Freezing\Graphics mess up problems

[chevron8669]

Hi Guys.

Well a few months ago I tried installing new ram by my self which I had never installed any pc hardware before. During install I knocked my Nvidia 8600 and then knocked one ram chip against the other.

Since that day I was getting weird graphics problems such as graphics going messy and freezing, crashing etc.

So I got a technician friend of mine to check it out and I eventually replaced my Nvidia 8600GT with a new ATI Radeon HD4870 512mb. replaced old possibly damaged 2x 2gig sticks of ram with a new single 2gig stick and replaced the power supply from a 220 watt to a 600watt (did that before i got the new card installed) and the mobo was replaced from a ASUS to a GIGABYTE model.

Now even after that sure the problems are way less but during gameplay of games like GTA IV, half life, Garry's mod or so forth the game will freeze and the graphics will go a static blur and after that it could either stay like that or the screen could go blank but either way I have to do restart wth the reset button on my case.

Now I don't know if it is the graphics card but it could be because I still get an error in problems and solutions about video hardware error and the event name is LiveKernalEvent but it does not show up all the time after the error happens.

Could it be the tempreture of my graphics card? because on idle it runs at 69c and in game play it runs at 74 - 75c and if i turn manual fan control on it does nothing but if i have that on and set it at 90% and then turn ATI Overdrive on it dramaticly cools the GPU down to like 47c on idle but I tried a game (GTA IV) while doing that and it still produced the same errors.

Here are most of my PC's specs.

Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit.

Intel Core 2 duo 2.00ghz - 2.67ghz

2gig of DDR II 800mhz RAM

ATI Radeon Sapphire HD4870 512mb

600watt power supply

GIGABYTE S-Series GA-945GM-S2 Motherboard.

Thats about all the specs I am sure of.

So any ideas for a solution or reason or both to this problem?

Thanks heaps hope someone can help because it is really bugging me and costing me alot replacing things that may not even be causing the problem.

 

[chevron8669]

Sorry for double posting, but the problem is really annoying me and can not figure out what is wrong.

to be more clear here is a list of things that i had before when the problem and that i got now that i still get the problems.

Before

Nvidia 8600GT 256mb
Asus Motherboard
4gig of ram, 2 times 2gig sticks DDR II 800mhz
220 watt power supply.

After

Radeon Sapphire HD4870 512mb
GigaByte Motherboard
2gig of ram - 1 2gig stick DDR II 800mhz (took out old other 2 x 2gig sticks and replaced with this fresh one 2gig stick)
600watt power supply.

Thing is the computer runs fine with everything else even with full vista aero stuff on but when I get in any game it could last a few minutes to half an hour or only a few seconds and the game will freeze, and the graphics will go a static blur and after that it could either stay like that or screen goes blank and I will have to restart either way this same problem happened with all the "before" stuff but was even worse then that before the graphics went completely messed up etc but now with the after stuff it only does the just said problems.

 

[Nick]

What power supply is it?

 

[chevron8669]

Not sure of the brand name/model but my tech friend who installed it said its a really good one and it is super quite but I doubt it is the power supply because I got similar problems with all the previous stuff that was installed so it's gotta be the CPU or HDD but if it was either of them why only mess up in games and everything else runs perfect?

 

[Nick]

Well it could be the graphics card if you say you didn't have any problems with the PSU before. What temps is the card getting under load?

 

[chevron8669]

69c on idle and around 74 c in game, and with ATI overdrive on and manual control of fan on to 75% i can get the tempreture down to 45c on idle and it still does the freezing etc.

I doubt it's the card though coz this is the new card remember i replaced the 8600 which i thought was causing the problems.

 

[Nick]

So right, you had these issues before you upgraded your rig?

 

[chevron8669]

Yes the issues were the reason I upgraded some parts, at first I thought it was the graphics card, so i got the new one and the new power supply for it and still got the problems, next i thought it was the ram so i replaced my 2x 2gig sticks with a single new 2gig stick still get em then my tech friend replaced the motherboard thinking it was that but it wasn't.

 

[Nick]

Have you formatted your PC as of late? Also you havn't mentioned whether all your chipset and video drivers are up to date.

 

[chevron8669]

Yes I have formatted, and yes all my chipsets and video drivers are fully upto date.