Annoying Games/System Crash problem

savemejebus

Hi,

I'm having a weird problem when i try to play games on my system,

Basically the problem is, after between 5 & 15 minutes of playing a game (currently CS Source, HL2 or Tribes Vengeance) my machine freezes up totally). Can't get back to desktop or anything. I've tried updating direct x, updating drivers, omega drivers and googling for the problem but i can't seem to fix it.

I've checked my ram using memtest 86+ and my psu is an antec 380w so i think i can discout them as causes of the problem. I've the lates bios in the mobo and my machine is prime95 stable for over 24 hours.

I just can't figure it out. any help or suggestions would be really appreciated.

BTW I'm running an A64 3000+, msk k8n neo2 platinum, BFG 6600gt OC 1gig of twinmos ram. 2 hdd and 2 optical drives.

Yook

savemejebus wrote:

Hi,

I'm having a weird problem when i try to play games on my system,

Basically the problem is, after between 5 & 15 minutes of playing a game (currently CS Source, HL2 or Tribes Vengeance) my machine freezes up totally). Can't get back to desktop or anything. I've tried updating direct x, updating drivers, omega drivers and googling for the problem but i can't seem to fix it.

I've checked my ram using memtest 86+ and my psu is an antec 380w so i think i can discout them as causes of the problem. I've the lates bios in the mobo and my machine is prime95 stable for over 24 hours.

I just can't figure it out. any help or suggestions would be really appreciated.

BTW I'm running an A64 3000+, msk k8n neo2 platinum, BFG 6600gt OC 1gig of twinmos ram. 2 hdd and 2 optical drives.

That used to happen to me when i overclocked my x800pro too much. Not sure why though. :P

Endurance Man

It has to be either your psu or the temps are getting to hot, those 2 are your best bet. Antec are good but no1 is perfet . This used to hapen to me, amost the identical situation and i discovered my gpu was not being cooled enough. I would bet its either heat or psu

EDIT>> 380w for all that?? That may be your problem right there, u may wanna up that a bit.

Ruu_Old

dont think its the psu power requirements, its more likely a cooling issue on the graphics card. did you try lowering the resolution for the game and trying that?

Malafus

Endurance Man wrote:

It has to be either your psu or the temps are getting to hot, those 2 are your best bet. Antec are good but no1 is perfet . This used to hapen to me, amost the identical situation and i discovered my gpu was not being cooled enough. I would bet its either heat or psu

EDIT>> 380w for all that?? That may be your problem right there, u may wanna up that a bit.

Bigger PSU? Don't be silly - I've run more than that on a 350W PSU. I have a 3000+, 6600GT, 1GB ram, 1 optical drive and 1 HDD on a 350W PSU, And I did have a further 2 HDDs, but I moved them to another rig. Unless there is some crazy overclocking going on here, then 380W is plenty.

Sounds like a heat issue, TBH. Try taking out the GFX card, and cleaning the heatsinks on it. Blow some air through, clean out any trapped dirt and fluff.
The fact that it is dying at around the 10-15 min mark more than likely means this is a heat problem, most GFX cards take about that long to reach their "maximum" temperature. Overclocking makes it heat up faster, and to a higher final temperature.

Sgtshaft

Malafus wrote:

Sounds like a heat issue, TBH. Try taking out the GFX card, and cleaning the heatsinks on it. Blow some air through, clean out any trapped dirt and fluff.
The fact that it is dying at around the 10-15 min mark more than likely means this is a heat problem, most GFX cards take about that long to reach their "maximum" temperature. Overclocking makes it heat up faster, and to a higher final temperature.

Yep this diagnosis sounds about right.

HungryJoey

There are quite a few issue's with 3000+ 939 system's at the moment And similar spec's to you, That 380Watt's PSU is more then enough, there Quality.

Try this, Go into BIOs and turn off Fastwrite's and lower your AGP to 4X, Hopefully that might Solve youre Problem. Start up again and try playing some game's and comeback and tell us the situation.

Hj

savemejebus

thanks for the replies guys.

Just for the record, I havent' overclocked the system, the gfx card is supposedly 'pre overclocked' but i've never tried to push it further.

@ Ruu, I haven't tried lowering the resolution as i'm using an LCD screen and i was under the impression that you need to run these at their native resolution.

@ malafus, I'll give that a go. Have to install a soundcard anyways so will kill 2 birds with one stone.

Was wondering though, is there any software for reporting the temp of the gpu and possibly even putting it under stress to monitor the temps?
I'll take out the card and give it a clean

savemejebus

Thanks for that HJ, will give it a shot as well

HungryJoey

I wouldn't install Anything else at the moment just so you can elliminate the problem at once, dont want any more stuff in the PC that might cause confliction's...

your Best bet to get you Graphics card stressed out is Doom 3 Or 3D Mark 05. They are pretty GPU demanding !

Just trying Disabling " Agp Fastwrite's "
And " AGP 4X "

Malafus

Hey jebus, your nVidia tools will display the temperature of your card.
Go to your display properties->settings, and click Advanced, and under the "6600GT" tab will be "Temperature Settings". This purports to hold the correct temperature infromation, although I'd not be too sure of it's accuracy.

HungryJoey's suggestion is one you should try if cleaning the heatsink fails, but try it 'normally' first. 3DMark05 will do the job for stressing the GFX card.

Oh, and lowering the resolution will have very little effect(The GPU will still work just as hard to produce a higher fps). And yes, on a TFT screen, you are pretty much stuck on the native resolution, if you plan on reading anything onscreen.

savemejebus

Thanks for that info Malfus, its useful to know.

I tried HungryJoey's suggestion and it seems to have worked. Have played tribes for around an hour or so with no problems. I'll test it more thoroughly tomorrow and see if the problem re-occurs (will clean the heat sinks too).

Anyway after an hour of gaming the card is reporting a temp of 41 degrees, which doesn't seem too bad. will download 3dmark05 and run it then check again.

I'll let ye know how i get on. Thanks for all the help

HungryJoey

Jebus, I counted on that working, If you like you can try with AGP @ 8x again, Generally its the fastwrite's that affect's stuff but if you want to guarentee it stable i would leave it at 4X, There's barely any noticible difference. If i were you i would run somthing demanding just to make sure or one of the game's that you knew alway's crashed.

Them temp's seem pretty nice, No problem's there as GPU's Temps are fine up to about 80'c.

Glad it worked

Hj

Malafus

Hmmmm, yes. I have a 6600GT and it is idle at 40 degrees. Under load, it's close to 90. Are you checking the temperature while the game is running? Cause it "cools down" very quickly.... or at least the temperature reported drops immediately.

savemejebus

You were right malafus, that was idle, it dropped down in under 30 seconds. Started running 3dmark05 and during the demo transition could see the temp was heading for upper 70s. Can't tell you what it went to after that cos the damn thing crashed. Checked event viewere and found the same error for all my crashes

source 'nv' and error Silent Running: Stress test transition: L0 -> L0

damn thing is píssin me off now.

savemejebus

Took out the card, no dust clogging the fan but there was a cable close to it. Still, just to be safe i gave the fan a good clean and ran 3dmark05 with the side of the case off. It ran ok, temps went up to around 71 but thats all. The machine seems to be running ok now but it's nagging away at the back of my mind.

Anyone got any more suggestions? I could probably get the card replaced easy enough but want that as a last resort?

Half thinking about getting the card replaced and sticking an arctic cooler on the new one just to be safe

Malafus

If the machine is running fine, then leave it. Does it work with the side of the case on?
If not, it could just be a matter of lack of airflow. Adding a fan to the side/front of your case could help.

What sort of cooling do you have at the moment? Try and give as many details as possible.

savemejebus

just ran 3dmark05 twice with the cover on and no crashes, thankfully. Adding a fan to the side of my case isn't really an option without modding.

Currently my setup is as follows Antec sonata case, 120mm rear exhaust fan pushing lots of air. Arctic Freezer 64 on my cpu blowing out the exhaust fan and stock fan on BFG 6600GT OC. I could add an extra 120mm to the front of my case I guess but it might blow hot air from my HDDs back towards the gfx