- Joined
- Feb 26, 2003
- Location
- Stockton, CA
Hello peeps,
Ok, so, I'm not really sure what section this would qualify for, as it's got a few elements. Anyway, I'm getting some weird crashing in Left 4 Dead and one particular part of Crysis, and some stress testing to try and track down those problems. I believe that the Crysis issue is actually a 64-bit OS problem, but it's similar enough that it could be related. The system in my sig is the one experiencing the problem.
Anyway, so Left 4 Dead will crash (hard freeze, output will go black, or gray, or some other color) somewhat at random, but usually between 30 minutes and an hour. This requires a restart to make the system functional again. So, I thought for a while that this was my CPU overclock being unstable. I tweaked it some and finally got a configuration that is 17.5 hrs. Prime stable - so I've effectively eliminated the CPU as the core issue. Last night, however, I got to wondering if it was the video card, so I loaded up FurMark and started stability testing.
Now, before I get into what happened next I need to explain the configuration. I just got this new i7 setup about a week and a half ago. I changed my fan configuration slightly because I wanted to try something new. I had the fans in pull configuration (pulling down into the case), but I wanted to reverse this for two reasons: 1) hot air rises and 2) push is better according to testing by martin. However, since then, I've wondered if the air I'm pushing up through the radiator is hotter than I anticipated, and therefore actually giving me worse performance than if I was in pull configuration, in my particular setup. So, I wanted to test this theory. I started the FurMark stability test and turned on Prime95 at the same time.
After about 12 minutes, the system hard locked exactly like it does in Left 4 Dead. Now, my CPU temps only increased by about 4C (per core) over just running Prime, but my GPU was reporting about 83C when it hard locked. So, now I'm wondering what the problem is. Tonight, I plan to run just the FurMark stability test to see if that will hard lock the system, which would suggest that the GPU is unstable (please note that it is NOT OC'd any more than the factory OC). However, I also had a thought that it could be the PSU not providing enough power or enough clean power. What I'm posting about, is to see if anyone has a similar build, with similar components and PSU, because I want to know if my my Silencer 750 has met it's match. I'm pretty sure that the Silencer 750 should be plenty PSU for the job, but I'm just not sure. Any thoughts? Or suggestions as to how to track down the problem child?
Please note that Crysis plays perfectly fine except for one point in the beginning cutscene, where the game crashes at the EXACT same spot, but if I skip the cutscene, the game plays fine. Secondly, I doubt that Left 4 Dead is so intensive that it would crash my system so hard, which made me think that it could be a defective video card. However, I do find it odd that it plays Crysis and GTA IV just fine for hours on end. It's just such weird behavior that I'm kind of stumped. Btw, I am running the Windows 7 Beta 24/7 - I considered that as the problem at first, but I installed my copy of Vista x64 Ultimate and it experiences the same problems.
Ok, so, I'm not really sure what section this would qualify for, as it's got a few elements. Anyway, I'm getting some weird crashing in Left 4 Dead and one particular part of Crysis, and some stress testing to try and track down those problems. I believe that the Crysis issue is actually a 64-bit OS problem, but it's similar enough that it could be related. The system in my sig is the one experiencing the problem.
Anyway, so Left 4 Dead will crash (hard freeze, output will go black, or gray, or some other color) somewhat at random, but usually between 30 minutes and an hour. This requires a restart to make the system functional again. So, I thought for a while that this was my CPU overclock being unstable. I tweaked it some and finally got a configuration that is 17.5 hrs. Prime stable - so I've effectively eliminated the CPU as the core issue. Last night, however, I got to wondering if it was the video card, so I loaded up FurMark and started stability testing.
Now, before I get into what happened next I need to explain the configuration. I just got this new i7 setup about a week and a half ago. I changed my fan configuration slightly because I wanted to try something new. I had the fans in pull configuration (pulling down into the case), but I wanted to reverse this for two reasons: 1) hot air rises and 2) push is better according to testing by martin. However, since then, I've wondered if the air I'm pushing up through the radiator is hotter than I anticipated, and therefore actually giving me worse performance than if I was in pull configuration, in my particular setup. So, I wanted to test this theory. I started the FurMark stability test and turned on Prime95 at the same time.
After about 12 minutes, the system hard locked exactly like it does in Left 4 Dead. Now, my CPU temps only increased by about 4C (per core) over just running Prime, but my GPU was reporting about 83C when it hard locked. So, now I'm wondering what the problem is. Tonight, I plan to run just the FurMark stability test to see if that will hard lock the system, which would suggest that the GPU is unstable (please note that it is NOT OC'd any more than the factory OC). However, I also had a thought that it could be the PSU not providing enough power or enough clean power. What I'm posting about, is to see if anyone has a similar build, with similar components and PSU, because I want to know if my my Silencer 750 has met it's match. I'm pretty sure that the Silencer 750 should be plenty PSU for the job, but I'm just not sure. Any thoughts? Or suggestions as to how to track down the problem child?
Please note that Crysis plays perfectly fine except for one point in the beginning cutscene, where the game crashes at the EXACT same spot, but if I skip the cutscene, the game plays fine. Secondly, I doubt that Left 4 Dead is so intensive that it would crash my system so hard, which made me think that it could be a defective video card. However, I do find it odd that it plays Crysis and GTA IV just fine for hours on end. It's just such weird behavior that I'm kind of stumped. Btw, I am running the Windows 7 Beta 24/7 - I considered that as the problem at first, but I installed my copy of Vista x64 Ultimate and it experiences the same problems.
