PC is fine, but when I throw 3D (games) my PC is just pants

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2006
Posts
2,916
Location
Northampton
I've been having some issues with my "awesome" PC and its just making me think is it worth throwing any more games at it or should I just stick to a B******* console?

You see when I built and brought this back about 2 1/2 years ago I thought it was awesome and handled pretty much anything thrown at it. These days it just gives me grief, after grief and just makes me wanna give up. However the IT technician in me wants to get the best of this PC and not having to spend any more money on it. So what wrong with it?

It crashing and hangs when playing games (BC2, Just Cause and etc)

Whats in it you ask? Good question.

CPU: Q6600
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35C-DS3R
Ram: 2GB Corsair PC 6400
GPU: MSI 5850
Hdd: Loads of porn
PSU: Corsair 620W

Right so, when throwing any 3D intensive games, it just hangs. Sometimes I might be lucky and get 30mins or more to play a good game. Sometimes it just freeze within 10mins.

Now I've done the excessive and rebuilt my PC hoping this would get rid of all problems but it hasn't. Its got nothing wrong with the software so its got to be the hardware. Using MSI monitoring program it doesn't reach 70C before klunching out. I've put it back to stock and that keeps on having the same effect. At the moment my hard drive is in RAID0 mode (2 x 250GB) but I've ran scan and test and it can't be anything to do with that. Ram? Well I can this be the issue? Doubt it. Someone give me a good application to test the Ram but using MS own memory diagnostic proves to be good.

When I first got this PC, I was cursing at 3.4GHz but when I try to hit those speeds, my PC thinks and just say "no" to me. So I dont know what else I can do or try? Please give me hope that PC gaming is still good to go and I dont have to resolve into console gaming for the rest of my life!

Any suggestions what I can do?
 
Well first off another couple of GB of RAM would be good. 2Gb isnt really enough for recent games.

Other than that youve got a very decent system.

Have you tried your GFX/PSU in a different system as my guess would be a problem with one of those.

Oh and try a different driver set for your GFX card. What OS are you running :)
 
The hardware looks fine. I'd first monitor the power draw, voltages, and temperatures over time, check Windows alert log, reset motherboard BIOS to factory settings, try another card, then the card in another computer.
 
Smells like either a problem with your overclock on the cpu/ram or a PSU issue to me (did it start happening since you added the 5850?)
 
olivier renault said:
The hardware looks fine. I'd first monitor the power draw, voltages, and temperatures over time, check Windows alert log, reset motherboard BIOS to factory settings, try another card, then the card in another computer.
Click to expand...

I have been monitoring temps during 2D and 3D mode and it does not get anything rediciously hot when used. It might be something to do with PSU...

olivier renault said:
I'm also rocking 2GB, it's not really a problem, except for the excessive paging.
Click to expand...

True, i've added an extra 2GB for my photoshop but it doesn't help with overclocking because of the various mem timings.

HangTime said:
Smells like either a problem with your overclock on the cpu/ram or a PSU issue to me (did it start happening since you added the 5850?)
Click to expand...

I beleive the 5850 was solid when I first got it, but i've set everything to stock at one point and it failed still. I dont know how a PSU can actually collapse over time. Anything I can use to test this?
 
My thoughts are either the memory or the GPU could have issues.

Do a full Memtest on the memory, and try a different GPU if you have one.

I've had both a faulty stick of ram and a faulty GPU over the years and the symptoms were identical to what you are experiencing.
 
your system is still good. no games will use all 4 cores on your processor. your gpu should play all games on max (except maybe metro 2033 and possibly crysis) no problem depending on your resolution.

what other games do you play? JC2 is fairly new, cud be the game itself? i knw BC2 crashed for a lot of people, although they have released updates that seemed to have fixed this.

a lot of problems are due to ram or psu, so could possibly be one of them as most people have suggested. the annoying thing is most people dont have spare compatible ram or spare PSU's so testing can be a pain. also you have a corsair psu they are very very good. if it hangs and doesnt blue screen isnt that usually psu probs? i thought RAM would blue screen. cud also be a major gcard problem that makes it hang.

Have you flashed your BIOS aswell?

tried reformatting? (usually last desperate choice)
 
You can monitor voltages from your PSU, see if there is anything weird going on. I'd say, ram or GPU. Try memory one stick at a time, and if you get the chance, another GPU. Also try games in Windowed mode, makes it easier if it's really unstable.
 
Phage said:
What sort of crash ? Is it a GSOD ?
Click to expand...

Not BSOD, both my monitors will crash into a scan line or something very similar. Then I can hear the game sound in the background still. I leave it for a couple of secs and i begin to see my mouse on one of the screen after moving it around.
 
Right I've used MemTest via USB stick and no problems detected. Just using Prime to give my CPU a good going to see what else is wrong. I've checked my power leads and all looks good. I've taken them out and plugged them back in. Lets see how it crashes now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom