Failing PSU or GPU or other?

[Fulmar]

Kind of a long story...

So this issue seems to be a bit more problematic as time goes on and I'm having a hard time deciphering what the root of the issue is.  About a year ago, I would rarely run into issues where when booting up my PC, the monitor(s) would not receive signal but it had appeared the system had booted into Windows without a hitch (I could tell because my Logitech G15 keyboard LCD screen would load properly, which needs to run its own services in Windows).  A simple reboot would fix this.  It happened maybe 3-4 times every 2 months or so.

Back in November I purchased Left 4 Dead 2 and from the get go had major problems.  Couldn't play for more than 20-30 minutes without a hard lock up with either a freeze with sound looping or monitors would shut off and go black and lock the system.  At the time I tried drivers, reinstalls, heat related issues etc.  I then solved the issues by turning down my overclock (which was stable and still is stable - see below in specs).  Never had another lock up issue until recently.

A little more randomly, I get a similar lock up with monitors shutting off and have to hold the power button in.  Seems to happen a bit more frequently.  I generally play the game every other night and it happens maybe 2-3 times a week.  Only happens on Left 4 Dead 2, other high end games, never have issues.  PSU Voltages in BIOS and Speefan are normal +/- 3-5%.  Temps for OC on all clocks never exceed 55C on he cores at 100%.  GPU is at 55C idle and 67C full load.  Orthos and Prime95 passed for hours and hours.

Any theories apprciated.

Specs:
C2D E6400 (originally clocked at 3.2ghz, now 2.8ghz, stock 2.13ghz)
Asus P5NE-SLI Mobo
EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 640mb
WinXP Pro
Nvidia Drivers 195.62
XCLIO GREATPOWER 600W PSU (off brandname, won it as a prize, ~$100 PSU, 3 years old, link below)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817189007

[Spikes]

Wow...very weird.  Any chance you can get your hands on a free card or use onboard video? Seems like the GPU might be going, unless the PSU is 'losing' a rail...wish I could help more but the real technical stuff is still beyond me...

[Fulmar]

Even though the PSU claims its 4 rails, IIRC they're shared.  As for GPU, not really.  Money is tight and would only RMA it if I 90%+ sure it was the source of the issue.

[Spikes]

When I got my comp setup I didn't get sig to my monitor...spent time with TD on the phone and RMA'd the mobo...got the mobo back and found out it was the vid card, must have been DOA...
I don't know many symptoms of a failed card or failing card, though...

[38ruk]

I see it's modular .... Have you tried to use the other PCIE outlet or maybe even a different cable to supply the VC?

[Fulmar]

I see it's modular .... Have you tried to use the other PCIE outlet or maybe even a different cable to supply the VC?

This is next on my list to try.

And actually last night was a new first.  I was watching a fair amount of YouTube videos and my FireFox kept crashing, 3-4 times every hour.  So I switched over to IE and that worked fine for about an hour and I got a BSOD and a reboot.

[Dragon]

Have you updated your BIOS lately?  I was having issues with my P5NE-SLI last year until I updated my BIOS.

[BaldEagl]

Black screen lock-up sounds like CPU/GPU heat to me.  Most likely GPU.  Have you run Riva Tuner with fan set to 100%?  Have you cleaned the fan lately?

BSOD sounds like RAM instability.  When you ran Prime/Ortho did you test RAM at the same time?  Have you run memtest?

[Fulmar]

BIOS is version 1201, newest one out there is 1404 IIRC (fairly recent).  CPU and GPU temps are very normal.  I run two monitors and when I've been playing L4D2 I had Speedfan in the other screen and the temps where what I posted earlier.

Prime/Ortho were complete tests.  Memtest I have not run, the memory is not OC'd at runs stock at 800mhz.  May try playing with the Northbridge voltage, maybe bump it a little.

[Hungry]

"Only happens on Left 4 Dead 2"

I had the sound loop and the lockups with Left for Dead 2, fixed it but cant rem how. Will take a look

[Fulmar]

"Only happens on Left 4 Dead 2"

I had the sound loop and the lockups with Left for Dead 2, fixed it but cant rem how. Will take a look

Initially I tried all the "fixes" for L4D2 I found online.  Lower settings, console commands, you name it.

[humble]

Leaving all the other potential issues aside you can do 1 thing to trouble shoot the monitor issue. When it goes dark if you turn it off and then back on do you get any picture at all before it goes dark? Can you access and see the online menu functions?

[Fulmar]

Leaving all the other potential issues aside you can do 1 thing to trouble shoot the monitor issue. When it goes dark if you turn it off and then back on do you get any picture at all before it goes dark? Can you access and see the online menu functions?

I run dual monitors and both go black.  Keyboard commands (CTRL ALT DEL) etc don't work and my LCD screen on my keyboard (which I mainly use as a clock) freezes, so its a hard lock up.

[humble]

So from that you would appear to eliminate any issue with an LCD. This was confusing since you mention it happened on boot up occasionally but that it appeared to be a display issue with the machine running. A lock up indicates the computer OS hangs. While the system display failing would be different. If it were me I'd pop in an old PCI card so I could run dual feeds. 1 from my pci-e slot and the 2nd from a PCI slot. I'm guessing I have an old PCI VC floating around if you can't get access to one.

I'd speculate you have a bad connection on your MB thats effecting stuff since you can trace an intermittent problem back for a significant period of time. The comment that you "need to hold the power button in" is that the power button for the PC or for the monitor(s)?

[Fulmar]

So from that you would appear to eliminate any issue with an LCD. This was confusing since you mention it happened on boot up occasionally but that it appeared to be a display issue with the machine running.

I'd speculate you have a bad connection on your MB thats effecting stuff since you can trace an intermittent problem back for a significant period of time. The comment that you "need to hold the power button in" is that the power button for the PC or for the monitor(s)?

#1 Initially, a couple of times I'd boot the PC and it would boot fine but the two monitors I had would not receive a signal from the video card.  I mentioned this because I thought it is a related issue.  This had happened only a handful of times over the last year (for a PC that is booted every day).

#2 Power button on the PC.  Reset doesn't do anything.  The monitors are not the issue.

When I have time to play with it, probably Sunday or Monday.  I'm going to try a few things and another thing will be to turn the CPU back to stock speed.