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Odd computer resets
surrealitycheck
lonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered User regular
lonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered User regular
Every so often when playing a graphically intensive game my whole computer will reset - screen winks to black and instantly restarts.
The games it has done it on:
Aliens versus Predator (took about 2-3 minutes to happen)
Mass Effect 2 (takes 30 minutes to an hour)
Starcraft 2 (wat) (takes about 5-10 minutes)
Borderlands, although it stopped when I turned the resolution down to 1024x768 for some reason.
I'm assuming it's my graphics card, but I was under the impression that ATI cards had vpu recover allowing them to reset rather than crash your computer. It's a very early 4870x2 that has always behaved somewhat erratically.
Any suggestions?
The games it has done it on:
Aliens versus Predator (took about 2-3 minutes to happen)
Mass Effect 2 (takes 30 minutes to an hour)
Starcraft 2 (wat) (takes about 5-10 minutes)
Borderlands, although it stopped when I turned the resolution down to 1024x768 for some reason.
I'm assuming it's my graphics card, but I was under the impression that ATI cards had vpu recover allowing them to reset rather than crash your computer. It's a very early 4870x2 that has always behaved somewhat erratically.
Any suggestions?
surrealitycheck on
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The symptoms point to your PSU, to me. It sounds like the vidcard is calling for more juice as the games ramp up; and when the PSU tries to provide more, one or more of the voltages runs low on current and the comp restarts as a failsafe. You may also want to double check the PSU connectors on your vidcard to make sure everything is firmly connected.
It could also be one or more of your graphics cores overheating, but that shouldn't reset the whole computer. It may be your CPU starting to get a bit warm, but I would lean on the PSU first. For shits and giggles, you may want to check your BIOS settings for CPU high temp shutdown/restart and see if they are set abnormally low for some reason.
This sounds sensible. I'll have a double check. I'm using a 750W psu which should hypothetically be enough for my 4870x2, but apparently some PSUs are just crap.
If you want, post up the make/model of your PSU and we can help a little.
In general, a 750W should be more than enough, but it's still possible. Especially for some fairly hungry cards.