Multiple PC problems!

V

Venom

Active Member
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
378
Hello awesome tech people!

Ok soo...
When I am gaming..
SOMETIMES, my graphics card fan makes a buzzing noise or something different than the normal noise. MOST OF THE TIME, my computer then makes this weird chemical or burning like smell. After a couple minutes, my computer just shuts down. It doesn't go to the "Shutting down" screen. The entire computer just abruptly shuts off.

Specs below!

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/e...3158-12133158-12133158-81670277-81959216.html

Couple differences..

I changed my 300 W PSU for a new 600W PSU some time last month thinking my PSU was at fault. Basically, same problem occurred before and after I put in a new PSU.

Installed a.. ATI HD Radeon 4350 graphics card maybe 8 months ago.

Anyone think they can help me out in solving this issue?
Thanks :(
 
Well, first things first.
If you smell anything from the inside of your PC, something is definitely wrong.
From what you've said, it sounds like your graphics card overheats and your computer turns off to protect itself, which is normal.

Have you tried replacing graphics card? If you don't handle this, your graphics card may catch on fire, causing irreversible damage.

P.S. Do you use any overclocking programs or programs designed to exceed normal capacity?
 
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Sadly, I have no clue whether programs are overclocking or not. I don't think they are.
 
OK. You most likely don't have overclocking programs. You have to intentionally install and tweak them to your wants.

Have you tried replacing your video card?
 
No I haven't. I think the smell is coming from my PSU.
 
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OK. The reason why I didn't start troubleshooting with that is because you advised you replaced it, though the problem still exists.

Are all your connections plugged in properly?
Make sure if you have zipties to tie in the cables, they are not too tight.
Make sure the screws holding your PSU to your chassis are not too tight.
Make sure there's enough airflow for proper cooling.
Make sure the outlet coming from the wall going into the PSU is correctly functioning. Sometimes, faulty electricity can send "bad" current to your PSU, resulting in unwanted desires.
Try replacing your voltage cord, these go bad over time with wear'n'tear.
 
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Sounds to me like a pure heating problem.
Either the CPU or the Video Card.
Lets try to narrow it down in a minute.

This is how to find out for sure.
Go Download Prime 95 (google it,) its safe and its free.
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103


Go Download HWmonitor http://www.hmonitor.com/product.shtml#Download

slide45.png



Run Prime 95 on Torture Test and Monitor your Temperatures if the cpu temp gets above 60C it's probably the cpu cooler not doing it's job.
If the pc crashes while testing, no worries. You've found the problem, its the temperature. Try taking the side off and put a box fan next to it and put it on high and repeat test to see if that corrects it.

Before doing anything, take the side panel off and turn it on, are all the fans running that are supposed to be running? Do that first.

Check the CPU fan, The Graphics Card Fan, The PSU fan.
If everything is spinning like it's supposed to. Run Prime and Report back the temps, These chips run a tad hot, but if it's below 62C while running prime for 15 minutes+ its probably not the cpu or cpu fan, probably the graphics card or PSU.

I would also look at my voltages and make sure they are within 5% of what they are supposed to be, especially the +12v and +5v

I do want to say this, not all Power supplies are equal, just because its 600 watts does not mean its better than that 350 watt one or whatever you had.
It has to be good clean stable power. If the power supply you put in, does not way as much as hardcover webster dictionary, chances are its not a very high quality one.
 
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Alright. I've checked all of those points.
My screws are rather tight. The other things are fine though.

Any guess on what the problem is yet? Loosening the screws a little didn't help my situation.
 
tighten em back up, just snug will do.
What brand power supply did you buy?
please download these tools and let us know your temps and we can help you, I'm online right now.
 
btw- I just added you to my friends list on steam so I can chat with you.
I'm Charlie_Sheen_
 
Please add me so we can chat, of course you can delete me when your done.
I've been a pc tech since the mid 90's, I probably can help you and I do have a few minutes.
 
It sounds like crackdaddy is going to solve this one for you. :)
If your problem still remains unsolved, please send me a PM and I'll further diagnose your issue.
 
Yea, we worked on it for about an hour last night.

This is what we know,
it happens only in FPS games or so it seems.
Since it started before he got a PSU and still exist.
We somewhat ruled out the PSU but tried to check the voltage but couldn't, not sure why, we downloaded HWmonitor and CpuHwmonitor but for some reason +12v would not show his voltages, since his PSU was new and this problem existed before hand, we just skipped it and worked under the assumption the new PSU was fine.

(I'd still try download hardware monitor pro and check it again, it should be -+5% of specs)
I would also check it under load with prime and with furMark just to be sure. As under load is when a PSU problem usually rears it's head.

We primed his cpu and he was getting about 64C peak after 20 mins or so and the system was stable, so the problem is not the cpu or cpu fan as we did physically check all the fans to make sure they were turning.

We then checked his video card and ran FurMark video benchmarks to see what happened.
It went up to 107 degrees in about 5 minutes, but did not crash.

He did tell me at certain times, his GPU fan does make funny sounds just before crashing.
Yet, it did not crash during our benchmark test.

So while running these test I had him touch the Northbridge to see if it was getting hot, he was able to hold his finger on it for 4.5 secs, this tells me that its probably not that either.

I recommended leaving the side off and put a box fan on it and play and see if that changes anything, and start shopping for a new video card, as I strongly suspect that is the problem. As everything else seemed to be ok.

Its possible that its a flaky motherboard or ram but imo much less likely.

It would not hurt to run prime overnight and see if it passes, memtest would not be bad either if you really wanted to be sure.

I would be curious to know if it ever happens again with that box fan blowing in the side.

Its possible to just replace that Video card heatsink and fan and it "may" fix all of your problems, especially if the box fan keeps your pc from crashing.

The problem with that solution is a good aftermarket hs/f is going to cost you $15-20 and for $35-$40 you can go buy a new 4650 video card.

So I in good conscience could not recommend that route.
 
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Ric said:
Well, first things first.
If you smell anything from the inside of your PC, something is definitely wrong.
From what you've said, it sounds like your graphics card overheats and your computer turns off to protect itself, which is normal.

Have you tried replacing graphics card? If you don't handle this, your graphics card may catch on fire, causing irreversible damage.

P.S. Do you use any overclocking programs or programs designed to exceed normal capacity?
Click to expand...

this is rigth and i agree with this.

try this verify that your graphics card don't need more power, sometimes this can be the most frequent cause of the problem when we change our graphic card, check out the hardware requeriments for your graphic card. Check the ports of your mother board (pci, pci express, etc).

since when you has been this problem??

hope this work to you
 
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