I have a really strange problem...PC restarts on certain FMV's

[Queensryche]

Okay I've been having this problem ever since I first built this PC over a year ago or so. My PC will reboot itself on certain FMV's in games. What's weird about this is that some FMV's are fine, and others just flat make my PC reboot.

Latest instance of this is in R.U.S.E. The second video associated with the start of the campaign mode instantly reboots my PC. It actually sort of shuts down for about 5 seconds, then reboots. It does this one Dragon Age videos/Lord of the Rings Online videos/etc.

Now, with the Lord of the Rings online intro videos. If I run it in windowed mode, it will NOT reboot itself, but if it's in full screen mode it will reboot.

I know the first thing people are going to jump to are heating issues, but what's so weird is that when I play games, the tempertaure on my motherboard that shows the CPU degrees, is almost always higher than the FMV's that are making it shut down.

Does anyone have ANY idea what the deal is with this?

Specs are as follows:


EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 4-WAY SLI Classified XL ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
OCZ Gold 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
EVGA Geforce 285 GTX
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional
Thermaltake 1000W power supply

Any help would be most appreciated.

 

[Devilpapaya]

My first guess would be the GPU, though the exact issue I coudn't say. Do you get any sort of BSOD when it shuts down; have you checked the event log for any clues?

 

[Queensryche]

My first guess would be the GPU, though the exact issue I coudn't say. Do you get any sort of BSOD when it shuts down; have you checked the event log for any clues?

No BSOD messages of any sort. It just goes through the normal rebooting cycle.

I'm not sure how to access the event log, and even If I did I'm not tech savy enough to figure out what it's meaning.

The video card is still relatively new, only a year or so old. Should it be going bad this quick?

 

[dbailey]

First thing to try is another video card to see if this still happens. If it doesn't you might want to try the latest drivers for the card(see if temps are listed), and possibly put a new heatsink/fan on the card to ensure it is cooling properly.

 

[Atheus]

I know the first thing people are going to jump to are heating issues, but what's so weird is that when I play games, the tempertaure on my motherboard that shows the CPU degrees, is almost always higher than the FMV's that are making it shut down.

You need to be looking at the GPU temp not the CPU - get the appropriate monitoring program and make sure you're not going much over 80C on the video card. And while you're at it get a vacuum cleaner and pull all the dust out of the fan on that card.

If that doesn't work try crashing it with a benchmarking tool - there is stuff out there specifically designed to create heat and stress on your card. If you are easily able to crash it in this way try another card. It's almost certainly the card.

 

[Queensryche]

Thank you fellas for the advice. I will give that a try on my video card and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[jaydeee]

you may also need to consider your Power supply unit. I had similar problem and PSU was the culprit.

good luck!

 

[Queensryche]

Okay I stress tested my video card and it doesn't seem to be the problem as it took everything the test could throw at it.

I'll give the power supply the next try, see if a new one helps.

Thanks again!

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Have you tried updating your gpu drivers?

 

[Queensryche]

Have you tried updating your gpu drivers?

I always keep them up to date. I have the latest drivers installed.

 

[Queensryche]

Just a follow up, I bought a brand new EVGA GeForce 480 GTX and haven't had the problem since. So it seems like it was a defective video card that was the problem.

Thanks for all your help everyone, appreciate it.

 

[Jaepheth]

Are you running the games at your monitor's native resolution?

I've sometimes had issues when Windows/GPU/monitor is asked to switch between resolutions before.