Continuous reboots while gaming

plex4r

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Nov 29, 2005
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Any time I play an advanced game such as Age of Mythology or Half-Life 2 my computer screen will go black. Sometimes it reboots, but usually I need to hold the off key for 5 seconds. Where do I start to debug this problem. I tried by testing the memory. Next I put a new power supply in at 450W. I have an A8V Delux ASUS motherboard and a 3200 AMD 64 CPU.

Where should I start?

Thanks!
 

CptCpu

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Jun 24, 2006
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What type of graphics card do you have, for it sounds like it could be over heating. This is a generally what happens when a card over heats.
 

3Ball

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Mar 1, 2006
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Could also be a ram issue. If u can somehow get ahold of a PC check disk use that to check ur components to make sure everything checks out!

Best,

3Ball

Antec P180 Case
Antec Neo HE 550w PS
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Sandy @ 2.32ghz (Arctic Freezer 64 Pro)
Gigabyte K8N SLI Pro 939 Mobo
Sapphire X1900XTX (668 / 792) actual! (Arctic Accelro X2)
(2x1024mb) DDR400 Patriot Performance Mem (2.5-3-2-5) @ 420mhz
!Mobo Limiting OC!
 

plex4r

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Nov 29, 2005
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All thanks for your comments.
Here are my system components

Asus A8V Delux Motherboard.
AMD 64 3500 CPU
ATI 9800 PRo (AIW Graphics card running at AGP 8x)
70 Gog Raptor 10,000 RPM Raptor SATA Drive
1 GigCosair Dual RAM
Thermaltake case with 4 case fans

I was gett reboots when I even checked email or used a browser. I replaced Thermaltakes power supply with 30W more with a Rosewill 450 W supply. This fixed this problem.

I took off the cover and put a common house fan blowing on the lower pare of the MB right where the graphics card is. This seems to have fixed it. I checked around that many have reported heat problems with this card.

Any reccomendations of cooling products I can put right on my video card?

Thanks!
 

kona

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Jun 6, 2005
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Yeah dude....try some arctic silver 5. This is really good thermal compound and really should make a difference. Also, make sure you have adequate airflow through your case since you seemed to have narrowed down the problem. Likely the old thermal compound that was originally put on your card just got hard and stopped working. AS5 doesn't do that. You could even put some mini heat sinks on your RAM chips if you have room though you will also need to get some thermal adhesive to do this. Newegg has both of these products. post back and let us know if it works ok afterwards.
 

plex4r

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Nov 29, 2005
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I still have one major problem. I still get the reboots when I try to play Age of Empires III. I think the problem is the graphics card is just bad because it is heating up. The CPU temp seems to stay a constant 38 Deg Cel.

I'll move the heat sensor that is on the CPU to the 9800's GPU and post the readings here.

Kona, were you instructing me to use the artic silver 5 on the the graphics card? I undertand how to reseat the CPU but did not know I could to this with the Graphics card.

Thanks!
 

llama_man

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Jan 12, 2006
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If you're removing the stock cooler to apply the Artic Silver 5, then why not take the opportunity to fit a (better) third party "aftermarket" cooler, such as the ones made by Artic Cooling?

They're not that expensive, and should help keep your card cool. Repeated overheating isn't good for the card. Plus, the AC units expel the heat right out of the back of your case, so they also help lower your case temp.

Bear in mind, though, that removing the stock cooler will invalidate your card's warranty. If you think your card is overheating due to a fault, and it's still under warranty, then try getting a new one instead!