PC freezing on graphics

[bryn]

Problem: Since first building, PC freezes when running 3D applications, including about half the time when running 3Dmark2001/2003/2005 and games/sims like MS Flightsim 2004, and GTR demo.

Thought it must be the graphics card or drivers: no luck so went from ATI 800XT PCIe to NVidea 6800GS. No luck.

4x512MB Geil Value PC3200 RAM runs Memtest86 all night with no errors.

Prime95 runs for hours with no errors, max cpu temp 54C.

Where to look next?? I'm running out of ideas.

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3700 San Diego on Abit AX8 motherboard, stock cooling, no overclocking, latest BIOS.
2x250GB WD SATA drives, not in RAID configuration.
Creative Audigy ZS sound card.
Enermax 485W PSU in Antec Sonata case
XP Home

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Bryn

 

[bryn]

OFFTOPIC: but Ide read the faq's about signatures mate only 4 lines of text allowed.

Cant really say anything about your situation as Im not too much of a pc tech. good luck

Actually the sig is only one line I just put a divider in the main text to give folks all the info they would otherwise be asking me for.

Sorry you don't have anything meaningful to contribute - I really need some help here

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Bryn

 

[bryn]

When you changed the graphics card did you remove the ati drivers fully?

What are the voltages?
Download OCCT and run the 30min test, this will create a few graphs at the end showing the voltage rails and what they are at under stress.
If they get off too much then this could be the problem.

http://www.ocbase.com/OpenBeta/OCCTv0.91.exe

Thanks for that, I'll try the OCCT you suggested and report back.

Yep, I used Driver Cleaner to wipe out (I hope fully) the ATI drivers.

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Bryn

 

[bryn]

What temperatures are the cpu and gpu running at?

CPU as in original message only got up to 54C after 6 hours of Prime95, otherwise much lower. I don't have GPU figs to hand, but it would freeze quite quickly on some occasions and the case is very well ventilated at present.

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Bryn

 

[bryn]

How does it freeze?
I am having some issues with mine atm, I get graphic lockups and looping sound for a couple of seconds before the pc resets.
Have you looked in event viewer to see if there are any entries which will point you in the right direction?
I'm currntly thinking that my problems are hard drive related, but pinning it down is a nightmare.

Graphics display just stops on current frame, keyboard and mouse inoperative. It often stops in the Matrix shootout scene in 3DMark2001, but I have seen it freeze in one of the loading progress screens in 3DMark2003 - not a time when much 3D processing can be going on. Also I have on rare occasions had a blue screen which reboots automatically after a few seconds.

Where is the "event viewer" to be found? I don't know my way around these new fangled operating systems yet

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Bryn

 

[bryn]

right click on my computer and you should see 'manage', which takes you into 'computer management' you will see in there the event viewer and you want the system section, look in there and see what relates to your crashes, you may need to look up some error codes on the net to find out what they mean.

Thanks for that. Nothing found I'm afraid - nothing made the event log at all at the time of the freeze.

I have now got Everest working again to check the GPU temp. It is normally running below the CPU temp, which idles around 42C.

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Bryn

 

[bryn]

Thanks for all the replies. I run eTrust EZAntivirus.

I'll be out of the loop for the next few days. When I get a chance I'll rip a few more things out of the case to try to narrow it down a bit.

Later..
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Bryn

 

[bryn]

Success I think.

I am building a new Opti machine, so I pinched 2 of the 512MB GeiL Value RAM modules out of this beast. Since then I have been able to run 3DMark2001/2003/2005 without freezing, and MS FlightSimulator has been running non-stop for 4 hours.

Seems the machine didn't like having 4 RAM modules. A bit of a puzzle why it didn't because all timings are on Auto, no overclocking, and the motherboard/CPU/BIOS are supposed to be able to support 4 modules at the full DDR400 rate.

###### computers.

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Bryn