PC shutting down while gaming

[ariadne2]

Been a while since I was here as after a rocky start my PC has been awesome for over 2 years now. However it does seem that a fault has developed. When gaming, specifically when playing WoW, after about 20 minutes or so the monitor loses signal, sometimes audio carries on, other times not. I have to press the power button to turn off and back on. It comes right back on again but will happen the next time I play again.
I downloaded Open Hardware Monitor and found this is happening when the card reaches 80 degrees. The CPU is hovering around 45 degrees under load so I don't think it's that.
I have only just dusted the case out recently but will do that again, have updated drivers, someone mentioned to me the PSU might be at fault.

Ooh just noticed the silver warranty covers for 3 years so I guess at least if I has to go back for repairs I won't have to pay for labour.

Original specs:

Case
AeroCool DS Cube White Edition Window Mini-ITX
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790 (3.6GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H81I-PLUS: Mini-ITX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Seidon 120M High Performance Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2481HS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI 1920x1080 (£139)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

 

[Oussebon]

Because it's WoW I'd recommend doing a UI reset and a scan and repair on the game files:
https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/resetting-the-world-of-warcraft-user-interface
https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/repairing-blizzard-games

It's not common, but I have seen addons and UI issues and bad game files in WoW, cause the system to just shut down.

It's also often worth sweeping your GPU drives with DDU: http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
and performing a clean install of the most recent GPU drivers. If that fails, you can also do the same and try some older drivers that were published before you began having this issue.

If you haven't done so, I would suggest cleaning the system of dust, including the system fans and the GPU fans, with compressed air. There are a lot of guides on the internet on how to do this if you're not familiar

After you've done that, see if it still happens and if the GPU still hits 80.

If it does still happen with the GPU hitting high temps, perhaps use something like MSI afterburner / EVGA Precision X to set a more aggressive cooling profile. See if that keeps temps down and/or prevents a shut down.

If that doesn't work, turn your settings down as low as they'll go and set your maximum foreground settings to 30 or 40 in the advanced settings and play for however long this normally happens, does it still happen?

 

[ariadne2]

OK, have done all of the above now, repairing game files, removing all addons, I tried a different power supply, tried with various different drivers, also reseated the card, cleaned all dust out of it ( there wasn't much at all)
Also have changed power settings as a google search suggested that was a good idea... Checked RAM as well and can't see any issues there.

I don't think it is heat related at all, as the crashes happen regardless of what the temp is, I've had it happen minutes after starting a game with the temp at no more than 50C on the GPU... It just seems to happen usually when I go to a more graphically intensive area, or a big fight or event starts and the card has to work a bit harder. Changing game settings hasn't helped at all, and it's also happening in multiple games.

At this point I think it has to be the GPU failing..

 

[ariadne2]

This isn't mine, but it looks exactly like this when it happens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc8sL8XqJ_E

 

[Oussebon]

It sounds like you may want to give PCS to call for troubleshooting and whether they can diagnose a faulty GPU, or potentially PSU.

You could try removing the GPU and installing it into a different PCI-E slot just to rule that out.

 

[ariadne2]

Yeah, I did call them a couple of weeks ago and spoke to someone there, they had me download Valley Benchmark and HW Monitor, and said take a screenshot if it goes over 85 degrees... but it didn't, and ran without issues for 2 hours before I exited. Still happens in games though. I replied to their email to let them know what had happened, but no one has got back to me.

It's not the PSU as I borrowed one to try and it still happens. Really thinking GPU at this point.

 

[Oussebon]

PCS can apparently be quite slow answering emails - phone seems to be more effective.

At least you've ruled the PSU out.