Deus Ex Broke my PC

[JRandom05]

Here are the specs on my PC:

Case CoolerMaster HAF 922 Gaming Case - Black
Processor Intel® Core™ i7 960 Processor (4x 3.20GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator (Intel)
Memory 6GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Dominator
Video Card ATI Radeon HD 5870 - 1GB - Single Card
Video Card Brand XFX Brand Video Card
Motherboard [SLI] ASUS P6X58D-E
Power Supply 750 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-750TX Power Supply - SLI Ready
Primary Hard Drive 80 GB Intel X25-M MLC SSD - Single Drive
Data Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Optical Drive 24X Sony Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
Meter Display NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum Fan Control, Clock, and Temperature Display
Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit


I had been playing the game for about 3 hours when I got a crash with looping sound that made my monitor go black. I was able to exit the game using ctrl-alt-delete and resume playing thinking that it was a simple glitch. However, after another two hours, I received the same problem -- the game hung with looping sound and then would not crash to the desktop. When I tried to restart my computer, I couldn't even get BIOs to come up. I have not experienced any other issues with this PC prior to installing or playing Deus Ex. Any ideas of what the game did to my PC? I have far more cooling than needed for the machine and I know that it was not a heat issue. Also, I am running Windows on the SSD and Deus Ex on the 1 TB HD, so I don't know why I wouldn't even be able to get BIOs. Did Deus Ex somehow ruin my motherboard?

Thanks,

Jordan

[El Zoido]

Sounds like some sort of hardware failure, which is unlikely to be caused by playing the game.
Probably would have happened anyway.
Even if you are sure it's not a heat issue, I'd nevertheless check the coolers for dust and make sure all are running.

If it's a hardware thing you have to determine the faulty component.
Not sure what's the best way, though. Guess I'd first check the connections (unlikely but you never know), then maybe disconnect different drives to check if it's a failure of SSD or HDD.
If you have another graphics card lying around, try to exchange it. And so on...

[fresh fish 101]

could be a faulty driver... or maybe you installed a new driver over a previous one w/o uninstalling the old one.

[El Zoido]

I doubt a faulty/new driver would prevent the system from booting at all.

[jaycw2309]

The game `reads` system files to run, it doesnt write them. PC crashes are almost always down to hardware `failures` of some form, most common being hardware failing due to overheating etc.. Drivers naturally `help` as they are adapted to new games so learn over time. You say `you know its not a heating` issue, but do you have temperature monitoring software running etc? you'd be amazed how quickly pcs heat up when pushed..

[JRandom05]

I have a front-mounted temperature gauge with a warning if things get too hot or if any of the fans are not working correctly. It was running between 40C and 42C the entire night which is what leads me to believe that it would not have been temperature-related.

[daemonjax]

For a PC not booting, I'd check these things in this order:

1) Power supply: Do your fans spin up? Do you hear the hard drives spin up? If yes, continue...
2) Memory: Does anything change if the memory chips are installed vs. not installed? If yes, continue...
3) Video Card: Try a different one, or use the onboard one if you have it (may have to reset BIOS first). Still no change?
4) CPU/Motherboard: Sucks, because it's hard to test this without spare components. You'd have to borrow a friend's PC and swap all the above into your friend's PC to verify your PS, memory, and video card work.

[mazuma]

Did it start up later though? or doesnt it start up at all now - because what you described did sound like CPU related heat issues (not saying it is) - ive had my cpu overheat on several occasions, not related to Deus Ex mind you, but OC and the mobo would go into a failsave and wait for the temp to drop before rebooting.