System Lockup/Freezing

[PwrGetter00]

Let me start off by saying that the problem only seems to happen when (more often) when the ambient temps in my room is very warm/hot (damn summer). Problem will occur when I'm only playing a game. For example, I'll be playing Lineage II, and randomly, the system will lockup/freeze. Though I said the problem only seems to happen when its hot weather, the CPU itself is running at a great temp (as far as I know, 35c is decent for full gaming). Problem started happening maybe every 5-10 minutes of gaming.

My setup:

-Windows Media Center Edition (SP2 w/All updates)
-EVGA 680i Mobo
-BFG SLi 8800 GTS
-Intel E6600
-Corsair XMS2 Dominator 2GB DDR2 (PC2 6400)
-700W Power Green PSU (i don't think this is the exact name, but I'm at work, I'll edit the post at home)
-Western Digital Caviar 400gb's x4 (I'm a video editor)

Troubleshooting steps I've taken in order:

-Installed latest chipset drivers (did nothing)
-Installed latest video drivers (did nothing)
-Flashed bios to most current version (did nothing)
-Reinstalled Windows (did nothing)
-Shut PC down, unplugged the blue cathode lights and removed a power connection from one hard drive (viola, I still get lockups, but not as often)


So as you can see, it seems that my PSU is not able to produce the power needed for all my hard drives and my SLi setup. But I cannot confirm this. Does this sound possible? I dont want to invest $200 on something I'm not sure is the problem. What boggles my mind though, is that the lockups only seem to happen when it's hot, can anyone explain?

 

[Roguestar]

Your power supply has enough watts to power even an 8800GTX SLI setup, but critically it may not have sufficient amps on the 12V rail to power the graphics cards once they get demanding. Or perhaps your graphics cards are overheating, then?

Use this to show the temperature of your GPU http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html

 

[PwrGetter00]

here's my temps.

System Temps

 

[Mem]

Try using just one video card in non SLI mode(try each one) see if they both work fine.
Have your case open does that help?

Also are your video cards OC versions?

 

[PwrGetter00]

Yes, they're BFG OC versions.

They're at stock BFG settings atm, I did not overclock them.

Opening the case doesnt help much, as my case has a very good ventilation/air flow setup as it is.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: PwrGetter00
Yes, they're BFG OC versions.

They're at stock BFG settings atm, I did not overclock them.

Opening the case doesnt help much, as my case has a very good ventilation/air flow setup as it is.

My Leadtek 7800GT OC card was producing lockups/freezing etc like you described at factory overclocked default setting,I reduced the factory overclock by 10mhz( by using OC software) and had no more lockups,so try underclocking them and see if that helps.


They may not be overclocked by you,but overclocked video cards even from manufacturers can still cause lockups like you describe.

 

[PwrGetter00]

I've decreased some of my voltages and underclocked the vid cards a bit, we'll see how it runs. I'll keep the thread updated.

 

[magreen]

Originally posted by: PwrGetter00
So as you can see, it seems that my PSU is not able to produce the power needed for all my hard drives and my SLi setup. But I cannot confirm this. Does this sound possible? I dont want to invest $200 on something I'm not sure is the problem. What boggles my mind though, is that the lockups only seem to happen when it's hot, can anyone explain?

I'm not saying it's for sure your psu, but heat can definitely cause the psu to have serious problems and to run less efficiently. Jonny over at jonnyguru always does a hot test where he ducts the hot output air back into the case to see what happens to the psu. He's blown up (literally) some good PSUs that way.

 

[PwrGetter00]

Well, I went to sleep last night with the game running, woke up, and I saw that I was back at my desktop (computer rebooted when i was sleeping). So it seems that underclocking some of my settings still didnt help.

I'm at work again, so I cant try any other trouble shooting. I'll probably try to unplug another HD, and the DVD drive and see if that helps. I should also state that a month ago, I was getting BSOD's with an error saying that device driver nv4.disp driver caused the problem. I don't know if this is whats causing my current reboots though because I've tried all drivers compatible with the 8800gt series video cards.