weird pc problem

[CAMILOGOD]

whats up everyone im new to the forum and also baffled as to what the hell is going on with my pc.
Basically I built a custom pc about 2 weeks ago with help from pc gaming friends, these are the specs

asus p8z77-vlx motherboard
intel core i5 3570k 3.40ghz processor
8 gigs corsair vengeance ddr3 ram
nvidia geforce gtx 560 graphics card
thermaltake TR2 RX 750watt bronze certified 80 plus power supply unit
Windows 7 64bit sp1

When I first installed everything, I ran games like crysis 1, skyrim, and the stalker games at fairly high settings. The games ran fine for hours at nominal fps..Basically everything was working fine.
After about a week into having this pc (I wasnt gaming that often, an hour or 2 every 2 or 3 days) after about 20 minutes of gaming, during the game, the screen would go black, the graphics card fan stopped and the computer remained idle and I had to reset when playing the mentioned games.
Another week later the probem got even more strange. I installed the game INVERSION(on fairly high settings), got through the menu screen, played for literally 1 minute and the shut down happened again. I thought this was awkward so I tried binary domain (also on very high settings) and the game worked for about an hour, until I stopped playing, no shutdown happened. Also with batman arkham city the game runs fine. I ran INVERSION again. put all settings to low, lowered the resolution..the game lasted maybe 5 minutes before my pc shut down.
I used to think this was a heating problem but how can my pc run some games on high settings without problems and others wont even last 5 minutes on low settings.
I read up on my PSU and read some bad reviews so im thinking maybe its a psu problem but Im a pc gaming virgin and know nothing about psu's so I thought id come here and ask before I exchanged it.
all my software is up to date and I have no viruses or spyware, I ran msi afterburner and the gpu and cpu were at normal heat levels when gaming and not gaming.

heres the quote from the review of my psu

"Thermaltake TR2 RX 750 W is, according to our methodology, a flawed product that must be avoided at all costs. It can’t deliver its labeled wattage at high temperatures, but this is not the worst of it: ripple and noise level are way above the maximum allowed when you pull 80% or more from the unit’s labeled capacity (i.e., 600 W and above), overloading your components (especially electrolytic capacitors from the motherboard and video cards), which can cause your PC to present an erratic behavior (crashes and random resets) and, under extreme conditions, damage components."

THANK YOU for your help in advance

 

[Arkadrel]

I dont think its your PSU.
why not you say?

well because:
"this bahavor is only in certain games, and its consistant, not in all games or at random."

from the way you discribed it. That means its probably not your PSU.
(also with a 560, your not at 600+ watts)

To me your issue, sounds like a hardware stability issue OR a driver issue.
So what you need to do is:

1) Make sure NOTHING is overclocked.

2) Open up your PC case, double&tripple check, everything is inserted correctly (ram ect), that there are no cables that arnt well attached to things ect.

3)Then you need to make sure everything is getting the required volts settings in bios ect that they need, and that
power cables for everything ei. GPU are plugged in. You might have to play around with bios settings, if the fault lays there.

4) download software for stability testing, your CPU,RAM,GPU.
Find out where the problems lie.


Another thing it *could* be is a software issue, ei. a corruption that happend durring windows install, maybe because of a hardware stability issue or some such, who knows. It could even be a driver issue.


***** IF *****

Your PC can run stability tests without finding faults, then it has to be something differnt, like ei. drivers ect.
Another obtion is you just got bad luck, and you got a card with a defect on it. In that case you need to RMA it.

 

[CAMILOGOD]

okay cool, Ive done 1 and 2
but for 3, how do I check the volt settings and what should they be at? would I be able to change them?
and 4. which program do you reccomend?

 

[Arkadrel]

Camilogod, you need to use the net to look up the parts.

But in general, just hitting "restore factory settings / optimised defaults whatever", is usually pretty safe.
Its more a "issue" of did you toy around in the bios and play with voltage or overclocking in there?
But it could also be a cause of the motherboard not "guessing" the right settings for ram or such.

For stability testing;

for CPU:
1) set your ram in bios to a very low safe setting. Then work with the assumption that the ram arnt a issue at this speed.
2) run small FFT in Prime 95 or a LOT of smaller stress setting runs in Intel Burn Test.

See if its stable, then slowly raise the ram speed. and Re-try the tests.


For memory:
Memtest is the slow way, really meant to test for bad RAM modules.
(sometimes hardware has defects, even ram)

http://www.memtest86.com/
Download and run.

For GPU:
hmmm... Try furmark. Look for artifacts.
(dont bother with the strest testing for GPU at first, you already know its not stable)
First you need to rule out, that its not something other than your graphics card.

If your methodical about ruleing out things, eventually you ll be left with the only sane answear.
Which may or may not be, such a thing as just a currupt driver, or even a faulty peice of hardware (ei. GPU) -> time to RMA.

 

[CAMILOGOD]

ok ill see what I can do, as for overclocking, i tried with msi afterburner but then restored all the original settings, after that I didnt attempt any tweaking of hardware

 

[CAMILOGOD]

so i just ran furmark, the cpu usage was at 99% is that normal? also it did the whole shutdown thing again in the middle of testing

 

[Arkadrel]

Why did you run Furmark? you already know your PC isnt stable when your gameing.
You need to do the other stuff first.

 

[CAMILOGOD]

ok i got intel burn test its asking me
times to run: and asking me to input a number
stress level: low to very high
also
threads: i also have to chose a number
update:
intel burn test stress levels control the amount of ram used, i tested on standard which was 2 gigs and everything was stable, im going to try the higher levels now

 

[CAMILOGOD]

so the cpus fine, ran it at maximum testing, i dont see why the ram would be messed up but i didnt test it yet since i dont have a cd to burn memtest onto, and during the furmark test the computer shut down (before all this earlier i played binary domain again for about 2 hours with no problems) im stumped

 

[Meghan54]

so the cpus fine, ran it at maximum testing, i dont see why the ram would be messed up but i didnt test it yet since i dont have a cd to burn memtest onto, and during the furmark test the computer shut down (before all this earlier i played binary domain again for about 2 hours with no problems) im stumped

Same reason any component in a computer can be messed up.....a part wasn't made perfectly, humans made the stuff so nothing's perfect and parts do die, even prematurely. It's not uncommon at all to have (memory, video card, motherboard) work fine when first assembled, but then fail a (day, week, month) later.

Testing is about the only sure way to eliminate the problem component, unless you feel like just throwing parts at it until you hit the problem...a big time wasting way to diagnose (not to mention can become expensive, too.)

 

[Arkadrel]

Do you own another video card you can swap in? That would be another quick way of testing if its the GPU thats at fault.

Simply remove drivers, put in new graphics card, install drivers.
Run the same games, and see if the same stuff happends.

if not, then chances are good it was the graphics cards fault.

 

[CAMILOGOD]

I dont have another gpu unfortunately.. the thing that confuses me is I would be quick to believe its the gpu but what confuses me is that it will run one game fine and another one wont last 2 minutes

 

[Arkadrel]

@Camilogod
Maybe the "error" that makes 1 game go black screen, isnt used in game #2, but only in game #1 ect.

Maybe the game that "run" fine to you, actually have just as much errors as the games you crash on, its just better coded game, so it "survives" the crashes where the other game doesnt.

CPUs work like that, alot of software can run even when the CPU is "misfireing" so to speak, but it comes at the cost of stability/performance ect. Thats why there is software to test how often your CPU makes mistakes, where you stress it, and punish it, so you can see how often that happends (why? because in some lines of work, miscalculations can be costly).

for a casual user, that just has lower performance for abit when something happends, or a random crash now and then, it might not be such a huge issue (just annouying as hell). Obviously even the "avg joe" user, wants a PC that runs stable, however even if its not crashing in games, it might not be.

 

[CAMILOGOD]

that could explain why even though games like binary domain and batman are playable, they still have kind of low fps rates..and since my cpu is fine, im guessing my gpu is messed up

 

[Arkadrel]

Honestly there are no short cuts, when it comes to finding errors.
The best way to go about it, is to be methodical about ruleing out things.

You can make a "guess", but unless you can test your theory out, ei. by useing a differnt graphics card and testing if that then works, you ll never know for sure.

Guess work isnt good enough, you need to know where the error is.
If its not the GPU, and you lateron get a new graphics card and you still have the same issues,
you ll be beyound p***ed (and back at the same place you where before hand).


****personal story:

I once got a CPU (athlon 64) and was sure, the CPU was a defect (DoA) (dead on arrival) and then got the guys I bought the components to send me a new one in return for the other. New one comes and it turns out it had the same issue..... it was the motherboard. I get a new motherboard sent (this was brand new too, so DoA).

I felt bad about makeing the guys send me a new CPU, when it fact it was the motherboard I bought from them that was bad.
I got a new motherboard and things worked out great though. I still order PC parts from that same shop, because I felt like they where easy to deal with (which is a good thing, when something you buy doesnt work).

 

[CAMILOGOD]

youre right but I was originally planning to exchange this psu due to poor reviews and I can always exchange my gpu for another one. I also have no way of getting my hands on a gpu to test out in the computer so I'm not left with many options.

 

[Arkadrel]

Better safe than sorry then. See if they wont take it back, and either give a refund or give you a replacement.

About the PSU, if you bought it and it works, getting your money back seems..... abit much.
Honestly it wont matter if its rated at 750watts but really only does 650 or something, when your probably only useing 400 or so at most.

I usually read tons of reviews before I buy anything though, because I dont like lateron finding out what you did about the PSU

 

[CAMILOGOD]

yea I bought it at tigerdirect theyre ok with exchanges, im going to get a corsair tx650 psu ..I appreciate all the help from everyone , have a good one