Solved Black screen. No warning. No BSOD.

[JoesMorgue]

My wife was surfing the web using IE, she had two documents open in Word. I had BTD5 [flash game] running in a Opera window for about 8-9 hours, and the game does put a bit of a load on a single core.

After [having the game open] about 5 hours, I changed my power options to Full Power, and it's been customized to be the same as my normal Power Saver, but it will not sleep.

While waiting for a page to load, the screen went black [monitor went into standby] and that was it. Fans were running full tilt. I checked the batteries of the mouse & kb, and they were good, but the computer would not respond. I had to hold the power button to reboot.

I DL'd and am currently running MemTest86+ to see if it's a stick gone bad, but no clue as to the cause. I haven't had a BSOD since I last played with overclocking. NO BSODs otherwise.

When the machine runs for a week, it seems to get more and more unstable, programs crash and such, but not the entire system.

Advice?

 

[JoesMorgue]

I had my second failure.

Same thing, no warning. Screen shut off, and the computer seemed to be running.

This time, I shut down using the keyboard [ok, told it to restart] and nothing happened.

That tells me that Windows crashed hard.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I had my second failure.

Same thing, no warning. Screen shut off, and the computer seemed to be running.

This time, I shut down using the keyboard [ok, told it to restart] and nothing happened.

That tells me that Windows crashed hard.

Hello Joe mate sounds awfully like it might be a temp thing does it smell or feel hot and if it comes back on again can you run Speccy and see what the temps are?

Oh and no unpleasant sounds coming from the HDD?

Speccy - Download < from piriform

 

[JoesMorgue]

I had my second failure.

Same thing, no warning. Screen shut off, and the computer seemed to be running.

This time, I shut down using the keyboard [ok, told it to restart] and nothing happened.

That tells me that Windows crashed hard.

Hello Joe mate sounds awfully like it might be a temp thing does it smell or feel hot and if it comes back on again can you run Speccy and see what the temps are?

Oh and no unpleasant sounds coming from the HDD?

Speccy - Download < from piriform

HMMMmmm...... The fan has been running pretty good on minimum load...

 

[ICIT2LOL]

So what were the temps mate as the specs for that CPU show a max of 61C and tht is not hot in Intel terms - am not sure of AMD stuff though but if it were mie I would be thinking about some thermal compound renew if the temp was getting up around 50C and wouldn't hurt in any case.

How long has the CPU been installed for? and I would be looking at doing the compound on the graphics chip too.

 

[JoesMorgue]

So what were the temps mate as the specs for that CPU show a max of 61C and tht is not hot in Intel terms - am not sure of AMD stuff though but if it were mie I would be thinking about some thermal compound renew if the temp was getting up around 50C and wouldn't hurt in any case.

How long has the CPU been installed for? and I would be looking at doing the compound on the graphics chip too.

I pulled the fan. Thought it was pretty cool how it's wedged in the heat sink and held in place with the cap.

Considering I put this computer together in August of last year, there was a good layer of crud on the top of the heat sink!

Put it back together, the fan is no longer racing.

I'm using the internal video, I'd LOVE to put heat sinks on this thing so I can think about overclocking this creature. Do you know about adding Heat sinks to the video and maybe the VRMs? There is one HS on the board, and I'm not sure what it is for. There is another, VERY LOW PROFILE heatsink of the same color & material.

I don't need higher end graphics, as the internal handles everything I give it without issues, but if I can get over 4Ghz, I'd be happy.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

So what were the temps mate as the specs for that CPU show a max of 61C and tht is not hot in Intel terms - am not sure of AMD stuff though but if it were mie I would be thinking about some thermal compound renew if the temp was getting up around 50C and wouldn't hurt in any case.

How long has the CPU been installed for? and I would be looking at doing the compound on the graphics chip too.

I pulled the fan. Thought it was pretty cool how it's wedged in the heat sink and held in place with the cap.

Considering I put this computer together in August of last year, there was a good layer of crud on the top of the heat sink!

Put it back together, the fan is no longer racing.

I'm using the internal video, I'd LOVE to put heat sinks on this thing so I can think about overclocking this creature. Do you know about adding Heat sinks to the video and maybe the VRMs? There is one HS on the board, and I'm not sure what it is for. There is another, VERY LOW PROFILE heatsink of the same color & material.

I don't need higher end graphics, as the internal handles everything I give it without issues, but if I can get over 4Ghz, I'd be happy.

Joe I cannot see what the other post is showing but to do the compound on those heatsinks see my pic it means taking the board out however. It may be some other form of sink fixing but most I have done the pins go through and the end springs out to hold the board like a fish hook barb there should be springs under those pin heads to keep tension don eon the heatsinks

Up to you mate but please do not overdo the compound and make sure they are thoroughly cleaned before applying.

 

[JoesMorgue]

Based on that pic, if you draw a horizontal line starting at the top red circle, and go to the right, you will pass 5 black squares, and 4 pairs of circles in an alternating pattern. From what I understand, those will get hot if I try to overclock the CPU. Is there a way I can cool them that you are aware of?

Is there a heatsink for the onboard video, or a way to add one? [I think there is not]

Here is the other thread that is semi-related: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7453873#post7453873

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Joe now I have redone as simple as I can what thosecomponents are as for cooling them either a fan directed at them form the sidepanel or better through case air flow is the only way that you are going tokeep them any cooler they will get hot as a natural thin because they are inthe CPU power supply circuit. Now there is a unit you can get for cooling RAMsticks but I don't know if or ho wyou could fit it depending on the CPU coolersize an overhang see this example you could I suppose modify this to fit loweronly you know cos I don't know what you have for the cooler and how it fits inrelation to those components. G.Skill Turbulence II RAM Cooler [GS-FTB-3500C5-D] - $19.00 : PC Case Gear or similar

In answer to the on board video I stand to be corrected but it is not within the CPU and probably included in either the the north or south bridges I cannot find enough info on that board. I would imagine it is that blue block with large fins on it how you could cool that I would be struggling to find an answer except for more side fans blowing directly onto the board.

Sorry I couldn't be nay more help than this mate