I desperately need help about PC

[Peter T.]

Hi to all!I'm new in this kind of forums,and I think that this forum is great.I'll try to be quick and precise,so here's my BIG problem:

When I play some 3D games (WarCraft3,... etc.) after exactly 25 minutes of playing,the PC automatically shuts down (like when you unplug PSU).And when I don't play games (music,movies,web browsers...) PC works perfectly and It can work 24/7.Anybody can help me with this problem?I need the best and most exact diagnosis you can make,so I know which part to replace.Here is my PC build(don't laugh please):

CPU- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Mainboard- GA-K8NF-9-RH
RAM- 1GB-Kingston
Graphic Card- NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT[256MB]

So,if you need any additional information,be free to ask.I'm having this PC for a 5 years,it always worked perfectly and I'm cleaning it often,taking good care of it.

I'd be very grateful if anyone could help.

Regards.Peter.

[Phage]

Sounds like a heat problem.
If the machine gets too hot it will turn itself off to protect the fragile internals. Especially older machines get full up with dust and other cruft that blocks up the heat sink fins on the CPU cooler and blocks the airvents on the case.
Have you taken the side of the case off and cleaned the inside ?

[Champman99]

I would go along with the heat diagnosis possibly, but it could also be the PSU. Fine under low load but when the CPU called in at 100% as well as some GPU usage the PSU packs up.

I think if the GPU was overheating you would see screen artifacts before shutdown. So for me that leaves the most likely being either CPU overheat, or PSU is dodgy.

[Peter T.]

Sounds like a heat problem.
If the machine gets too hot it will turn itself off to protect the fragile internals. Especially older machines get full up with dust and other cruft that blocks up the heat sink fins on the CPU cooler and blocks the airvents on the case.
Have you taken the side of the case off and cleaned the inside ?

Thank you very much for FAST answer!

Well,as I said,I take care of my PC very good.I cleaned it twice since this problem began.I payed special attention to all of the coolers.Could coolers be the problem?

Peter.

[Phage]

As Champman said, it's either heat or your power supply is no longer able to provide all of the watts that the machine needs.
Are you able to check by swapping the video card for another and seeing if the problem reappears ?

[Domestic_Ginger]

I agree, most probably heat. Phage has the furball angle covered.

I had an overheating GPU and if I remember rightly it would black screen and all the fans would go full throttle.

I would use use some temp monitoring software like speedfan, hwtemp of everest to monitor your temps. You can alt+tab between your programs and the desk top to quickly check before it crashes. Furmark or ATItool may help as well; your GPU will get very hot.

You could always test your CPU temps with prime95; the thermal paste may have given up.

[Peter T.]

I would go along with the heat diagnosis possibly, but it could also be the PSU. Fine under low load but when the CPU called in at 100% as well as some GPU usage the PSU packs up.

I think if the GPU was overheating you would see screen artifacts before shutdown. So for me that leaves the most likely being either CPU overheat, or PSU is dodgy.

Champ,I tried with program called EVEREST Ultimate,and I tested System Stability.When I started game,the temperature on CPU Diode started to get higher and higher,till I exited game.Could that CPU Diode temperature be problem?

BTW I can see on EVEREST that everything is fine with other temperatures and stats.

[Phage]

Definitely sounds like your heatsink is not functioning to it's full efficiency. I would take it off, clean the top of the CPU (special solvent for no residue) and the base of the heat sink. Then reapply a small dab to the CPU and re-seat the heatsink.

[jim]

Champ,I tried with program called EVEREST Ultimate,and I tested System Stability.When I started game,the temperature on CPU Diode started to get higher and higher,till I exited game.Could that CPU Diode temperature be problem?

BTW I can see on EVEREST that everything is fine with other temperatures and stats.

Well, it will get higher and higher by nature - that's what it's meant to do, although it will automatically turn off the PC if it gets too high.

What sort of temperature did it reach?

[Phage]

It should plateau surely ?

[Disturbedguy]

May be worth removing the CPU cooler, cleaning both the cooler and cpu and replacing any thermal paste.

beaten to it!

[jim]

It should plateau surely ?

Well eventually yeah, I just noticed that he didn't specify how long it rose for, or the amount it rose to.

Given that, it could've risen by a degree every 30 seconds to 70 until he turned it off, which would be perfectly normal. Just thought it would be worth checking before getting the thermal paste out.

[Champman99]

Yes exactly, it depends on how long it rises for, if it rises initially and then stays steady that is fine - and expected. But what could be happening is (and I think I have the right term) "Temperature Creep"

This basically means your heatsink cannot dissapate the heat, and sort of starts a vicious cycle wherby each increase in temp brings about another increase in temp. What sort of actual numbers are you getting on Everest / HWMonitor, I think most BIOS is set to shut down at 85 degrees. Which is pretty hot.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I reckon run Prime95 (when you know what the max heat it can tolerate is; should be specified on AMD website) watch your CPU heatup in everest and see if it plateaus at a safe temp before you pull anything apart. If it starts getting to hot then stop prime.

If it seems ok we can exclude the CPU.

Taking a back seat as we're all writing the same stuff at the same time!

[Phage]

I love it when a plan comes together </A-Team>

[jim]

If it starts getting to hot then stop prime.

From what I've read, 95 celsius is the max stated limit for these processors, so I would call 80 degrees "too hot" and time to stop. In that situation, the processor clearly needs a bit of TLC and we can move on from there.

Don't panic too much though, it should automatically shut itself down before any permanent damage is done.