03-31-2014, 07:37 AM
Get some monitoring software to check the temperatures on your CPU and GPU. You might already have software from the hardware vendor that does that. I use CoreTemp and GPU-Z, but there are a lot of options out there.
Start them up, start a game, play for a while, and see how much your temps climb. If you get over 70°C, you've probably got a cooling problem. If you get over 90°C, you've definitely got a cooling problem, and shouldn't run your computer until you fix it, or you risk burning up components.
If the readings are stable around 50°C, you may still have a cooling problem that the sensors don't cover (usually the memory on the graphics card), but it's more likely failing hardware or a driver issue. Have you looked at the Windows Event Log (Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer) for any errors?
Start them up, start a game, play for a while, and see how much your temps climb. If you get over 70°C, you've probably got a cooling problem. If you get over 90°C, you've definitely got a cooling problem, and shouldn't run your computer until you fix it, or you risk burning up components.
If the readings are stable around 50°C, you may still have a cooling problem that the sensors don't cover (usually the memory on the graphics card), but it's more likely failing hardware or a driver issue. Have you looked at the Windows Event Log (Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer) for any errors?