Computer Crash When I Play Any Game

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Antec is good to stay with.

If you get a PS with a 24 pin plug, make sure the extra 4 pins are removable, most are, if you still need the 20-pin.

A good, high powered power supply is a good thing to have, as an upgrade, whether you "need" it or not. The power supply isn't some piece you replace ONLY when it goes bad. It needs upgradeing just like any other part.
However, I still can't say if that is your issue. I'm just saying, if you have the money, it's not a bad buy either.

And where do you see "PFC"? I don't see what you mean.
 
-----------------------------
SPEC
Type ATX12V
Maximum Power 430W
Fans 1
PFC No
Main Connector 20+4-Pin
Dual +12V Yes
Power Good Signal 100-500ms
Hold-up Time 17ms min.
---------------------------
the above was where the PFC was mentioned on the antec link.

PFC means:

Power Factor Correction (PFC)
A method of increasing the power factor of a power supply. Typically referring to a European requirement. Needed when input power is above 70 watts - normally 60 watts of output will pass without special circuitry. Elpac power supplies with FWP or MWP in the series name have PFC circuitry included.

Power Factor:
Power Factor is defined as the ratio of actual power to apparent power in a circuit. Ideally, we want the input current waveforms and input voltage waveforms to match and be in phase. When this happens we get Power Factor of 1 (1:1 Ratio) which is the maximum in efficient power handling. Power Factor is important in switching power supply discussions because, unlike traditional electrical devices (those with resistive loads such as light bulbs, heaters etc.) which are driven by a smooth sine wave, switching power supplies draw input current in high peaked pulses that are out of phase with the input voltage waveform. This mismatch of waveforms will cause inefficient power handling resulting in higher operating costs and may also inflict harmful stress to the electrical wires and network.

I hope this helps you understand a bit more. And Antec is deinately a great choice if buying a new PSU and you have the money :)
Hope all goes well.
 
i uninstalled my games and cleared out my page file, defraged, reinstalled my games (steam, call of duy 2, NFSU 2, NFSMW, BF1942). i tried steam first it worked flawlessly. i tried NFSU 2, it worked flawlessy (better than b4). i tried NFSMW, and it crashed again. i think my system is crashing only on graphically and memory demandng games. but after NFSMW crashed, i restarted and tried steam again, it crashed. i restarted again, and it crahsed. so i think when i reinstalled and played MFSMW it ruined my flow of working games. im thinking of buying the Antec NeoHE 430w PS, so i hope this helps.
 
Very odd indeed.
Did it crash with a bugcheck? A BSOD? Or some kind of error this time?

How long could you play before it crashed? Did you have your settings up high?

Anyhow I hope the PS helps, otherwise I might point a finger at the video card. But that depends on how it crashes and the errors it gives.
 
hey, did you end up checking the memory with something like memtest????
if you did, how did it go? any errors at all?
 
i checked my old memory w/ memtest, there was no errors. i had about 2 new sticks of memeory added to check it and there were no errors.

my settings are not that high really. only up to a point where grahics are aesthetically plaeasing enough and has enough room to run somewhat smoothly wihtout lagging.

no i didnt get any BSODs or errors when i restarted. the thing is the game loads, but right when its about to play the EA GAMES intro video and then freezes and has some sound glitches, like the sound is being forced to play but its not playing and u hear wierd glitching noises. so i have to shutdown manually by holding the power button and then i restart. on counter-strike, i load the game fine, i try to find a server to play, i double click it and when its about to load the map, it crashes completely (ie by itself w/out me manually restarting).

like i posted in my first post when i started the thread, if i wait like 10-15 min after loading windows, the games work wilthout freezing, locking up, or crashin but i still get the voltagge drop errors. its just that when i load windows and try to play right after it freezes and i have to restart. but it does crash at times but not as often as it freezes.
 
You're positive it is a "complete" freeze? You have absolutely no keyboard or mouse control?

This is a hard one fellas. Unless there is some really odd software bug, one single app or dll or other thing that is near impossible for us to find this way, it would have to be a hardware problem.

The only way to rule out software is to reload.
And unless you have a full system hardware testing suite that runs outside of Windows, we can't pinpoint hardware either.
Without a BSOD and bugcheck (because the game just freezes) it makes it hard to track errors.

If it is hardware, look into the PS first, then video card.

Otherwise, check your Windows error logs and see if there is anything useful in there. By right-click My Computer-manage-event viewer. Look for errors, not info or warnings.
 
Faulting application idriver.exe, version 8.1.0.293, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x000106c3. (this was from uninstalling NFSMW i think) in apllication folder

Faulting application wmplayer.exe, version 10.0.0.3802, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x035bdd76.

Faulting application aim.exe, version 5.9.3861.0, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x1221254f.
(i get a lot of errors from aim and whenever it loads up it has a debug problem:A runtime error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line 13 Error: 'adsD' is undefined. Yes No)

The hpdj service failed to start due to the following error:
The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service (i had alot of these) in system folder

and yes it is a complete freeze. no mouse control, no keyboard control, nothing.
And unless you have a full system hardware testing suite that runs outside of Windows

is there such a suite that i can use? which would u recommemed becuz i can get my hands on one if i knew wat it was. (.......a little creative invention called bittorent)

thank you both Vigilante and moltenz.
 
I wouldn't say "bittorent" to loud around here, as the anti-copy folks will bring the wrath down on you.

Try tufftest, they may have a trial or something.

As for your errors, let's see:

-) idriver.exe belongs to the Installshield Wizard and should not be running unless you are installing software. I don't think your games are trying to use this wizard, so I'm not sure we can blame this.

-) wmplayer.exe, is the Windows Media Player, more logical as it has to do with sounds, and programs/games can use the MP APIs to play sound with. You may want to go and download and install the latest Media Player 10.

-) aim is your AOL instant messenger. Do you use it? Can you remove it? Or then you may want to get the latest version of that and reinstall as well.

-) hpdj sounds like an HP DeskJet printer driver service. You said you get a lot of these? Are they all for hpdj, or are there others as well? For this you can try uninstalling your printer temporarily. Then download and install the latest driver from HP after testing.

Now that you have seen your error logs, go back and right click each of the 3 logs and click "clear log" or whatever, you don't need to save a copy. Clear your logs and then keep an eye on them. See if any particular error shows up about the same time as you getting a freeze up.

good luck
 
thx guys i just tried the tufftest trial. i got alot of errors on my hardrive. it said the log was already full of errors so it didnt all of them but they all seemed to be the same error. it was error code F004 if that helps. maybe my hardrive has bad sectors. hiow can i fix this or check to see withn anotehr program to test my hardrive specifically.

ill try to clear the logs and see wat happens at the exact same time when i crash and ill post results. the hpdj errors was were actually pretty much plentyful and most of my errors were of this kind.

btw i do have all the latest versions of those above programs mentioned
 
try uninstalling your hp deskjet drivers and see if them errors stop, and as for the checking the hard drive and fixing the bad sectors; depending on how badly the sectors are damaged checkdisk may be able to fix them. goto run in the start menu and type cmd then when command prompt opens type in there chkdsk /f /r it may tell you that it cannot be checked while windows is running, resart the computer and let it run the checkdisk utility. if your hard drive is partitioned make sure you run chkdsk /f /r on each partition.
let me know how this goes.
regards,
moltenz
 
It's not good to have ANY hard drive errors. And when bad sectors start to show up, they usually keep coming until the drive finally crashes.
Regardless of what CHKDSK finds, it would be a good idea to start making backups!

You may have to find out from tufftest what that error means, maybe in their docs or forum or something.

Good luck
 
thx guys, sorry for being so late to respond, been busy with work and all. so i should think about getting a new hardrove in the future i guess. i really like seagate and their 5 year warranties so ill go with them. how do bad sectors arise and how would i go about preventing them for a new hardrive?
 
there is heaps of reasons for bad sectors on hdds the main reasons are faulty power supplies, that moisture somehow got into the drive, sometimes just because of old age. also electromagnetic devices such as non correctly shielded speakers placed too close can damage drives and cause bad sectors, and inproper shutdown of the computer such as power outages.
 
how do i load into DOS mode. not MS-DOS. i need to load up a hardrive utility for a floppy. it doesnt seem to load with the BBS popup screen. i followed instructions on the site and its not working, its from samsung
 
hey gexamb :)
try tapping f8 as your computer starts up and it should give you you a boot menu popup screen, when it does select your disk drive with the bootable disc in it from the menu.
this f8 key may be a different key however depending on your bios brand.
although most brands tend to use the f8 key. hope this works for you, let me know how it goes.
regards.
Moltenz
 
ya i had to make a ms-dos botable disk first thats y it wasnt working, thx anyway but that HUTIL turned out was actually not a diagnostic but a hardrive detector instead
 
actually the hutil worked, my hdd passed. no errors i guess. i havebt mentiioned this before but whenever i boot up the computor windows doesnt load untili play around with the mouse and keyboard. the bios loads up fine and everything but whenever it gets to the point the windows load up screen is about to come on (black background with the blue bar loading) it doesnt show it and the comp freezes at a black screen and i cant do anything without restarting. only works when i play around with the mouse and keyboard. i dont think this is that important but i guess i should mention it.
 
what do you mean windows doesn't load up unless you play around with the mouse and keyboard???
i thought the problem was with windows freezing up when you were playing games..
:confused face:
 
no no no....
.......sometimes windows freezes at boot up screen. but then when i reboot a couple of times it loads up windows fine. when windows is loaded up and i play games is a different problem and windows loading up is a different problem. get it?
 
yeah i get it, the booting up and freezing at a black screen is more than likely a driver issue because i have seen that happen many a time. :)
 
ya wel i do have a Multuimedia Audio Controller that does not have drivers installed. idk y this started to show up. but anyway my sound drivers are up to date and my sound works so i dont know wat i could be from.
 
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