Frustrated Gamer Alert

[Derth]

Hey

I am having allot of problems with my pc at the moment and while I'm not sure if it's a graphical issue, I figure that this would be the best place to ask for help.

So first things first, the problem:

With certain games (C&C Generals, Warcraft 3, Lord of the rings) my pc will act very strange, I will sometimes be able to play for several hours or sometimes a few minutes before I get booted out of the game and back in to windows.

My system:

AMD 2800+
MSI motherboard K7N2GM
Leadtek Geforce 4 Ti 4200
512MB Dual DDR memory, (micron?)

Software:

Windows Xp

I have checked the temperatures of my cpu and it looks fine running at about 40 - 50 digress Celsius. No over clocking done on anything.

I have used several stress burner applications which happily run for hours before returning a 100% ok.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks
Derth

 

[Blasphemy]

check the game crash logs. usually in the game's system folder. doesn't really sound like a heat issue yet, but it could be. download some other games (demos even) to see if they crash, and if you haven't already, update your video card drivers just incase. also, i know whenever one of my games starts crashing a lot sometimes I can just re-install the game and it'll be fine. so try to re-install the said games and see if it works.

----------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ stock
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
1GB generic RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 360/335

 

[xeenrecoil]

heya Derth;

If its only crashing on certain games and not on others then i would say that either the instal of the game is corrupt or the game simply needs patched, it also could be the game has issues with your drivers, or maybe your DirectX might need reinstalled. See if any of this cleans it up.

 

[priyajeet]

even chk windows crash logs in control panel>administrative option>event viewer

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/Fing.jpg" target="_new"><i><font color=red>Very funny, Scotty.</font color=red><font color=blue> Now beam down my clothes.</font color=blue></i></A> :tongue:

 

[ohnoesaz]

I had the same problem.

It was a power problem. My PSU couldnt support the high end vid card and cpu.

I fixed that and got a better PSU. A year later the prob came back, after messing around a little. Turns out my overclocked cpu wasnt getting enough power, so I upped its voltage.

But yeah prime95, 3dmark03, intense games would all be sent back to desktop.

 

[priyajeet]

u got that derth helmet ! PSU probs

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/Fing.jpg" target="_new"><i><font color=red>Very funny, Scotty.</font color=red><font color=blue> Now beam down my clothes.</font color=blue></i></A> :tongue:

 

[rx7000]

My comp was passing torture tests and the 3dmark loops etc with no problems, and then playing Farcry for over 30 mins was exposing my to high overclock, card was generating decent temps and shutting down, doing all the tests and benchmarking and torture testing lead be to belive it was stable but in real game experience it obviously wasnt. If its not power than its a good possibility the video card could just be gettin very hot, if you can keep the slot below it open, clean your case, improve airflow, get some fans or something, heres a nifty little device I just picked up for 5 bucks to add to my case, check it out, you can usually find a bunch of cheap junk like this to help dump some heat.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-150-006&depa=0

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel 400 Mhz(222),Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT

 

[Derth]

Thanks for all the help:

I've reinstalled just about everything including the game, video drivers, windows, directx. So I don't think it's that.

I'm running about 3 fans at the moment 2 sucking air in to the case and 1 fan at the back sucking out all the air.

The psu is one of those cheap and nasty ones that come with a cheap case so I am tempted to buy a new one.

Anyway gotta wait for the end of the month to buy a new, I'll let you guys know what happens. . .


Derth

 

[Blasphemy]

Cheap PSU? Well then, why didn't you say so from the beginning, that is 99% most likely the problem. Pick up at least a quality 450 watt Enermax or Antec PSU. You can get one for around $50

----------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ stock
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
1GB generic RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 360/335