Guild Wars 2

So this weekend I bought a new EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 660 GPU and Thermaltake TR2 600W PSU and installed them. I’ve been watching temps, CPU doesn’t go past about 30C and the GPU doesn’t go over 50C. I’m using the power cord that came with the PSU on this next run instead of the old one from the other PSU to make sure that it’s not the cord. That said, this problem doesn’t seem to happen with SWTOR or DCU, and I haven’t tried The Secret World or Borderlands 2 for comparison yet, but I will if this next test is a failure.

The problem: I play GW2 for about 5-10 minutes and then my computer just shuts off with a click. No error message, no sound effect, and I can restart my computer immediately in the event of a shutdown.

That said, I only bought and installed the new components on the 19th so I can totally take that kitten back and get it replaced if it’s one of those. Was using a GTS 450 and a 400W PSU before. Including a DxDiag for completeness:

ThermalTake used HEC for the OEM on the TR2 PSU’s, which means they are crap, not that I would call ANY of the TT PSU’s good. They are cheap, and it shows, take back the PSU and get something better, problem or not, it’s always good to have a good quality PSU. I am assuming you bought this local? If so, what brands do they carry and what models?

Problem appears to only affect GW2 tentatively, playing TSW right now without so much as a burp. May be driver issue?

It very well could be your psu, but double check and make sure everything is secured and seated well.

Also, I know you said your temps are fine, but please download this (from link provided) and post a screenshot after playing gw2 for about 5 minutes (10 if you could make it that far). Not only does it show temps, it also displays voltages and such. So, it’s not really about temps only. Great piece of free software.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Probably the Power Supply. 400W is barely sufficient to drive an AMD with such a videocard. If it’s a cheaper brand, it’ll have fluctuations and a little spike could easily drop your pc.

TinkTinkPOOF.9201:

ThermalTake used HEC for the OEM on the TR2 PSU’s, which means they are crap, not that I would call ANY of the TT PSU’s good. They are cheap, and it shows, take back the PSU and get something better, problem or not, it’s always good to have a good quality PSU. I am assuming you bought this local? If so, what brands do they carry and what models?

Yeah I bought it local, I thought Thermaltake was a pretty respected brand?

marnick.4305:

Probably the Power Supply. 400W is barely sufficient to drive an AMD with such a videocard. If it’s a cheaper brand, it’ll have fluctuations and a little spike could easily drop your pc.

The 400W one was the one that got replaced, the new one is 600W.

Trying out HWMonitor now.

Edit: This was taken seconds after having played GW2 for 5ish minutes.

You’ve got an area in your system getting up to 128C. I don’t know if that’s normal or not, but if it isn’t, it could be the cause of your shutdowns. You may want to test this again from a fresh reboot without doing anything else or see if it gets this high with other activities. I know someone said a sensor like this is kind of normal to go higher like that, but that just seems excessive.

Also, perhaps try running a memtest, you may want to check your windows event viewer or any dump files to see if anything is noted. Start narrowing down possible hardware issues.

The high number is often the mobo socket temp, which is known for being off, on one of my older system it would read as 489C, needless to say it was not that hot, I also had one read -36C. Temps that high and something would be burning, so the reading is probably mobo socket and an error.

Also, no, TT is not a good brand.

Kyllaa.1385:

You’ve got an area in your system getting up to 128C. I don’t know if that’s normal or not, but if it isn’t, it could be the cause of your shutdowns. You may want to test this again from a fresh reboot without doing anything else or see if it gets this high with other activities. I know someone said a sensor like this is kind of normal to go higher like that, but that just seems excessive.

Also, perhaps try running a memtest, you may want to check your windows event viewer or any dump files to see if anything is noted. Start narrowing down possible hardware issues.

The following helps explain the weird temperatures. Usually if it doesn’t vary at all and is excessively high/low, its not really reading anything.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261955-29-tmpin2-degrees-hwmonitor

Having same problem here. Cept I have an AMD Fx 6200 six core processor. Playing for 5-10 min, suddenly black screen, comp shuts down, have to restart.

Using my old video card, everything ran fine

Serophous.9085:

Having same problem here. Cept I have an AMD Fx 6200 six core processor. Playing for 5-10 min, suddenly black screen, comp shuts down, have to restart.

Using my old video card, everything ran fine

Thanks for letting us know…have you actually done anything about it yet? Like any of the things that were mentioned above? I fail to see the need for me to repeat myself/others in the same thread. What GPU are you using now, what GPU is your old one?

ok, i got a warning this time:

WARNING!
The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable your AMD adapter using the Displays Manager

Serophous.9085:

ok, i got a warning this time:

WARNING!
The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable your AMD adapter using the Displays Manager

So you updated your graphics driver and…!!!

TinkTinkPOOF.9201:

The high number is often the mobo socket temp, which is known for being off, on one of my older system it would read as 489C, needless to say it was not that hot, I also had one read -36C. Temps that high and something would be burning, so the reading is probably mobo socket and an error.

Also, no, TT is not a good brand.

I second this about the sensors, I have one that reads a constant 40C on TMPIN3 and another that reads -654646C on TMPIN4 and another that varies depending on how hot/cold my system gets. goes up as it gets colder and goes down as it gets hotter. In all their unused sensor banks in the mobo/cpu.

As for the OP: Return the Thermalcrap PSU and get one more respected, like Seasonic, Corsair, OCZ, Antec, Silverstone, Be Quite!. Once you get a more respectable PSU, run GW2 for 5~10 min and show us HWMonitor again to check for any voltage problems.

Thanks for posting that Ilithis, I’ll stop responding to those now ;p

Thanks guys, I’ll take the TT PSU back probably Saturday and see if they have anything better. Otherwise I’m totally fine with getting a refund and hitting up an actual computer parts place to get one.

What did you pay for it? Newegg has been having some of their builder PSU line on sale with MIR for as low as 29 bucks for a 500W unit, not the best units, but not bad either. Let us know the brand and models of PSU’s they have, just because it is a well known brand does not make it good, as most PSU’s on the market are rebranded, there are only a few places that make PSU’s.

It was an $80 PSU from Best Buy. I’ll check out some of the other brands they have. Still a little kitten ed my little brother traded off the BFG 650W that I had before I bought this computer, would’ve totally used it instead.

Sadly, just looked it up, and I guess bfgtech got liquidated.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

Serophous.9085:

ok, i got a warning this time:

WARNING!
The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable your AMD adapter using the Displays Manager

So you updated your graphics driver and…!!!

And its updated, now it just screen freezes on me after so long. Longer than 5-10 min at least. I assume its my amd adapter, but cant find how to change it. Im not using an AMD card, or ATI, I am using the Nvidia geforce gtx 660

Has nothing to do with your system.

I can play any games for hours upon hours and never have any issues.

This game crashes for me randomly as well.

One of my screens will go white and one black, than my PC restarts.

I’m done with this game until they acknowledge this problem.

I’m not gonna mess up my PC trying to play this game because the devs poorly optimized it.

Replaced the Thermaltake with a Cooler Master Extreme2 625. Here goes!

Yay problem solved after over an hour of play, no problems.

Awesome! Glad to hear that your issue seems fixed. Update again if anything else

Oh yeah, you can bet on it. :p I wonder how many other people need to be saved from bad PSUs? Kinda surprising something would be marketed as a gaming PSU and then as soon as a marginally demanding game shows up it starts clicking off your computer. >:O

Infares.2841:

Oh yeah, you can bet on it. :p I wonder how many other people need to be saved from bad PSUs? Kinda surprising something would be marketed as a gaming PSU and then as soon as a marginally demanding game shows up it starts clicking off your computer. >:O

Why? To sell units.

This is why you never go by marketing, but rather go by reviews like Jonnyguru, there is no such thing as “gaming” anything, and that’s the first red flag to spot when buying PC parts. Most of the really good stuff is known as such and have very little marketing and just hard numbers, while the cheaper stuff tends to spend allot on flashy boxes and catchy words.

I would also take back the CM and get a good unit, this is why I said to list models and makes of what they have in stock, CM, over all, has kittenty PSU’s. The line you bought from is pretty bad as well. http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Extreme-2-475-W-Power-Supply-Review/1550/11

I believe bestbuy has Corsair PSU’s, any of theirs will be better than the ones you have gotten thus far.

I wanted to chime in again here regarding power supplies:

For your “average” PC, one that is not used for gaming (or high-end video editing, etc.) – you can generally get by with a generic [cheap] power supply.

On the other hand, when you are building (or buying) a PC that’s going to be used under a heavy load for long periods of time, you should really take a close look at the power supply you’re going to get. As in the above post:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/

…has many power supply reviews. Another good source is:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/

One very important specification that most people ignore or simply don’t know about is called ‘noise’ – which is a small [AC] voltage present on the [DC] voltage outputs. Specifically it’s known as ‘switching noise’ and it needs to be as low as possible or it may interfere with the circuitry that the power supply is running.

I’m willing to bet that some of the crashes in this forum are the result of poor quality power supplies. ALWAYS check the noise specification before buying, if possible.

Edited to add to Tink’s edit:

Here is a review of my Corsair power supply (remember my PC is old):

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-CX430-V2-Power-Supply-Review/1284/2