Games constantly crash my computer.

[Kazuki_Fuse]

For some reason about 2 weeks ago my computer crashes everytime I run a game for more than 10 mins. The when I press the restart button it says the system has failed to boot. I then unplug the power and turn the computer on and it boots fine. It's really bizarre that it's still happening after I formatted the computer and re-installed everything, which leads me to believe that it could be hardware that's causing the problem. Only games crash the system, has anyone else experienced this ever?

My specs are:

AMDXP3000+
X800XT PE
1024Gig of ram
Windows XP Professional with SP2
Direct X 9.0c

I'd appreciate any help, I don't want this happening when HL2 comes out. It'd drive me up the wall.

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Sorry, I'm currently running catalyst 4.10's, but I have tried using older versions, as old as 4.6 but the problem persists. My MoBo is a Gigabyte GA-7NNXP, I forgot to mention that before. Umm, as far as I'm aware all drivers are up to date on my computer as well as the MoBo bios.

 

[poseyjmac]

what games have you tried

 

[Maxi]

You are overheating, check your temperatures.

 

[Tinneth]

Yeah check your temperatures and tell us. There should be some kind of special software for your motherboard that lets you check them.

 

[destrukt]

I have the same problem, it's the games, not the user XD.

A memory error right ? The 'fixes' to this problem are fairly random [there is a thread on steampowered with hundreds of different 'fixes' ranging to uninstalling your printer to reinstalling sp2]. A common fix though, seems to be reseting your hardware to default speeds [ie, not overclocking], i haven't tried this myself yet, but I'm running my xp2500+ @ 3200+ speed quite comfortably.

I have the problem with cs:source (though it seems to have gone away) & Battlefront (Haven't really tried anything else lately).

 

[The Dark Elf]

Probably been suggested but check drivers are upto date or running correctly, check for misc miniapps running in the background that might be causing issue's or memory leaks or just screwing things up, virus killers for example.

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Okay, I just checked the temperatures and my X800XT PE is running at 45 degrees celcius whilst idle, and my cpu is running at about 60 degrees celcius. I installed my 9800pro in because I thought maybe it could be because I only have a 250w power supply when the X800XT PE suggests 300w+ but it still crashed.

The games I've been playing are Hitman Contracts, Tribes:Vengeeance and WarCraft3. At one stage I thought it could be the ram so I put in different ram but the computer didn't like it. All my hardware is running at stock speed. Is 60 degrees about right for an amd athlon xp?

 

[Fil]

It's probably because of your Power Supply. When you go into games it sucks more juice than when its in windows because its 2d, i suggest getting a more powerful power supply.

 

[poseyjmac]

are fastwrites turned off? its an option in your bios or in the smartgart tab of display CP.

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Shit I dunno man, I'll check, should I turn it off or on? I've never heard of fastwrites option before.

 

[poseyjmac]

off always. it doesn't give you any performance and can cause instability.

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Umm I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but I can't find the smartgart option in my bios or in windows. So it's under the display control panel right?

 

[Subatomic]

Does your computer auto shut-down at 60C? (I think this is default) Raising it that 1 degree playing games could crash it maybe.

 

[poseyjmac]

display properties, settings tab, advanced button, smartgart tab. if you don't have it, you don't have the ATI driver installed properly and you'll need to dl the latest one

what driver do you have installed now?

 

[Vigilante]

Umm I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but I can't find the smartgart option in my bios or in windows. So it's under the display control panel right?

it should be in windows
right click your desktop, go to properties, go to the tab with resolution settings, then click "advanced" then click the smart gart tab, it should be in there.

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Yep just did it, I'm gonna try a game now, fingers crossed. Thanks for the support guys

 

[DC9884]

what are the default temps for an AMD Athalon XP by the way? cause if its 60 my computer should be on fire....

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Ok, the Fastwrite didn't change anything but, I have fixed the problem and narrowed it down to two possibilities. My MoBo comes with this chip called a Dual Power System chip, I don't think it does anything, but anyway I took note of the temperature of my cpu and decided to install an old thermaltake dragonorb heatsink. It's a pretty massive thing that runs at 7000rpm I think anyway it's put my processor down to 45 dergrees celcius. Anyway, In order to fit in the heatsink I had to remove the crapp Dual Power chip that is reall a croc of shit. I left the case open and ran doom3 on the highest I could for about 45 mins and it ran perfect, same with Halo, Tribes:Vengeance and Hitman. I reckon it was probably heat Woohoo! Bring on HL2!