Problem with new build

rebel28 · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:20

Hey all back once more for some of your genious advice,
i finished building my new rig a few weeks ago and after a few initial problems i got it started up drivers installed and everything running smoothly ... or so i thought. When i try to play counter strike source, dod source or bf2 i am getting some really weird problems.
The games load up and once i am into a server it starts off running fine, fps running around 150 and then after about 6 seconds the whole thing just freezes for about 4 or 5 seconds, shows the fps drop to about 30 and then it will go back up to around 150 and run fine for about another 6 seconds, it is really weird, it seems to happen almost on a cycle like every 6 or 7 seconds? :confused:

I am totally stumped on this one, i have installed The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and it runs that on full graphic detail without even blinking at it! so it isnt short on power or anything.

Heres the specs for the machine, any suggestions most appreciated!

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939)

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2

MSI ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache

16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card

Thermaltake Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower

Thermaltake PurePower 560W Silent Power Supply

Also while im at it i remember seeing a post about benchmarking but i cant find it? anyone know where i can get some nice benchmarking tools? prehaps shareware or free trials of 3dmark '04 or '05? not sure if im allowed to ask that here so if not sorry and ill edit my post?

thanks again for any helpful suggestions!

Jimi · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:24

Have you tried setting BF2 to use the second core of your processor in task manager? I heard there are some problems regarding BF2 and dual core processors.

trojan698 · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:27

Have you installed AMD's dual core driver and the MS hotfix ?

Jimi · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:30

You don't need the AMD driver, all it does is scales the processors speed down depending on what it's doing.

AMD Website said:
Allows the system to automatically adjust the CPU speed, voltage and power combination that match the instantaneous user performance need. Download this Setup Installation program (EXE) to automatically update all the files necessary for installation. This package is recommended for users whom desire a graphical user interface for installation. This .EXE driver is a user friendly localized software installation of the driver designed for end-users. This driver supports AMD Athlon 64 processor on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 SP1.

rebel28 · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:33

I havent tried setting bf2 to use second core, will do now tho, also i didnt know there was a special dual core driver! :eek:

not sure about the MS hotfix, where would i find these?

Jimi · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:34

Don't use the driver, it's not needed. Don't know about the MS hotfix though.

rebel28 · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:36

Ya i had started writing that reply before urs was posted Jimi

i guess ill look around the MS website for the hotfix but what is it a hotfix for? dual core or what?

Jimi · 1 Apr 2006 at 14:43

Dunno mate, that's the first time I've heard of it aswell. :confused:

brightside_ · 1 Apr 2006 at 16:49

MS hotfix fixed a similar problem I had in GTA, so it might be worth looking at!

rebel28 · 2 Apr 2006 at 17:01

i downloaded the and installed the MS hotfix and tried playing Day of defeat source, it worked perfectly for about 10-15 minutes and then suddenly went back to doing the same thing!

would it be overheating? i dont think it could be with a 120mm fan on the front and back and a 80mm on the side!? and also Elder scrolls oblivion must put a LOT more load on the system than source?

IntoTheVoid · 2 Apr 2006 at 17:06

Have you tried updating the bios? A beta bios fixed a lot of stuttering and freezing issues in games if I remember correctly.

Jimi · 2 Apr 2006 at 17:33

So does it only happen in Source, Rebel?

If it's only happening in Source then it must be an issue with that rather than your hardware as you would suffer from that stuttering in all your games surely.

Have a look on the Steam forums.

iraiguana · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:41

u should be able to download trail versions of the 3d mark stuff and run prime 95 and try occt as these are all able to stress test and bench ure set up. also run memtest. sounds like it may be a pagefile problem.

fulcrumer · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:17

Look at the thread on this MB in the MB section. Known problem fixes with a new bios.

rebel28 · 3 Apr 2006 at 01:45

After i installed the ms hotfix i only tested it with source, i should really have tried bf2 aswell before posting here again. i will test bf2 and a few others games and i will also look at the suggestions of the last few posts but right now it is 2am and i need bed before i fall asleep at the keyboard.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far and i will update this as soon as i test everything.

Jimi · 4 Apr 2006 at 00:23

This looks like your problem.