Do I Have A Power Supply Issue?

[DLS2008]

I'm not real clear on this, but I think your RAM needs to run unlinked to get it faster than your FSB speed. For most people, this isn't an issue because most commercial desktops run an 800 FSB with DDR2 800 and many enthusiasts run a 1333 FSB with DDR2 1066 or DDR2 1200. Also, your NB volts might be slightly low, try like 1.375 and see. You could also try loosening your RAM timings a bit. Those are low timings for DDR3 1333. Maybe 8-8-8-20 or 8-8-8-24 will be better.

[malmsteenisgod]

I'm not real clear on this, but I think your RAM needs to run unlinked to get it faster than your FSB speed. For most people, this isn't an issue because most commercial desktops run an 800 FSB with DDR2 800 and many enthusiasts run a 1333 FSB with DDR2 1066 or DDR2 1200. Also, your NB volts might be slightly low, try like 1.375 and see. You could also try loosening your RAM timings a bit. Those are low timings for DDR3 1333. Maybe 8-8-8-20 or 8-8-8-24 will be better.

 

I've looked around on the Intel Desktop Control Center as well as in my BIOS and can't seem to find any way to unlink my RAM and CPU frequencies. I've looked in the manual as well, and as far as I can tell there isn't a way to do it. Beats me. But anyways, I will see how it goes after 12 hours or Prime95 and if it doesn't work out, or if i continue to have problems in games then I will do as you suggested and raise the NB volts a bit. I have my ram at 7-7-7-20 simply because that's what OCZ says it's rated to run. I'm not going to run it any different really because if it can't do 7-7-7-20 then I would feel like I wasted my money and would just return it. But I could give that a shot too if I still have problems.

 

In the mean time, feel free to continue to comment on what the problem could potentially be. If you have any questions about my setup or suggest that I run a program to put my computer through hours of torture then please suggest away. Which reminds me, I should probably get around to running Memtest86, as I meant to do that a long time ago but never had any blank cd's around and I don't know how to make a bootable USB drive. But, I will give that a shot sometime after I finish my current Prime95 and Furmark testing.

Edited November 10, 2008 by malmsteenisgod

[malmsteenisgod]

Ok, with my Q6600 at 3.0ghz I just ran Prime95 for about 12 hours by itself and it remained stable. No errors, no shutdowns, and my CPU sat around 65C. Then, without stopping Prime95, I began running Furmark. I only ran Furmark and Prime95 together for a little less than an hour. First I had the GPU fan at 70% and the temperature went up to 95C. I wasn't feeling comfortable at that point, so I bumped it up to 85%. The temperature dropped to around 90C (still uncomfortable for me), so I pushed it to 100% and it dropped to around 86C. But nonetheless, it all remained stable for these tests.

 

I realize I should probably run Prime95 and Furmark together for a longer time but I'm about to go to sleep and I can't have this fan running at 100% while trying to do that. I'd also like to point out that the ambient temp in my room is about 80F (not by choice), so that is why my temps are all pretty high.

 

I've attached a picture of Furmark and Prime95 running together along with all my temps, but all the info has basically been explained above. My next step, well I don't really know. I'm still back to trying to figure out why I occassionally get shutdowns during games and then sometimes can't even boot back up without resetting my CPU to its stock frequency.

 

So I'm still confused. Any suggestions to go from here? Thanks everyone.

Edited November 11, 2008 by malmsteenisgod

[Waco]

Don't worry about the fan settings or the GPU temperature, neither are causing your problems. Leave them at stock while testing.

[fire_storm]

It sounds like it's probably an overclock issue know.

 

What I would do is start your overclock from scratch. Start your settings at stock and slowly bump up the speed slowly like I believe the Q6600 stock setting is 2.4ghz first go to 2.5ghz or something like that stress test it and then try playing your games for a few days and if nothing happens keep doing the same process until you get to your random shutdowns.

 

When you overclock your computer you sometimes get these unknown strange side effects even if your computer has 24-48 hours of prim95 and memtest86+ tests.

[malmsteenisgod]

It sounds like it's probably an overclock issue know.

 

What I would do is start your overclock from scratch. Start your settings at stock and slowly bump up the speed slowly like I believe the Q6600 stock setting is 2.4ghz first go to 2.5ghz or something like that stress test it and then try playing your games for a few days and if nothing happens keep doing the same process until you get to your random shutdowns.

 

When you overclock your computer you sometimes get these unknown strange side effects even if your computer has 24-48 hours of prim95 and memtest86+ tests.

 

Ah ok. Thanks. I suppose you're right that it is just an overclock issue and not a PSU problem. Thanks for the help.

[malmsteenisgod]

Already today, while playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 my computer has shutdown twice. Both times it shut down was while I was loading a new mission. Could this possibly be a hard drive issue? Could there be something wrong with my hard drive that would cause my computer to shut down?

 

Edit: I also recall now, that the shutdowns I was experiencing while playing Oblivion were while I was loading saved games.

Edited November 13, 2008 by malmsteenisgod