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Machine locks up and sound loops while playing games

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Machine locks up and sound loops while playing games

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Luke R   06-29-2009 at 09:27:53 AM

Hi all, This is my first post here and I'm not quite sure which category the goes in to, but here it goes.

I recently built a machine that was to be used primarily for gaming, Windows XP Pro 32-bit install went smoothly and everything seemed to be working fine. So then I decided to put some games on it. I installed World of Warcraft to see how much of a performance gain there was from my last system. Loaded WoW up and it froze from after 10 seconds to 10 minutes and the sound would loop or buzz. I found a partial fix for this by running it in OpenGL mode, but it still freezes randomly - sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes it doesn't freeze at all. Installed Crysis and it ran fine with no lock-ups. Installed Left 4 Dead and it would freeze randomly like WoW did. Then I installed Call of Duty: World at War which locks up after 20-30 minutes. All of my drivers are up to date Graphics/sound/chipset etc. I ran prime95 over-night and it came back stable. CPU stays relatively cool with aftermarket cooler (40-50C under load). Also tried swapping RAM sticks but that didn't fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


My System:

585 Watt Psu
AsRock N7AD-SLI Motherboard
Intel E5200 @ 3.3ghz prime stable
Nvidia 8800GT
4 gigs PNY DDR2 800 dual-channel memory
80 gig Western Digital hard drive SATA 3gbps
320 gig Western Digital hard drive SATA 3gbps
Some DVD RW Drive
Antec 300 case


Thanks in advance.


Message edited by Luke R on 06-29-2009 at 09:30:07 AM
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Twoboxer   06-29-2009 at 10:10:19 AM
- 0 +

Well, I guess I'd

(a) remove the OC and test the games, adjusting settings as necessary. Then

(b) I'd run WoW without sound to see if it still fails, eliminating audio drivers (unlikely, but hey!). Then

(C) Try running the game with one stick of memory, then with a slightly higher voltage than spec.

(D) I'd try a different video card, then psu if I could lay my hands on them. Then

(E) Are the disk drives as old as they seem? Is the 80 gig an old Raptor?

Geez, there's a lot of candidates here - try and eliminate some more.

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Reply to Twoboxer
HundredIslandsBoy   06-29-2009 at 05:31:57 PM
- 0 +

Then I installed Call of Duty: World at War which locks up after 20-30 minutes. I ran prime95 over-night and it came back stable. CPU stays relatively cool with aftermarket cooler (40-50C under load).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Main suspect for crashes: GPU overheating
Have you tried setting the GPU fan to 90% prior to gaming? What are your peak GPU temps while gaming?

Message quoted 1 times
Reply to HundredIslandsBoy
Luke R   06-29-2009 at 08:10:16 PM
- 0 +

Twoboxer wrote :

Well, I guess I'd

(a) remove the OC and test the games, adjusting settings as necessary. Then

(b) I'd run WoW without sound to see if it still fails, eliminating audio drivers (unlikely, but hey!). Then

(C) Try running the game with one stick of memory, then with a slightly higher voltage than spec.

(D) I'd try a different video card, then psu if I could lay my hands on them. Then

(E) Are the disk drives as old as they seem? Is the 80 gig an old Raptor?

Geez, there's a lot of candidates here - try and eliminate some more.



I tried without OC and it did the same thing, one stick of ram didn't change anything, swapped out psu and it still locked up. Will try WoW without sound and I'll try to get my hands on my brother's 9500gt to test it out. also, I will check temps while gaming. The 80gig isn't old, I just bought it for my OS and music.

Reply to Luke R
Luke R   06-29-2009 at 08:11:24 PM
- 0 +

HundredIslandsBoy wrote :

Then I installed Call of Duty: World at War which locks up after 20-30 minutes. I ran prime95 over-night and it came back stable. CPU stays relatively cool with aftermarket cooler (40-50C under load).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Main suspect for crashes: GPU overheating
Have you tried setting the GPU fan to 90% prior to gaming? What are your peak GPU temps while gaming?



Thanks, I'll try that.

Reply to Luke R
rambo117   06-29-2009 at 08:16:42 PM
- 0 +

yahh, check the temps,
and btw, are you OCing your 8800? On certain games like left 4 dead i cant OC cause it does that sound looping thing and crashes.

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 Reply to rambo117
Luke R   06-29-2009 at 09:28:37 PM
- 0 +

rambo117 wrote :

yahh, check the temps,
and btw, are you OCing your 8800? On certain games like left 4 dead i cant OC cause it does that sound looping thing and crashes.



the 8800 is at stock settings

Reply to Luke R
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