# Crashes and slow gfx performance

## Gonneman

Dear Forum,

A while ago I noticed a significant reduction of gfx performance (i.e. fps dropped to about a third of its previous value in hardware accelerated games like Half-Life or WoW) despite direct rendering still being enabled. After a lot of tinkering with configs I came to the conclusion that there might be something wrong with my gfx card, so I put it into the Windows PC of a friend of mine. This caused the Windows PC to instantly shutdown as if someone had pulled the plug every time 3D acceleration was used or the Nvidia config tool was started. Thinking I had found the problem I got myself a new card. Unfortunately the performance hasn't improved and starting games with 3D acceleration now also causes my system to shutdown....

My hardware consists of:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, Dual Core, 2.13 GHz

Mainboard: Asus P5B, Intel P965

Ram: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400, 2x1GB, DDR2-800, CL5

Old gfx card: ASUS EN7950GT/HTDP/512M, GeForce 7950GT

New gfx card: Gainward BLISS 8600GTS, PCI-E, 512MB GDDR3, HDMI

Power supply: Enermax ELT500AWT, Liberty, ATX 2.2, 500W

Seeing as my power supply is 500W I doubt that my system shutsdown because to much power is consumed.

Does anyone have any advice?

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## pappy_mcfae

I usually recommend that people use mprime to find hardware errors...and it seems that might be your problem. My guess is memory or motherboard. Download and unpack the precompiled executable. Set the program to use the maximum memory and see what happens.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Gonneman

Ok thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try when I get home from work tonight. If mprime causes a crash I guess I'd have to follow that up with memtest, right?

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## pappy_mcfae

No, from all reports I have read here, memtest only shows up problems if your memory is to the point where it simply no longer works. If mprime shows a problem (and it most likely will), it will tell you what the problem is. I'm fairly sure you'll find the problem is memory, but let mprime find out. It really puts the system under a bind, and it will show weaknesses. Hell, even my Core2 quakes in fear of me typing mprime. 

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Gonneman

It looks like my CPU is overheating. I'll have to see if I can find a new cooler this weekend. I think this is a new symptom however so I'll get back to mprime once I've fixed the overheating.

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## Keruskerfuerst

What type of CPU cooler is installed?

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## Gonneman

A heatsink with a fan on it. I think it came with the CPU. I'll have a look when I get home.

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## Keruskerfuerst

Exakt type of CPU cooler...

 :Idea: 

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## Gonneman

I'm not quite sure how to answer your question. It's the Intel cooler that came with the CPU. It looks like an ordinary heatsink with a fan (12v) on it. The only writing on it I found was:

N 671D N1

F09A-12B152

01AC2H3 (CX)

If that isn't what you need, how do I find the type.

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## Monkeh

Stock Intel coolers are painfully bad. Replace it with something along the lines of an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or a Xigmatek SD964 (or S1283 if there's space).

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## pappy_mcfae

 *Gonneman wrote:*   

> It looks like my CPU is overheating. I'll have to see if I can find a new cooler this weekend. I think this is a new symptom however so I'll get back to mprime once I've fixed the overheating.

 Get a hold of some canned "air" and blow the heatsink fins clean. 

I just saved a friend's computer. It's a PIII Dell, and after seven or so years in a house filled with cigarette smoke, two of the fans just decided it was time to get gummed up and stop working. A little blowout and a fan replacement later, and the machine has been up and running without a lockup for three days now. Before, it didn't last three hours.

As far as heat sink efficiency, no matter how much one pays for a heatsink-fan combo, running a computer for two months is going to pack dust into the fins. A little maintenance is a lot cheaper than a heatsink that no one is going to see.

Once you have dusted and replaced the heatsink-fan combo, see if your problem doesn't go way. It most likely will.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Gonneman

Ok I'll try and get my hands on some new cooling paste and give everything a dusting. I noticed that the fan seems a little wobbly. It is supposed to sit tight though isn't it? My current guess is that the cooling paste might of dried out.

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## pappy_mcfae

The wobbliness is unimportant. As long as the heatsink is making good contact with the chip, you're good. A little bit of heatsink compound would be a good thing, too.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Monkeh

As long as the heatsink itself is secure, it's fine. The fan can wobble all it likes, as long as the heatsink isn't moving.

 *pappy_mcfae wrote:*   

> As far as heat sink efficiency, no matter how much one pays for a heatsink-fan combo, running a computer for two months is going to pack dust into the fins. A little maintenance is a lot cheaper than a heatsink that no one is going to see.

 

I actually wash my heatsinks in warm water every year or so. With filters, that's often enough.

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## pappy_mcfae

That actually depends on the environment. Everyone in my apartment smokes tobacco like it's going out of style. For me, every two months is mandatory. I just cleaned my roomie's new machine. It's less than three months old, and the air holes in the case, the fans, and the main CPU heatsink were caked with dust.

But whether the interval is a month or a year, the important point is it's a really good idea to dust out the heatsinks every once in a while. I always keep a nice supply of canned "air" on hand for these occasions.

Blessed be!

Pappy

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## Gonneman

Well I finally got round to replacing my cooler and now everything works again perfectly. Thanks a lot for the help!

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