Solved (Seemingly) random BSOD crashes and restarts

[Sknow]

Starting this morning I heard my computer restarting itself over and over, it would get to where it says "Starting Windows" except the background was black with what looks like colons and periods all over in rows, and then it would blue screen and restart. I could load into safe mode and do whatever I wanted. Ran AVG, found nothing. I went to click on Computer to check something and the screen turned white. After a hard restart everything worked fine. A few hours later I opened Photoshop and was creating an image when I clicked the font button and everything froze. The colors got weird and purple lines appeared on the wallpaper and PShop, then it blue screened. I have all the dump files (I've been looking around on here ) and will attach them to this post. Thanks in advance for any help

 

[centaur78]

Well from the look of what you just said and analysing you bsod dumps... (all Bugcheck 116) which is a video TDR error.. i would suggest you update you Nvidia Drivers

 

[Sknow]

Once the computer would finally load there was an update for the video card, installed it and everything. Then it crashed again a shot time later

 

[centaur78]

Dont use the driver that gets updated with Window update. go here to Nvidia to download the latest drivers.

 

[Sknow]

Dont use the driver that gets updated with Window update. go here to Nvidia to download the latest drivers.

That's where I get my drivers. I have Nvidia Experience that automatically downloads drivers and installs them. It popped up this afternoon with a new driver available. So it blue screened while with the old driver, and again with the new one. Maybe I should uninstall all drivers?

The video card comes overclocked from the manufacturer, and has sometimes had heat issues, even though it has a fan and I have 4 case fans (1 120mm front, 3 60mm back/side). For example, if I play The Sims 3 it will go fine for a while then suddenly the screens black out and "No Signal" pops up and I have to hard restart so I'm wondering if it's an actual hardware issue

 

[centaur78]

Then use Speedfan or CoreTemp or HwMonitor to post a snapshot of the temps

 

[Sknow]

Then use Speedfan or CoreTemp or HwMonitor to post a snapshot of the temps

Alright, I'll have to do it tomorrow, as it's almost 4:30am here. I'll be sure to get it though, thanks for the help so far

 

[Sknow]

Here are the SpeedFan images, as requested. I took one shot right after starting Windows, another one a few minutes later, while being idle. Then I opened Photoshop (since that seems to weigh heavily on the video) and the GPU temp ran up to 70*C before the video driver crashed, which I also have a screen cap of. Also included is the dump file from this particular crash

 

[centaur78]

Shutdown your computer and Use an aircan or blower to clean the GPU fan and CPU fan immediately.

Then measure the temps again with HWmonitor

post the snapshot here.

 

[Sknow]

Ok everything is clean. I put this computer together about a year ago so it didn't have much dust in it. The video card fan and CPU fan had some dust caked up so I cleaned those off really good. Everything is in tip top shape. I even moved the computer so the fans can breathe better. I have a 120mm in the front, 2 60mms on the back, a 120mm (I think) built into the PSU, a 60mm on the side, and the small one on the video card itself. All work fine. I load up the computer, click the link to HW Monitor, and everything freezes and turns purple, causing me to have to hard restart. It was just a hang, not a crash, as every now and then the mouse would move, but I still lost control. I'm going to try installing HW Monitor in safe mode and see if that works

 

[Sknow]

Yeah I can't even boot to normal now

 

[Sknow]

UPDATE: I took out the 8800GT and replaced it with an old 7300 LE (128MB) that came with my wife's Dell years ago. I opened Photoshop and did all the things I had done before, which spiked the temp at 51, then quickly settled back down to the safe range. I guess it the 8800GT is dead? If someone can confirm I'll mark this as solved and thank you for your help

 

[centaur78]

Before you do anything.... Let me know what power supply are you using and the ampere mentioned under each rail mainly for +12V.. you can find them on the PSU

 

[Sknow]

I don't know much about PSUs so I copied everything down, just in case.
Brand: Thermaltake 450
Model: TT-450NL2NK

[FONT=Courier New]DC Output:          | +3.3V | +5V | +12V | -12V | +5VSB
Max Output Current: |  21A  | 15A |  25A | 0.3A | 2.0A
Max Output Power:   |     150W    | 237W | 3.6W | 10W[/FONT]

 

[centaur78]

Hmmm

Well i see where the problem is .... its you PSU... it doesn't have much power to run the BFG Tech Geforce 8800GT OC and to top it all the GPU is overclocked... which means more power !!

Even though +12V is 25A where the 8800GT needs a min of 18 A... the whole system would need a minimum of 450W to run without the 8800GT being overclocked.

You need at least a 700W to 800W to run the system smoothly without lagging or crashing or random restarts or graphic glitches!!

On the other hand when you used a 7300 LE... the whole system would need a minimum of 250W in which case your 450 is enough to run... as the 7300 LE is low end .

You can check the power calculator from here at Asus... though its from asus... it should give a idea of what min power you need.. You will need to consider atleast twice that value for proper functioning of the system.

 

[Sknow]

Wow, I thought maybe a new PSU could be a solution, didn't realize it was that bad :/ Unfortunately a 700-800w power supply is nowhere near my price range right now, so I'll have to stick with the 7300 LE until I find more work. Thanks for all your help, Centaur. I'm just glad to have my computer back working

 

[centaur78]

Glad to help

Kindly also REP those helped.

Thanks .

 

[Sknow]

Done and done!