Hardware failure

[Canning_s]

Recently, my computer has been crashing for seemingly no reason. This has been happening whilst playing games. I am not sure if my Graphics Card is faulty or another piece of hardware.

What is the best way to figure out the hardware device that is not working.

Is there some software that can help me with this?

 

[GaiaHunter]

First post all of your hardware specs.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Check temps.

 

[Canning_s]

Here is my hardware specs:

SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : Simon-PC
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : OEM
Serial Number : To Be Fille***********
Chassis : Desktop
Mainboard : ASRock M3A785GMH/128M
BIOS : AMI (OEM) P1.20 08/04/2009
Total Memory : 4GB DIMM DDR3

Processors
Processor : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4C 3.2GHz, 2GHz IMC, 4x 512kB L2, 6MB L3)
Socket/Slot : AM2r2/AM3

Chipset
Memory Controller : ASRock RS780/880 Host Bridge 2x 2GHz (4GHz)
Memory Controller : AMD F10 Athlon 64/Opteron/Sempron HT Hub 2x 2GHz (4GHz), 2x 2GB DIMM DDR3 1.33GHz 128-bit

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Corsair VS2GB1333D3 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Corsair VS2GB1333D3 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : ViewSonic VG2227WM
(1920x1080, 21.7")
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (10CU 800SP SM5.0 850MHz, 1GB DDR5 4.8GHz 128-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (800SP 10C 850MHz, 1GB DDR5 4.8GHz 128-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (800SP 10C 850MHz, 1GB DDR5 4.8GHz 128-bit)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 6.02.9200
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.9

 

[Canning_s]

@DominionSeraph: When you say Check Temps, do you mean for just the Graphics Card, or other Hardware as well?

 

[GaiaHunter]

You can check CPU as well as GPU, although GPU is the priority.

Hwmonitor, http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html , will show a few.

The list of specs provided miss an important component to debug problem - the PSU.

 

[Billb2]

Look at windows Event Viewer.

 

[BigChickenJim]

When you say "crashing," what do you mean? Hard lock? BSoD? If BSoD, what's the error code?

All of this is helpful if you want people to help you solve your issue. As someone else mentioned, you should check your temps first if the crashes are only happening in-game. Download HWMonitor, it watches everything and tends to be a little more accurate and easy to read than other programs.

 

[Plan.B]

I prefer a heavy-handed approach to these problems:

Take it apart and rebuild it one step at a time. Clean everything and remount the cpu and/or gpu coolers.

Run bare minimum hardware to get into bios: 1 stick ram, no sound card, no disks, onboard gpu if your system has that capability.

Clear cmos.

Boot to bios, load default settings.

Shut down, add one piece of hardware at a time, starting with OS disk, reboot and run it for awhile, repeat if no errors.

Try also swapping psu's with a known good psu.

 

[stahlhart]

Moving to Computer Help, as OP has not positively confirmed that the issue is GPU specific. OP can request the thread to be moved back here if it turns out that this is in fact the case.
-- stahlhart

 

[Ketchup]

I agree computer help is a better fit here. As others have mentioned Canning_s:

1. Use the HWMonitor program linked and let us know what your temps are like under load. Mainly, the CPU core temps and the video card temp will be the most valuable here.

2. Do you do anything else on the computer that puts a load on the system? You could only be seeing the problem in gaming because they put the most load on the system.

3. As BigChickenJim mentioned, can you give us more details about what crashing means in your case?