Computer Crashing while gaming. I think my GPU may be fried. I need help :(

[That1Kid]

While playing World of Warcraft on pretty low settings, I start to see giant shapes and random colors throughout my screen. Sometimes my screen just goes black, and my computer becomes unresponsive. The speakers stutter for a while. The computer stays on, though. I just have to do a manual power down to reset.

I have ran several GPU stability tests, and I do not see any strange shapes, and the computer doesn't crash.

I used RivaTuner to turn the GPU fan up to 100%. I have 4 case fans, with a fan on the heat sink thing above my GPU (don't know if that is what that is or not lol). Recently, I have taken the side of my case completely off, and have an electric fan blowing directly onto my GPU. That helped for a while, but the issue has come back. Now, it is worse than ever.

I underclocked my GPU. I've tried the lowest possible settings on everything. It is still messing up.

My system is as follows:

-Alienware Predator Case
-Computer Type: ACPI x86-based PC
-Windows 7 Ultimate 32 Bit
-ATI Radeon X1950 pro (256 MB). (Everest is saying I have 2 of those, but I'm pretty sure I only have 1? It is just listing it twice for some reason, idk)
-Rocketfish 500W PSU
-Monitor Dell 17" LCD flatscreen

- Motherboard:
CPU Type: DualCore Intel Celeron E3200, 2400 MHz (12 x 200)
Motherboard Name: Intel Bad Axe D975XBX (2 PCI, 3 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Glenwood-DG i975X

System Memory: 3328 MB (DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM)
DIMM1: Samsung M3 78T2863DZS-CE6 1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz) Have 4 of these.
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

- Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
IDE Controller Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
Storage Controller Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller
Disk Drive ST3500418AS ATA Device (500 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)
Disk Drive WDC WD3200AAJS-65VWA0 ATA Device (298 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive WDC WD5000AADS-00S9B0 ATA Device (465 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive HP DVD Writer 1270r ATA Device
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

-DMI:
DMI BIOS Vendor Intel Corp.
DMI BIOS Version BX97510J.86A.1334.2006.0714.1343
-DMI System UUID 76F10420-26E311DB-BF41000E-A68F75BC
-DMI Motherboard Manufacturer Intel Corporation
DMI Motherboard Product D975XBX
DMI Motherboard Version AAD27094-305

-BIOS Properties:
Vendor Intel Corp.
Version BX97510J.86A.1334.2006.0714.1343
Release Date 07/14/2006
Size 512 KB
Boot Devices Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM, ATAPI ZIP
Capabilities Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD, BBS
Supported Standards DMI, ACPI
Expansion Capabilities PCI, USB

-Processor Properties:
Manufacturer Intel(R) Corporation
Version Intel(R) Genuine processor
Asset Tag Unknown
External Clock 100 MHz
Maximum Clock 4000 MHz
Current Clock 400 MHz
Type Central Processor
Voltage 1.6 V
Status Enabled
Socket Designation J3E1

-CPU Properties:
CPU Type DualCore Intel Celeron E3200
CPU Alias Harpertown / Penryn / Wolfdale / Yorkfield
CPU Stepping R0
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU E3200 @ 2.40GHz
CPUID Revision 0001067Ah
CPU VID 1.1500 V

-CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 1200.0 MHz (original: 2400 MHz)
CPU Multiplier 6x
CPU FSB 200.0 MHz (original: 200 MHz)
Memory Bus 333.3 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio 10:6


I am sooo sorry for the long thread. I don't know if I posted the important stuff or not. Please let me know if you guys need any more information to be able to help me. I appreciate you reading this thread and taking time to help me out. I freakin out over this. I bought this computer 5-6 months ago. I'm pretty upset. Any help is appreciated guys. Thanks so much.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

It could actually very well be corrupt system ram, as video memory gets filled up, the GPU will use a portion of your system ram.

If you can, run Memtest 86+ on each stick individually, and then run it on all 4 sticks at one time, just to make sure it isn't system RAM.

 

[KSoD]

The computer stays on, though. I just have to do a manual power down to reset.

This is never a good idea. At some point your going to get system corruption and have to reinstall your OS. Considering that it is Win7 there is no repair option so that means you would have a tough task of even recovering your files. I would seriously consider stopping the play of WoW until you get this figured out and do more damage. End up having to buy new parts and not being able play the game at all while your system is down.

 

[That1Kid]

Thanks for the quick replies, guys. I'm going to try the memtest 86 thing (if I can figure it out). And I'm also going to use my old piece of junk computer until I get this fixed. I will post the results later. Thanks again guys.

Any more input or advice is greatly appreciated.

**Edit: I don't think I'm going to be able to use the memtest 86. The newest version doesn't support 4 or more gigs of memory. I have 4. The previous version does support, but I can't find the iso file. I see memtest.bin etc etc. But no .iso

I guess I will try the old version, but I won't be able to test all of them together at once. Which basically defeats the purpose.

 

[MindoverMaster]

.bin is an .iso image, just compiled differently.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

There is a memtest 86, then a memtest 86+, I am pretty sure Memtest 86+ works with 4 gigs at one time, also, try finding the one that will setup a flash drive so that it's bootable and will install the ISO on that, instead of on CD.

 

[That1Kid]

Sounds good. I'm gonna try that. Thanks guys. I really appreciate this. This computer is driving me insane.

 

[That1Kid]

I tried to run memtest86+, but I couldn't get it to boot off of my flash drive. I just ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool last night. It finished this morning, and reported no errors.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Window's version is crap. Are you sure you copied it to a pen drive correctly? In your BIOS, is booting from USB flash enabled?

 

[That1Kid]

I figured it wouldn't be any good. I have no idea if that is enabled or not. Lol, I'm not the brightest when it comes to doing this kind of thing. Thanks for your help