PC crashes when playing games, help please!

Merrpip

Merrpip

Merrpip

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Joined
12 Mar 2009
Posts
15
I recently bought Empire: Total War and decided to upgrade my PC so i could improve the quality of the gameplay. I bought an extra 1GB of RAM, a new Nvidia 9800GT video card, and a 550W power supply.
I then loaded up Empire after fitting all the new gear, watched the introductory video which had clearly improved in quality due to the new gear, however after about 3 minutes the game crashed, with the screen becoming highly distorted and the sound turning into a constant murmour. I then have to turn off my whole PC as nothing responds once it has crashed.
I tried playing medieval 2: Total War and it worked fine for about 1/2 an hour. I played a quick battle with settings on high and the quality was astounding, but then when the battle finished it crashed again in exactly the same way as Empire did. I thought it may have been due to overheating but i checked the videocard temperature using RivaTuner and it crashed at 59C
Everything is fitted correctly and working fine until i start playing a game
I may have made an error buying a cheap PSU because it only cost me £19, but im not convinced that its the cause of the problem

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas of what could be wrong??

These are my specs:

Intel (R) Pentium (D) CPU 2.80GHz
2GB RAM
Nvidia 9800GT 1GB video card
550W Win Power PSU
 
hi,

i have also had this problem, i have 2 9600gt's in SLi and i had my cpu oc'ed to 3115MHz then i down clocked it back to stock (2400Mhz) this solved the problem temporarily but then it came back. i also thought it might be a heat issue, but my gpu's were only at 31, and 36 respectively. it may well be the PSU, you should definately not hav a 19 quid PSU, thats way too cheap. what brand is it?
 
'Win Power' is the brand i think

Im far from an expert when it comes to this sort of stuff

I would replace the PSU with something of a better quality but i dont want to until i know for sure that its the PSU causing the problem
 
You need to perform a thorough driver uninstall, clean, and then install new drivers. Then check your temperatures when in-game by using RivaTuner.

Also run MemTest to check your new RAM isn't b0rking anything.

If there's no indication of the cause of the instability, I'd buy a decent PSU and see if that fixes the problem :)
 
Temps and RAM is fine, will try reinstalling drivers

I dont really want to go buying a PSU just to test if its the problem, cos i really havnt got the money to do it
 
but surely buying a new PSU and it not dieing and taking the rest of ur pc with it, is cheaper than having to buy a new pc???!?!? trust me you dont wwant to be using a 19 pound PSU
 
Just to let you know, the fan on the graphics card was faulty, it was spinning but not cooling the device, so im going to get it replaced and im hoping that will solve the problem

Thanks very much for the advice
 
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