[Skaff]

Hi all,

First off:

Athlon XP 1700
512Mb PC-133 SDRAM
WinXP Prof
DX 9.0
Geforce4 Ti4200 128Mb(Driver 4.1.0.9, 11/18/2002)
Dell 17" monitor, little old...

First, the problem in the subject, then something else.

Ok, within the last week, if I play a full screen game, any game, my computer will seem to go into sleep mode after 1-2 minutes. The monitor powers down, the sound goes off, but the comp doesn't turn off completely. It will stay running fine all day in windows, but as soon as I fire up a game... poof.

So far, I've upgraded from dx 8.1 to 9.0, and updated my video card drivers to the latest version.

My other problem is that I cannot run my processor at full speed. If I turn it up to full, and again, try to play a game, my computer will lock. There will be a split second of static in the sound, and the screen is just froze.

I don't know if there's a connection, but does this sound familiar to anyone?


Thanks in advance.

 

[DoZZa]

Hi,

what temps your machine running at. It could be a oerheating problem if the CPU is faulty.



Dz

 

[johnwill]

I agree with the cooling problem, I'd fire up a program that uses 100% processor time and monitor the processor temperature. I'm betting it'll shoot up to the high 50's or 60's pretty quickly. If so, you need to address the processor cooling, either with a better heatsink/fan, or a better installation of the one you have.

 

[DoZZa]

i think i may have awnserd my own crashing problem, looks like im gunna need to re-do my heatsink installation my duron 1.0ghz runs at 53 full load, wich i think is a little high.

anyway back to the topic.

Dz

 

[Skaff]

I had someone else suggest that it might be an overheating issue.

My CPU runs at 48 degrees C normally, and got up to 50 degrees and possibly beyond while I was gaming. This is with the side of my case open. I haven't tried it with the case closed yet. And, of course, this is all running at 1.1Ghz, instead of the 1.47Ghz it should be running.

 

[DoZZa]

hmm, something aint right someware then.

My machine runs that hot normally and i only get a few lockup/crashes, but i can play games for a while.

are u running games full whack with all the options turned up, if u are then drop them a couple of settings have a looksee and if it locks up agfter a longer time then you def need to work on your cooling, if not i drop them again and see what happens, if it makes no diffrence, it could be a dodgy CPU PSU or RAM stick....

Try that and see if that helps

Dz

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

high temp cpu

reading this post got me curious so i went and looked at my processor temp and i am bewildered. you guys are saying high 50's is high. well, mine idles at 63 and peaks at 69 while i am in games. that does sound high. on the other hand, i have never had a problem with over heating, all of my problems have been limited to viruses, and hard disk failures. i will say i do have a tibit of info that pertains to the topic. i had a game that ran in a funny dos mode, and i had my idle sensitivity settings so high that windows didnt know i was doing things in dos. i am not sure this is the problem you are having, but the only way i found to change that was to shut off the suspend feature. with power management disabled, my pc never goes to sleep while i am in any game. otherwise, id say that you should check the output of your power supply. hope you find this useful.

 

[Skaff]

I have since optimized the airflow through my case, and got the temps down about 10 degrees celsius. I haven't had the problem since, although I haven't had much room to test, since another problems has developed... Oh how I hate computers.

Different CPUs have different temp limits, or so I've been lead to believe. From posting on another forum, I've found that most scary computer people run their Athlon XPs in the 30-40 degree range.