PC crashing...

[Lie-in King]

Hi guys - I really hope someone can help me here...

For the last couple of months, my PC has been shutting down completely & suddenly.

It occurred to me that it seemed to happen when I was watching something on YouTube - until last night, when I'd watched a clip on mamya's thread successfully & was trying to think of a track to post, when the screen suddenly gave the familiar message "No Signal Received".

I don't recall it happening without YouTube either currently or recently having been used.

On a few occasions, moving the mouse has brought the box back to life, otherwise the ONLY way back in is to power-off at the mains & restart. Both actions lead to the "Windows shut down unexpectedly..." message.

I've run MSE, Spybot & Malwarebytes & appear to be clear of oogly-booglies...

I've checked that my NVIDIA drivers are up to date & that there are no M'soft updates outstanding.

My box is (taken from the "System Information" screen) -

Packard Bell iXtreme M5722 x64
Intel Core2 Quad CPU - Q8300 @ 2.50 GHx, 2499 MHz
Windows 7 Home Premium, Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
6 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT220 1GB
Driver Version - 8.17.12.9610

If you need any more info, I'm happy to provide it, if I know where to find it - fair warning, lol!

As always, thank you for your time & attention,

L-i K

[Lie-in King]

Thank you SlackAlice - I'm not taking the case apart again today, but will have a go at your suggestion asap.

I am using Aero, but use the Taskbar preview function all the time, so if it's that I'll have to do without playing clips I guess. I'm tempted to think it's not though, as the PC has always worked until now?..

[Lie-in King]

Update - S'Alice, your tip seems to have worked - somewhat, at least.

Not having pixie-sized hands, I struggled to get at the mini-fan on the graphics card (2 tight, spring-loaded screws & a non-removable - to me at least! - lead), but cleared all the clag ok. The GPU Temp is now showing as 58/60C, though still with a 'flame'.

I'll add the next bit here, to keep everything together...

Having restarted, I got the scariest 'Blue Screen of Death' I've ever seen, along with a high-pitched whine...

Powered off, opened up & realised I'd nudged another card, which I reseated. Restart then told me that I needed (apparently) to download a driver for 'Intel(R) 82567V-2 Gigabit Network Connection'.

I did this from Intel's site, then had to "Restart for changes to take effect." At this point I was also shown a problem with the 'Atheros AR5006GS Wireless Network Adapter' which didn't have enough space to run (or similar wording) & I should disable another device.

I thought - "Meh - Restart anyway, might clear it..." It has, but the Atheros device has now disappeared - can anyone tell me what these things are, what I've done & whether it matters or not? Did I just swap one thing for another?

I'm sorry this has dragged on, but genuinely appreciate the time, attention & generous help I've received!

As regards the OP, I've run a couple of YT clips successfully, so fingers crossed... :-))

[Old_Geezer]

Apologies, was out yesterday. Yes the Graphics Processing Unit was still "flame" hot and so was not cooling enough. Glad you managed to clear it, and yes one has to be careful about unseating other bits as one fixes it.

So, is it now ok ? BTW the only Atheros ref I found was to do with WiFi chips. Not sure I can comment much on that. May pay you to start another thread if you have a new problem so others check it out ?

[Lie-in King]

Hi OG - original problem seems ok at the moment.

I'm not sure if I actually have a new problem, so I'll wait & see :-)

[SlackAlice]

So far so good! You reduced the temperature of the GPU by about 10C, although it's still a little high. I'm assuming you have only the one case fan extracting hot air and bearing in mind the GPU fan uses this warmer air inside the case to cool itself. If it's hot to start with then that doesn't help.

Not sure what you unseated, was this a card in a parallel slot to the graphics card? How do connect to your modem/router, by cable I assume?

Bit 'Heath Robinson' I know!! But you can try leaving one case side off and aiming a cold air fan at the graphics card and see what temps you get. If you get a big reduction in temperature then this would indicate insufficient airflow through the case.

[Lie-in King]

Thanks, S'Alice & sorry for the late reply, only just got back here.

Yes, it's next to the card that has the fan attached; no, I didn't think to try & work out what the card was; yes, it's a cabled connection & yes, there's just the one fan.

I'll try your open case solution if I can, but the position of the desk, sockets etc will make it tricky. Thanks again :-)