Annoying system problems

Celt

Currently having niggardly problems, dont know if its the mobo, hdd, soundcard or a combination of them.

Problem 1:
PC randomly locks up after heavy use(by that I mean after playing raven shield online for 45-60mins, plus browsing for a few hours).

I *think* it is soundcard related, but how could the soundcard lock the whole pc up and mean I have to turn power off at the PSU?

Problem 2:
After a cold start, it reads ram,cpu,drives fine, goes to next screen and I get a black screen with a slowly blinking underscore( _ ), does nothing.
Reboot, and it ALWAYS boots to windows fine.
Thinking its a hdd(although never have any other problems with them) or a mobo problem.

System:
2*512mb geil pc 433 golden dragon
athlon 2500(not overclocked)
soundblaster audigy 2 ZS
KT6 Delta-FIS2R
Sapphire radeon 9800(non pro) 128mb(not overclocked)
80gb maxtor
120gb samsung
460w enermax PSU
TT xaser III case.

Onboard sound disabled of course.

Sir Random

Problem 1 sounds like overheating (very warm lately). Try leaving the side off the case and check your temps.

Problem 2 could be a psu problem, but an enermax 460w should be enough for your system. Do you have a spare psu to try?

Dr. Dre

Aye, I agree with sir random. Also moving the soundcard to a different slot can help too, experiment. I moved my audigy a while back and now get very few crashes, anytime it crashed before it used to mention the audigy in the error dump.
Do you get any error dumps or blue screen messages?

Celt

Originally posted by Dr. Dre
Aye, I agree with sir random. Also moving the soundcard to a different slot can help too, experiment. I moved my audigy a while back and now get very few crashes, anytime it crashed before it used to mention the audigy in the error dump.
Do you get any error dumps or blue screen messages?

Nope, the PC locks up, no error message, blue screen or anything.

As for temps, been happening off and on since winter, have 5 case fans, my audigy 2 is 4 slots from my radeon.

Sir Random

PC freezing while gaming is usually the gfx core. Maybe an Arctic cooler would help? Have you cleaned the gfx card heatsink? some heatsinks can get badly clogged with dust, making them useless.

Celt

Originally posted by Sir Random
PC freezing while gaming is usually the gfx core. Maybe an Arctic cooler would help? Have you cleaned the gfx card heatsink? some heatsinks can get badly clogged with dust, making them useless.

I'll give it a go.

btw, any kind of PSU testing program I can run?

Col_Loki

Try Prime95 (will stress temps, CPU overclock, PSU etc) and have a monitor open (like AsusProbe, hardware monitor, MBM5 etc etc) so you can monitor any change in your voltage rails.

Celt

Just ran prime95 for 2 hours, this was what mbm5 reported at the end.

[edit] **** just realised it didnt screenshot mbm's voltage reports...
was
1.67v vcore
3.31v +3.3
5.03v +5
12.04v +12
11.94v +12
5.3 +5[/edit]

TacT

If it's running prime for 2hrs and you can't play games for 45mins then it's more likely to be a driver problem with gfx/sound. What have you changed recently if anything?

Sir Random

Prime95 rules out your cpu/ram, but it doesn't stress your psu or gfx/snd cards.
Have you tried gaming with the onboard sound (audigy card removed)? that would help narrow it down. If it is the audigy, do what Dr Dre suggested and try it in a different PCI slot, but I still think it's your gfx card overheating.

Col_Loki

Prime95 rules out your cpu/ram, but it doesn't stress your psu or gfx/snd cards.

I find prime95 does stress your PSU, if your PSU is weak than prime95 will definetly show it up in the form of bad voltage readings or reboots. From the looks of things the PSU isint going to be the problem. (will also tell how good your cooling is)

But yea it puts 0 stress on gfx/snd cards.

Celt

ok, so cpu and ram are fine.

leaves mobo, gfx, sound.

I'm rma'ing the sound card, so leaves mobo and gfx.

Any ideas on programs to stress either?

Col_Loki

Loops of 3dmark generally does the trick for GFX stability.

Sir Random

You've already stressed the gfx card (by gaming) to the point of locking up your PC.
Most system crashes cause a bsod/reboot. The only time my PC 'freezes' is when I've o/c'd the gfx core too much, or it's overheated. Have you tried running with the side panel off? does the gfx card feel very hot when it crashes? (earth yourself before touching components)

knucks

Why dont' you try running dxdiag from the Run Command window..... it might show up something (checks sound AND graphics)....

k