My poor compy crashes when I play games :(

[Stigmata]

First, my specs:

Athlon64 X2 4600+
2GB DDR2-800 RAM
Radeon X1900XT 512MB

This has only started happening recently, within the past month or so. Whenever I play a graphically-intensive game, my computer crashes 5-30 minutes into play.

I've checked the most obvious problems, which would be the RAM, CPU, and GPU. My RAM is clocked properly, my CPU idle temperature is about 48 degrees Celsius, and my GPU idle temperature is about 45 (at full fan speed, ~2400rpm). [edit] I also updated my drivers recently, to Catalyst 6.11. The crashes happened before 6.11, and not for about a month after I installed 6.10.

What could the problem be?

 

[Nemesis6]

When it crashes, how does it do it, and can you tell that it's about to crash before it happens? A little more specs - Which powersupply or motherboard?

 

[Stigmata]

Antec Neo HE550 (550 watts, obviously )
Asus M2N32SLI Deluxe

When it crashes, it's apparently random, and there are no pre-crash symptoms. The crash itself is simply a system-wide lockup.

 

[Nemesis6]

You say it happens soon into gameplay. I've seen that before, in my case it was when the processor had problems with the motherboard. Hmm, the problem is not the powersupply, so it's either the processor, the cooling thereof, or the motherboard being incompatible with your processor. But... If you say it's random, then it sounds like a ****-up in the ram. I think you'll have to eliminate them as a problem by the process of elimination. Try pulling one stick out, see if it's the culprit, and if it's not, well, do the math.

A lock-up, as in no auto restart, mouse frozen and keyboard frozen, right?

Actually, the best way to find out if it's the RAM or processor would be to test it with this tool - http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103

By the way, you're running a motherboard that uses the nForce 690 SLI chipset, have you updated those drivers, too? Assuming you're running Windows-XP 32-Bit, http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf590_winxp32_9.35.html

 

[Stigmata]

Precisely, everything just stops until I manually restart the computer.

There's no way anything's incompatible, however, since this computer hasn't changed hardware-wise since August, and the crashing problem is mere weeks old.

Should I do a blended stress test?

 

[Nemesis6]

Yep, run Prime95. HOWEVER... To properly stress test it it needs to run 12 to 24 hours. So if you don't have that kind of time, you could try to take out the ram blocks one by one, but of course that won't help if the problem is really with the CPU. Prime95 tests both, so that would be best.

 

[Stigmata]

Welp, I reformatted about three hours ago, so I'm gonna give Far Cry a go until midnight. I'm thinking it was something to do with a Windows corruption, because my initial OS installation didn't let my sound drivers install properly for some odd reason, but after reformatting they installed perfectly.

If it crashes again, Prime95 it is.

 

[JFry]

Have you tried using driver cleaner and installing omega drivers?

 

[WhiteZero]

Probably a hardware malfunction if it's a total lock up.

 

[The Brick]

This program is a niftier version of Prime95.
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/385

 

[NeptuneUK]

Are you SURE that your GFX Isnt overheating, Ive heard things about x1900s and x1950s having dodgy coolers with some models

 

[Stigmata]

I installed an aftermarket cooler on it specifically because of what I read about the x1900 stock cooler . I'm pretty sure it's not that cooler, since I read it was the best cooler out there, and it dropped my idle temperature from 51 to 35 degrees, but the average idle temp has raised about 5 degrees over the past five months. Is that symptomatic of any common issues?

[edit] Prime95 has been running for about 8 hours on the blended stress test, no failures yet.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Well seeing as ur graphics card is now Idling at a lower temp, your better cooler is dissipating more heat into the system case. So that makes sense, Which in turn makes it warmer!!

 

[Stigmata]

>:0

I have two case fans, one on the back and the other on the top, but my motherboard temperature stays around 48 as well. Is that too warm?

 

[NeptuneUK]

Yes

Depends what temperature the 'motherboard' reading is precisely.
Have you made sure your northbridge heatsink is making contact properly?

 

[Stigmata]

Alright, I'll check that and turn up my case fans to full.

Also, Prime95 ran for 16 hours and found no problems.

 

[Nemesis6]

Alright. We can assume that the problem is not in the CPU or RAM then. Since we're going with cooling, I recommend you get RivaTuner. It allows you to set the CPU and GPU's fan speeds. For example, if it should run at 100% even if it's not working hard, and how fast it should run if it IS working hard, etc.

 

[Stigmata]

Well, it turns out a reformat fixed my computer completely. Even my audio drivers, which refused to install on my first OS installation, went through with no hitches.

Thanks for the help and the RivaTuner recommendation though