Computer loses power during gaming

[rohaninabout]

Hi there,

Recently my computer has been simply 'dying' while gaming. No warnings or anything.

This sort of thing has happened to me before, so I don't think its overheating. Usually when its overheating, the computer dies and restarts - where this time it is just dying. Plus my temperatures are a decent level.

Basically, when I'm playing games (so far it has happened on Crysis Warhead and Mass Effect 2) the screen will lose power, and then the computer will just turn off without a restart - just like someone has pulled the power out.

I considered my PSU being underpowered, but it shouldnt be at 700W...

Any ideas? thanks in advance.

[liljim]

I would say your PSU is either overheating or simply failing all together. It wouldnt hurt however to check the cooling fans inside the psu itself, if they/it isnt working it will do as your describing too. Another small note, with the cold weather we tend to keep our room temps higher which also has an effect on hardware temps. In any case, i blame your psu.

[liljim]

ps: high wattage doesnt always mean high amperage. With the demanding games your playing, your hardware is pulling more amps than average and could also trip the psu if its ratings are low.

[rohaninabout]

Thanks for your reply liljim.

That makes sense, but it doesn't really explain why its just been happening recently (I've had the same PSU for 3 years now)

What would be a healthy amp rating for a PSU?
Also, is there anything else that could be causing this?

I'm hoping its not a dying PSU

[liljim]

[rohaninabout]

Thanks again, very helpful

So.. you're suggesting that I may have a dying power supply?
Would you advise against turning the bios shutdown temperature off?


Also, what does 80+ certified mean?

[liljim]

I would not suggest turning off the temperature shutdown, if anything you should check to see where its set to shut off at. Somewhere around 75 is a good temp to power down at as you can start to damage the cpu any higher. Have you checked your cpu temps while under a load?

80+ certified psu's are more efficient and generate less heat. Heres a with more detail.

[rohaninabout]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll have to have a look in my CMOS settings to see if I can edit the shutdown temperature.
Yes my CPU temp barely hits about 60 under an extremely heavy load. its around 20-30 at idle.

The power loss only happens during demanding games, which leads me to believe it could be almost anything. Graphics card, PSU requiring more power, faulty RAM, CPU overheating etc...

Will let you know how I get on thanks again.

[liljim]

ram will almost always blue screen or completely freeze but rarely lose power, same for vid card. I cant say its impossible but ive never seen ram or gpu power off a machine. PSU or CPU overheat will power off without a doubt. Barely 60 is about average id say under a load.

[rohaninabout]

oh. Does the PSU have a cut off function when it overheats too much? I've noticed the air coming out the back is very, very hot. Saying that though, it is supposed to work like that (hot air being fanned out the back of the PSU)

[liljim]

Yes (to most) and yes its suppose to vent hot air out the rear. If its "very" hot you have a prob there, typically it should be warm at best. Id make sure the psu fan(s) are working and blowing dust out with compressed air may help some.

[rohaninabout]

Yesterday I took my PC to bits and gave it a thorough clean out. There was a bit of dust in the CPU heat sink which is now clean, and running much cooler. No power loss as of yet.

When taking the heat sink off the CPU, I noticed there was a circular mark where the CPU had been melting, and some of the metal was stuck to the heat sink.
I'm not sure when this would have happened, maybe a year ago when I was having a really bad overheating problem?

Which raises a new question, is thermal paste a necessity? I've never used it between the CPU and heat sink. What exactly does it do?

Thanks!

[liljim]

OMG i cant believe that thing is running!

Thermal paste helps transfer the heat from the cpu to the heatsink and keeps the two from welding themselves together in a sense. Im hoping that the circle your seeing was factory supplied paste that was on the heatsink already. If theres actual damage to the bottom of the heatsink i would seriously recommend you replace it and use artic silver on the new one.

[liljim]

heres a little more detail on grease/paste

[Psymon]

That circle when you took off the heatsink is most likely to be thermal paste. I highly doubt your CPU could get hot enough to melt metal.

Thermal paste comes in a range of colours, as you can see from my link, so it might by chance match the colour of your CPU or heatsink.

Did you put this PC together yourself? Most CPUs come with a heatsink which already has an application of thermal paste, although not the best, so unless you wiped that off when building it there should have been some.

If you bought your pc pre-built then it also should definitely have had thermal paste on it.