Overheating? Dying Power Supply? Heeelp.

[Displeased Duck]

So, all has been well on my side of the pond up until yesterday. I was happily playing Payday 2 with some of my friends when my comp decided to suddenly shut down. No reset... It just shuts down. I'm able to turn it back on and I figure "Maybe the power is acting weird". To be sure though I open up my computer case and dust it out. It wasn't very dusty though... I clean it every month. I pick up the game again... Thirty minutes later, the same thing happens. At that point I know its my comp and I'm certain its not due to dust build up. Two things go through my head: It's either my power supply (only a year and a half old. 700 watt corsair. Very nice.) or it's my graphics card (Radeon HD 6700 series). My card has it's latest drivers and what not, and no matter what... even with the case open, it is hanging around 65 Celcius while idling. When I play a game, it suddenly shoots up to 85C (I didn't want to see how far up it actually goes before shutting down... afraid to fry my comp). Other parts of my PC seems to shoot up past 50C at times when idling. Fans are working fine... I'm stumped and too scared to run any games. Any ideas? :\

I should prolly also mention one thing that I told Devilish Potato: My first mistake was buying a Dell computer. I really should have gone custom. It's a Studio XPS model... If that helps any. I should also mention that this only has happened while playing Payday 2... I haven't really tried other games out. As said I'm damn scared to push my comp too much at this point.

Edit: May as well add in some other specs.

Windows 7 64 bit Home

8182MB RAM

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 2.7GHz

[Boss Llama]

While those temperatures are high, they're neither unusual nor outside the tolerances of a gaming computer.They can usually operate at something up to around 100C, though I wouldn't suggest doing so. While a CPU overheat will cause the system to shut itself down as protection, I don't know that a GPU can do that - they typically will lower their speed to regulate temperature, if they can. Make sure that it isn't just your case fans that are working, but also verify the CPU's HSF and the GPU fans are spinning as well.

The fact that it's only occuring during Payday 2 does make me think it might not be a hardware problem, though if you haven't played any other graphically intense games, it is worth trying it to find out if it'll do it there. Have you tried deleting and reinstalling the game? It's possible there's a glitch in the install that's causing it to send a signal in a very wrong way.

Did you notice any sort of similarity between what you were doing each of the times it shut down, other than just playing that game?

[Displeased Duck]

Nothing really. It just happens when I'm playing. No particular mission, number of enemies, etc... it just happens after about 20-30 minutes of play. I even limited the fps to just 60, lowered several of the settings, and it didn't help much. I tried playing Rise of the Triad (the remake) and it started to creep up past 85C. I didn't want to push it so I stopped. Not too long ago it would idle at about 45C or so... So this is kinda freaking me out that my card is now idling at 65C, even with my computer case open. Everything else has temps lower than 50C.

[Jesus_Faction]

Is the card still under warranty? If you have another gfx card to test with you can verify that it is the problem (it sounds like it is, those temps are really high). Do you know what the temps used to be? If they shot up dramatically recently that would be a telltale sign.

[Boss Llama]

JF speaks truth. The fact that its idle tempt has increased significantly is not a good sign.

Also, having the case open doesn't necessarily help, and can hurt depending on the build. If it's well designed, the fans are set to create a particular type of airflow within the case that is maximally efficient, and opening the side keeps it from working. It's counterintuitive, but true, much like the fact that a pickup with the tailgate down has worse aerodynamics than one with the tailgate up.

[Displeased Duck]

I sent a ticket in with the card's manufacturer, though I went ahead and replaced one of my large fans in my comp. Didn't really help much... Messed with the catalyst fan speed and that helps if its set to a constant speed though I don't think I should keep it hanging at 65% fan speed (wouldn't it wear the card out faster or something?)... However, it's idle temp went down to 52C. If the fan speed is not locked then the temps jump up.

I think I remember the idle being around 45-50C in the past. I find it weird that it suddenly changed... Literally over night.

Edit: I take that back... the fan is a miracle. I don't have to lock the card's fan speed either. It's staying at a steady 55C now. I'm still curious though about locking fan speed... Why do that when it seems to automatically adjust? And wouldn't it wear the card out?

[Boss Llama]

It's possible the automatic GPU fanspeed adjuster is what failed or is failing, which could cause gradual overheating without being visibly problematic to the human eye. Having your fan speed locked at a high rate won't really do any damage to it - fanspeed is variable mostly for the sake of noise control rather than preserving the fan. Obviously it's possible for the fan to fail, but if it does, it's the sort of thing that probably would have happened anyway. I'd say lock it at a high speed and play normally for a few days. Keep an eye on things to make sure the problem doesn't reoccur, and to make sure the volume is tolerable. If things are working properly and you're happy, keep it that way.

[Jesus_Faction]

did you update the driver package recently? that might cause the fan settings to get messed up

[Displeased Duck]

Everything seems to be in order now. I always update my drivers asap so that's no issue. I don't even have to lock the fan speed... It stays under 80C now whenever I'm playing a game.

I also reformatted my computer cause... Well, just cause. Had so much crap on my comp anyway. But yeah, all is good now.

[Displeased Duck]

One more question... Overclocking.

I know if you're not careful this can destroy your computer (or at least the card), but is it possible to continuously overclock your card (if you find a stable setting) or is it best to only do it while gaming and disable it afterwards? It's probably a dumb question but I'm curious.

[Boss Llama]

The best answer to Overclocking is "Don't."

Unless you've got the income to replace your entire system on a whim, and the knowledge (or willingness to experiment) to get things right at risk of bricking everything, don't even touch stuff like that.

The performance increase for most OC jobs is not noticeable, and even done perfectly it both voids every warranty you have and shortens the life of your system.

All of that said - people who OC tend to run their system like that at all times. The less you're tweaking things, the better.

[Jesus_Faction]

I would not recommend overclocking your card. Overclocking increases temperatures exponentially and you are already having heat issues. (Heat is what will destroy the card not overclocking)