Constant Game Crashes

pictobug

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Firstly, hello. :)

Ok my system's not homebuilt but I'm not sure which component (if any) is faulty, hence posting here.

My problem is, with my new PC (specs below) every game I have crashes on it. It NEVER crashes when running everything else, just games.

I never recieve any error codes etc, all that happens is the screen goes blocky for a second, then freezes, then goes blank. I can't ALT/TAB or CTRL/ALT/DEL, so I have to reset the PC. This is the same for pretty much all games.

The PC doesn't have to be under any heavy load (it often crashes on menu screens on Company Of Heroes), it will just crash completely randomly. I have Far Cry 2 (with everything running maxed out) and can be in huge fire-fights with no problem, then I could just be walking somewhere and it'll crash. I can't run Fallout 3 for more than a few minutes without it crashing.

I've tried numerous Graphics drivers, and Vista is up to date.

I've tried running games in compatibility mode, run as administrator...etc, no joy.

If anyone could suggest anything, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks.
 

pictobug

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Antec 1200 - Asus P5Q - Intel QuadCore Q9400 (OC'd to 3.4 Ghz) - 4GB OCZ Reaper - ATI Radeon HD4870 - Samsung Spinpoint 500GB - CoolerMaster Silentpro 700M - Vista 32
 
Run memtest for at least several hours:
http://www.memtest.org/

See if that is your problem.

You never listed your specs.

Also check your motherboard manufacturer for BIOS updates. IF there is one that CLEARLY addresses your issue you MAY need to flash the BIOS.. but don't do that without getting instructions and only if you are sure it's needed.
 

pictobug

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RAM is standard timings (I think) 5-5-5-15.

AI suite? I don't think so.
 
G

Guest

Guest
its your gpu

the 4870 has a lot of issues with release bios

I downloaded the latest from saphire (have a visiontek card) and flashed it to the new bios and WHAM not a single crash since... not A SINGLE CRASH... went from being able to play games for like 5 minutes... to hours...

if you do want to do this just pm me
 
If you overclocked your CPU on a P5Q and don't know your RAM frequency, that could be the problem.

Whenever you bump up the FSB in the BIOS, the RAM is also bumped up. You have to manually set it back down.

A quick calculation indicates you are running at a FSB of 425, so your RAM should probably be at 850Mhz. If you applied a 2.5 multiplier to the RAM though, that would be near 1066.

Thogrom has good advice too though. I've seen a lot of video cards causing crashes lately... odd really, they never used to do that ;)
 

Peaks

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pictobug

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Thanks for all replies. :)

Proximon, the PC was pre-overclocked. The very idea of me going within a mile of a BIOS is unthinkable. :)

I should also point out that, as far as PC knowledge goes, I have something appraoching none, so the info I have given is pretty much it, sadly.

I will (if I can) try memtest etc and see what occurs.
 

pictobug

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Ok, here goes....

Capture1.jpg


Capture2.jpg


Capture3.jpg
 
Holy *&^$.

Go into your BIOS and find the Front side bus and set it to 400.
Then change the DRAM frequency to 800. (It's at 1008 right now, 504x2... your MB and CPU-Z just use different ways of listing it.).

If everything else is on auto, it can be left that way.

If that makes everything happy, and I think it will, you can go over to the overclocking forums and learn all about it, and maybe get your OC back up to those high numbers, but right now it just looks like overclocking failure.


 

pictobug

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Oh, ok. :)

Is there something dramatically wrong there?

I'll try your suggestions tomorrow mate, It's getting late here, but many thanks for assistance. :)
 
Looks like what I thought happened did, the DRAM frequency was bumped up along with the FSB, resulting in a slight OC of the RAM. It's not drastic, but it's making the system unstable. That OCZ RAM does that sometimes... later on, when you have enough knowledge to deal with OCZ tech support, you can get some advanced settings from them that might enable a higher OC as well.
 

pictobug

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Without wishing to sound like a stuck record....I wouldn't have a clue how!

Though I'm currently trying to FIND the bios update.....with limited success, IE, none.
 

pictobug

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More stupid questions....

I've downloaded the instructions which are, as follows...

1. Extract the 478.zip at first under Windows.

2. Reboot your platform into pure dos mode.

3. Please execute flash.bat under prompt command.

4. You can see your original VBIOS already save as 1E85OLD.BIN

5. Reboot your platform and enjoy it.

If you're me (which I am) this might as well have been written in Italian.

I don't suppose anyone would be kind enough to clarify EXACTLY what to do?

Thanks again.
 

pictobug

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I decided against the flashing thing as, if I screw that up, I could REALLY screw things up.

Instead, I tried my old graphics card (7600GT) and lo and behold, no crashes.

So it looks like it IS a duff card..