Video Hardware Error

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Bountyhuntre

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Hello Everyone! I'm a bit of a tech rookie and I'm trying to find a solution to my problem, any help is appreciated. =).

MoBo - MSI 770-C45
RAM - 2 Sticks of 2GB - 4GB total - OCZ
Graphics - ATI Radeon 4830
PSU - Antec Earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12v v2.0
Monitor - 22" Acer, DVI
HD - WD 150 GB
Optical - DVD
Fans - many.
OS - Win 7 Pro
Video Card Drivers in use : ATI Catalyst Suite
MoBo Drivers: Win 7
Other things; memtest works fine, sorted out RAM issue when I first built my computer, drivers are up to date.

~*~
To my dismay, StarCraft II keeps on crashing quite frequently. The game crashes and then I'm greeted with a Blue screen; on start up it says "Video Hardware error". I've made sure my drivers are updated and such, but to no avail.

Windows 7 tells me this,

"
Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature
Problem Event Name:LiveKernelEvent
OS Version:6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID:1033
Files that help describe the problem
WD-20100727-0052-01.dmp
sysdata.xml
WERInternalMetadata.xml[

I've talked with some people on the Windows 7 forum, and we have sorted out the issue of it being a "software" problem. I'm thinking either the PSU is simply not enough wattage, or a faulty GPU? But either is puzzling because I can play other games fine on High settings; any suggestions?
 
Download Hardwaremonitor.
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
And post a screenshot of your idle temps, and as close to load as you can.

You said you can play other games fine on high settings? Maybe Starcraft 2 is pushing your GPU in a different way. Try Furmark, and monitor your temps while it's running (for at least 20 minutes).

[GPU Tool] FurMark 1.8.2 Available - 3D Tech News, Pixel Hacking, Data Visualization and 3D Programming - Geeks3D.com

Also, run LinX. LinX will push your processor to the limit and create maximum heat so that we can see your max load temperatures, and it will also immediately stop upon any sort of errors, which will let us know if your set up is unstable.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201670

After this, run Memtest. Preferably you should burn a CD and boot from it to run Memtest, as it will give more reliable results. Memtest will test your ram and report any errors. This will let us know if memory could be causing system instability.

Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic
 
Thanks for the reply!

Beginning with CPUID,



picture.php


For Furmark my minimum temperature was 45C, my max was 65C; I ran it for twenty or so minutes, the average was around 60-65C.

Here are the Linx reports, Current date/time: Sun Aug 01 17:54:11 2010

CPU frequency: 2.607 GHz
Number of CPUs: 3
Number of threads: 3

Parameters are set to:

Number of tests : 1
Number of equations to solve (problem size) : 10000
Leading dimension of array : 10008
Number of trials to run : 20
Data alignment value (in Kbytes) : 4

Maximum memory requested that can be used = 800844256, at the size = 10000

============= Timing linear equation system solver =================

Size LDA Align. Time(s) GFlops Residual Residual(norm)
10000 10008 4 26.690 24.9858 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 27.314 24.4145 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 27.354 24.3790 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 29.198 22.8397 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.963 25.6853 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 26.240 25.4139 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 26.088 25.5619 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.865 25.7830 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.839 25.8085 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.851 25.7961 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.860 25.7871 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.835 25.8122 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.841 25.8066 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.833 25.8150 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.824 25.8233 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.842 25.8052 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.885 25.7627 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.908 25.7402 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.837 25.8105 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002
10000 10008 4 25.831 25.8167 9.637818e-011 3.398392e-002

Performance Summary (GFlops)

Size LDA Align. Average Maximal
10000 10008 4 25.4324 25.8233

End of tests

For memtest, I know it's short, but I only ran it for an hour. In that hour no errors were found.

Also, if it's any relevance, I discovered I can play SC II on low settings with few to no crashes. It's weird, WoW also gave me the same issues, I just never cared to look into it.
 
Well it's good to see that you took the time to run these tests.
I see no evidence of any sort of instability from the results you have shown, but there is still 1 thing I'm not sure about. That power supply is 430w. I'm no expert on this but I did a bit of research and this is what I came up with.

Radeon 4830: TDP 110w
Phenom II x3 720: TDP 95w
Fans: 2 to 3 watts each.
Hard Drives: 2 to 10 watts.

Remember that if any of these are overclocked, beyond a certain point they begin drawing LOTS more power.
Also, you have that 4th core unlocked which is going to make the CPU TDP around 125.
Add this together and you're looking at around 300w if your system was stressed to the max. Like I said I'm no expert. This is just what I could come up with trying to help you.

I notice in CPUID Hardware Monitor that your +5 and +12v rails are very low. +5 is showing 3.0 and +12 is showing 4.31. This could be inaccurate, and it probably is, but still those are very very low numbers. If these are even close to accurate then that is most likely your problem.

If the graphics card didn't choke on Furmark, the CPU didn't choke on LinX, and the ram passed Memtest, then the PSU is what I'm looking at as far as my guess as to what could be wrong. Of course it could be corrupted files, but by what you say it sounds as if it's a power issue.

The games run fine on low detail, which doesn't tax the system very much. On high detail the GPU and CPU are working hard, as well as the HDD, Northbridge, and RAM.

HWmonitor shows all 4 cores at 100% and the voltage on +12 and +5v rails very low. Also, this is a Phenom II x3 720 (triple core) with an unlocked core?. Either of these could be the issue.


At this point it's just a guess but I'd guess it's the Power Supply.


Try running Furmark and another pass of LinX simultaneously. See if that creates any problems for you.
 
Yeah, actually I haven't unlocked the fourth core. Today I purchased a 650 watt power supply, it improved SC I would say 60%, but I'm still experiencing those stupid crashes. Instead of full on Blue screening, the computer simply hangs. I suppose that is somewhat of an improvement? lol.

I'm really clueless now, SC was running fine on Ultra settings, but it was chugging a bit and I turned it down to High. It ran very smooth on the latter, but keeps on crashing? This is simply beyond frustrating, and I really don't want to buy a new video card anytime soon.


EDIT: Apologies for the triple post; the browser kept showing me I only posted once.
 
A 430 watt power supply sounds a little weak to me. You really don't won't to push the power supply past 80% of it rated output. If you need 430 watts and your power supply is rated at 430 watts then it's continuously running at 100%. It won't live long and any fluctuation can cause a crash. I would get a 500 watt as a minimum and a 600 watt as a safer solution.
 
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