Specs of my PC (1 and half years old):
MoBo - AM2 Asus Crosshair NOFRCE 590SLI
CPU - AMD X2 4800 AM2 ADO 65W
RAM - 2 Sticks of 512 MB DDR2 PC 6400
PSU - X-Super Alien PS 500W
Gfx Card - eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCI-E
Case is a 31102 Xion7000Z
Situation:
Earlier today I was playing Team Fortress 2... I've had overheating problems before but just doing a regular cleaning out of the case and heatsink, reseating the CPU with new artic silver would do the trick. So when I do some heavy gaming like TF2 I tend to alt tab out of the game and check my CPU temp. I did a tab out after about 10 minutes of game play and the temp read 58 C. Which I've read is normal under load for my dual core AMD.
After going back in game I proceeded to play for another 10 minutes when all the sudden my PC just shut off! No BSOD, nothing... Fans stopped, all the hardware just went dead.
I let it sit for about 20 minutes thinking maybe I got a sudden heat spike from the gameplay and my PC was trying to save the CPU or GPU by shutting down (which has happened before).
When I hit the power button on the front, nothing.
I pulled my PC out, got the side panel off... Grounded myself, and put the back of my hand to the heatsink and around it. It felt kind of hot but not too hot. Did the same for my gfx card. Same thing, it wasn't surprisingly hot. I felt behind the PSU fan and it felt hotter than both, hotter than normal I reckon. Lights on the MoBo were and are still on when the power supply switch is on.
While I had the side panel off, I tried to fire it up again... And I noticed my PSU light flicker. My PSU is a Alienware rip off or something and has fancy neon light(s) in the casing. That's what I saw flicker. Also, I noticed the CPU fan and other case fans start to spin but then stopped. So it's almost like it's not getting enough juice to fire up.
I've been reading all over forums everywhere relating to PCs not booting, crashing, etc. All with near same hardware as mine, the Asus crosshair, 8800...
I tried all the tricks listed. Resetting the CMOS, reseating all PCI cards, using only 1 RAM stick in different slots, unplugging the PSU from the MoBo, took out the heatsink, cleaned it, removed the CPU (no burn marks or discoloration on the socket or the pins of the CPU), cleaned thermal paste and re applied, and so on. I even tried resetting the CMOS in between each of some of the steps.
Out of all my hardware I'm hoping it's not the gfx card, it is probably the most expensive piece aside from the MoBo. I strongly believe it's not the MoBo because all of the lights light up when LED poster switch is off. I also don't think it's the CPU because it physically looks fine (could be wrong). So I'm thinking it's the gfx card , RAM, or the PSU. If it was the PSU though I don't understand why I would be getting lights on my MoBo. Could be a short or something bad though.
Tomorrow I plan on getting a hold of my friend to see if he can pull a gfx card and RAM to try in my PC. And try to put my gfx card in his PC.. Several different scenarios to try and rule out what it could be.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated?
MoBo - AM2 Asus Crosshair NOFRCE 590SLI
CPU - AMD X2 4800 AM2 ADO 65W
RAM - 2 Sticks of 512 MB DDR2 PC 6400
PSU - X-Super Alien PS 500W
Gfx Card - eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCI-E
Case is a 31102 Xion7000Z
Situation:
Earlier today I was playing Team Fortress 2... I've had overheating problems before but just doing a regular cleaning out of the case and heatsink, reseating the CPU with new artic silver would do the trick. So when I do some heavy gaming like TF2 I tend to alt tab out of the game and check my CPU temp. I did a tab out after about 10 minutes of game play and the temp read 58 C. Which I've read is normal under load for my dual core AMD.
After going back in game I proceeded to play for another 10 minutes when all the sudden my PC just shut off! No BSOD, nothing... Fans stopped, all the hardware just went dead.
I let it sit for about 20 minutes thinking maybe I got a sudden heat spike from the gameplay and my PC was trying to save the CPU or GPU by shutting down (which has happened before).
When I hit the power button on the front, nothing.
I pulled my PC out, got the side panel off... Grounded myself, and put the back of my hand to the heatsink and around it. It felt kind of hot but not too hot. Did the same for my gfx card. Same thing, it wasn't surprisingly hot. I felt behind the PSU fan and it felt hotter than both, hotter than normal I reckon. Lights on the MoBo were and are still on when the power supply switch is on.
While I had the side panel off, I tried to fire it up again... And I noticed my PSU light flicker. My PSU is a Alienware rip off or something and has fancy neon light(s) in the casing. That's what I saw flicker. Also, I noticed the CPU fan and other case fans start to spin but then stopped. So it's almost like it's not getting enough juice to fire up.
I've been reading all over forums everywhere relating to PCs not booting, crashing, etc. All with near same hardware as mine, the Asus crosshair, 8800...
I tried all the tricks listed. Resetting the CMOS, reseating all PCI cards, using only 1 RAM stick in different slots, unplugging the PSU from the MoBo, took out the heatsink, cleaned it, removed the CPU (no burn marks or discoloration on the socket or the pins of the CPU), cleaned thermal paste and re applied, and so on. I even tried resetting the CMOS in between each of some of the steps.
Out of all my hardware I'm hoping it's not the gfx card, it is probably the most expensive piece aside from the MoBo. I strongly believe it's not the MoBo because all of the lights light up when LED poster switch is off. I also don't think it's the CPU because it physically looks fine (could be wrong). So I'm thinking it's the gfx card , RAM, or the PSU. If it was the PSU though I don't understand why I would be getting lights on my MoBo. Could be a short or something bad though.
Tomorrow I plan on getting a hold of my friend to see if he can pull a gfx card and RAM to try in my PC. And try to put my gfx card in his PC.. Several different scenarios to try and rule out what it could be.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated?