I just built a custom system and am running into a nasty system freeze/crash error while playing games. First I’ll give my system parts, then a description of the crash and my attempted fixes. Any input as to how to fix this problem is appreciated.
System (all hardware has latest drivers, including DirectX 9.0 and latest MB bios):
OS: Windows XP Professional
MB: ASUS P4P800 w/ onboard audio/ethernet
CPU: Intel P4 2.8 800fsb OCed to 3.0ghz
Memory: 1 gig Kingston HyperX PC3200 DDR 400
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2
NIC: Linksys Ethernet 10/100
Hard Drives: 80, 120, and 200 GB Western Digital Caviar Special Edition
DVD: Samsung 16x DVD
CD-RW: Samsung 52/24/52 CD-R/RW
PCI: SIIG Ultra ATA 133 Expansion Card
Basically, whenever I play a game on the PC, including UT2003, Battlefield 1942, etc, after 1-5 min the system freezes and I have to manually reset.
At first I attributed the crashes in games to the overclocking, so I tried downclocking/reinstalling XP after each crash. Eventually I got back down to 2.8 and the games crash w/ a fresh install, so I concluded it’s not due to the OCing. Next I tried updating Windows w/ SP 1 and all of the recent critical updates, but the crash continued. At this point I was only testing the system with Unreal Tournament 2003, and it was consistently crashing. I tried a clean install of XP, and installed only my video drivers and UT2003 and tried playing. The game stayed stable for the 20 minutes I played, so I assumed it was the Audigy 2 conflicting with something on the system. After installing the sound drivers, UT2003 started crashing again. Later, by chance, while looking at the ut2003.ini file, I realize that the game was set to Direct 3D rather than OpenGL for some reason. I manually switched it to OpenGL, and since then it hasn’t crashed, even with the Audigy 2 drivers installed. I chalked the system freeze problem up to a fluke at this point, and declared it fixed…until…
After installing Counter-strike and playing it on OpenGL, it worked fine. So far CS has yet to crash on me. Following that I installed Soldier of Fortune 2 and Battlefield 1942, and updated both. When trying to run these games, the crash bug came back. Neither has an option to switch between Direct 3D and OpenGL, so I don’t know what they’re running in. I can play SoF 2 fine for about 5 min, then it crashes the system. However, I can’t even enter a battle on BF1942 without the system freezing. I tried disabling sounds in both to no avail. I tried downgrading my video drivers from Catalyst 3.6 to Catalyst 3.5 with no change. This is the point I’m at now…and I’ll be damned if I have a clue what’s going on. I checked the Event Log in Administrative Tools, and the only errors it shows are CD-ROM errors which I assume have nothing to do with the system freezing. BF1942 and SoF2 both require CDs, and I have one in each drive, so both drives would have to be defective somehow for that to be the problem. Just for the record, I tried both DirectX 8.1 and DirectX 9.0, and there was no difference in crash frequency.
As of right now, I have no clue where to go or what to try. I think the problem has to do with a conflict between any of the following: Direct 3D, DirectX, Audigy 2, on board sound, and the CD drives. Can anybody help me?
play games with settings however you want.
does it still crash?
This may not be the problem, but because of my extreme hate for CREATIVE, I have to tell you to try this. If it fixes it, it helps my case against CREATIVE.
If it didn't fix it, remove the NIC and the CD-ROM drive that seems to be in your error logs. Try it now.
If that didn't fix it, I don't know much more about P4 computers, so it could be a chipset conflict or something. But at least try the above.
I too once had money, then I got into computers...
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nooooooooo this section is not for computer problems! It's for other random unimportant things so get the hell out of here with your computer problems!
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