundOff Checking" checked (Advanced Tab)?

 

[rborowik]

yea i have it checked so that it will tell me if theres an error, i will get a new psu asap (maybe a few weeks) and see what happens. Thanks for all the help and ill update as needed if i still have a problem

 

[rborowik]

any ideas what would be a good psu for this system?? dont mind too much on the price.

 

[AKM880]

Corsair, OCZ, PCP&C, Antec some of the brands I usually stick to.

 

[one-shot]

This is a high quality PSU that I would recommend. This will leave you with room to upgrade to another GTX260 in SLI.

Corsair 750W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006