Odd Crashes

[Synthos]

Well, I think my problem may be solved, but I thought I'd post this anyways...

After my first time building my computer from scatch, some RAM trouble which got fixed, I ran into a mysterious problem.

After installing softmod 9500 radeon drivers (turns 9500 non pro into 9700 np) I tried playing praetorians, I got hard-crashed and rebooted. Odd, I thought

I unistalled the softmodded drivers and installed ati's stock drivers. Got the same problem. Also got some corrupt screens on boot up which rather scared me...

I then realized I hadn't install direct x 9, So I went and did that and did paticularly have any further problems....

I don't think It's CPU temps or motherboard temps, because using Asus' Probe utility the temp ranges appear normal...

For the record , here are my system specs:

Athlon XP 2200+
Asus A7V880
Ati Radeon 9500 Non-Pro
2 Sticks of 256 MB DDR 400 RAM (made by Samsung)
Antec Sonata "Quiet" case with Antec True power 380W PS/U

Everything is now at stock speed. I'm running the 120 MM fan in the back at the "quiet" speed.. But as I said, CPU temps seem to be fine...

I beleive it was a problem of not having direct 9 installed... but I"m not sure... Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

 

[blahblahblah]

did or didn't have any further problems?

 

[Synthos]

It seems the problem is persisting....

Right now I'm running Memtest-86 v3.1 to see if it's a defect RAM problem (again)

I have an inkling that maybe my graphics card is overheating, woudl that cause my system to hard-boot like that?

Do you guys have any other suggestions on what I can try to locate the problem?

 

[Synthos]

I'm going to play another game just to make sure it's not localized to Praetorians (because I ran through all of the 3d mark 2003 no problems....

 

[Cyanide]

Not having the proper DirectX version could cause a system crash. Normally you'd see a blue screen stating your video drivers as the cause of the crash, but by default XP automaticly reboots if you get a blue screen of death.

 

[Synthos]

hmm...

I suppose I should also mention before I reverted back to original ATI drivers I had gotten 2 instances of a window popping up saying something along the lines that the drivers or the video card had caused an error and the system had recovered.... (this was during a game in praetorians)

So it may yet be directx.. even though I have now got directx 9.0c installed. (note: when I run dxdiag is says DirectSound and DirectMusic have failed)
What's the best order for installing SP1&2, direct x, motherboard drivers and video card drivers??

 

[Synthos]

ok, now this is really screwed up, I just ran through doom 3 for about 10 minutes no problems... If any game pushes my hardware to it's limits it's that game... do you think it's praetorians specific?

 

[Dead-Inside]

Why don't you run Doom 3 longer then 10 minutes and you'll know? Stupid question if you ask me.

 

[Synthos]

Well, it took < 10 minutes to crash in praetorians, so technically it would take that many to crash in doom 3.. Less so since doom 3 is harder on the hardware...

In any case, I beleive the problem is finally solved. Catalyst 4.8 drivers don't work and direct x 9.0c installed, everything should be A O.K.

 

[Synthos]

This is the error message I've been getting about my graphics card...

Never seen this before I built this comp...

 

[Synthos]

This dissapearing reappearing error stuff is making my wonder whether I have a temperature problem with my radeon card... Is there any way I can verify this?

 

[Dead-Inside]

Get a PC monitor, was that really so hard to figure out? lol.

Anyway, it looks like your driver's bugged, that or the game in question.

 

[Synthos]

I switched to catalyst 4.6 and got through 2 missions of praetorians...