Windows 7/Dream PC 2006 suddenly shutsdown during COH1 and COH2 beta.

Hello,

I was just beta testing Company of Heroes 2 Beta, my third game... and in
the midst of the game... suddenly BOOM... computer shuts down !

I have seen the same behaviour in Company of Heroes 1.

So first I thought it might have been a remote attack onto the network card,
perhaps a shutdown message.

But now I am also starting to believe it might be an NVIDIA Graphics Driver
problem... for the GT 520.

I updated that driver not so long ago, ever since... 2 system shutdowns have
happened... quite weird.

It could ofcourse also be a hardware problem or maybe GSM interference or
whatever... seems somewhat unlikely... usually my PC works well the last two
years or so.

Just putting this out there as a warning to others that these drivers might
be bad.

Then again... Winfast is not the greatest motherboard in the world and quite
old.

I also managed to crash the computer by running my corewars simulator and
enabling sound... but that probably has to do with bugs in sound driver or
windows itself, probably unrelated.

First I shall mention the current drivers and then try to update them to
hope to solve this shutdown from occuring.

(There was a kernel-power event in the event log indicating suddenly
powerloss ?!? Could also be a brief moment of power loss ? I did not notice
any light flickering... maybe denon receiver has some dust build up... I ll
try and blow out a bit.).

I did notice a few spider slings here and there... could be a spider causing
a short circuit... hope it doesnt fry me I just blew something off the
receiver... a little dust ball... oh well.

So far had 1 game vs ai won, 2 games against people, first game I got kicked
because pc too slow, second game power drop.. this could ruin my war/general
reputation hopefully this problem is solved soon... so me gonna try to
solve it now
(so far playing at 1024x786 at lowest settings allowed me to keep in the
game... )

Current drivers:

for gt 520:

285.62-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql.exe

for amd x2-3800+ cpu:

unknown...

Bye,
Skybuck.

On Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:16:25 -0400, Skybuck Flying wrote:

I was just beta testing Company of Heroes 2 Beta, my third game... and in
the midst of the game... suddenly BOOM... computer shuts down !

The graphics card is most likely drawing enough power to overload
the power supply. From
http://evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=01G-P3-1521-KR
Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amps

What's the +12V rail rating of the power supply? Try removing all
unneeded devices.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

"
Current drivers:

for gt 520:

285.62-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql.exe

for amd x2-3800+ cpu:

unknown...
"

The amd processor probably doesn't need a driver, though I did see some game
install special drivers for it.

For now I will only install the GT 520 driver, and maybe later if it happens
again remove any processor drivers.

I will try this driver now:

314.22-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql.exe

Also sound card driver comes to mind

That could also be the cause of it... seems to make some sense in
combination with my app... but that could be an app bug... then again

Bye,
Skybuck.

While installing the new driver, I did notice a little light flickering on
main lights... so there does seems to be some power fluctuations.

Perhaps work is being done on the power grid.

Or perhaps people wanting to go to work or plugging in their electric cars
to charge them.

Not so long ago... a few weeks or months I was taking a **** on the
toilet... and the light flicker off for almost a second...

so that was pretty weird.

I wonder what would be causing such flickers and I also wonder how much
powerloss PCs can handle before shutdown occurs.

Milliseconds, seconds ? Microseconds ? Hmm...

I shall now go test the new graphics driver...

But first I also check if a new audio driver is available.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Skybuck Flying wrote:
Hello,

I was just beta testing Company of Heroes 2 Beta, my third game... and
in the midst of the game... suddenly BOOM... computer shuts down !

I have seen the same behaviour in Company of Heroes 1.

So first I thought it might have been a remote attack onto the network
card, perhaps a shutdown message.

But now I am also starting to believe it might be an NVIDIA Graphics
Driver problem... for the GT 520.

I updated that driver not so long ago, ever since... 2 system shutdowns
have happened... quite weird.

It could ofcourse also be a hardware problem or maybe GSM interference
or whatever... seems somewhat unlikely... usually my PC works well the
last two years or so.

Just putting this out there as a warning to others that these drivers
might be bad.

Then again... Winfast is not the greatest motherboard in the world and
quite old.

I also managed to crash the computer by running my corewars simulator
and enabling sound... but that probably has to do with bugs in sound
driver or windows itself, probably unrelated.

First I shall mention the current drivers and then try to update them to
hope to solve this shutdown from occuring.

(There was a kernel-power event in the event log indicating suddenly
powerloss ?!? Could also be a brief moment of power loss ? I did not
notice any light flickering... maybe denon receiver has some dust build
up... I ll try and blow out a bit.).

I did notice a few spider slings here and there... could be a spider
causing a short circuit... hope it doesnt fry me I just blew
something off the receiver... a little dust ball... oh well.

So far had 1 game vs ai won, 2 games against people, first game I got
kicked because pc too slow, second game power drop.. this could ruin my
war/general reputation hopefully this problem is solved soon... so me
gonna try to solve it now
(so far playing at 1024x786 at lowest settings allowed me to keep in the
game... )

Current drivers:

for gt 520:

285.62-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql.exe

for amd x2-3800+ cpu:

unknown...

Bye,
Skybuck.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504

"Windows-Kernel-Power

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first.
This error could be caused if the system stopped responding,
crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

Possible reasons for that a

1) CPU overheated and reached THERMTRIP temperature. And that
caused the power supply to be turned off.
2) Power supply has a problem. You are drawing too much current.

I think (1) is more likely. With (2) you might have more accompanying
symptoms (noise, smell, other observable symptoms).

Try a program like Prime95, or any application similar to it,
which loads the processor to a high level. This will
test that the cooling on your processor is adequate. You
can use something like Speedfan from almico.com , to monitor
the temperature.

All it takes, to make the cooler inefficient, is a lack
of thermal paste between the CPU and the bottom of
the heatsink. Or, if the spring clip snaps off a plastic tab
on the socket, that will also cause a lack of a good thermal
path from the CPU, into the cooler.

Paul

"
While installing the new driver, I did notice a little light flickering on
main lights... so there does seems to be some power fluctuations.

Perhaps work is being done on the power grid.

Or perhaps people wanting to go to work or plugging in their electric cars
to charge them.

Not so long ago... a few weeks or months I was taking a **** on the
toilet... and the light flicker off for almost a second...

so that was pretty weird.

I wonder what would be causing such flickers and I also wonder how much
powerloss PCs can handle before shutdown occurs.

Milliseconds, seconds ? Microseconds ? Hmm...

I shall now go test the new graphics driver...

But first I also check if a new audio driver is available.
"

Nope, no new audio driver available... it's still the one from 2011...

So this will have to do

Bye,
Skybuck.

The power supply used to be the seasonic S12... which could deliver 600
watts of power.

It's internal cabling was too short for the antec12 case and the motherboard
so it was replaced with:

OCZ Mod X Stream Power Supply it can deliver 780 watt and was designed for
SLI.

So it should have no problems power a mere GT 520 ? Unless something special
going on with GT 520 ?

GT 520 is considered low end... it's even passively cooled...

That could be the problem... maybe it somehow overheated... it seems
unlikely though... antec 1200 at medium fan speed...

No dust blockers... nothing is blocking the air flow except harddisks which
are probably off or low heat... so the air flow is not that much obstructed
and pretty good.

Ventilation should not be a problem with the antec 1200... so probably not
overheat... though some games like starcraft did run the menu super fast
initially...
maybe COH2 does something similar but coh1 happened too... so seems
unlikely.

amps on rails are unspecified...

But maybe you can figure that out by googling for it...

I selected my components carefully... so I think it's ok.

Though the power supply has to be air intake upwards... so something may
have fallen into it... maybe a spider or so... or some dust or hairs...

Bye,
Skybuck.

On Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:16:25 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:

Hello,

I was just beta testing Company of Heroes 2 Beta, my third game... and in
the midst of the game... suddenly BOOM... computer shuts down !

I have seen the same behaviour in Company of Heroes 1.

So first I thought it might have been a remote attack onto the network card,
perhaps a shutdown message.


Did you ever, EVER FIRST think of the POWER SUPPLY or one of the
connections from it to the MOBO?

ESPECIALLY the EXTRA supply links to the video card.

You prolly bought another **** MOBO to build your box on.

I also like whacky theories...

Perhaps it has something to do with the morning...

Perhaps the turning off of the street lights has something to do with it...
or indeed people waking up and turning on lights...

I think it was already light... but not sure... I will pay attention
tomorrow to see at what times the lights go off and on and such

Bye,
Skybuck.

On Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:16:25 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:

But now I am also starting to believe it might be an NVIDIA Graphics Driver
problem... for the GT 520.

I updated that driver not so long ago, ever since... 2 system shutdowns have
happened... quite weird.


POWER SUPPLY, idiot.

Either the connections or the supply itself. It should be at least
1000W or even 1200W minimum.