Multifaceted Hardware Issue

How are you fine folks doing today?

My name is Dan, and recently I had a rather unfortunate mishap. I spilled Mountain Dew, it leaked down the back end of my PC. The rear intake fan pulled liquid in right onto my ATI Radeon 5770. As you might imagine, that card no longer works. I replaced it with a temporary Nvidia 9600 GT, and then a few days ago with an Nvidia Geforce GTX 480.

For both Nvidia products I have had an issue with my computer locking up mid game, screen goes black, and for all intents and purposes crashes. My tower fans are still spinning when this happens. When this event occurs it requires me to do a rather lengthy cold boot (I have to depress the button for maybe 15-20 seconds.) My card also has some pretty severe graphics lag in places it shouldn't, on games that it shouldn't.

I have reformatted, updated drivers, and I'm pretty sure my PSU can handle the load at 700 watts.

Here are my specs.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
AMD PHenom II X4 965 (4 cpu ~3.4GHz)
4 gigs Ram
Nvidia Geforce GTX 480
700 Watt PSU
Gigabyte Tech. GA-MA770T-UD3P MOBO
Some generic factory built in HDAUDIO soundcard.


So, from here I'm not really sure exactly what to do, what to change, or what to look for. I haven't had any issues watching online videos, nor music, or web browsing.

I'd like to be able to play D3 lol, or just about any of my games for that matter. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Dan

 

Hi DecoyDan. Welcome to Computer Help Forums.
First I would like to know what temps your Graphics card reaches at the point of screen going black.
Please download and install free "speccy"and monitor temps say every 5 mins playing the games.
Post the results or screenshots and we will advise further.
http://www.piriform....speccy/download

With 64bit more ram would be an advantage.

 

My GPU has idled on about 44 C and topped off at about 50 C while trying to get it to crash (it did after a while, but the GPU heat never rose above 50 C

However I did notice that my processor is idling around 74C, but when I turned my computer on after the crash it was running hot at ~82 C.

My Mobo is running at ~80 C idle. When I turned my computer on after the crash it was running ~90 C.

I played some Diablo 3 to try and get a crash again, but it didn't happen before I got tired of lagging around. The heat stayed near the upper limits of the numbers I gave you, never increased too much. I'll run through again to see if I can get a crash.

 

Seeing that the GPU is what has been replaced and the only component that is not running all that hot, I think that may be a clue.

The CPU should never be running at 82 after the crash when nothing much should be running. Same is true with the MOBO.

 

Following on from all the above, it looks like some of the liquid got on the motherboard, though still working there is possibly some components damaged and using power they shouldn't be using, hence the heat issues on both MB and CPU.
Hopefully the hot CPU is a symptom of the fault on the mother board, and a replacement board will sort the problems. Expensive I know, but will be even more expensive if the CPU eventually dies from the heat.

Nev.

 

Yeah, I was anticipating a potential replacement of my Mobo. I was afraid that the component was damaged and that I was shorting out under heavy energy loads. Can you guys think of any way to test this short of trying to replace it?

 

I can only think of a couple of ways to look at what the motherboard is doing/what it's like.

You could either look at it physically for any sort of damage, blemishs (or bulges on capacitors), brownish marks (sort of like paper when it first starts burning) etc

Or though it may be pointless and not show anything out of the ordinary, check voltages for the components, you should be able to pick these up in another system information software called SIW (download the home edition at bottom of page) - http://www.gtopala.c...iw-download.php

Once installed just look under the section labelled 'Sensors', it should report a number of voltages (CPU, GPU, 3.3v, 5v, 12v etc) and the temperatures as well, tell us these when the computer is idle, web browsing (maybe play a Youtube video or something) and then one of your games as they may show a possible power draw/problem.

 

Also gentlemen, were I to replace my mobo, do you all have any suggestions? I know it's AM3 socket, and I need 4 slots for my single gig sticks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130269

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138303

Those are two I am currently considering, the first one has a rebate dropping it down to around 95 dollars.

 

Out of the two you chose I'd go with the second one, as alternatives you can use AM3+ motherboards with that processor as well, this is in your price range, the AM3+ socket would allow a better upgrade in the future if you came to it (i.e. AMD FX processors).

Asus - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767

 

All values were taken from the "Value" column except for the maxes



Max Voltages
CPU VCORE: 1.39 V
DDR: 1.52 V
+3.3V: 3.36 V
+5V: 5.11 V
+12V: 12.29 V
VIN5: 2.64 V
VIN6: 3.36 V
+5V VCCH: 4.62 V
VBAT: 3.18 V

Idle Voltages
CPU VCORE: .99 V
DDR: 1.52 V
+3.3V: 3.36 V
+5V: 5.11 V
+12V: 12.29
VIN5: 1.06
VIN6: 3.36 V
+5V VCCH: 3.98 V
VBAT: 3.18 V

Browsing Voltages
CPU VCORE: .99 V
DDR: 1.52 V
+3.3V: 3.36 V
+5V: 5.11 V
+12V: 12.22 V
VIN5: 1.15V
VIN6: 3.36 V
+5V VCCH: 4.01 V
Vbat: 3.18 V

Gaming
CPU VCORE: .99 V
DDR: 1.52 V
+3.3V: 3.36 V
+5V: 5.11 V
+12V: 12.22 V
VIN5: 1.14 V
VIN6: 3.36 V
+5V VCCH: 4.03 V
VBAT: 3.18 V

 

Sorry for the late reply, I wouldn't know the exact voltages but they look to be roughly in the right range to me the only exception being the [background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]+5V VCCH one which does seem a bit low even on the high end (I would assume by +5v it should be around the 5v mark like the other 5v voltage).[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]Will have to see how things go with a new motherboard if your ordering one.[/background]