odd problem with new build HELP!
 

Hey guys I helped a friend spec out the following build last week;

AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (stock oem cooler)
MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
EVGA 01G-P4-3650-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB
Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA
Antec NEO 520w psu

He is running win7 64-bit all updated.

He was having random shutoffs after 15-30 mins of gaming. I asked him if he has the cpu cooler hooked up correctly he said yes. He left the side off his case and put a big fan blowing on it and was able to play for 2-3 hours without issue. So, to me it looks like a cpu over heat. He assured me he removed the plastic from the cooler. I said what about the locking collar? He wasn't sure because its his first amd build.

Thoughts?

TIA!

What kind of case is it? Maybe he doesn't have any airflow at all? If the CPU cooler wasn't doing it's job I doubt you'd get 15 minutes of gaming out of it.

What about thermal paste? did he apply some? or too much?

What about the temperatures? :)

Has he applied any sort of overclock while still using the stock cooler?

Make sure he has case fans, most likely improper cpu heatsink installation.
Get him to run hwmonitor while sitting at the desktop in windows.. that will probably show way too high temps at idle.

Could be the GPU as well, if its running real hot could cause the same problem and a fan on the card would help it out.

need to know the temperatures, also check the log files then do ram tests

wow thanks for the replies guys!
1 - its an older case no idea the make.
2 - he is using stock cooler which has thermal paste on it.
3 - hes running stock speeds

I will have him install hw monitor
and report back.

Cheers!

tia!

yes poor air flow in case

would help if had a pic of the set-up.....cover on and off with a rear case shot also