My computer keeps restarting - might be north bridge

So I have an i7 920 in one of my systems, and it's been giving me trouble. I'm not overclocking, I have set the defaults in the bios.

I added a liquid cooling CPU cooler, and I have 2 x 260 gpus. Now in the past (last winter), the north bridge kept over heating. I ended up putting a box fan beside it to cool it off, but it was working great - running at 4.2 ghz.

Now if I only gpu fold, it will run fine. If I CPU fold also, it will crash after about 30 mins. I can't figure out what is going on. I have a temp monitoring going, and the temps are great. I walk away, come back about 30 min later, and it has crashed and restarted.

Any ideas on what I can try to do? I really don't wanna put any more money in this computer

Thanks in advance

Well it appears that if I only fold with 1 gpu, then it doesn't crash. It's been going for 30 min now, and it's still running fine. Now the second gpu does cover up the northbridge, do you think that's the problem?

Well it looks like it died. I was messing around with changing video cards, overclocking, and I had left the room. I left it only folding with 1 gpu and the CPU running at 3.5 ghz. Came back later and there was a burnt smell, and no lights, computer won't turn on.

rwh202 said:

Sorry to hear!

Any idea what burnt? On the only board I killed it was the VRM's that couldn't handle the power the CPU was drawing. The CPU's themselves are pretty tough and should self protect.
Does it do anything at all now? Mine at least tried to POST (fans span up) then BIOS beeped a few complaints before resetting. If not, it could just be the PSU tripped.

About the northbridge (or PCH or whatever it's now called), I have had trouble with them overheating, especially with GPUs that exhaust on them. I ended up rigging an extra fan to help out.

Hope you get it sorted, Rob

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thanks. well the PSU is dead for sure. i'm probably looking at a new PSU and motherboard at a minimum. the motherboard was a smaller board anyways, and wasn't all that great. b/c it was so small, the GPU blocked the northbridge, causing it to overheat.

so now my question is, do i try to save this system, spending about $200 on a mobo and $150 on a PSU? or should i just get another system with an i7 2600k and just save the ram, gpus, and hard drive out of the old one?

jav6454 said:

I would say X79, but that's a bit expensive. So a 1155 CPU combo has to be it. Although if you want future bigadv units, it'll have to be 2011 CPU.

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yeah i don't wanna put any more money into this old system. so i guess a newer system with an i7 2600k is the way to go. i know it won't be able to do the future bigadv units, but i'm ok with that if i'm not putting much money into it.

what do you think about the Cyberpowerpc - Fang Evo GLC1202. i can get thru best buy and get 18 months 0% interest. link

jav6454 said:

Too much money.... specially considering a GTS 450 as a GPU. I think the DIY can yield you better results for that cash amount. Also, NewEgg has also a 12 months 0% interest program (I think?).

Also, take into account, that with a DIY, you don't have to rebuy many of the stuff you currently have in your downed system, (HDD, DVD-drive, RAM) so the cost comes down even more.

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well the main thing i was worried about with the one i linked was the motherboard. think it's okay?

if i went with DIY, should i just buy another mobo and use my current processor, or just scrap it and start over with a newer processor? (except ram, hard drive, dvd drive, gpu)

jav6454 said:

Well, I clicked the link and saw the complete setup... I mean it looks nice, and has a decent CPU... but the motherboard is unknown, and I dislike that GPU.

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yeah, i tried to search for that mobo, and i think i found it last night. it was a smaller board, and i'm afraid if i put 2 GPUs in there, it would block the northbridge, and i'd have the same problem i have now.

It depends on your budget. If you were planning on spending $1k with financing on the above link, then you should consider a X79 mobo+CPU (should be under $800) and recycle the other components....

But if you want to adhere to strict budget, then just do P68, and get it over with. Although current X58 motherboards and CPUs are falling in price rapidly...

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yeah, i think right now i'm going to just get a new PSU and see if i can get it to work. if i build a new system, i'll need a new PSU anyways. i won't be able to work on this til saturday or sunday, but i'll let you know how it goes

techfreak85 said:

Yea I would say try a new PSU. How many watts was your old PSU? I thinking the power draw was too great while folding both CPU and GPU for it to handle.

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i think it was only 500w. i just bought an 850w

rwh202 said:

Before you plug in a new power supply, just check closely around the EPS 12V connector and VRMs for any sign of damage.
If that area has gotten too hot, solder can melt and form a short circuit that will fry the next unsuspecting PSU.
Will the old PSU fire up at all if the EPS is unplugged? It's possible it detected a short and shut off or did it smell burnt?

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hmm, i'll check. it smelt burnt right after it died. i haven't taken it apart yet, but which connectors am i looking at exactly?

rwh202 said:

Before you plug in a new power supply, just check closely around the EPS 12V connector and VRMs for any sign of damage.
If that area has gotten too hot, solder can melt and form a short circuit that will fry the next unsuspecting PSU.
Will the old PSU fire up at all if the EPS is unplugged? It's possible it detected a short and shut off or did it smell burnt?

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well i took the old power supply out, and i didn't see any damage near the 12V connector, though there still could be some.

techfreak85 said:

Yea for two GPUs and an i7 I would say a minimum of 750w (especially if OC'd). You probably were able to get away with it when the PSU was newer, but after pushing it for a while it probably gave out.

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yeah. i checked and it was 500w.

i'm a little concerned with a cable coming out of the cooler (i have a liquid cooling H50 i think), and the cable shell is ripped where it goes into the cooler. i have no idea how this happened, but i am a little worried about it

well i got the new PSU installed and everything seems to be working good! well, as good as it was before at least. the gpus still block the northbridge, and it overheats, so i have the case open and a box fan blowing air on it.

right now i'm only running at 2.9 ghz, and folding at 100% - but my temps seem kinda high. i have 2 temp monitoring programs going - asus ai manager is saying 42-43 C and realTemp is saying 55-59 C. does that seem kinda high to you?

techfreak85 said:

What's your vcore at?

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i just left it at auto for now.

i just turned it up to 3.5 ghz to see how the temps do. they are now at 65-69C under full load. i'm just gonna leave it like that for awhile and see how it does

Well I left it folding for a few days. When I left, it was running at 3.5 ghz and temps were 62-65 C.

rwh202 said:

Really! That low? On Intel?

I know it's possible to get that low, but I wouldn't have said 65 is anything to worry about either.
I'm happy if they're sat mid 70's. I've got i7s that have been sat at that with months of stable uptime. They might complain long term, but you're not going to kill them off at 65, even with added vcore.

I realise mobile processors have higher limits, but my MBPs rock along in the 90's 24/7.

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Yeah that's what I thought.

How many MBPs you got?

jav6454 said:

I don't want temps in the 55s unless I'm there personally stressing.

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I didn't think that was high