Gaming issues

[lordvader77]

Hey guys,

So for the last few months I've been having issues with my pc gaming. My pc would just turn off within a few minutes of starting practically any game on steam. Game would be running fine, and then the whole thing would just shut down. So I realized it could be a power problem, since, after some research, my old psu was apparently not so great and had a tendency to not perform well. So I bought a 650w psu (upgrading from the old ~430w psu) and installed it within the last month. Recently, the problems have been continuing. The last few days, my pc will crash really quickly in almost any game, unless I let it just sit for a few hours overnight. However, it's also started having random lag spikes in offline games: about 5-10 seconds of really solid performance, followed by 10-15 seconds of really choppy performance. I tried this out on Crysis, among others, and during the time it wasn't lagging, it played very, very well. Anyway, these problems are very irritating and I would really appreciate any help.

Note: I'm thinking it might be a heat problem but from what I can tell my temps are alright and my fans are working. Also I've tried updating drivers.

Specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte G41MT-ES2L
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66ghz
Video: ATI Radeon HD 5570 1GB DDR3
PSU: hec X-Power Pro 650 650W Continuous @ 40?C
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module

Thanks,
Lordvader77

 

[Chemical Burn]

From personal experience of this kind of thing, for me at least its usually a dirty PC. The only thing I can say is check all your fans and make sure they are clean to have proper air flow. During gaming the PC gets much hotter so airflow is quite important to keep all your components cool, if there is alot of gunk and dust in the fans the airflow gets restricted and isn't cooling your PC as it should.

Also make sure to check your PC temp via BIOS and not programs.

 

[lordvader77]

So would pressurized air canister be helpful for cleaning fans and stuff? I probly should clean it anyway. Also what am I looking to check in BIOS?

 

[Cacophonus]

You're looking to listen to the beep code you get when you restart your pc (*right* after it crashes). Honestly, its probably just a dirty/overheating issue; let us know if you hear a beep code (bios's way of telling you what the problem is) and what it is (it'll come out as "morse" code- shorts and longs- so just say 1 long, 2 short or whatever it happens to be) after you clean the PC out and ensure proper flow.

 

[lordvader77]

I don't think there is a beep code, just from memory, but next time I restart I'll check

 

[DragonD]

I don't think there would be THAT much dust building up in less than a month. (it stopped when he put in a new ps, but just started up again).

While it could indeed be an overheating problem, double check all your connections, specially the power to the motherboard. Something may be working it's way lose and not getting enough juice to handle gaming.

 

[lordvader77]

I think it may have been the dust, lol. I took out my video card, and the fan on the card had like a ring of white dust inside and around it. Got it off with pressurized air, so now I'm going to see how that affects the game play.

 

[Johnny]

Check your CPU headsink, too. It can get clogged with dust quite easily.

 

[lordvader77]

err, heatsink? I think I know what you're talking about. I have liquid cooling btw.

 

[Johnny]

err, heatsink? I think I know what you're talking about. I have liquid cooling btw.

And your system still overheats?

 

[DragonD]

Another reason i don't think it's dust.

I has the SAME issue last year.

My rig would be fine all day long; surf the net, read emails, etc.

But when I would start up a game, my rig would just shut down. Shut down as if somebody has unplugged the power supply.

It took me a LOOONG time to realize the connector that powers the motherboard was working it's way lose (Without going into detail, was due to the direction I ran the line and tucked the extra line out site, making the connection to "tight").

So, the board was getting enough power for "normal" tasks, but once I started doing anything intensive, it didn't have enough juice and would just shut off.

 

[lordvader77]

And your system still overheats?

I don't know if it's overheating. I was checking the temps and they seemed pretty normal. I think it might have something to do with the thermal paste between the liquid cooling and the processor.

 

[Duke]

I had the same problem and may be able to stop your searching. Find somewhere that sales thermal paste. Take your heatsink off your processor and give it a good bit of the paste stick it back on clean up any that has ran out and you should be good.