Games Randomly dump back to windows

[D00M]

Hiya i was hopeing i could get some help with this problem as me and my tech head friend are abit lost.

Basically got a new gaming rig recently and while playing games such as UT 3 and Call Of Duty 4 they will suddenly exit to windows mid game after awhile with no explantion provided.

When COD4 has crashed when me little brother is on i have noticed an error report that didn't really make sense and the custom windows theme i applied disappears and reverts back to the classic.

Initally i thought it was just the graphics card driver, but i reinstalled it to no avail.

Heres my spec:

- Intel Dual core E8400 @ 3ghz
- 2 gigs of DDR 2 crucial ballistix tracer ram
- seagate barracuda 500gig hard drive
- BFG 8800 GT 512mb
- Corsair HX 520w psu
- DFI Lan Party DK X38-T2R Intel X38

- Antec P182 case

I installed the drivers from the DFI website, which were confusing as there were so many and they weren't really clearly labeled.etc, i dunno could have gone wrong there somehow.

Hope thats not to vague for you guys
Thanks in advance

[koala]

Hi, welcome to TSF

What did the error message say?

Which drivers did you download from DFI? Are you using the official nvidia Forceware graphics driver or Omega?

A 520W PSU, even a good quality one like the Corsair, seems a little low to be running an 8800GT. I have a 650W that is only just enough.

Enter your full system specs into this power calculator and set Capacitor Aging to 25%. Click the Calculate button, then add 30% to the total to allow for PSU inefficiency. Post back with this figure.

Check your temperatures and voltages with PC Wizard at startup with no other programs running. Take with a screenshot from the 'Voltage, Temperature & Fans' window. Leave it open on the desktop and take another screenshot of PC Wizard during gameplay by pressing alt-tab to switch back to the desktop. Post back with both screenshots so we can see how your system copes under stress.

[D00M]

Right using that energy consumption calcualter at 25% capacitor aging it recommends a 371 watt power suppy.

So..adding 30% of 371 watts to 371 watts gives us 482.3 watts?, thats is what you meant right?




And the Temperature readings, on boot:





Under load (UT 3):





This is probably normal but ive noticed in UT 3 the textures dont load properly instantly, you have to wait a couple seconds for them to become detailed.

Using the offical drivers from nvidia which covers alot of thier cards with the same driver.

Heres where i got the DFI drivers, basically downloaded all of them and installed the ones i thought applied:

http://us.dfi.com.tw/Support/Downloa...FLAG=A&SITE=US

Thanks for the quick reply

[SnowmanG20]

can i kindly ask if you bought this or did you get it from a torrent?

[D00M]

Originally Posted by SnowmanG20

can i kindly ask if you bought this or did you get it from a torrent?

Lolz, because of all the torrents in the background?, my bad.

I just downloaded the free version.

[koala]

Your calculator results how that you have enough watts with the Corsair 520W, but PC Wizard shows the PSU's +12V line is outside the accepted +-5% range at 12.83V. I would have expected it to change under stress, but even so it's still too high. This is a known cause of game lag and crashes.

The readings show that under stress your CPU and graphics card temperatures are heading into the danger zone at 64C/70C.

The chassis fan and power/aux fan aren't speeding up during gameplay, staying at 10rpm. Open the case and see if they are spinning. How many fans are there and how are they positioned?

This is probably normal but ive noticed in UT 3 the textures dont load properly instantly, you have to wait a couple seconds for them to become detailed.

Yes, that's normal in UT3 and some other games that use high quality textures, even with a good gaming card like the 8800GT.