PC Freezes while gaming - PSU gone?

R

Re83L

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Hi guys.

I'm getting a bit annoyed.

My PC randomly freezes from time to time while I'm gaming. This happens randomly, and I usually play between 10-50 minutes before it happens.
Both the graphics and sound freezes, I can't Alt-Tab, or CTRL-ALT-Del or anything.
I have to power down manually (hold down power button / pull the plug)

Internet, watching HD movies etc all works fine, it's only when I'm playing games that it goes bonkers.
I ran furmark once for about 15minutes, all seems fine.
In Speedfan, my temps also seem to be fine.

I suspect my PSU, but how do I test it?

All my components are new, I can't understand what it could be.
My specs are in my sig.

Comments appreciated.
 
I dont think it would be your psu but its worth testing it, do you have a spare one lying around at all that you could put into ur pc, also try and run a disk defrag, and if your hard drive is badly fragged uninstall the game, defrag the pc and then install again.
 
Try open the case and stick a deskfan pointing at the inside of the box down to confirm its not gpu getting a bit hot.

Try a different PSU if you have one, you can also try the GPU in a different machine and see if you have similar problems.
 
A fragmented drive has got NOTHING to do with it. Really, clutching at straws there.
Most likely candidate is the PSU by the sounds of it. If you dont have a spare lying around try running some stress tests. Run intelburntest for the CPU+RAM (15 passes, max ram), and then Furmark for GPU (minimum 15 minutes), then run both at the same time. If you get past the individual tests you know the components are not faulty, and if you fail the combined test its between the motherboard and PSU, though its 99% sure to be the PSU.
 
Archer said:
A fragmented drive has got NOTHING to do with it. Really, clutching at straws there.
.
Click to expand...

the only reason I suggested running a defrag is beacause i have had a lot of trouble with files not being found and games and movies not working, forgive me for trying to be helpful.
 
Your PSU seems fine enough to handle the GPU and it is still new. If it was the PSU, it would have also froze during the benchmark test.

Your best best bet is to roll back GPU drivers or try new ones.
 
The you didnt run furmark long enough :p But ya, sometimes a card can be on the edge of failing, and so it appears to happen at random. So ideally you run furmark for 24hrs, that will pick up any broken gpu (and probably break a few as well)
 
I had the EXACT same problem, also thought it was the PSU, then the GFX card, turns out my CPU cooler had lifted slightly off the chip, and it was locking up due to overheating. Check to see if thats sitting properly on your CPU.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention guys.

I did try an ASUS 5850 in my PC too, and the same thing happened.
I have a Zalman 9700CNPS with a 1156 bracket. The cooler is moveable on the CPU (Your can turn it laterally, so my issue might be there.)
I do however also have another 1156 cooler that I can try.

So I'll try and re-set the cooler, and will also run stress tests.

Thanks for the input guys, will report back!
 
It can be the following

1: motherboard
2: CPU overheating but don't think so
3: corrupted windows files

thing to try

1: open command prompt > type in SFC /SCANNOW
2: open command prompt > Type in chkdsk /f /r
3: do a prim95 test and check temps with realtemp

is it every game or just certain games?
 
I had a similar issue not too long ago.
For me it ended up being bad sectors on the Hard drive in question.

I recommend running a chkdsk on the hard drive that your games are installed onto. If this is the problem, chkdsk should pick up the bad sectors and sort them out for you.

Open up command prompt and type: chkdsk x: /r

Replace the X with the letter of the hard drive your games are installed on.

Good luck.
 
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Had that problem with my PC a few months back. A reseat of the GFX and the power into the graphics sorted it out.
By the way, if you are playing a game and it freezes does the sound loop?
 
Also had that problem, but it only happened when I played online games. It got a bit better when I closed firefox in the background. Strange I know. That was on XP, since I switched to Win 7, the problem disappeared.
 
Dan C said:
Also had that problem, but it only happened when I played online games. It got a bit better when I closed firefox in the background. Strange I know. That was on XP, since I switched to Win 7, the problem disappeared.
Click to expand...

Well, I also noticed it only with online games...

I can play Dirt2 fine, yet I've only done about 3 x 1hr sessions of Dirt.

To add:
I have also tried formatting my OS HDD, no change...
 
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