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Incredibly random failures

computergeek485

2[H]4U
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Jun 20, 2008
Messages
2,393
So several weeks ago, approaching a month now, i came back from being away for a weekend and in my room it sounded like a turbine was going. The fan on my 6950 2gb xfx video card was running at 100% and the display wouldn't turn on. I power cycled the computer and nothing. Took out the video card and reseated it and it worked, for 30 minutes. Then same thing.

I drew the logical conclusion that the card was bad. Set up and RMA with XFX and they received the card and were unable to replicate the problem but still sent me a brand new card.

Installed that card and was fine for about a week. Same thing happened right as i was about to go to sleep, i wasn't even at the computer i had just stepped away from it after playing the hard reset demo about 20 minutes prior.

I power cycled the computer and managed to get into the bios. It did the same thing in the bios after about 45 seconds and i just turned it off for the night.

With having a new video card i'm essentially ruling out that the video card is the problem along with any software related problems since it happened in the bios.

I thought it might be the power supply starting to kick the can so i swapped out the psu and used the one for my server for the weekend and had no failures. The problem is that at the same time i updated the bios, so i changed two variables, stupid move i know.

Since then i have put the original power supply back in and it is running stable but i'm concerned that the problem still exists.

I'm open to any suggestions, and has anyone ever heard of a bios causing this type of intermittent failure.

The specs are
Silverstone DA 850w
P8P67 Pro b3 with 1850 bios
8gb of g.skill and 8gb of mushkin all passed memtest
XFX 6950 2gb
WD Black
2500k stock at the moment
Gaia with 2 120mm fans
Everything runs cool, i have a 250mm fan on the side of the case
rc-690 original
u2711

Thanks
-CG
 
Was it stable with the PSU from the server? I've run into a similar situation, and all it ended up being a loose 24pin ATX connector. I had taken the PC apart to clean it, and when it went back together I somehow missed securing it properly. Given, you didn't say you had done anything to it, but. Does the server PC have a video card you can use in the other one?
 
So several weeks ago, approaching a month now, i came back from being away for a weekend and in my room it sounded like a turbine was going. The fan on my 6950 2gb xfx video card was running at 100% and the display wouldn't turn on. I power cycled the computer and nothing. Took out the video card and reseated it and it worked, for 30 minutes. Then same thing.

Was the card hot?
 
Ran fine with the server psu, also ran fine with a spare video card but it has such a low power draw it does not rule out psu imo.

I had not touched the computer for a few weeks prior to this failure. It was cleaned out dust wise 3 weeks before it first happened but ran fine since.

Temp wise, i was sitting at the computer with the old video card and saw it instantly go from 34c to 128c when the fan jumped from 24% to 100%, i just attribute that to the odd nature of the crash since i don't see that really possible to jump temp wise that fast.

I have not been at the computer when it did the same thing with the new card but temp wise it's running well within its normal range. Sub 80 even under 100% load and relatively low fan speed mid 30%.
 
yea it's going strong, i think it might have been the bios. It's the only thing i've changed at this point
 
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