Computer Reboots Overheat? not a newb....

[ihavethenfs]

Im stumped I upgraded recently when HL2 came out and since ive done the upgrade i have been suffering random reboots (mainly while playing games, even ones that are not graphic intense! such as HL1), assuming this is a heating problem i set out to cool my system down...I bought a new case and have 2 fans blownig directly into the case, one on the side on a see through panel and one on the back under the power supply. Not to mention a 6000rpm CPU fan. Unfortuantly no luck. reboots still remain, Im running 1gig dual channel DDR400 ram, 3.2g p4 w/ ECS mobo, ATI 9600 XT 256mb, maxtor 80gig hd, 450 watt generic power supply. SB Live Value! and thaats about it. Got me stumped, with the system im running ifigure i have adequate cooling, im not running a monster..anyone know whats up?

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

What are the details?

I would probolly blame this on the power supply.
I would also try reseating the CPU and GFX card

 

[ihavethenfs]

Interesting, I reseated the CPU in my process of trying to cool it down and added a bit more thermal paste, um the GFX is in there pretty solid...

now the power supply? I never would have thought of that? why do you say? is this common? I didnt know a power supply could have such an effect..

 

[psydesign]

well of course it will have such a effect it supplys the power if the pc restarts it either generally from over heating faulty ram or the power supply try swopping out the power supply. if it still reboots then run memtest 86 and check your ram for errors

 

[killians45]

yeah, I'd say the power supply, too. if that doesn't work, you could turn off the "restart windows" during system failure in the system properties, adv, recovery section and solicit an error, but as of now a power supply would be the first thing to replace.

 

[gaara]

Dude, you have two fans which are intake, and no outtake? There's one of your problems to start, all you're doing is pushing all the hot air back into the case and not letting it vent anywhere, switch one to exhaust and get some air circulating around that case.

Buy a new power supply as the others have suggested, it sounds like it may be about to die, and generic ones generally aren't very reliable either.

Finally, your video card may be overheating, invest in a new GPU heatsink, and possibly a PCI cooler to push all that air coming off it out of the case.

 

[Nubius]

Well the 9600XT should have temp monitoring on it...so find out what your load temps on that are.


I'd check the RAM first with memtest86+ before you go and swap out power supplies

If the RAM isn't at fault then yeah it probably is the power supply, but to get an idea what are your voltages?

Get a program like SiSoftware Sandra, or motherboard monitor 5 and find out what your +12v, +3.3v, and +5v rail is running at.

If it shows the +12v rail at like 11.54 then yeah your PSU is getting way too taxed for it to be able to handle what you're doing.

 

[rememberme]

I don't know what rating your PSU is, but I hear a lot of reboots are down to lack of power. For example, most computers come with around a 300w supply. If I was to have this in a computer using the latest nVidia 6800 Ultra (which takes up 110w in its peak benchmarks) I would be feedin everything else with just 190 watts of power.

Have a look at the PSUs in the 400w+ catagory - you might find your computer will run faster with the extra power as well! The Nexus Real Silent 3600 PSU is supposed to be really efficient...