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Homebuilt PC Crashes

Last response: in Systems
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Hello all,

I recently built a new machine from scratch buying most of my parts from TigerDirect and Newegg, and salvaging only a couple.

My pc has:

Motherboard: ECS Elitegroup A780GM-A

Processor: AMD Phenom Quad-Core 2.2Ghz AM2+

Power Supply: Thermaltake W0121RU 600W

RAM: Corsair 2048 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x1024MB)

Graphics Card: EVGA 384-P3-N853-AR GeForce 8800GS Superclocked 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Sound Card: Salvaged Sound Blaster Audigy SB0090

Network: Salvaged Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC

DVD Drive: Sony DVD RW DRU-190A

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 SP3


I got the machine all up and running, and installed all of the programs that I wanted on the machine. Among those was Steam, with Half Life 2 Episode 1 and other games. While running that game at 1280 by 1024 pixels, I seem to have a problem where my computer crashes after running the game for a few minutes. It runs the same audio loop over and over (kind of like a broken record), and then after a few minutes my computer beeps.

Also, Windows crashes when I try to run the game from the start menu without going into Steam first. The computer is slightly responsive, but when I open the start menu, the icons don't highlight, and nothing opens or closes. Eventually I have to push the power button to shut it off.

What is going on?

~g33ked

More about : homebuilt crashes

Homebuilt system Expert

1. Make sure your RAM is at the correct voltage (should be 2.1-2.2v for that RAM)

2. Uninstall SP3 since it seems to have compatibility issues with drivers,etc.

3. Update graphics drivers,etc.

In my experience, ECS is one of the worst motherboard makers on the planet along with PCChips.

Look under Performance or something similar- consult your motherboard manual on how to change RAM voltage.
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