PC Issues

[Towowo]

As of 1 month ago nearly every single game I installed has started getting massive stuttering issues.
They have all worked before then.

As for my specs:
Geforce 8600 GT
Intel Dual Core 2.13 GHz Processor
2 GB of RAM
Windows Vista 32-bit

If anyone has any insight on this matter please do speak up.

[Amastacia]

Run virus scans or anything?

Any driver updates?

Checked task manger to see what's consuming system resources?

[Caiyuo]

Considering it's all games I'd take Amastacia's advice, especially checking the task manager while the game's are running to see what the deal is.

I mean it could be a background process like an AV, Backup or defragmenter whoring things up or being set to run too frequently, but it's too ambiguous to really say currently.

[Towowo]

Virus scanners pick up nothing, and I heard the latest drivers can cause issues with some games so I haven't updated, that and I'm using Omega drivers.

Doesn't appear to be anything that is taking up a huge amount of resources.

EDIT: I probably should of mentioned that the issues tend to occur after 10-15 minutes of playtime.

[SamanosukeShiva]

sorry to piggy-back off this thread since my issue is not really a big deal. I just had to confirm this.


recently I'm changing my motherboard, i plug everything in and boot. It would turn on maybe 1-2 minutes and it shuts down by itself. I checked everything from PSU to each RAM sticks and it all works.

After hours of thinking of what the problem might be, I think It's because I didnt re-apply the thermal paste again to the CPU when changing it from the old motherboard. It would run 61 celcius then shuts down.

just confirming, could this be the problem? going to buy thermal paste from a local computer supply store tomorrow.

[Amastacia]

Virus scanners pick up nothing, and I heard the latest drivers can cause issues with some games so I haven't updated, that and I'm using Omega drivers.

Doesn't appear to be anything that is taking up a huge amount of resources.

EDIT: I probably should of mentioned that the issues tend to occur after 10-15 minutes of playtime.

I swapped to an ATI card when my 8800GTX started dying, but I had no problems with newer drivers in any game.

Try running SpeedFan and checking your GPU temps. If there's nothing eating up CPU, virus scan is clean, and you haven't changed drivers, your GPU might be overheating.

sorry to piggy-back off this thread since my issue is not really a big deal. I just had to confirm this.

recently I'm changing my motherboard, i plug everything in and boot. It would turn on maybe 1-2 minutes and it shuts down by itself. I checked everything from PSU to each RAM sticks and it all works.

After hours of thinking of what the problem might be, I think It's because I didnt re-apply the thermal paste again to the CPU when changing it from the old motherboard. It would run 61 celcius then shuts down.

just confirming, could this be the problem? going to buy thermal paste from a local computer supply store tomorrow.

What CPU? But yes, does sound like your PC is shutting itself down to protect against frying the CPU.

[SamanosukeShiva]

i7 920

[Amastacia]

Hmm, the auto-off shouldn't be set that low, but it might be on your mainboard.

If you're hitting 60C on that thing and not running a significant overclock, there's definitely something wrong with your cooling (likely the thermal paste, also check to make sure the fan is working).

[fishstix]

Check your hardware temps, open up your box to see if there's a large collection of dust. To me, it sounds like the video card is overheating, if it usually occurs after a period of time and it's across all games.

@ Samanosuke, I have a system that does the same thing. It seems to be random, but it'll just shut off after 2-5 minutes. With swapping hardware between 2 similar AMD systems, I pinpointed the problem to either the motherboard or cpu. If you still have your old motherboard and it works, I'd test the cpu in that to see if everything's ok, then proceed to RMA the new board if that's the cause.

[Towowo]

Yeah SpeedFan says 94C on the GPU. So it seems it is overheating.

[fishstix]

If the card isn't damaged, you can salvage it by cleaning it, replacing the fan or heatsink all together. I bought little 40mm fans from a local electronics store for like a dollar once, and just physically sat it ontop of the video card.

[SamanosukeShiva]

re-applied thermal paste, everything works ok

[fishstix]

kinda random, but how do you guys apply the thermal paste? I never really thought about it until a few months ago. I used to just put a dime sized blob on and spread it with the tip until I saw a video of different methods to spread and what it actually does when you put the heatsink on. The last time I reapplied, I put some paste on and then spread it across the whole surface with a credit card. There's different methods like spreading it evenly, making an X, making a line down the middle, a single dot in the center.

[Chicomagiko]

One pretty fat line across one side, then use a business card and scrape it across gently to spread that goo evenly.

[Solefald]

put a dot in the middle, and use the heatsink itself to spread the goo around. you don't want to layer it on, metal to metal contact is what you're after, the compound is just to fill in the microscopic gaps where the metals aren't touching.

[Amastacia]

Depends based on the compound.

Saw a pretty good review a while back (forget where) that had a bunch of different pastes and they tested both the glob-and-press method and the even-layer method.

I use Arctic Silver 5, so the most efficient way is a pea-sized blob in the center of the CPU's heat spreader and then use the pressure from attaching the HSF to spread it into air gaps.

[Olo401]

Yeah SpeedFan says 94C on the GPU. So it seems it is overheating.

94C for a GPU is high, but still tolerable. The thing I would be more worried about is whether or not your fan is kicking in to bring those temps down.

[Towowo]

Sadly the fan was not working when I looked at it, I planned to upgrade my video card soon anyway. Recommendations for a good mid-range one that'll play most games?

[Olo401]

You can probably get away with a Radeon 4770, tho if you have a little bit extra to spend the 5770 or a GTX260 would work even better.

[fishstix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-q4
This was the video I saw, very interesting

For a new video card, yea it just depends on how much exactly you can get away with spending, there's a good card for every price bracket. Personally, I got a gtx 260 for $130 and it maxes out the graphics of the different games I tried: COD4/5, L4D, Aion @ 1920x1080 resolution