CPU overheat and reboot while in tailor screen

mneme0 · May 2016

I have recently had my computer overheat to the point of reboot, repeatedly, while using the tailor. This has happened consistently over the last few days and I seem to have a memory of this happening a couple times months ago (last time I did a character revamp) but I dismissed it at the time. I have a temperature monitor and have not noticed abnormal temperatures elsewhere in the game except after long periods let alone while idling.

I have an AMD FX-8320 with a water cooling system.

mneme0 · May 2016

To put numbers to it, I idle at about 45C, expect 65C during normal gameplay, and after the reboot I'm still in the upper 70s. I believe my cutoff is 90C.

crypticarmsman · May 2016

I believe there's an option to use higher detail models in the costume editor - you may want to make sure that is off/disabled. I'm sure you probably checked already, but if not, you may want to check the fluid levels in your water-cooling setup - and that the flow is still good.

mneme0 · June 2016

Issue persists with high detail switched off. Heating issues not present in other areas of the game, nor other games.

donkeybong420 · June 2016

take the side panel off your computer and duct tape a window fan on that spot, and turn it on high, prob solved.

murkalael · June 2016

If cpu heats, is not tailor problem, is your system. As said above it might have dust between the aluminium and the fan, also thermic paste might be dry, you should clean and replace it. It's normal to cpu reach higher temperatures while processing bigger ammounts of data, but AMD boards have a feature called "Cool and Quiet" where system keeps your processor on acceptable temperatures without spinning too much the fan.

mneme0 · June 2016

My coolant is fine. My fans are running at normal speed. I use a fan control program and I run all my fans at 100% speed no matter the temperature. My idling and high-use temperatures are the same as when I bought the system.

I know correlation does not equal causation, but every single overheating event I have had with this system has happened at exactly the time I moved a slider in the tailor menu on STO, and it has happened every single time I have gone to the tailor and altered things using sliders--I have been doing this for a week now because I am revamping my characters, and each time I do the first outfit slot and changed the physical appearance of the character I have had this crash. I reiterate--again--that I have no such issues when doing anything else with my computer or even in STO besides a non-problematic increase when running CCA.

I am convinced there is a causal relationship and that the problem is not with my computer. Although I am open to changing that hypothesis and attributing my problems to another likely variable if a suitable experiment can be devised, at this time I am seeking explanations based on the so-far most likely explanation that there is something amiss in the character editing screen.

tyriniusss · June 2016

If you use a third-party application to control your fans it might be bugged and shut the PC down when it shouldn't. I would try switching it off and using AMDs built-in CPU management to see if the issue persists.

You could also run a very resource intensive benchmark while having an eye at your temparature monitor to check if it gets too hot. If your PC shuts down but the temps are okay the next component to check would be the PSU. It might be faulty or not powerful enough for your components.

quantum42 · June 2016

I once had a similar issue many years ago when I tried to start playing DDO. PC kept shutting down while at
character creation. Turned out to be a PSU issue, as it got older it didn't provide sufficient power to the system
anymore to do 3D rendering. New PSU fixed my issue, dunno if your problem is the same but the symptoms
seem similar.

sgtfloydpepper · June 2016

Just for the sake of asking, was this at the Starfleet Academy tailor, cuz I do know there is some sort of memory problem at that location. I get major CPU spikes at that location and that one only.

swatop · June 2016

Since last patch on thursday my PC also is overheating but on the char select screen.
Other resource damanding games (such as witcher on ultra high settings) run absolutely fine.

mneme0 · June 2016

ESD tailor.

I should point out that I expect my particular hardware or settings might be causing or contributing to the problem. Regardless, something in this area of the game is conflicting. I expect that others with similar hardware or settings may be having the problem and that not many have reported it here just means that:

people with hardware/software that conflicts with something * people who have had sufficient overheating to have a real problem * people willing to report the problem here = too small a sample size.

I imagine that the root cause is something to do with the CPU being angry about having to recalculate a deforming 3D character with textures and lighting and such dynamically, but that's just my hunch.

tyriniusss · June 2016

I didn't want to imply that it's impossible to be an issue related to your hardware and STO not working properly together (in fact, I am one of the players having a LOT of issues with STO, and only STO, despite my hardware technically being more than capable of running the game).

However, your PC shutting down can have lots of other causes, some only semi-related to STO. For example: It is entirely possible that some incompatibility of your hardware with the game code causes your CPU or GPU to run at their maximum output in the tailor. More than running other, technically more demanding games. As they only reach their maximum power consumption in this special case you might not have noticed before that the PSU doesn't have enough headroom, or has become faulty.
You need to eliminate all possible causes for your issue one by one, my suggestions in my earlier post were meant to be a start.

The reason why I'm bringing the PSU up so much is because a faulty, old, underdimensioned, or cheap PSU is a ticking bomb. It CAN and WILL eventually kill your motherboard and possibly your GPU!
I don't want to know how many expensive PC components had to die because people put in cheap power supply units.... so I spread the word whenever I can.

However, if you are confident that your PSU is fine you could check the features of your motherboard. I once had a brand new, quality PSU and my PC would randomly shut down. It turned out my ASUS mainboard had an onboard protection utility that shut it down when it thought the PSU was faulty. After some Google-Fu it turned out that that feature wasn't really working as intended and disabling it in the BIOS fixed the issue. It's running happily ever since.

Some more thoughts I had about your problem:
- Really try turning off that third party app controlling your CPU. Restore everything to factory settings. Normally AMD CPUs underclock automatically to avoid getting too hot.

salvation4 · June 2016

mneme0 wrote: »

To put numbers to it, I idle at about 45C, expect 65C during normal gameplay, and after the reboot I'm still in the upper 70s. I believe my cutoff is 90C.

45 is high man..Clean up the card and cpu and change the paste..Try to get it to 32-35 for the card and around yhe same for the processor..Paste changing should be done once every year when your room temp is low it helps the paste to cure better and makes it good in the summers..

Do you have anything to cool the cabinet and exhaust?? I have a CM 200mm fan intake and 3 CM 120mm fans as exhausts my PSU also has a decent 120MM in it and lies in the path of the 200MM..

tyriniusss · June 2016

Those numbers look like it's the stock CPU cooler. Then 45-70ish is totally fine. But I didn't see that OP uses water cooling.
Now I think OP might have overclocked too much/wrong, and that's what causes the PC shutdown.

Good point @salvation4

mneme0 · June 2016

It is entirely possible that some incompatibility of your hardware with the game code causes your CPU or GPU to run at their maximum output in the tailor.

That's what I am expecting.

I do not overclock. The fan control app is preinstalled with the other AMD mobo control panel stuff. Left to its own devices, the fan goes "quiet" but not cool at all, never seeming to go above 30% speed. I know what you mean though; back in the day my old Ubuntu laptop had driver conflicts with the fan control and I simply could not use the fan--hence my not using the laptop until Ubuntu fixed that stupidity a few versions later. I hear you on the PSU thing too; I've killed two whole systems in the past from PSU failures so I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. I probably should go and redo my paste though.

However, I still want to figure out why this particular problem is happening.

swatop · June 2016

In my case I can clearly tell that I didnt overclock and that I am using a pretty good cooler that i meanwhile use for about 2 months without any issues.

STO started to act strange right after the latest patch.
I was online 1 hour prior that patch and everything was fine.

Other games also run absolutely fine.

darkbladejk · June 2016

It's sounding like it's your cooling system isn't sufficient enough or needs some TLC. Aside from bug hunting I do some repair work on computers and so on from time to time. If you're using the stock CPU cooler then those typically only keep the computer from auto shut down and aren't made for high end gaming. Can you get us your full build and perhaps maybe even some pics so we can see what's going on with the computer itself. If need by I can recommend some CPU cooling for you if we absolutely have to go that route.

swatop · June 2016

Well, the cooling is the stock one... it isnt a cheap one at all... it was working perfectly on STO until the last patch (it started to overheat right after it)... it is still working perfectly on all other games I have installed (and those games are alot more resource hungry than STO). Elite Dangerous and Witcher 3 on full settings... no issue with those. Also Stellaris which is known to be extremely resource demanding on the CPU runs perfectly fine.

No other game is causing this mess... I even do complex 3d movie rendering which keeps my CPU busy for quiet some time... no issues there. Only this crappy STO is causing a mess.

orion0029 · June 2016

Just gonna chime in here. I have to agree with @darkbladejk. I run an FX-9590, which is basically an overclocked 8350 lol. And its maximum safe temp is 70C, but I wouldn't push it past 60C for a sustained period of time. If you're hitting 70C on your 8320, you're probabbly flirting with its safety shutoff point.

I'd suggest you try to slow down your CPU, just to see if it's a hardware problem, this can easily be done from the advanced plan settings in your windows power settings, all you have to do is drop your
maximum processor state' from 100% to ~80-90. And see if you still experience problems.

It could also be that your system is pushing your chip into 'turbo' which ramps up your cpu voltage and can cause overheating. Worse yet, it can cause voltage fluctuations, which can cause system instability (if your system hangs/freezes (requiring a restart to function again) this might be the cause). Luckily you can disable turbo easily by setting your maximum processor state to 99%, no futzing with the BIOS required lol!

This also works with Intel TurboBoost, I typically set my laptop to 99% since it has a tendency to run loud under turbo lol.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend upgrading your cpu cooler, I rarely hit 60C on my 9590, even under 100% load. (I usually idle at ~40C, and ~50-55C under heavy loads)

Edit: Oops, I forgot I usually monitor Socket Temps instead of Core Temps, which are generally 10-15C higher than the core temps. Hehe, just subtract 10C from the above numbers and that's close to what my core temps actually are.

In case anyone is wondering I monitor socket temps because that's the side of the processor that doesn't have the cooling system attached to it, and I don't wany ANY part of my CPU overheating, so I make sure to keep the socket temps below safe limits.

CPU overheat and reboot while in tailor screen

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