Brand new built computer freezes during games.

[akathirteen]

I have just newly built a computer and everything is working fine except my computer freezes a few mins into a game. It also freezes almost immediately when I change my resolutions in a game. I am almost certain this is due to my graphics card but can it potentially be my monitor? My monitor is a generic acer x203h which i found lying around whilest the rest of my pc was freshly built from brand new components. The first time i installed the latest nvidia driver, my comp froze after it finished and so i had to manually restart to get the driver reinstalled. Also, when I intially installed the graphics card, i didnt notice it came with a pci cable (my first time building a custom computer) and i directly plugged in the card into a pci that comes attached to the psu. It was running like this for about a day until i finally realized the video card comes with its own dual pci and that both need to be plugged in for proper power supply to the card. Is my card by any means damaged due to my initial improper set up?

specs:
processor: AMD phenom x4 965 black edition
mother board: Biostar A770E3
graphics card: galaxy geforce GTS 450 (factory overclocked)
ram: corsair xms3 1600 ddr3 2 gb (x2)
monitor: acer x203h


Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[COLGeek]

These are the classic signs of a heat and/or power issue. What make/model of power supply are you using? This is not a monitor problem. Please clarify.

 

[geofelt]

Your GTS450 needs a 400w power supply with 22a on the 12v rails.
What psu are you using?
Under load, or gaming, the graphics card needs additional power. If it does not get the power, you will see symptoms as you described.

It is better to use the 6 pin pci-e power connector direct from the psu. The molex>p6-pin adapter that comes with the graphics card is only needed if your psu does not have a 6 pin connector.

Have you connected the 4 pin aux cpu power connector to the motherboard?. It is needed to add power to the pci-e slots.



I doubt that anything is damaged.

 

[akathirteen]

Your GTS450 needs a 400w power supply with 22a on the 12v rails.
What psu are you using?
Under load, or gaming, the graphics card needs additional power. If it does not get the power, you will see symptoms as you described.

It is better to use the 6 pin pci-e power connector direct from the psu. The molex>p6-pin adapter that comes with the graphics card is only needed if your psu does not have a 6 pin connector.

Have you connected the 4 pin aux cpu power connector to the motherboard?. It is needed to add power to the pci-e slots.



I doubt that anything is damaged.

I am running a Corsair CX500 (5oo watts) for my power supply. The weird thing about it is that when I plug in the power to the PSU and turn the switch to ON position, I hear what sounds like a super-sonic screech noise. It is there as long as the PSU is on. So everynight when I go to sleep, I power off the PSU just so that screech noise would stop. The PSU comes with an 8-pin aux cpu power connector and I split it into (2) 4-pin connectors and plugged 1 into the motherboard. So should I ditch the 6-pin adapter from the graphics card and just directly run the 6-pin PCI-e from the PSU? Basically my computer runs perfectly for except when I play some graphic intensive games, then it makes a brrrrrr sound and freezes up.

 

[geofelt]

I am running a Corsair CX500 (5oo watts) for my power supply. The weird thing about it is that when I plug in the power to the PSU and turn the switch to ON position, I hear what sounds like a super-sonic screech noise. It is there as long as the PSU is on. So everynight when I go to sleep, I power off the PSU just so that screech noise would stop. The PSU comes with an 8-pin aux cpu power connector and I split it into (2) 4-pin connectors and plugged 1 into the motherboard. So should I ditch the 6-pin adapter from the graphics card and just directly run the 6-pin PCI-e from the PSU? Basically my computer runs perfectly for except when I play some graphic intensive games, then it makes a brrrrrr sound and freezes up.

I think you need to return the psu, or contact Corsair support. A PSU should not be making any strange noises. It sounds like the fan is defective, or is being interfered with. There are possibly other issues.
The 8 pin cpu connector is a 4 + 4 connector to accomodate either a 8 pin or 4 pin motherboard cpu connector. You are good there.
You should use a 6 pin pci-e connector from the psu for your video card. That is what it is there for. On the off chance that it is defective, try the other 6 pin pci-e connector.

 

[COLGeek]

Your motherboard has 2 power connectors, the 24-pin main connector and the 4-pin aux power connector. Both of those should be firmly connected. Your video card (GPU) should be connected directly to the power supply (PSU) PCI-E 6-pin (sometimes 6/8-pin) connector.

Thw whine you hear is referred to as "coil whine". Once you have everything properly connected, that sound may go away.