Recently my computer has been crashing when I have been playing graphically intensive games (Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4, Crysis, etc.) I either get the blue screen of death that announces that the “physical memory is being dumped” or it just freezes. This has been a recent development, before I could run all these games at maximum settings. When I posted about this before most of the replies I got said that I should check for overheating. I checked that all my fans are working properly, cleaned out all the dust from my case, and I even took off the side panel of my case and blew cool air into my comp, but still the same results. I ran a few stress tests on my computer and confirmed that both my CPU graphics card are within a safe temperature (my GPU was the hottest, but it never gets past 80C). Here are my specs
ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775)
Conroe e6600 SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900XT 100149 Video Card
Segate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA(x2)
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Samsung 204B NeoPower 550W Antec P-180B Case
My friend mentioned that this might have something to do with my RAM, but I have no idea how to find out. Also I did have to ship my computer through FedEx, So I wouldn’t be suprized if that has something to do with it (I did check all my parts and wire and everything seems ok though).Thanks for the help,
I agree, the PSU could be dieing, but you might want to check out the video card as well. I had a problem when I had a Sapphire X1900 XTX that was very similar, with the screen freezing and all, and it turned out to be the video card. I had done the usual, checking the ram, CPU, PSU, motherboard and didn't come up with anything. Then I tried a different video card and everything was fine again.
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this should help with the ram although you could try lowering timings, speed and what not first to see if that helps, my ram is screwed and runs at lower timings as i also got BSOD's. Strangely enough that was over a year ago and i have never gotten around to buying more.
Early Antec NeoPower psu's were known for being troublesome units. 80c for a X1900 XT is normal when playing these games. I see the same temps with my X1900 XTX with Company of Hero's and COD4. Download and run Memtest86 as strangestrnger suggested, I have seen Corsair XMS memory fail before. Even the best manufactures let a bum unit out the door from time to time. If memory passes and your video card heat sink is clear then look at the power supply. Would suggest you replace it with one of Corsairs fine line of psu's. Also if there is a memory problem you will be happy to know there RMA department is fast. Three day turn around from when they recieve it.
Monitor the 12V+ voltage while you stress the cpu and video card. If the voltage drops significantly below 12V, something like 11.5V or lower, then your psu is probably failing. You can use Speedfan to check the voltages. Just look for the one that reads close to 12V while idle.
Im having a similar sort of issue, my x1900 xtx has always overheated periodically but its started crashing to a chequered screen in almost every 3d application after some time. More stressful 3d applications cause it to crash quicker but the temperature climbs to above 90 degrees C pretty quickly. I checked my voltage on speedfan, and the +12V never goes above 1v let alone drop below 11.5V. All the fans are unobstructed and clean, performance feels unaffected although when playing Planetside the GPU makes a small whistling noise which becomes more audible as larger renderable environments come into view.
