Computer locks up when playing games

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Niven

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About three months ago I put a new computer together, it ran fine for two months until last month when it started locking up every now and then during games. Since then it has been getting progressively worse and is now to the point that I can't play any games without the computer locking up fast
my specs are:
Asus A8V deluxe
Athlon 64 3500+
Sapphire Radeon 9800 pro
sound blaster audigy 2 zs
seagate 160 gig hdd
2x512 meg sticks of corsair value select ram

I've run memtest86 for ~6 hours, 0 errors reported, I've swapped out the 9800 for a 9600, kept crashing, I've formatted, tried old drivers, tried new drivers, tried omega drivers. I've run motherboard monitor and an asus equivalent to record and temperature/voltage spikes, none. I've replaced my Power Supply with a brand new Antec 400Watt, I've checked all the fans, I've reseated the video card and removed all non-nessecery devices, I'm at my wit's god damn end here.
This computer cost me over $3000 and is meant to last me until I graduate in 5 years, I can't have it screwing up only three months in, this is insane and I can't afford to spend one more cent on it, I'm already poor enough

the cpu idles around 36-40 degrees celsius, and hits the low 60s at most during intense games, as for voltage it stays around:
+12: 11.8
+5: 4.919
+3.3: 3.23
Vcore: 1.502

oh yeah, I also updated bios

thanks in advance
 
Looks like u've tried pretty much everything.
But I still got few suggestions :)

-Scan for virusses/spyware
-format
 
god I wish it was that easy, those are the first two things I did unfortuneately
 
Maybe some incompatibility problems. Check all drivers like soundcard, chipset etc etc. Take out all unneccesary devices one by one until you find the part wich is causing this.
 
holy shit thats an expesnive computer! did you buy it as a bundle pack at futureshop? just kiddin umm damn man that really sucks wish I knew what the problem was. let me ask you does it freeze when a lot of sound is happening on games because I know my computer had that problem and my friends computer has that problem. I reformatted 3 times to fix @_@ luckly i didnt spend any money on it ^_^ ...piece of shit compaq
PS I cant wait for my new computer! almost the same as your specs. just better video card
 
it may be linked to sound, I haven't noticed anything though

it just locked up when I wasn't even playing a game, grr


that's 3k canadian, all the parts were ordered from www.ncix.com and I put it together myself
 
I don't really know, I doubt any power surges or anything could have caused trouble, I've got the computer on a nice surge protector and I'm pretty protective over her

What really confuses me is how the problem has been getting steadily worse over the month now
 
Check for BIOS updates/Chipset updates.Go over your bios and make sure your voltages are set correctly as well as your PCI bus speeds and AGP settings . If you`ve tried the AI overclock and set it back to auto you`ll still need to check your CPU voltage because it will not reset .I overclock mine manually because the AI is crap.When i returned it to AUTO my CPU voltage was still at 1.7v :[ . You can use the BIOS reset to default settings .Then go back through and disable what your not using.
Make sure you have good ventilation through the case .With that ATI card id recomend a slot or even 2 open below the card.
 
"Words of wizdom..."

One must scan ones Hard drive for one's Hard drive. Use Scandisk In "Advanced mode" to search for errors in the HD. It may take a couple of hours to complete depending on the size of the drive itself. :cool:
 
Try taking out all the hardware and seeing how things run with minimal pieces.

ie: Start the PC up with only ONE, RAM, Video, HD. Play a game. Works fine? Take out the First RAM and try the second. PLay the game again. Still works? Then add Sound card. Still works? add CD/DVD....etc.


The other solution....take it back to where you bought it from, tell them to FIX IT!! lol
Especially if its brand new and spent that much. Did someone build it for you? did you buy a warranty?
 
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