Computer Shutting Down

Sanoske

Sanoske

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For about a week now... every once in a while... my computer will just restart itself when I try to zone. I'd say it happens maybe once a day(if it does happen). I thought it was my CPU overheating... because the 120mm fan on the front of my case blew, but I have since replaced the fan and it still does it. I thought it might be my computer heating up still from running FFXI, and since the fan I bought was 3 speed(only one they had 120mm) I turn it on highest setting when running FFXI... still does it.

Any ideas why it's doing this? It only does it during zoning... corrupted file maybe? I really hope not... ; ;
 
Hmmm that's a weird problem. Is it whenever you zone or when you zone into a specific area? As for the overheating, replacing the 120mm fan wouldn't do anything if its the CPU fan that's dead. I don't know what board you use, but there should be a temp monitoring app.
 
Could be a number of things. First guess is heat. Try running with the side of your case off and a floor flan blowing air into it (make sure the air isn't real dusty). Try using some compressed air to clean the cpu and videocard fans in addition to making sure those are both working while gaming. Beaware some video card fans stop when you aren't doing anything intensive, so start a game first.

Finally, do a disc check and defragment on your hard drive. Additionaly, do a file check for ffxi. Does the problem happen only in ffxi, or in other games as well? That is key to deciding if its software or hardware.
 
Sanoske said:
For about a week now... every once in a while... my computer will just restart itself when I try to zone. I'd say it happens maybe once a day(if it does happen). I thought it was my CPU overheating... because the 120mm fan on the front of my case blew, but I have since replaced the fan and it still does it. I thought it might be my computer heating up still from running FFXI, and since the fan I bought was 3 speed(only one they had 120mm) I turn it on highest setting when running FFXI... still does it.

Any ideas why it's doing this? It only does it during zoning... corrupted file maybe? I really hope not... ; ;
Click to expand...

Mine does the same thing!!!!! ZOMG I'm not kidding.

Just reboots no error message nothing.
 
I know the CPU fan is still working, check that when I took the computer apart. Also did the whole compressed air cleaning deal. As for taking the side of my case off/using floor fan... the way my room is setup, don't have room for it(kinda small area). Defragged about 4 days ago. And I don't play any other games on computer besides FFXI, so I can't compare to anything.
 
Had the same problem when my video card died on me. Is worth taking a look at. Todd had the same problem cause he BROKE shit off his video card... fucken retard.
 
Weak video cards cause bad frame rates, not crashes. Don't waste money on hard ware before you know the problem. It is very likely your ffxi install got corrupted with all these recent updates. You might consider reinstalling as a last resort.

I remember now having a similiar problem, and the fault was a bad stick of ram. Those are notorious for causing crashes because if a ram stick corrupts data, even the os isn't safe, thus full reboot. If you have some spare ram you know is good, try using that. If not, but you have multiple sticks of ram, try running with just one at a time (most likely a specific position you will have to load a single stick in).

Does the crash ever happen while surfing the net or outside the game?
 
Hasn't crashed yet outside of the game... which is why I'm beginnig to learn more towards corrupted game file. ; ;
 
I'll attest to this, ever since installing the expansion. My Comp will just re-boot for no F*king reason, seems to be pretty random though.
 
ok what you need to do is get some heatsink and put it on your CPU.
my wifes pc had this problem for a long time, and it was rather annoying.
we had to use a box fan for ages which didnt help 100% of the time but certainly made it better.
When i built my pc we asked the guy at the shop about it,
he said he was sure it was the heatsink.
So we go home, Pop the top off the cpu and sure enough. Her heat sink had been completley burned out.
We went and bout some, put it in and put her case side back on and it was working great. The shutdowns stopped completley!
 
Chasym said:
ok what you need to do is get some heatsink and put it on your CPU.
my wifes pc had this problem for a long time, and it was rather annoying.
we had to use a box fan for ages which didnt help 100% of the time but certainly made it better.
When i built my pc we asked the guy at the shop about it,
he said he was sure it was the heatsink.
So we go home, Pop the top off the cpu and sure enough. Her heat sink had been completley burned out.
We went and bout some, put it in and put her case side back on and it was working great. The shutdowns stopped completley!
Click to expand...
Need more than a heatsink for most modern cpus. Heatsink with fan is the minimum. Although, it is possible the thermal compound that creates a good connection for heat transfer between the cpu dye and heatsink has burned off. Good to replace that every 3-4 years if you want to extend the life of your cpu. Probably just had a thermal pad though which is a bit harder to clean, but also burns up after a while. Good thermal connection between cpu and heatsink is critical for fast heat transfer between the two and away from the cpu.
 
Rones said:
Need more than a heatsink for most modern cpus. Heatsink with fan is the minimum. Although, it is possible the thermal compound that creates a good connection for heat transfer between the cpu dye and heatsink has burned off. Good to replace that every 3-4 years if you want to extend the life of your cpu. Probably just had a thermal pad though which is a bit harder to clean, but also burns up after a while. Good thermal connection between cpu and heatsink is critical for fast heat transfer between the two and away from the cpu.
Click to expand...
well i was told by two computer techs, and most forums on the net that it was certainly the heatsink.
didnt need anything else and probly wont, it works great
 
Chasym said:
well i was told by two computer techs, and most forums on the net that it was certainly the heatsink.
didnt need anything else and probly wont, it works great
Click to expand...

Yours might not, but faster processors will.

But you're right, it's not always a simple fan replacement that's needed. Sometimes the heatsink has problems, or just started off as something the manufacturers pulled out of the rear end of a metal cow and couldn't cool a processor if it was submerged in liquid nitrogen.


My thoughts on this are same as everybody else's, filecheck FFXI. If it only crashes while zoning, then that's probably where your problem is. It could be the RAM, but that wouldnt' really make sense, because running by the Jeuno AH would be crashing the computer, not just zoning.
 
There have been a few people on our clan's site asking about mysterious restarts and nebulous errors since the update. One guy was having trouble after the character select screen, as it would just crash out before getting into the game.

I haven't logged on in a few days - are there a bunch of POL bulletin messages about problems like this?
 
Alright... just shut down again. And this is getting ridiculous. 3rd time Ive had my macros erased. How do I do a file check?

Also, I noticed when it restarted, at the starting screen... where it reads CUP/SysTemps and Fan RPM's... it said CPU fan was at 0 RPM. CPU is the one which cools processor, right? Cause that one is definitely working....
 
Possible the fan speed reader is reading the wrong connector. Very common occurence. That is why you want the case open so you can visually check when it happens. You do a file check by selecting file check in pol before you log in.
well i was told by two computer techs, and most forums on the net that it was certainly the heatsink.
didnt need anything else and probly wont, it works great
Click to expand...
Any processor less than 10 years old will need a fan attached to the heatsink for the cpu, unless it is an extremely weak processor (less than 1ghz intel version).
 
Rones said:
Weak video cards cause bad frame rates, not crashes.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. I've seen more than a handful of PCs crash because of a bad video card (I once upgraded my MoBo and processor because I thought they bought it. Turned out to be the Vid card), but I do agree that the problem is probably heat and to check the simple stuff first.

It's getting warmer out too. Try pulling your tower out farther to get air. You said yourself that you are in a cramped space. Hell put it on top of your desk temporarily and see if the problem subsides.
 
Unless the card is just completely incompatible (such as integrated cards), it shouldn't be crashing even if it is very weak. For example, I have an old computer with a geforce 2 in it. It runs ffxi and even bf2. They run like crap, get horrible frame rates, but it doesn't crash because of the video card. Crashes mean something went wrong in the programming or the hardware has gone defective.
 
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