PC shutting completely off after 10 minutes.Follow

Well the thread title says it all.

I was around for the 1.0 Alpha, the 1.0 Beta, 1.0, came back to try 2.0 Beta, all the way up final release. Never had this problem. I can play FFXI all day long, with a movie streaming, files downloading, listening to music and my PC won't sweat it for half a second. The PC is about 4 years old, but when I built it I used pretty close to top of the line everything. I've maintained it and never had any problems or drama with it aside from a hard drive going out a couple years back (the only that that was not brand new when I built it).

I was hoping it wouldn't be an overheating issue, maybe it's not? I downloaded a program called Open Hardware Monitor. Basically it shows you all your temps. My Core GPU skyrocket's up to about 99 Celsius when I run through a crowded area in FFXIV. From what I remember, that's pretty hot? Seems to only take about 10 minutes and my PC decides to shut itself off. It turns back on without any problems, it just shuts completely off.

All the other temperatures seem to be fine. I'm guessing this is due to my CPU overheating? It's an AMD Phenom 2 Quad Core, my graphics card is a Nvida GTS 250. I'll try to find more stats, I apologize as I forget a lot about the specs now days and how to check it.

So is this probably caused by my CPU overheating? And if so, is this going to be a costly thing to correct?

Thanks for any help.

I dunno, I don't think it's my power supply. I have a 750w Corsair PSU. Also, playing ARR 2.0 Beta, this never happened, not once. I just figured it was the CPU since the core temp was touching on 100 degrees Celsius, I thought that was like, incredibly too hot? I know when playing FFXI (right now) running a few background apps it's not going over 54 degrees Celsius.

Thanks for the reply.

Edited, Dec 31st 2014 4:46pm by AlmightyApkallu

99C is definitely pretty hot (water boils at 100C), but most computers won't flip the kill switch until about 110 to prevent damage to components. Keep in mind though that 99C is entirely too much even if the computer doesn't curl up in a ball, and that excessive heat causes cumulative damage.

I'd check a couple things.. first check that the airflow in your case isn't being blocked and that there's a nice clean pathway between the intake in front and exhaust in back. Clean your fans, blow out any dust buildup in the case. Especially clean out the CPU fan (take it off the heatsink if you can do it without breaking it).

The second thing is going to be your CPU's thermal paste. Now I'm assuming you had pretty good thermal paste to begin with (and not the toothpaste you get from off-the-shelf PCs) but 4 years of heavy use can still break down good thermal paste. Honestly, given the problems you're having, I'd just straight up replace the thermal paste regardless of its current quality.

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/index.php?pageid=CPUtemperatures

Most of the AMDs seem to range from 60-80, so 99C is pretty damn hot for those. Make sure the fan is spinning on the CPU cooler, and make sure it's secured properly. The PSU could be the culpirt, but a 750w PSU would be more than enough to run that rig.

Yeah, I tried replacing the thermal paste. Got some top of the line stuff, applied it properly, cleaned off the previous stuff. Still soaring up to 100 degrees Celsius when I try to play FFXIV and still only at 50-75 for everything else including FFXI.

Yeah, I did that. I've built PC's before. I know I seem kind of derpy' about it, finding the specs and such, just haven't done a lot of this in awhile. I do remember though, you spread as you said, about as much as a single grain of rice, no more than 2 grains (would probably be pushing it) but some where in between. I usually spread a super thin micro layer on the CPU cooling unit just so it connects with the thin layer on the CPU. I have this little micro spatula thing built for spreading it evenly. I got this Antec Diamond thermal paste too, supposed to be very good.

I notice my GPU core never goes above 65, even with FFXIV running, this is all just about the CPU. I'm guessing that has to be the reason FFXIV was shutting off after 10 minutes, hardware protection and such from reaching 100+ degrees on the CPU.

I'm guessing I need a new CPU cooling unit. Does this game require you having a liquid cooled CPU cooling unit? Everything I read says it makes your processor go nuts, very graphics intensive game.

Oh nice. I hope that's not the case. I guess I can try replacing the heatsink and hope that fixes it. Went down to Fry's to get a new one and they were closed early for the new year's. Best buy was closed early too. Wal-Mart doesn't have components like this so hopefully some where is open tomorrow. I don't understand if it's the censor why it's only doing this with FFXIV...

I believe FFXIV is quite CPU intensive compared to other games. Where as some other games beat the **** out of your GPU, while barely touching the CPU. So unless you play other CPU intensive games, not many would push it.

You can always run Prime95 or some other CPU stress test to test your cooling, though if XIV is doing 99C, that'll do the same or worse. So it'd be mostly for an aftermarket cooler.

You said you had some hardware monitoring software, but I'd try another program as well to get a second opinion. I use SpeedFan. This will give you the correct CPU, GPU, and ambient temperatures, but it'll also tell you the RPM of each of the fans it detects, so if your CPU fan is dead, you can replace that first.

My CPU runs normally at about 30-35C, spiking up to 40C under load, for the record.

Well after hours of installation and fighting with it, I installed a new Heat-Sink. They were out of the Cooler Master Hydro 202 or whatever some one recommended here, but had another brand that was basically the same thing. Gigantic fan, gigantic radiator, lots of cooling. Now even with several background applications, running through the most crowded parts of Limsa Lominsa I'm not breaking 52 degrees Celsius. I guess that fixed my problem, thank you very kindly to the people here who helped me!

A bit off topic but... I tried to equip a fishing rod to change classes and it says I have to unlock that class. What in the world? Things must have really changed since I last played. How do I become a fisherman now? And how long will it be on these worlds restricting character creation allow it again? The main character I have and others on one of them. I want to make one new character on that server but alas...

Thanks again!

If your main character is on Balmung, good luck.... the character restriction is in place nearly all day. It's the primary NA role playing server, with the secondary one being Gilgamesh. If you're NOT into role playing, I suggest transferring your character far and away from Balmung, if only to free up more space for the serious RPers. I pulled my Legacy character off it onto Lamia, not that I play with her any more.

New characters on Legacy accounts don't get the legacy tattoo, FYI.

Just as a note for anyone else who may have this problem. The majority of time that I fix this problem for others it's due to all of the packed in dust that gets sucked into the fins of the heatsink under the CPU fan. If you can remove the fan from the heat sink and clean that all out with q-tips, and swap out the thermal paste since you'll have the heat sink off anyway and kind of have to, it usually fixes the issue. Not all CPU coolers have removable fans but the majority do or at least can be accessed from the sides in a pinch.