Darth Windu

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
113
0
18,680
Hi folks,

I have a professional build system that I've modified, and am recently running into problems. What's happening is that EVERY time I play any game - including Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, Civilization IV etc - I'm getting regular temporary freezing. The sound effects will continue as normal, but the graphics completely locks up for up to 30 seconds each time. I've had my graphics card tested and apparently it's fine, so now I have no idea what could be causing the problem. My system is

- AMD 6000+ dual core (two 3 GHz cores) CPU
- Gigabyte M61-PM-S2 Motherboard
- XFX 1GB HD5770 Graphics
- 6GB DDR2 800 RAM
- Windows 7 Professional
- 650W Thermaltake Toughpower QFan PSU
- 1 x 160GB WD Black SATA HDD
- 1 x 250GB WD IDE HDD
- 1 x 1.5TB WD Green SATA HDD

Any help would be very greatly appreciated.
 

Klosteral

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2009
502
0
19,010
Ok. Some questions.
1) Which of your hard drives are the games installed onto? The most preferable drive would be the WD Green SATA drive. The IDE would be best as a document-storing drive and the Black SATA for the OS.
2) What type of memory and memory channels are your motherboard and CPU capable of? If you are running a dual-channel CPU and Mobo with 6GB RAM, you will hit problems.
3) briovas could be right. I use this site, myself, but it shouldn't be too different to the other - http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Please report back when you have more info.
-Klosteral
 

Darth Windu

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
113
0
18,680
mdd1963 - I thought about that, but it's not even during heavy gaming that it's happening. For example, in Mass Effect 2 it's just as likely to happen during a huge firefight as it is during a completely peaceful non-mission area.

Klosteral -
1. I have mine setup as you suggest. The 160GB is the boot drive, 1.5TB is gaming drive, and 250GB is the backup.

2. I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here I'm afraid.

3. I did use a similar site, and apparently I have plenty of power. Could it be not so much a lack of power, but an interupted power supply?
 
#2 => Your memory needs to be installed in pairs to take advantage of your dual memory controllers. If you have 6GB in a 3x2GB configuration you are running in single channel mode. 6GB in a 2x2GB + 2x1GB is fine (dual channel). This is probably not your problem, but needs to be looked at for best results.
 

Darth Windu

Distinguished
Jan 20, 2010
113
0
18,680
Oh right. Well here's the thing, I'm running

2 x 2GB
2 x 1GB

They're both 'paired' in the RAM slots. However I originally had two Kingston 2GB chips (KVR800D2N6) that were quite small, but one developed a problem. This was then sent away and replaced by one with the same code, but it's a larger chip (about twice the width). Could this be causing the issue?