Yoinks my PC hates me or the new keyclone

[entoptic]

So 3 days ago I installed the newest version of keyclone. Everyone was fine however occasionally 1-2 instances of wow would crash and then I would just restart them.

Fast forward to today and now most of the wow apps are crashing and I got 1 blue screen right after all the instances were closed out.

I looked at my cpu temps and they seem alittle high but not crazy. I looked at the voltage and all checks out. I just recently upgraded all the ram, motherboard, and cpu. Mind you I did not have time to check the cpu temps while wow was running. I am sure they spiked nasty!

My video card is on its way out and I believe that there may be a heating issue as most heating monitors can't give you the correct temps.

I will be going out and buying a bigger power supply and new case to see if this solves the issues but was wondering if anyone else had been experiencing the same thing.

MORE FANS!!!!! I checked with a smoke test and saw that I do indeed has a negative air flow machine. The smoke went in the front and blew out the side panel fan. Should that fan be pushing air in instead of out so that the fans in the back of the case by the power supply spit out the smoke instead?

Right now my setup is like this.

120mm server fan in the front of the case blowing in over the HDDs. a side case mounted 80mm fan blowing air out of the case and the cpu has a standard heat sink with fan blowing up and into the fan on the side of the case.

In the back I have 2 80mm fans blowing out as well and then the power supply blowing out as well. This creates a nice negative flow. I did notice that NONE of my fans have meshes on them and a lot of the pci slots that should have metal coverings on the case are missing. There is minimal dust however there is still some. The computer sits on the floor as well.

Mebbe one of the 80mm fans in the back should be blowing in as well to get a nice cross breeze as the 120mm in front has to PUSH to get air past the HDDs and into the back.

Anyone had any luck with water cooled systems?

I am sorry but I do not have the error codes right now.

[Farleito]

From the experience during my PC Tech days, it sounds like you are having some memory timing issues. Are you mixing memory?

If it is heat related, you would only see this problem after the system was powered on for some time, and it would crash any/every application...even at the Windows desktop. When you installed your CPU, did you use thermal compound grease in between your CPU fan and the CPU?

Generally, if it was related to your fans (wrong direction)... you would be able to play for a long time before any temperature thresholds were met. Another thing you can try is to set an alarm (in your bios) when voltage drops or temperature rises. This will start beeping at you if this is the case. You can try a new power supply, but I think you would have seen problems outside of WoW if it was your power supply.

The reason why I suspect it to be your memory is because 1) you recently upgraded it and 2) WoW is the only thing that uses a ton of it, and frequently.

Liquid cooling is O.K.. I think its best (and only) selling point is the quietness. The only thing you hear is the HD's. I personally think that over-clocking is over-rated. Squeeze more out of your CPU? Just go buy a faster one. It's much cheaper than buying all the cooling equipment to make it work (and memory that can run at OC'd rates).

Videocards usually don't cause the types of problems you are seeing. Your video would get messed up before your system would freeze since it sits on the PCI bus instead of the FSB. PCI bus errors are recoverable in Windows, FSB errors are not and generally cause machine checks.

When you got that blue screen, it probably flashed on the screen as your system restarted. If it happens again and if you have enough time to look at it, post the error codes (Most likely a stop error).

Try replacing your memory. It's the easiest/fastest/cheapest thing to do and it may be your problem.

[entoptic]

I will run some tests on the memory tonight when i get home. Anyone know of a good memory tester?

The memory I have has heatsinks and fans on it. I wonder if it really is the problem but your agruement is solid.

[entoptic]

ok so with further talks to my IT team we seem to think it is the heat and then the memory. All agree test the memory but go and buy a new heatsink/fan for the cpu.

[Farleito]

Anyone know of a good memory tester?

Yes, multi-client WoW 8o Memory timing issues are difficult to catch w/ software memory tests. They typically do a few passes of marching ones, all ones, all zeros, A's and 5's (1010[A] 0101[5]). This is only good to find stuck bits.


The memory I have has heatsinks and fans on it.


Sounds like you over-paid for your memory. Those are usually marketed for over-clocking. Increasing the clock frequency requires an increase in voltage, ultimately generating more heat requiring the heatsinks and fans. If you're not over-clocking, return that memory and buy the "value" RAM. If you are over-clocking... return your CPU, buy a faster one and stop over-clocking. Run cpu-z and save each tab by pressing F5. I'd be interested to see what the results are on your CPU and Memory tab. Please post the Clock (CPU) and Timing (Memory) settings. Also, please post the specs on your memory and MB (part #'s/manufacturers).

Also, you mentioned you upgraded your MB and CPU. Did you reinstall Windows?

If you used thermal grease between your CPU fan and the CPU, I highly doubt it is a heat problem (assuming you installed it properly). New CPU's come w/ new cooling fans. Before you go and buy a new CPU fan, try running CPU Burn-in (see link below). If you have overheating issues, this tool will remove any doubts.



CPU Burn-in http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/CPU-Burnin.shtml (download button - mid/lower right side)

cpu-z - http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php (download button on upper left side)

[entoptic]

Actually the memory was 74 bucks for 2 gig sticks. They are not overclocked and I would never buy overclocked memory.

I really don't believe it's the memory, the fact that the computer is already running hot while idle and my video card is going due to this leads me to believe that it is heat related.

If it was memory I would be getting all kinds of weird crashes and odd things happening. If anything it could be voltage.

I thank you for the comment about the memory but being in the IT field and seeing things from memory problems this kinda looks like it but I would lean more on the heat side of things based on the other stuff that is going on with my computer.

[entoptic]

So i went out and bought a new case and heatsink from cool master. My entire computer is now running 20 degrees celsius less then what it was running before. It is now at 28 degrees instead of the 50 - 52 degrees it was running at before and that was at IDLE!

My video card did not make it tho. Sadly it still has artifacts and will just have to be upgraded :P

Memory checks out fine as the heat sinks and fans on it saved the day!

Thanks for the help guys. :thumbsup: