Computer crashing, have tried almost everything!

Hello FFXIV Community!

I am the resident go to guy when it comes to everything computers with my family and friends, as I'm sure many of you reading this are, but I'm semi-stumped on my friends current problem.

First, I want to state that it is NOT FFXIV specific, it also happens in other games (such as Diablo III) and even sometimes when she has multiple websites open (like a youtube video or two, chatting on fb, etc.)

Basically the computer just shuts off. No blue screen, no warning, just shuts completely down. On FFXIV, it was happening about every 15-30 minutes, on other games every 45 minutes to an hour and a half. To save time, here's what we've already done/tried:

• New case (old one was horrible at airflow)
• Memcheck, 1 piece had an error, taking out that piece did nothing to improve it.
• new PSU, didn't help
• Changed video card to a much lower end card. This helped, making the crashes happen every hour instead of every half hour.
• Changed the Heatsync by request of someone at BestBuy. I wasn't there, but something about it possibly being broke. This helped the most, but the crash still comes every couple hours.

Now everything points to a overheating, which is why my first instinct was the video card, but as it sits, the only things we haven't really touched are the processor and motherboard. She's low on money and can't afford to replace both (or maybe any at this point), so finding out which one it is would really help her (and me, I've been dealing with her computer for too long now...), her specs are as follows:

• Windows 7
• AMD FX-6100
• 8GB DDR 3 RAM
• MSI 890FXA-GD65 (MS-7640) Motherboard
• AMD Radeon 6700 series (I think it's the 6750, but not 100% sure, also not sure what the low end card she is using is)

Thanks for any help.

First off, with it crashing like it is the last things i would think it'd be would be the video card and PSU. If the video card crashes, 9/10 times it doesn't crash the whole computer you just lose video, with the PSU, normally your PC doesn't get past the first Windows screen without it either shutting off or BSODing. Even replacing the case was a little extreme, however if it is still crashing due to overheating after replacing all of that, and you have made sure everything is plugged in you have 2 options. The cheapest would be to find a low priced, even cheap, cpu that is tested as working fine from say ebay that fits your socket and test the computer out that way. The other option is to look at replacing the motherboard, or at least testing it using the same method. Unfortunately there is no cheaper option, though tbh it does sound like it's definitely the cpu.

have you tried upgrading to better hardware ?

i would suggest getting a NVidia GPU for a start

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ceelo_Mage

i would suggest getting a NVidia GPU for a start

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Lol yah, because a Nvidia chip is better than ATI/AMD and vice versa. Let's not have that useless fight when its totally irrelevant to he the issue at hand.

Did you try resetting the CMOS and checking if ram and cpu frequencies match what they should be?

Is the new PSU branded or just another trashy one? most cheap PSUs tend to be a major cause of problems. Also, you have given no time frame at all since all this happened, it could be a driver problem for the GPU. If everything fails I think it may be either the processor or the motherboard (I've never heard that a processor can cause a PC to crash unless it is an overheating problem, otherwise the PC wouldn't run at all.)
Things to try and look at:
1) Try monitoring the temperature of the PC components until it crashes using CPUID.
2) Try using the processor on another motherboard and see if the crashing happen to the other PC as well.
3) If the problem happened after a driver or a BIOS update, you should look into downgrading to the previous stable one.

Deja vu... there is already a thread about this. The first couple of pages are all about supposed fixes too... they haven't worked.

Please post on the other thread so something MIGHT happen.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...sh-BSOD-issues

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RLW81205

Deja vu... there is already a thread about this. The first couple of pages are all about supposed fixes too... they haven't worked.

Please post on the other thread so something MIGHT happen.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...sh-BSOD-issues

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This is not the same issue as that is. If you actually read the OP, you would have seen it mentioned that the computer in question crashes no matter what game is being played, or what they are doing on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SMNaCarbie

Hello FFXIV Community!

First, I want to state that it is NOT FFXIV specific, it also happens in other games (such as Diablo III) and even sometimes when she has multiple websites open (like a youtube video or two, chatting on fb, etc.)

...Snip
.

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Ah thanks for all the replies! I didn't get notification that I got any even though I subscribed! Going to read through these, try a few things, and post again once I have an update. I don't have the computer here at my house of course, so it's not easy to just try things...but thanks!

and "thank you" for suggesting an nVidia card! That must be it....I mean I've been using ATI/AMD cards for the better part of 15 years now and have never had problems, so that must be the solution... (Sorry for the sarcasm, just thought it was funny that Ceelo would post that "tip"...)

I've had bad motherboards in the past. If you eliminated everything else and it sounds like you have i'd go that route next personally. I would however check the mobo manufacturer forums for your mobo and see if anyone else is having these issues. Sometimes you get lucky and there's a fix for it. Updating the bios for example or an RMA. But then you have to wait a month for a replacement mobo. Sometimes you can repair it yourself like the old Abit ic7 mobo where they used a capacitor on the V Sense line for VDDR volts if memory serves. Easily fixable by removing said capacitor.

Drivers can cause issues. For me i've had more problems with audio drivers causing system errors then just about anything else. It's one reason why i'll never use any creative cards/chips again. But even realtek i had issues with. Just mentioning this is you do need to eliminate everything.

BTW i've had hundreds of sticks of memory. I've even soldered a few to improve overclocking ability. I have never ever had a bad stick of ram. Just bad settings.

Googling the mobo for issues there are many hits and i'd suggest you read them. A lot were RMAed when all they needed to do was update the bios. Here's an interesting one and one which i suspect may be the problem gain, what fixed the crc failers was to change the memory timing from "auto" to "2T", and the bsods were fixed by disabling "DCT Unganged Mode"

Google is always your friend. Please research a bit more. :)

In terms of probability:
Any part that directly generates heat (CPU, GPU, RAM) and any moving parts (PSU fan, CPU fan, GPU fan, mechanical hard drives) fail the most often
In experience
1. GPU's fail the most often, either the FAN fails or the RAM fails. The observable effects of both are "Windows has reset the graphics driver" and unexplainable graphical glitches, and Windows refusing to load Aero. When it hits a critical failure state, it simply BSOD's
2. Hard drives fail the next most often, and often the failure is progressive. Errors on mechanical hard drives are always caused by
a) Wear (I had two drives from the same manufacturer, fail within a week of each other, despite being in different PC's) those machines RAID systems were unrecoverable and warranted a reinstall.
b) Inappropriate shutdowns (pulling the plug, power switch, power spikes/sags/surges)
c) laptops and portable drives usually suffer from "drop damage"
3) PSU failure, I'll admit that I've replaced PSU's for people going back to the 90's and their symptoms are usually the computer works for a while and then BSOD's or shuts down/reboots. This is caused by voltages dropping for whatever reason. The second, and less obvious symptom is that the PC won't turn on, or gets stuck in a "POST loop", where it's drawing too much power on boot up. This is not to be confused with...
4) Motherboard failure, which has the same "POST" loop problem that may be a result of a firmware update gone bad. Clearing the CMOS will usually fix it, but I had one board (combined with the CPU/RAM timing problem) kill itself, despite having a rescue firmware.
5. CPU or RAM - Now the only way either of these fail is by thermal damage. It's far more likely that the CPU and RAM are a bad match than the parts independently going bad. This is usually why your Dell/HP/Gateway systems come with low-end slower parts, because they get a higher yield out of them, despite shorter lifespan.

The AMD 6700 series is not a "low end card", that's actually the 120$ price point card (the current model is the 7750) Switching the video card from one brand to another is usually not the correct answer since that just exchanges one set of driver problems for another.

My personal opinion is that the crashing sounds like the Motherboard (MSI is great and producing cheap, low-quality parts, I won't touch them) , also I would probably not recommend going to BestBuy for advice, as the people there (even if they aren't commission) are still primarily sales people, and their technicians are high-school kids. However the crashing may simply be motherboard settings, not defects. The "time till failure" mentioned is something that happens from bad CPU/RAM timings (I replaced every single part in my previous PC chasing down a similar problem, ultimately replacing the CPU fixed it, but that was because I went from a Xeon to a C2D chip that was 60% slower.)

The motherboard is supposed to select the most appropriate timings. However sometimes you have "high performance mode" or "turbo settings" set when you probably shouldn't.

I actually have a PC doing this same exact thing now. Ordered New, came in fine, one month later *blam* it starts crashing without BSOD or anything. It just goes from straight on, to off.

I've narrowed my problem down to the CPU overheating (they used cheap grey grease which hardened like a rock), just waiting for a new air cooler to come in and I'll be good I think.

I'd recommend downloading a free system monitoring program like HWMonitor and just watch the temperatures as the system runs. If they start rising sharply from any activity, it could be that something in the system is overheating and causing an emergency shutdown. I can't say I've seen it do that for anything other than the CPU overheating though, other hardware usually throws up the BSOD for a few seconds.