greenr18

For whatever reason, all the games on my computer cause screen lock up eventually when playing them. My PC is new; just assembled by my brother from parts I purchased and we are at a loss of why this is happening. When playing the games I have installed on my computer (Call of Duty 4, Fallout 3, Second Life, and Left 4 Dead) usually a game will run for anywhere from 3 minutes to 5 hours flawlessly then the screen will lock. As in the display does not change. Sound can still be heard, though NOT looping, just as if everything were fine and the screen were not locked, you could move a mouse if the game locked in an options menu and still hear clicks, etc if it were to pass over buttons. So everything is still running, the screen just locks. I currently have Direct X9.0C installed, and I had the latest drivers for my video card installed, however my brother had me remove them and install the ones on the CD in hopes it'd help but it did not.

Specs for my computer are as follows:

Operating system: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
Processor: 3.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon II X2 250
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cach
Ram: 2 gig
Motherboard: (whichever these is it, don't know if its worth mentioning since im assuming this is a videocard issue but there's an integrated Geforce 6100 in the motherboard) Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. M61PME-S2P
Enclosure Type: Desktop Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. M61PME-S2P
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. F4 08/12/2009
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT (pci express 16, 512mb)
Soundcard: (someone had told me its possible a soundcard could cause such a thing i dont see the logic in that but just in case:) Realtek High Definition Audio (integrated)


I scanned my computer with Eset Smart Security, no viruses or anything were found. Used Auslogic's disk defrag and registry cleaner, didn't help at all. I forgot to note that for whatever reason with Second Life whether using the regular client or Emerald viewer (all latest versions) usually after the game crashes I cannot even start the application with out the screenlock, even before logging into the game and thus before rendering anything 3D. I assumed at first my videocard was defective, my brother no longer thinks so, I've had the following suggested to me:

Problem could be due to a defective motherboard or processor

defective videocard

Using a DirectX10 designated card on Windows XP and with 9.0C

Driver conflict

defective RAM

but anyways, thats all I know, don't think I forgot anything. Hope someone can help and hopefully I can get this solved, quite frustrating to have such problems with a new computer. Thanks in advance.

makinu1der2

Post the make/model of PSU including wattage.

List the temps and voltage from the BIOS.

SeanK86

May potentially be an issue with the GPU overheating. Have you modified the fan speed at all? Does the system get adequate air flow?

Are your nVidia Geforce drivers up to date? Have you installed proper chipset drivers?

I've encountered similar errors caused by my GPU overheating. Rivatuner is a great tool for nVdia cards for kicking up the fan speed.

greenr18

PSU wattage is 430, dont know make or model, it came with my case which is some cheap no-name chinese thing the company that sold me this computer slapped my mobo, cpu, and ram into. I have not modified the fan speed at all, as far as adequate airflow I believe it should be ok; its not as airy as my very large and bulky old case but that case is damaged beyond repair (don't ask) about the drivers, as I said I WAS using the latest ones for my card, however my brother told me to uninstall them for the old ones so I installed the old ones again, that did not help though I did notice some games that would just flat out lock went from locking multiple times and then continuing before locking to the point of reset. I have the proper chipset drivers. I'm afraid I don't know how to get temperatures or voltage readings from my bios though...

greenr18

bump.

makinu1der2

Temps and voltage should be listed in the BIOS maybe look for PC Health or similar.

At this point I would suspect the PSU as not providing enough power.

greenr18

i dont know about psu and videocards as far as compatability and wattage for use, etc etc but i brought that up with my brother he seems to think i have more than enough power from the psu and that it isnt that, i guess he based that on my videocard not needing an extra power source, it just pops into the pci express 16 slot, nothing else needed. i wonder if THATS the problem, that it DOES need extra power and to be actually PLUGGED in, not just a bigger psu, im not going to lie im quite behind in this technology though, dont know if this one has a plug or not on it. oh and now i have a new problem, i NEVER had any viruses or malware, etc on my pc before but yesterday i accidentally clicked on a popup and got like 400 i believe ive removed all except one that i cant seem to get rid of as its an infected windows file, its wiaservg.log (note G not C as ive been told C is the most commonly infected) vendor is listed as Malware.Trace. delete it and it come back just as infected, cant quarantine. im currently on a laptop because i fear hookign my pc up to the internet with that, i scanned with malware bytes in safemode and eset smart security, both removed none actually fixed or got rid of it as it comes back, ive tried Dr. Delete as well a program to delete files in use, doesnt work, PC resets. Wonderful.

dai

your power supply need to be up here at a min

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...corsair%2b550w

Phædrus2401

^THAT is the problem. If it was a quality unit, 430W would be more than enough. But a garbage power supply can be as bad as a quality unit that's 200W weaker. First off it probably has an anemic +12V rail that would embarrass a 350W PSU. It was also probably rated in a 25 degree Celsius environment, which is unrealistic. A PSU needs to be tested at 50C, but only quality manufacturers do that. If it was tested at 25C then that knocks another 50-100W off the power rating. Plus it probably has shoddy group voltage regulation, high electrical noise levels, and slow response time. So you don't have a 430W PSU. You have a POS 250W PSU with a label that says 430W.


You want something like these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ir&name=Active

greenr18

looks like im gonna get a new power supply soon then, i wanna thank you guys for all the help. does anyone know anything about the wiaservg.log thing? its a 0kb file and when opened it comes up in notepad and completely empty yet malware bytes and eset say its infected, like i said deletes and comes back just as infected too. its the only file that comes up during scans on both now. Remind me not to click so fast, stupid popups and viruses... i wanna avoid a rebuild if possible, at the very least be able to get my Fallout 3 saves safely with out threat of more viruses or infecting the laptop hard drive said saves would transfer to

Phædrus2401

Aaaaand apparently you have a virus. Please start a thread in the Virus/Spyware section at the top of the forum, the techs there are trained and certified to deal with viruses; we're just the hardware crew.

greenr18

thank you

dai

http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...oval-help.html

greenr18

So new power supply and it still does this. Well, I quit. I hate computers. Anyone want to buy this POS?

dai

fixing the psu was only the start in many cases the underpower may have corrupted files drivers ect

d/load and run the h/drive makers diagnostic utility on the h/drive

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

if it comes up clear run

chkdsk /r

check the computer is clean

http://www.techsupportforum.com/secu...oval-help.html

SeanK86

I would still suggest downloading and installing rivatuner and upping your GPU fan to 100%

Download rivatuner from here:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTune...nload-163.html

Extract and install via the .exe.

Once you open rivatuner you'll see Driver settings, underneath it'll say ForceWare detected. Click the arrow next to customize, choose the first option (System settings)

Click the 2nd tab, Fan, click the drop-down box to direct control. Slide the performance 3D slider to 100%. Check the box "Apply fan settings at Windows startup" and click apply then okay.

This will kick your fan speed up to the max and, hopefully, fix your issue. As I've said before, I've had problems with my GPU overheating and causing games to fail after a format when I forgot to reinstall rivatuner.

The only downside is it's rather noisy.