Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.  (Read 23915 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« on: April 18, 2014, 04:29:26 AM »
Hello , i would like to request some help from your community.
I've been experiencing random reboots when i am playing low to high end games. This is my specs:

1TB WD
AMD FX8350
NVIDIA GTX 650ti boost OC edition
Corsair VS 550w
CM Seidon 120m
G.Skill 8GB RAM 1 Module
Gigabyte 970a-DS3P motherboard
2 Blue LED DeepCool Fans
2 Stock CM 120mm fan

The problem existed when there was a time when my computer was restarting without BSOD's or some sort of error. I've stressed test my processor and got it to be replaced with a brand new one. After the replacement, for a few days, there were no random reboots, and right after maybe day 4 or 5, those random reboots came back. I've done some test which i am not good at how to use it, mainly basic instructions and basic procedures from what i've read is what i've done. so far the results of my VC , PROC, PSU,HDD ,RAM, are okay or "passed". I've used hiren's boot cd application to test my hardware for errors and none seems to come out. My mind tells me that maybe the PSU, VC, or MOBO be the problems. Please guys, really need some help here. It's been 2 months now since i wasn't able to fully utilize my computer.
Forgive and Forget!

DaveLembke



    Sage
  • Thanked: 662
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2014, 03:00:02 PM »
If Temps are good, i'd swap out the PSU. I have concerns whether the 550watt is enough to drive that 450watt rated (psu) video card with the 8-core power hungry 125watt CPU. I'd go with like a corsair or other good quality PSU 700 watt power supply when using this hardware combination.

Here is a PSU that I'd go with, but its out of stock at newegg. Another similar PSU would do. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139024

If you could borrow a PSU out of another computer that is 600 watts ( or more ), that would be a good test. I wouldnt use a 600 watt though for this setup permanently.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2014, 10:23:08 PM »
Hello DaveLembke, thanks for the reply, my friend will lend me his 650 psu for now for testing purposes. Well i did not count the idea that my proc would eat that much wattage in my psu, maybe my psu is too low to handle my proc and vid card. Nice idea by the way, another problem is that there is this windows event error that states that there is an error in my kernel power, the error's description told me that the computer shuts down due to power loss. the event id error is 41 for kernel power error. Should i pursue this idea by buying a 850w 80+ gold psu? i've been searching for a new one these days. :(
Forgive and Forget!

DaveLembke



    Sage
  • Thanked: 662
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2014, 01:05:37 PM »
That error message is related to an unplanned shutdown, and is very common when a PSU struggles to keep everything running and drops out.

Cool that you have a friend that loaned you a good 650watt. I am hoping the 650watt is of a good quality make/model so that this test is a test with a true 650watt and its not a cheap power supply labelled higher than it can power.

Deep down I feel you are going to end up buying a heavier power supply, but to test before hand with that 650watt, hopefully we can be sure that its being caused by this and not something else.

That 850watt 80+ Gold should be a perfect match if you found a good deal on it. This allows room later for adding additional drives etc with additional power demands etc.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2014, 06:43:49 AM »
Hello sir daveLembke, as of now, i brought back my computer to the store to where i bought it due to it's warranty,even though i can be replaced, i really want to know what's causing this, we've tested my computer with a corsair vs 650 watts and this psu is new, at their tech labs, i played a game like dota 2, it was fine for a couple of minutes using my corsair vs 550 watts,  i've finished a 20 min. game from bots then closing dota 2, after that i tried surfing the web then suddenly my computer rebooted, my first thought was it was really the PSU but then, after we've tried the 650 corsair, the problem won't go away, as of now they are troubleshooting my computer, i have a few question sir if it's not a bother to you, you could just ignore my questions if you want, anyway here are my questions: If i would add a SSD and another HDD to my computer, should i increase my PSU watts? If I add LED fans to my computer , will my 550 watts psu suffice?  also i did not mention this but my processor is in LCS, cooler master seidom 120m, i don't know how much power it draws because i really have no idea, i'm just a beginner in computer hardware, i am still learning. Thank you so much sir taking your time in helping me with my problem. Cheers.
Forgive and Forget!

DaveLembke



    Sage
  • Thanked: 662
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2014, 08:14:27 PM »
Hello and
Quote
i have a few question sir if it's not a bother to you, you could just ignore my questions if you want, anyway here are my questions:
is not necessary, most of us here including myself do not ignore requests for answers to questions.  ;)

Anyways power draw questions you had:

SSD = ( solid state drives ) do not use much power at all.

LEDs = in fans and elsewhere in the computer use ( very small fractions of a watt ) to be powered so its almost unnoticable between power draw of a normal fan or one thats lit up with LEDs.

HDD's = Depending on how many you are planning on installing, you are usually fine with the normal power supply you already have. * If you plan on adding drives later feel free to ask here.. please include the specific drives you will be installing, how many of them etc, and existing system specs with power supply.

*If you have overkill of fans galore etc you might need more power supply to drive them etc. Pictures can also help of what you have and what you are doing if running into cooling issues etc.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2014, 06:13:38 AM »
Hello and good day sir DaveLembke, thank you for the detailed explanation. I will update you regarding about my PC, my store recently told me that my problem is the processor because due to the fact that it is defective after it was recently replaced with a brand new one. Regarding HDD, i have no budget yet so i'm sticking with my WD 1 TB blue caviar. I told the store to check my motherboard which is a Gigabyte 970a-ds3p. They said to me that my MoBo is A-Ok. Tomorrow in my time GMT+8, i will go get my computer after the proc. replacement. I will update you for the results. I have a few question regarding ssd, is it easy to use an SSD ? what are the pros and cons? how long is the lifespan? is it better to have one? sorry for so many question sir. Good luck and cheers.
Forgive and Forget!

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2014, 07:33:09 AM »
I will update the problem, so far my processor has been replaced and bad news, my pc still reboots and i always think that it's my psu is the problem or maybe the video card. my pc suddenly reboot after i played a game called mercenary 2. After i've played dota 2 for 4 hours it did not restart at all. I don't know what to do about this. Need help.
Forgive and Forget!

DaveLembke



    Sage
  • Thanked: 662
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2014, 02:08:13 PM »
While its not impossible to have a bad or flawed CPU, I question how the "store" determined it to be the CPU. Does this store have a good rep for selling trouble free products and are their employees knowledgeable in what they are doing?

The motherboard should be fine as for Gigabyte makes solid motherboards or good quality. With the power supply already swapped out and same symptoms, I'd be trying different RAM or a different Video Card. I have seen both cause a system to reboot when they act up with the video card being more common for a hard reboot where the screen just goes black and then a beep and reboot. Generally with memory issues you see a quick flash of a memory address failure etc or it gives you a blue screen of death memory dump message.

If you have a video card or extra RAM handy of similar spec's, you can try swapping out one or the other.

Generally RAM can be 99.9% proven to be good thru testing it with Memtest86. If it runs memtest86 for like 3 full tests and no red error messages then the memory should be good. As far as video card goes it can act up randomly and cause problems, however performing a stress test on the video card might cause it to trigger a reboot if the video card is flawed.

In regards to your questions:

SSD's are as easy to use as HDD's. They install the same. But they are way faster when you have a good quality SSD.

Pros and Cons to SSD's .....

Pros = [ Fast, can be bumped, vibrated next to a woofer, or dropped and will still function due to no moving parts inside, and Lower Power Demand from PSU ]

Cons = [ Expensive for large capacity, Data Recovery options are very limited vs HDD's ( more likely for a total data loss if no backup is implemented ), While a HDD can work well for Heavily Read/Write intensive applications ... SSD's can burn out the cells that hold the data and some will shrink in capacity as cells die and others can just completely die, you want to use Windows 7 or newer OS for best performance with them as for some of the advanced features to keep the SSD's healthy are not available for older OS's such as XP as well as I have heard that some Linux OS are unable to condition the drives to avoid cells from being overworked and garbage control cleanup of old data etc. * Some manufacturers of SSD's add a feature to them that monitors the write traffic to the drive and so if you are hitting the drive heavily and exceed what the manufacturer determined as the value of TB in writes for a given period of time or given limit ... the drive will throttle itself back to slow down performance to last longer ... To me this is a (sneaky) means by which the manufacturer can just about guarantee that the drive will last the 3 years of the warranty without being burned out and people demanding free replacements in a never ending cycle of free replacements after frequent overuse which would cause a loss to the manufacturer.]

Life span all depends on usage mainly and how its treated. I ran a utility on a SSD once that said that under the current usage of the SSD that it would last 46 years. But this was also because I had the SSD installed as C: and a HDD installed as D: and the SSD was used mainly for booting the OS and launching games, while the HDD was used for storing personal data and the swap file which is constantly causing read/write conditions. So by keeping the read/write of the swap file off of the SSD, this utility gave me a life expectancy of 46 years where the SSD drive was used mainly for read-only operations which is where the speed is in performance of SSD's. The writes and overwrites are what wear the cells in SSD's so if you wanted to optimize the life of a SSD, you can use a HDD for the heavy hitting read/write processes and use the SSD mainly for read-only types of operations. In most laptops you dont have this option, as well as for the most part you might as well just run the SSD hard because in say 4 or 5 years when its ready to die you will want to have a larger capacity anyways, and so you would get the most of it vs retiring a lightly worked SSD in 5 years etc.

As far as is it better to have one... I have to say it is better to have one if the application is best suited for a SSD. That is if you are video editing and creating massively large video files and then editing them and then encoding them to a different format, I would not suggest a SSD for this application if you want the SSD to last. However if your a business and dont care about burning out 1 SSD per year and time is money and having a video ready in 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes is important, then have at it with runing a SSD hard because chances are the time saved in processing the large files faster if you added up all the saved time, the saved time = saved money and so the SSD even though burnt out in say 1 year still saved your company a load of money. However if your a home user and want it to last and dont mind a video processing task taking 20 minutes instead of 10 minutes, you can save your SSD from being overworked.

* I have systems with both SSD and HDD's in them and I mainly use the SSD's for the quick boot and games and when I process large videos of gaming events I do all of this on a SATA II 500GB HDD to work the mechanical hard drive that is better suited for this type of task and lasting in the long run. I plan on getting about 7 or 8 years out of my SSD's instead of 3 to 5, that is as long as the capacity of the drive allows for installation of an OS and game or two and as long as nothing faster and cheaper came along which would make the current SSD a waste of time to operate when I can have faster and at little cost ... This may be wishfull thinking  ;D

But everyone I know who has a SSD are happy with them, however you will want to buy one that doesnt confine you to a tight box of space to work in. That is, there are SSD's out there of say 30GB that can be bought cheap for $29.99 on a close out deal, and while they are FAST, (faster than HDD's ) but not the Fastest SSD out there!!, you may soon find yourself with not enough space to do much with them depending on application. I own a bunch of SSD's and have some smaller capacity drives and the problem with them is that its tight to install the Windows 7 OS and any of the better / larger games that would benefit from the SSD performance. So I would suggest not going cheap, and not going expensive, but buying an in between price tagged middle capacity size SSD. Such as I bought a 240GB M500 Crucial as seen at link here and it has plenty of room for OS and games and is a really solid and fast SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148694

Lastly, having a larger capacity SSD has the benefit of more flash memory cells in the pool of available cells to write to with larger capacity and so with a larger capacity drive, the frequency at which a cell is re-written to is less frequent than that of a smaller drive which if the drive was say 90% full, there are 90% of the cells at a constant fixed state of 0's and 1's and the remaining 10% of the SSD where swap space is happening is frantically written and over-written over and over again and so your overworking a small 10% area of the SSD with the other 90% of the drive not as exercised and so your prone to failure much sooner than later mathematically with a smaller SSD than a larger SSD, but also if you have a larger SSD and its jam packed and you only have 10% free space, then your still stuck in this pickle of overworking 10% area of the drive and this will lead to a failure sooner than later.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2014, 07:06:50 AM »
Wow! What can i say? That's a deep explanation there sir Dave, i cannot thank you enough for your help and a so much amazing information. I've been researching for quite some time now, and it's better to read your replies than to read wiki's and other information from google though video tutorials are good but yours is from experience and i find that the best. :D Wew! I'm having a tight budget right now to go for the SSD, but i can assure you i will save some money to buy a 500GB SSD just as you've said in your reply. SSD in my country is too pricey unlike outside my country which offer more cheaper deals with branded SSD's. I'm from the philippines by the way and the price is way up high. Anyway, as you were saying about read/write characteristics of a SSD, i'm a little confused though.

When you were saying to load the games faster, are you suggesting that the games should be installed inside the SSD? in my theory( or what i like to do haha) is that to put only an operating system inside the SSD, update it with the latest updates. All other third party apps such as MS office, VLC player, etc. will be going to the HDD of mine.

I would really like to thank you though, because of your explanation, i had an idea regarding how flash drive works, i think(just hypothesizing) flash drives have the same concept as the SSD. they don't have motors or mechanical mechanism. A flash drive can easily  be worn out after a couple of months, maybe years or so, maybe 2 years max.

Regarding my computer issue, i have been updated by the store, and guess what? they've tried again the corsair vs 650 watts for a week with super stressed usage on my pc, for example playing dark siders and dota 2 at the same time, after they did that type of stress testing on my computer, the computer didn't have any random reboots based on what they've said to me earlier today. I was kinda curious about what they have said, i did not bother to ask them though, but 3 weeks ago i've sent my pc to them and they've tried the same corsair vs650 watts psu, and they concluded that my processor was defective, so after it got replaced with a new processor, i was expecting some good results, so I used my pc for 3 days, within those days, my computer suddenly rebooted, woah! so i called them and blah blah blah, to make things short, they have missed something again, Tomorrow, i'm going to the computer store to get my pc because they concluded that my psu is defective.  They told me they will replace the item tomorrow but will test it in the morning for a stress performance by playing high graphics game.

I hope you will come up with an idea from what i've said. I explain very poorly when it comes to situations like these because i am not that good with computers but i'm a fan of pc hardware and assembling.

I really appreciated your effort and taking your time to support me with my pc problems sir dave.

More power to you and may your career be more successful.:)

Sorry for the very late reply. I was busy. :)
Forgive and Forget!

DaveLembke



    Sage
  • Thanked: 662
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2014, 03:11:37 PM »
Hey no problem with delay in getting back. It happens to us all here from time to time. Also by the way this forum is not formal so you dont need to add sir to peoples names. Here you can relax and just state a persons name openly without ( Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr, Sir.... etc ) although some people might like Doctor...LOL  ;D

In regards to:

Quote
When you were saying to load the games faster, are you suggesting that the games should be installed inside the SSD? in my theory( or what i like to do haha) is that to put only an operating system inside the SSD, update it with the latest updates. All other third party apps such as MS office, VLC player, etc. will be going to the HDD of mine.


Any data that is on the SSD will load faster than a normal HDD. Data that is best to reside on SSD's are data that is the Operating System of the computer, as well as Large Games. A Large Game example would be many of the MMORPG games that are out there that generally run between 10GB and 30GB for their installation and when you play games that are big like this there are map files and other resources that the video game calls out to as you play the game, and so the faster the game is able to receive the information from the hard drive, the better the gamer performance.

I was able to more than double how fast World of Warcraft loaded to start the game client as well as when entering dungeons or porting from one area to the next, the loading bar quickly moves across the bottom of the screen, whereas when the game was played on a mechanical HDD, the game was slower to load etc.

I have found that now that I have been exposed to how fast a computer is with a SSD, playing these games on another computer that has a HDD with even more powerful CPU and Video Card and RAM etc, I feel the game lag from being spoiled with the speed of a SSD.

If you are getting a 500GB SSD, and its plenty of space for you, then you can have everything installed to it. However if you are creating and destroying large files frequently such as in video editing etc, I'd suggest having a HDD to use for those heavy read/write tasks to avoid overworking a SSD.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2014, 09:14:07 PM »
Hello and good day sir dave,  well, first off, it is in my nature to call people that are not close/old/high ranking official(lol)/etc to me with utmost respect. Please allow me to address you as to what i'm doing sir. Atlast, i really understand the concept of SSD. i will give it a shot by a little explanation. A SSD's lifespan varies on how you write frequently on it. If less writing and more reading it will last longer and on the other hand if you overwrite files most of the time then expect the lifespan of the SSD to last not the long of it's said lifespan. Is this correct sir dave?.

Regarding the 500SSD, i think i'm going lower to 120GB SSD, i really don't have that kind of money. This is really sad. If some luck i will be able to save enough to buy a 500GB, then i would go for it. Anyway, an update of my computer is that i will pick it up today from the computer store, i hope that the issue/s is/are now fixed.

Thank you for your time sir dave.

If you want to message me, feel free to email me @ [email protected].

Thank you for this sir dave, i really appreciated this. :D

Good luck in your career and cheers. :)
Forgive and Forget!

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2014, 05:10:58 AM »
Hello and good day sir dave, i have an update regarding my pc, my psu was replaced with a brand new one. Hoping it won't restart anymore, will observe within a day. Thank you for the best support.
Forgive and Forget!

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2014, 07:57:53 PM »
Hello and good day, i will update you regarding my pc, for three days my pc is not having random reboot after a replacement of a bnew psu. I assume that my psu was faulty after 5 months. Thank you for the good information provided to me in this forum to the members of it especially to sir dave. Thanks a lot man. Good luck and have a good day.
Forgive and Forget!

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #14 on: May 19, 2014, 04:07:23 AM »
Hello and good day to everyone, i just want to update that my problems was fixed. The store replaced my psu with a brand new one for it's warranty. I am not experiencing any random reboots or errors. Hope this helps.
Forgive and Forget!

DaveLembke



    Sage
  • Thanked: 662
  • Certifications: List
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Expert
  • OS: Windows 10
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #15 on: May 20, 2014, 02:47:42 PM »
Glad the problem got worked out. I had a strong feeling it was PSU related from the get go. Been there and had problems like this before. Hopefully the replacement PSU is a good quality PSU and you want have a repeat of this problem later if a lesser quality PSU that weakens early in its life cycle.

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #16 on: May 22, 2014, 11:27:26 PM »
Glad the problem got worked out. I had a strong feeling it was PSU related from the get go. Been there and had problems like this before. Hopefully the replacement PSU is a good quality PSU and you want have a repeat of this problem later if a lesser quality PSU that weakens early in its life cycle.

Hello and good day sir dave, it is the same PSU, the brand is still corsair vs550. Thanks for the support sir.
Forgive and Forget!

fatfingers25

    Topic Starter


    Rookie
  • Teamwork is better than Solo!
    • Yes
  • Computer: Specs
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Need help, Computer reboot when playing games.
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2016, 12:24:23 AM »
Hello , as an update the issue has returned and been giving me reboots while I'm playing games, unless I set my video settings to low I can play low - medium graphics games such as dota 2 and csgo.

My bet is that my PSU is the problem, I haven't replace it yet because I can still play those two games as of the moment but I can't try others due to this limitation.

Forgive and Forget!