Why does my PC crash ?

Moonpie2 · 15 Aug 2007 at 16:36

Hello there.

When attempting to play any game, it is almost a 100% probability that it will die on me within 10 minutes.
I have no idea why.
The PSU is well capable of running my radeon 9700pro, my system doesn't run overly hot even under full load.

What usually happens is that I'll hear a tiny noise from my case, like a little click, and then in the next 5 seconds any SFX currently playing will get stuck in a loop swiftly followed by the screen completely freezing on the last image and the mouse and keyboard becomes unresponsive.

Pressing reset/power is the only way out.

Does this sound like a problem anyone else has had ?

Cheers

Admiral Huddy · 15 Aug 2007 at 16:42

Have you changed anything?

How much memory do you have?

it sounds memory related to me.. Might be worth downloading and running memtest86+ just to eliminate your memory.

Does this happen only whilst gaming?

Moonpie2 · 15 Aug 2007 at 17:26

Yeah, my PC is solid as a rock during windows use.
Its only games that make it crumble

I have SP2004. I'll run that for a while and see what happens !!!

What's making the click sound though ? :confused:

Admiral Huddy · 15 Aug 2007 at 17:29

Moonpie2 said:
Yeah, my PC is solid as a rock during windows use.
Its only games that make it crumble

I have SP2004. I'll run that for a while and see what happens !!!

What's making the click sound though ?

Sounds like some sort of thermal cut out switch.. Check memory first, then concentrate on the PSU.

Have you changed anything?

DavidB · 15 Aug 2007 at 17:34

You could try running something like orthos to stress the CPU just to check the same thing dosnt occur.
But yeh memtest is probably a good idea.

Moonpie2 · 15 Aug 2007 at 18:04

Well after 30 minutes of SP2004 (with folding running in the background) its still running fine with no errors and the CPU has only got to 64 degrees.
Ok, I know that's quite warm buts far from dangerous.
I also know that 30 minutes of a stress program isn't a great indicator but games normally die in 10 minutes or so.

Also, no I haven't changed anything recently, but its never been a stable gaming platform.
I hardly ever PC game so that's never been a problem until now (playing a bit of Albatross18)

I'll monitor my voltages for a bit too (while I'm still stress testing)

Moonpie2 · 15 Aug 2007 at 18:15

Possible problem found

When I am not running a stress test (and only have folding running) the lines are straight with only the tinyest ammount of fluctuation.
While running SP2004, I get the following :confused:

So..... duff PSU ??

Moonpie2 · 15 Aug 2007 at 18:19

Update !!

Its Speedfan that makes those lines freak out !!!
What the .... chuffins ???

(maybe it doesn't like 2 hardware monitoring programs running at once ?)

Moonpie2 · 15 Aug 2007 at 18:42

Even better update !!!

I believe its good computing practice to have the fan working on your GFX card ??

I wonder how long its been clogged up like that ??
Hehehe

Damn I need that upgrade soon.