Freeze/reboot during games.

Status
Not open for further replies.

dgault

Beta member
Messages
1
I recently upgraded my hardware for gaming. The system runs well if i'm web surfing or listening to music or browsing files. The problem is when i try gaming, after 15 minutes or so the screen will go black and i get an error message related to gpu driver.

Sometimes i can click out to the desktop and sometimes i have to reboot. Then some of those times it goes to a bios screen that says the cmos settings are wrong. I load the default settings and then reboot and go back into the bios to turn off the onbaord sound. That fixes things until i try gaming again.

Anyway, heres my specs:
P4 2.8ghz Northwood, 800 mhz fsb, Hyperthreading
MSI 865pe Neo-2 Platinum edition mobo
1gig ram, 400 mhz. 2 sticks 512
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 mgs ram
400W psu made by L&C
OS, Windows xp with sp2 and all critical updates
All curent drivers and chipset

My mobo has a program called corecenter that monitors the system temps, fan speeds, and voltages.
It shows my cpu temp at mid 30's on load but it jumps to 65-70c when i load a game. I might need to flash the bios as i read that there was a problem with the temps being read wrong.

Lastly, my psu is a cheap one (40$ us). It may be 400W but could it cause problems like this if it has cheap rails? I only have one case fan and the stock fans on components.

My dxdiag tests pass with flying colors and i see no problems in the device manager. No spyware (spybot S&D) and just ran two free virus checks, error free.

Any ideas?
 
i dont know your computer is nice maybe try getting a new fan or something and i is the screen blue when it crashes if so that happens a lot it can be the game also what game are you playing
 
its your psu. the problem is the low quality in the supply, you didnt have the problem before because you werent drawing the ammout of power you are now, by adding a powerfull vid card you put alot more stress on the psu. the wattacge jumps up and under load cheap sulpplys end up with ripples on the regulated rails, causing cpu miscalculations and if severe enough, can cause spontanious re-boots. also these cheap power supplys do not last long, and they dont have the protection in them that the more expensive ones have and if they blow they will usualy take something with them, usualy the motherboard or cpu. i suggest a new psu, get one that has at leat 450watts. dont spend any less that $90 (CND) on one. and if this doesnt solve your problem, you can at leas be assured that you wont need to worry about you mobo or cpu failing along with the psu.
 
I agree with 180mhz, i've got a similar system to dgault except i had mine running on a 350W Psu. I replaced the PSU with a nice new 600W and it works perfectly now.
 
Hmm, the 350 w PSU I got with my case works fine. And I think my system might even draw more power than yours dgault.

I think you might need more cooling. Cause a 30 degree jump on load is pretty big. Buy a better heatsink and make sure you have a good intake/outake system running through your case. Look into your Video Cards Idle and Load Temps, that might tell you something.

If not I guess it is just the PSU and I got lucky with my generic 350w. :)
 
Forchunet said:
Hmm, the 350 w PSU I got with my case works fine. And I think my system might even draw more power than yours dgault.

I think you might need more cooling. Cause a 30 degree jump on load is pretty big. Buy a better heatsink and make sure you have a good intake/outake system running through your case. Look into your Video Cards Idle and Load Temps, that might tell you something.

If not I guess it is just the PSU and I got lucky with my generic 350w. :)
what do you guys considder load?
i mean does compessed video playback use enough cpu to be considdered load?... if so my cpu only changes about 2 degreese
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom