paulinocicero

first of all, i'm sorry for my crappy english, cause i'm brazilian

i've just bought a new computer with this specs:

MB asus p4p800-e deluxe
p4 3.0E HT
MSI fx5700-vt2dr 256MB
2X512MB ddr pc3200 (400MHz) kington
tv capture PlayTV Ultra
HD 80GB SATA seagate
DVD-RW LG 4120
creative sound blaster live! 5.1

I'm not overclocking anythng

Now, this is my problem:

It seem to run just fine in windows end normal things

But when i play games (any game), it starts normal, but after a white the computer hangs, and everything stops responding

I can only shut down the computer by pressing and holdind for a while de shutdown button
with the reboot button nothing happens

Can anypne help me, please ??

Thanks in advance

Paulino Cicero

paulinocicero

i forgot to say that my power supply is a maxxtro with 400W

Quirky_puppy

Sounds like its either a windows issue, or a graphics thing.
Try updating every driver involved: Get the lastest drivers for your sound a 3D card from the manufacturers website, and make sure you've got the latest version of direct X.
I find this helps with a lot of gaming problems.

paulinocicero

waal, i've tried this
i'm going to try solving this **** and iíi post the results here

DrewUK

Hmm..I'm having the exact same problem.

ASUS P4C800
3.0E P4 HT 1mb Cache 800fsb
512 Samsung PC3200
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 128MB
XP SP2

I've tried different graphics drivers, and I'm sure I have the latest sound drivers, but still no luck. I thought it was the graphics card overheating, but I've got a case fan pointing straight at the graphics card and that's not helped it. I'm not sure what else to try :(

paulinocicero

well, first off all, when does your problem happens ???
during gaming too ???
and how does the game plays in your computer ???

oww, and what's your power supply wattagge and brand ??

mark3567

Hi,

Have you taken a look at ASUS probe on your motherboard for CPU temps? I would check this out while the computer is at-rest, and also right during high usage like a game. This might be a concern. Better yet, take a side panel off, put a fan toward the CPU to see if that helps while you are gaming.

Also, might try it with only one stick of Ram to see if that helps. Let us know what happens.

DrewUK

Games play great on my PC, until it hangs. Sometimes it's within 2 mins of starting the game, but other times I can play for about 15 mins before it hangs. It never happens in Windows, it's only happened when playing games.

It didn't do it when the PC was ontop of my desk with the case off, but as soon as I put the case back on and moved it under my desk it started crashing again.

Mark3567, the CPU temp when it's idle is about 35-40, and highest I've ever seen it was 52c and that was when I was encoding a movie. Is that too hot? Should it crash at that temperature? MB temp is about 30c.

I was wondering if the graphics card is overheating. It's not got a fan on, just a heatsink. Is there anyway of finding out how hot it's getting? It's a Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 128ddr.

Not sure what make my PSU is, but it runs at 400w.

mark3567

Hi,

The temps you report are pretty normal. And, yes, it could be the video card overheating. I would try the open case with fan blowing over the video card area and see if that does it.

Unfortunately, those video cards without a fan do overheat a lot....don't know why some engineer put them out without a fan, but after one sees how engineers build highways and intersections....well, that explains it. Some just don't have much in the way of logical thinking.

If that helps to have it open with a fan, then why not try to strategiacally place a fan in your case that blows over that area to cool it.

I would almost bet at this point from what you have said that you have found the problem with the video card. It might also be a good idea to tell us what type of cooling you have in the case (ie: fans and their placement)

paulinocicero

well, i've just chaged my PSU to a thermaltake 480W purepower
and placed extra fans

i'll test everything here and post the results!!

DrewUK

I read on another forum to fix this I have to turn the card from AGP 8x to 4x and turn off Fast Write. I did this and managed to pay Call of Duty for an hour and it never crashed :) But what's the performance difference between 8x and 4x? And what does this Fast Write thing do?

Let us know if the new powerpack works paulinocicero :)

paulinocicero

well, so far i'm not having any problems!!!
i'm going to make some deeper tests, but so far everything is running great!!

DrewUK

Cool :) Looks like it might be worth me changing my powerpack then?

paulinocicero

yeah
and i've been seraching and it looks like que nem p4 3.0e with prescot needs more power thand the northwood (i dont know how to write this)

ownage

ok over the last month or so my computer has been crashing on me when playing Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix it also crashes when i play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory i can play offline games but when i play an online game it will just freeze and i have to reboot or it will freeze asking to send an error report but the report don't say nothing or it just reboots its self it also crashes if i have msn on its own with the audio on and that just reboots the computer i have all the upto date patches for the games and never had np playing them till now i have replaced my power suply cpu fan my network card and my sound card and all have the upto date drivers the time it takes to freeze is not always the same sometimes i can be there 5 min and others i can be the 30+ min the temps of the the system and cpu are fine


my system is not great but is fine to play these games


OS WIN XP SP 2
RAM 768
AMD XP 2000+
400 WATT PSU
G-FORCE MX 440 WITH AGPX8 (with heatsink not fan does get hot to were it can't be touched)


i have taken out ram to see if it's a memory thing but no luck i have a new video card coming soon i have also tried with xp sp 1 and it still does it i also tried win 98 still the same thing and i can tell you i feel like smashing this up lol any help would be cool right now thanks

DrewUK

ownage, try looking at your graphics card settings and turn it down from 8x to 4x, and turn off Fast Write if it's enabled. It stopped my PC from crashing in games and stuff, and I've not noticed much of a performance difference either.

ownage

Fast Write is off but how do i change it from 8x 4x?