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I've had an intermittent problem with my PC pretty much since I had it built.
It crashes at seemingly random times. Saying that, I can get it to crash, it just takes a while - if I play 3 videos, render a video, run Ninja at replay at 500x - basically get the CPU (an i7 up to 100%) and let it go.
Whilst doing this, I have the sensor monitor up and according to that, the CPU temp doesn't get up past 68c.
Note - that I am in a hot country and I don't leave the air con on 24x7 but during my test, the air con is always on.
To discount memory as an issue, I tried to max the PC out with just one of the 4 memory cards in. Each test I did with each memory card in failed to produce a crash. I put this down to the fact that the memory was maxed causing disk swapping which kept the processor more idle.
With all four memory cards in, the processor can max out but doesn't show signs of overheating on the monitor prior to a crash.
The thing that annoys me - if these processors are smart enough to turn themselves off to avoid a crash, then why are they not smart enough to throttle back when the temperature increases. Do they not have this capability?
This is an ASUS motherboard, P8Z68-V PRO, with an Intel i7 2600 @ 3.40 Ghz ans 16GB Ram. Not the fastest on the planet but no slouch.
Anyone got any ideas how to approach this? Does it sound like overheating?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Cheers
DT
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
What does "crash" mean? If you get a BSOD, then what is the exact STOP error? You can google it and it will tell you which piece of hardware is causing the problem most likely. If there is no BSOD and it just shutsdown or randomly reboots then you could check the Event Viewer to see if there are any clues in there.
Next step would be to open the case up and stick a fan next to it, and repeat your "crash" test. This will lower your temps, so if it is heat related this should show you that.
Although I am no expert in that field (not even a self proclaimed one) I doubt that it is an overheating problem. Those temperatures are absolutely acceptable. Either the sensor does not show the right temperature or the problem lies elsewhere. Now what could be is that the temperature of one core gets higher than those 68 or was that temp per core?
1 - Just stop - all screens still displaying but frozen, mouse & keyboard unresponsive.
2 - Reboots with no warning and no BSOD - just resets itself
I'd love it to BSOD on me one time but a freeze or a reboot is the best I get and there's never anything in the event logs that occurred prior to the reset.
I'll run the memory test & try the fan thing too - thanks for the tips.
Hi VVHG - thought you were going to say it was probably my dodgy software!
In terms of the temperature, I'm using the ASUS Sensor recorder which shows the temperature and I think writes to a file somewhere to - not that I can find it.
It just shows 1 setting for the CPU & another for the Motherboard, nothing per core.
You should look under your Control Panel/System & Security/Administrative Tools/Event Logs to see if Windows registers an error in the log. If there is a Crash Dump file you can get a general idea by looking at the description after installing this
As ugly as it sounds, you may need to boot up in Safe Mode with Networking and run all your apps to try and crash it. If it doesn't crash, you have narrowed the problem down to something loading during StartUp.
Couldn't stop laughing
It would rather be my dodgy software!
Addgadgets.com have a little program called CoreTemp, that shows the temperatures for individual cores, they are normally considerably higher than the overall temp...
For some reason, I also think it might be an issue with graphics cards but I'm not sure how to prove that or discount it. I have the memory checker from Mike for RAM test.
In terms of new software - nothing really and this problem has been around a while. I am on the warpath now because someone asked me to do a vid the other day and that took me an hour. I was then up till 3am trying to render the video because it kept crashing.
BTW - silly question - does video rendering use the graphics cards? I would presume it's all CPU because it's not actually outputting anything to screen.
) I doubt that it is an overheating problem. Those temperatures are absolutely acceptable. Either the sensor does not show the right temperature or the problem lies elsewhere. Now what could be is that the temperature of one core gets higher than those 68 or was that temp per core?