Maintaining my computer

Great, so either the RX 480 or the GTX 1060 would be a great choice for TANE. One of the things I like is to crank up the settings with the shadows and antialiasing so I could see the more VRAM of the RX 480 helping out with all of the textures and shadows. I think the rest of my specs would go great with either card. Below are my current specs and GPU. In 2 years or so, I also plan on upgrading my motherboard to an AM4 socket mobo to allow for me to choose a ZEN CPU and one with two pci-e x16 slots.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Editino OC @ 3.8 Ghz
Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM in dual channel @ 1600Mhz
Storage: 500GB SSD for TANE and OS, and 1TB Seagate Barracuda for everything else
GPU: 1.2 GB EVGA GTX 570 @ 732Mhz
CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
Motherboard: AMD GA-970A-UD3
PSU: Ultra LSP 700W limited edition
case: Corsair Obsidian 600D ATX Midtower
 
I recently ran into a problem with my Trainz desktop. Earlier this morning, I had overclocked my AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU to 4.0 Ghz. It is being cooled by a Hyper 212 evo. Within the last 20 minutes, my PC restarted two times with a BSOD in Windows 10 while I was playing trainz and one time at the logon screen. The error was stopcode watchdog timeout. I went into my BIOS and and set the default values back. MY CPU is now at 3.4 Ghz. After that, I went into event viewer and saw that there were 3 critical errors with my PC within the last hour. They all have a source, "Kernel-Power". The event ID is "41". The Task category is "(63)". Does anyone know what I can do to get rid of this error. Honestly, I am a bit nervous of using the desktop now because I don't want the computer to restart at random with a BSOD. When I get a chance next weekend or so, I am going to begin backing up my Trainz stuff just in case the computer breaks down or has a serious problem. My specifications for the desktop are in the post above. Can I please get some suggestions on what caused this?
 
The kernel power event ID 41 error occurs when the computer is shut down, or it restarts unexpectedly. When a computer that is running Windows starts, a check is performed to determine whether the computer was shut down cleanly. If the computer was not shut down cleanly, a Kernel Power Event 41 message is generated.

So don't overclock it so much! or do some research into what voltages etc you need to change to get a stable overclock, I would think anything over 3.8 with a Phenom and you are pushing it.
 
Thank you for helping me with this problem. I have been monitoring my PC lately and it was definitely the overclock that caused the problem. For about two weeks, so far everything has been running smoothly. Before when I had pushed the overclock to 4.0, my speakers would sporadically turn off.

Great news, I brought the Super Super Clocked EVGA GTX 1060 6GB. :cool: It should arrive in a few days. I can't wait to see how it runs with TANE and the Major Tri State Area Project. I will be installing it in the beginning of 2017. Prior to doing that, I am going to organize my picklists in Trainz and clean the innards of the PC. I heard some of the EVGA's GTX 1060, 1070 and 1080 cards have an issue with the VRM. I am just hoping that I won't be receiving a card with the issue. There is a solution to the problem, by installing thermal pads but it looks like you have to take the whole card apart. Has anyone ran into issues with the GTX 1060 cards and thermal pad installation? Is it really recommended to take apart the new graphics card to install thermal pads?
 
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Hi everyone. I apolgize for posting all of these problems that I am having with my computer Recently, I have started to experience freezing up in Trainz A New Era when launching a new route or editing my route. Has anyone experienced this. I tried to rebuild the database but that did not solve the problem. I really hope that there is a fix and I won't have to reinstall Trainz A New Era. Just now as I was attempting to edit the Major Tri State Area Project, my monitor started to flash and the audio of the game made a strange sound beeping sound. I immediately shut down the PC. Could it be my graphics card, (EVGA GTX 570) causing the problem? Could I have too many items stored in my picklists? I am not to sure if it would be best to continue to work on the Major Tri State Area in this simulator or Trainz 2010. These problems with Trainz A New Era and freezing or locking up started occurring around the time that I pushed my CPU to 4.0 GHz. Even though I am back at the stock 3.4 Ghz, Trainz is still freezing. Would anyone know how to go about solving this?
 
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As for T:ANE, I don't think your CPU is the bottleneck. I assume you've got a I3, I5 or I7? That's good enough to run T:ANE. The GTX 570 is an older graphics card. I've got the EVGA 670 graphics card, which already gets pretty hot (74 C) when I'm flying through dense built area's. As you've got an even older graphics card, I assume this is the cause of the freezes. Try monitoring your temperatures with speccy. Click here to download it.
 
I have a Phenom II X4 965 CPU. It's weird because before I pushed my CPU, everything was running fine with the GTX 570. I also downloaded another game called American Truck Simulator demo and I noticed that the truck simulator even started to freeze up on me. Hopefully, it's just the card that is causing the problem. I will download the program and also attempt to take apart the GTX 570 card and see if it needs new thermal paste. From yesterday, it seems that everything is fine when I am typing documents or browsing the web but when I launch a game like Trainz, OpenBVE or American Truck simulator, the computer freezes and stalls.
 
I'd be inclined to reset the bios to default, possibility that something got left at the wrong value after overclocking it.
 
So far, I did an antivirus and antimalware scan and nothing was found. I then downloaded the Speccy program and reset the bios to default. After loading the default values, I then selected the option in my BIOS, "Load Fail Safe Defaults". Afterwards, I ran TANE and still got the same problem. After launching a new route to edit, this is what my screen looked like and TANE froze. I wonder what I could do to fix this problem. Would it be best to back up all my TANE data to an external drive and perform a reinstall.My computer also freezes up if I launch American Truck simulator and OpenBVE or any game but it works normally when I am using the internet or typing up documents. Would it be worth it to take out the GTX 570 and install my older GTX 550Ti in the meanwhile to test to see if TANE also freezes with that card too?

 
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That looks like a graphics card problem, try the other one. To my mind looking at that screenshot, it may not be the PC locking up but the graphics display freezing.
 
malikrthr:
Power supply problems? From what you say it only happens when you're drawing higher amps (power) from your PSU i.e. when playing games that require higher power in order to run graphics satisfactorily. Internet surfing and wordprocessing demand far less power than games/graphics.

The bottom line is your PSU may be on the way out, perhaps you should replace it before it pops and takes your M/board and disk drives with it.

Only a suggestion.

Rob.
 
Thank you Clam1952. Your were right, it was a graphics card problem. After the game was freezing up, I uninstalled all the graphics card drivers for my GTX 570 and powered down the system. I used an ESD wristwrap and then took the GTX 570 card out of the system. After a few minutes or so, I put the GTX 550Ti card in. I then booted the computer and installed the latest graphics drivers and Geforce Experience. Once installed, I was able to launch and edit a new route without it freezing and I was able to drive a train on the Major Tri State Area without it freezing. I told myself that this is a good sign and that the 570 could be overheating or probably almost time to go out of service. After playing Trainz A New Era, I launched the American Truck simulator demo and was able to drive around for 20 minutes. With the 570, I was only able to drive around for a little under a minute before the game would freeze.

Thank you for the suggestions robd. I was beginning to think that it's a possibility that the graphics card is almost on it's way out ready to be put out of service. It is an ULTRA LSP limited edition 700w power supply. This is ranked as a tier 5 PSU on Tom's hardware which is not good. I have had it since the end of 2012. During the week, I am going to back up my whole system to a portable drive just incase the PSU stops working soon. After I back everything up, I am going to disconnect the PSU from the system to avoid it taking all the power and killing the other components. I am going to test the PSU with a multimeter to see how many volts it's getting. If it's under 11 volts, then it is definitely time to replace the PSU. Throughout the holiday, I am going to research different power supplies. I may look for a Tier one or Tier two modular PSU with 80% gold efficiency. Maybe a 900w or 1000w PSU just to make sure I have enough power especially for when I have the GTX 1060 card.
 
On the average laptop, do the vents on the bottom blow hot air out, or suck in cool air in ?

If there is a mesh or screen there ... why do PC makers make the filters non-removable, so you could simply unscrew them, and suck out the PC with a vaaccuumm cleaner ? Instead I have to snap out my faceplate (probably breaking the tabs off), unscrew 32 teeny tiny screws, remove the keyboard, remove all kinds of other things ... just in order to blow out a couple of dust bunnies !

I guess the same reason why the zipper on the fly of pants is a teeny tiny 3/8" long tab, and I gotz' gorilla fingers, that kant' grab a hold of it. And the same reason why a pair of heavy duty denim jeans, that wears like iron, and will probably last forever ... however the pockets are make out of cheepo bed sheet material, and get a hole on your pocket inside of 3 weeks. And why pockets on your pants are not made so that you can get your wallet or cell phone out, unless you step outside of the car.
 
Happy New Year everyone. I would like to thank everyone for helping me with suggestions and tips on upgrading my PC :) Earlier this evening, I completed the upgrade. I now have an EVGA GTX 1060 SSC 6GB video card and an EVGA SuperNova G2 1000 Watt 80 Plus Gold power supply. I turned most of the settings to high and ultra. Every now and again, I still see Trainz stuttering but overall, it performs better than my old GTX 570 and GTX 550 Ti. I wonder if there is a way to permanently get rid of stuttering in Trainz. Can't wait to start using this PC. I really like how the power supply has eco mode and how the graphics card has LED lighting. Below are some pictures of my upgraded rig. My new specs are below.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition @ 3.4 Ghz
Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
Graphics: 6GB EVGA GTX 1060 SSC
Motherboard: AMD UD3 970A ATX motherboard
PSU: EVGA SuperNova 1000 G2
Hard Drive: 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD and 1 TB SeagateBarracuda HDD
Memory: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz in quadchannel configuration




 
Nice work on the Rig, looks really sharp and that is going to make quit a difference.......

I don't know if it was mentioned?, but make sure when you run Trainz, turn off Win Drive Indexing Functions, and backup programs.

Turn off your network connection too, this all helps give the highest % Memory and CPU cycles free for giving T:ANE a fair shake when demanding performance.

These are just suggestions, and up to you for preference.
 
Thank you Blueodessey. I really appreciate it. I have not tried to run Trainz before with indexing off or the network connection. I am going to give it a try.
 
Good evening everyone, I have ran into a problem with my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I have had this laptop for 8 years now and it has been running well but recently, my screen has started to flicker. After taking the CCFL LCD screen out and checking the video cable, I saw that part of the video cable connecting to the inverter board had snapped. I had recentently purchased a new LCD cable. When I connected to the new LCD cable to the inverter and powered everything up, I saw the Windows logo, but the screen was extremely dim, to the point where I need a flashlight to see the image. I don't think the backlight is on. I am really not sure if I need to purchase a new inverter board or a new LCD CCFL screen. Is this a sign that the laptop itself is failing? Can I please get help with this problem? I use the laptop on the go to work on projects for class, but need to solve this issue within the next week before class.
 
Good evening everyone, I have ran into a problem with my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. I have had this laptop for 8 years now and it has been running well but recently, my screen has started to flicker. After taking the CCFL LCD screen out and checking the video cable, I saw that part of the video cable connecting to the inverter board had snapped. I had recentently purchased a new LCD cable. When I connected to the new LCD cable to the inverter and powered everything up, I saw the Windows logo, but the screen was extremely dim, to the point where I need a flashlight to see the image. I don't think the backlight is on. I am really not sure if I need to purchase a new inverter board or a new LCD CCFL screen. Is this a sign that the laptop itself is failing? Can I please get help with this problem? I use the laptop on the go to work on projects for class, but need to solve this issue within the next week before class.

Having replaced a screen once on a Dell yes it can be done but its a major hassle. It's an even bigger hassle to replace the lamp although that route is a lot cheaper.

The cost difference between a new screen and a refurbished laptop from Dell isn't much. https://www.dellrefurbished.com/laptops?filter_brand=189 and the integrated graphics series 4000 will strangely enough run TANE Middleton for laptops runs at more than 20 frames per second, 27 in parts on an i5 so its just a matter of being very careful with the content. The cosmetic grade A ones are the nicest and the 1600 by 900 screens aren't bad.

Cheerio John
 
Thank you for the recommendation Johnwhelan. Earlier, I had to unscrew everything and disconnect the video cable, inverter circuit board, and screen. For now, I am hoping to continue using my Inspiron 1545 laptop since I have alot of projects, and virtual workstations that I need to use for my classes. The new LCD video cable that I just connected to the inverter board and LCD screen did not solve the problem since my screen is still very dim. I wonder if there is a possiblity that I could be shorting something in the computer, causing the backlight to be extremely dim. I just ordered a new inverter board. Hopefully, the new inverter board that I ordered allows the light in my screen to turn display. If that doesn't work, I may have to purchase a new CCFL LCD screen for it for my laptop. My last resort would be to purchase another laptop but I am hoping that these components that I am ordering will solve the problem quickly so I can work on my school assignments.
 
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