What's Wrong?

[Uh_Oh]

I have just built a new computer, specs:

Ga-K8nf-9 Mobo
X2 3800+ Processor
Asus eax800gto graphics
4x512mb Ram Transcend Pc3200
160gb seagate 7200.7 hard drive
400w Fortron Green Power PSU
Winxp pro
all latest drivers

whenever i try to run 3dmark05, 9 out of 10 times the computer will crash. Sometimes it reboots, other times the image freezes or lines appear. The same happens for most games. Even on battlefield vietnam, it crashes as soon as I reach the menu screen. Everything just freezes.

When i check voltages with speedfan, everything is fine except for te +5v. It is fluctuating between 2 and 5 volts. I am sure it is not a PSU problem, because I have already bought another one (the fortron) to replace my original 420w one and the voltage is still changing like that.
I hooked up both the fortron 400 and the orig 420 to my old comp, and voltages are rock stable.
So would this mean that my motherboard's voltage regulators are fried?

Also, the graphics card i have does not have an external power connector, could it be drawing too much power from the motherboard?

My RAM is fine, ran memtest for about an hour to pass through all the tests once.

Another odd thing is that the nforce4 chipset seems to be getting very hot, reported 70C in speedfan. The heasink almost burns when touched. However, others have reported this problem and their setups seem to work fine regardless.

**edit - the problem could also be the graphics card itself..i tested it on another comp and it crashed when loading windows.

Can anyone offer any help? thanks.

 

[sirkillalot]

Hard to say without playing with it myself (immm ) but it may be the nforce4 chipset which seems to be getting very hot that could be causing the crashers
try adding a fan nexted to it to kewl it down or even use a big house fan and leave your case open just to see if it makes a diff.
then at least you will know if its a heat problem.

i use to have a heating prob. with my card then i found a place in the bios to change the fan settings and it worked fine after that.

 

[Uh_Oh]

unfortunately I already have. My case open w/fans pointing at the chipset heatsink, along with several other case fans.

 

[chuckshissle]

Maybe is your display driver. Does it says error or the blue screen of death? nv_disp.dll error maybe? upgrade motherboard bios and driver. In the bios screen set everything to default and enabling dual core and core id.

Is there any beep or sound when it crashes?

Could be ineffecient power?

Direct X 9.c

does it play fine with games and other 3d application or it just happens during high load?

 

[Uh_Oh]

thanks for response.

I've tried 3 diff drivers so far: newest, second newest, and the ones supplied with the card.

There is no error/bsod. btw it's an ATI card.

Motherboard bios is F11, latest. (tried f9, f10 also)

bios has been set to almost everything imaginable..disabling everything, enabling everything, "optimized defaults", etc.

when it crashes, and right when the computer reboots, yes there is a single short beep sound.

I am using DX9.0c

It works with morrowind so far, but not with 3dmark05 OR the loading screen of BF:vietnam. I did not test extensively w/morrowind, just to check that it loads.

 

[Uh_Oh]

I feel like shooting myself. Apparently AMD cannot handle 4 sticks of ram. I feel like breaking the computer after a month of troubleshooting, and it comes down to the most inconspicuous thing.



so remember:

IF YOU BUY AMD GET 2 STICKS OF RAM

 

[chuckshissle]

How about this try using two ram then try using different slot pair.

Try overclocking or underclocking your ram.

Does the card have a 4-pin connector for extra power?

And have you tried running it at lower settings?

Increase voltage on graphics card and ram?

Go to manufacturer of both to see the operating voltage.

Careful with the voltage causes lots of heat if it's too much.

I have a X800 on my older pc and runs pretty good with BF2 so I know your card is well capable of running BF: Vietnam.

 

[Uh_Oh]

Hey, thanks for all the advice. i should clarify, everything is running 100% perfect now.

AMD's integrated memory controller just cannot handle 4 stick of ram at 1T and 400mhz. So, I took 2 sticks off, and i'll put the other 2 sticks on my other computer.

BTW, prior to fixing it, I did up everything's voltage. somehow upping the processor voltage by 0.025 made bootup time excruciatingly slow, as i remember.

thanks again.