Something has gone wrong...

So I have a very old, i7 with a gtx770. Last week I started to get the odd hot puff of air from the case. This happened during a game of total war so I powered the machine down and opened it up.

The 770 was clogged with dust, so were a couple of the fans. Cleaned them up and put everything back. Everything worked fine so I carried on.

Now today, I've had the entire system crash out from a game. I opened the case again but the only thing that was remotely hot was a bundle of wires going from my motherboard to the HDD.

What the Heck can I do now? I've installed some temp monitoring software but neither the gpu or cpu has gone over 50C, But I'm concerned about pushing the system into a catastrophic crash.

Suggestions welcome and I will upload images of system with air flow explanation when I can.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
So I have a very old, i7 with a gtx770. Last week I started to get the odd hot puff of air from the case. This happened during a game of total war so I powered the machine down and opened it up.

The 770 was clogged with dust, so were a couple of the fans. Cleaned them up and put everything back. Everything worked fine so I carried on.

Now today, I've had the entire system crash out from a game. I opened the case again but the only thing that was remotely hot was a bundle of wires going from my motherboard to the HDD.

What the Heck can I do now? I've installed some temp monitoring software but neither the gpu or cpu has gone over 50C, But I'm concerned about pushing the system into a catastrophic crash.

Suggestions welcome and I will upload images of system with air flow explanation when I can.
Is this a PCSpecialist system? Can you post your full specs from the order page?
 
Is this a PCSpecialist system? Can you post your full specs from the order page?
Yea it's from pc specialist, specs from my invoice :

COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4820K (3.7GHz) 10MB Cache ASUS® X79 DELUXE: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011, WIFI 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB) 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W) 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler 2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) ASUS PCE-AC68 AC1900 802.11ac Dual-band Wireless PCI-E Adapter MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead) Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2013 (1 License & Disc) NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2014 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC *SPECIAL* AOC 21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D Cyborg V.7 Gaming Keyboard with Illuminated Keys 3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Yea it's from pc specialist, specs from my invoice :

COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4820K (3.7GHz) 10MB Cache ASUS® X79 DELUXE: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011, WIFI 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB) 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W) 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler 2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) ASUS PCE-AC68 AC1900 802.11ac Dual-band Wireless PCI-E Adapter MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead) Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2013 (1 License & Disc) NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2014 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC *SPECIAL* AOC 21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D Cyborg V.7 Gaming Keyboard with Illuminated Keys 3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
There have been a few buggy windows updates recently, namely causing issues with Realtek drivers leading to crashes and bsods.

What version of windows are you on? If you open up command prompt and type "winver" that should tell you.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Total war Warhammer 2. Screen went veryglitchy and then the whole machine restarted.
Hmmm. screen going glitchy is a bad sign.

I mean if it was that caked in dust it's possible it's been overheating for some time and has damaged the card.

The best way to test is run HWMonitor and monitor both CPU and GPU temps:


Then run Furmark which is a GPU stress tool, the idea is it will totally max out the GPU to the point where it's fully utilised, if the system freezes or crashes, you know you've got an issue. If it BSODS, make a note of the BSOD code:


It's possible the previous crash messed up some of the windows databases, but we'll run this first and if this doesn't highlight an issue, we'll then deal with the databases.
 
So... Ran the benchmarking software with the monitoring app in the background.

After 3 minutes of running the GPU tester it topped out at 80 degrees C and then ran continually with either slight drops in performance or upticks in fan speed to keep the temp at 80 (the standard safe limit for my card)... it did however also warm up the CPU (which was bobbling along at about 12-14%).

I then ran the GPU burner for 3 minutes at 8 threads, but my CPU didn't even hit the halfway range for core temp and the GPU (which was a 1% utilisation barely shifted from shared heat/convection...

I fixed the library issue, it appears to be a steam bug, fair enough. but whilst attempting to play Supreme Commander 2 my pc has crashed to a black screen of death and then totally rebooted from scratch....

I think it is time for a new Graphics Card, as im already here on pc specialist - got any recommendations?

(PS i cant attach photos of the card and inside the machine because they are too large and im too much of a noob to make them smaller).
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
So... Ran the benchmarking software with the monitoring app in the background.

After 3 minutes of running the GPU tester it topped out at 80 degrees C and then ran continually with either slight drops in performance or upticks in fan speed to keep the temp at 80 (the standard safe limit for my card)... it did however also warm up the CPU (which was bobbling along at about 12-14%).

I then ran the GPU burner for 3 minutes at 8 threads, but my CPU didn't even hit the halfway range for core temp and the GPU (which was a 1% utilisation barely shifted from shared heat/convection...

I fixed the library issue, it appears to be a steam bug, fair enough. but whilst attempting to play Supreme Commander 2 my pc has crashed to a black screen of death and then totally rebooted from scratch....

I think it is time for a new Graphics Card, as im already here on pc specialist - got any recommendations?

(PS i cant attach photos of the card and inside the machine because they are too large and im too much of a noob to make them smaller).
You could fit a 3070 without having to upgrade anything else in the build.

You’d likely need a monitor upgrade also to make any use of it.

The build is generally quite long in the tooth now though, you should really be thinking about a full upgrade.
 
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