crashing when any game is played

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puppychu

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hi, i hope someone can help, er.. my computer is crashing within roughly the first 10 mins of starting any game up, eg. sims, HL2, day of defeat, battle for middle earth, i have updated my radeon 9800 series with the latest driver and the problem is still happening, i have no clue where to start, my usual method of fixing something like this would be a format :giddy: but as my xp disc has gone walkabout i have to resort to fixing it the "proper way", i would be eternally grateful if anyone has a clue what my prob is and how i can fix it ~ caren
 
You probably have a cheapo power supply(or just a low wattage model) that doesn't have as much power as your system will require. Check the brand, wattage, and amperages per rail(12v, 3.3v, 5v, etc), and post back if you can. The Psu(power supply unit) is in the top back corner of the case usually, so you'll have to open the case to look at it.

Edit: Welcome to Techspot BTW.
 
Hello and welcome to Techspot.

When you say your computer is crashing. What exactly do you mean?

If it`s freezing, then this idicates either heat,or psu problems.

Check you temperatures, as this could be heat related.

What psu do you have? Is it a good quality psu, or a cheap no name brand that came with your case?

If on the otherhand, your computer is restarting, then it could be a memory, hardware, or a software problem.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:
 
sorry, the whole system is restarting, the psu (is that the boxed part in the case that the power cord goes into?) is just the one that came with the case and has worked fine for over a year
 
Ok. Go HERE and follow the instructions for testing your ram.

If that doesn`t help, zip 5, or 6 minidumps together, and attach them here.

You can find your minidumps in the following directory.

C/windows/minidumps.

Please note. Techspot has a limit of 100kB per attachment, so you may need to attach more than one zip file.

Regards Howard :) :)
 
well here are the 5 last minidumps in the folder, i've had a look at trying to test the ram and my head hurts...so i'll look at it again tomorrow thnx for the help so far, its the best help forum i've come across :giddy:
 
One of your minidumps crashes at ctaud2k.sys. this is a driver for your soundcard.

Two of your minidumps crash at sysaudio.sys. This is the Windows wdm audio driver.

I suggest that you uninstall your sound card drivers from add remove programmes. Then uninstall your soundacard from your device manager.

Reboot your system, and try running without sound for a while. See if you still get restarts.

Also check that you have the latest drivers for your video card.

If after a while you get no more restarts, then reinstall your soundcard drivers, with the latest ones from the Creative website.

Regards Howard :) :)
 
ok i tried the games without the sound card drivers and with it uninstalled and the same problem keeps happening :( i updated the radeon driver just before i posted this thread, but it was very vague which driver i was downloading, i've looked all over the ati site and it seems the only one that fits so i'm really stuck now :dead:
 
Yes your psu is most deffinitely suspect, and could be the cause of your problems.

Take a look at this article on psu`s
The psu thread.

You will notice in the above article, that your codgen psu is on the psu`s to avoid list.

Also look at this psu wattage calculator HERE

Just remember to add another 30% onto whatever figure it gives you. This is because, even a good quality psu will only achieve around 70% efficiency, with a cheap no name brand not getting anywhere near that.

Regards Howard :) :)
 
ok :D i am guessing now that the radeon card must consume more w than the previous so thats why its crashing out where it didn't previously with the old card, i remember when i first installed my new card i wasn't as bad as it is now, its a lot more frequent now but it was doing it occasionally, i even installed another fan thinking it may be overheating but that caused more crashing which is obvious now that the reason for that may have been more wattage use lol, thnx for helping me out:D, this is a great forum:D i shall be bringing you all my troubles :evil: , but seriously thnks again ~ caren
 
:( ok i still need help, i bought a new psu 420w of a make (powerstar) that i researched and seems to have an ok rating and was not on "the list" and i'm still getting the same problems, any other ideas? i also seem to have a macromedia conflict now since i reinstalled the sound card driver and some flash games are freezing up my internet pages
 
Ok, well it still could be CPU overheating or faulty RAM. Did you run the memtest software howard_hopkinso linked you to? Also download Prime95 (torture test software) to see if your computer is even stable.
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103. Do you have a Windows based CPU temperature monitoring software like this:
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/545-hmonitor.html
Run this program when Prime95 is running so you can see how hot your CPU is getting.
Post back here with temps and how far you got in Prime95.
 
ok this is the message i got from running prime 95:

Fatal ERROR:RESULTING sum was -388987089583006,expected: 4.7877289755e+016 hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
torture test ran 0 minutes -1 errors,0 warnings
execution halted.
 
i re-did it with the hardware sensors monitor on and results are:-

mainboard 29 C, CPU 38.5 C

Cooling fans: 4045 rpm

they didn't waver from when i was running the test to when i wasn't
 
Hmm, crashing in less then a minute is a very unstable system. Your temps are ok, but they won't rise much with Prime95 only running <1min. It should run for a few hours in order to show you are stable and NOT overheating.

Ok, let's increase your Vcore by 0.05Volts. This is the least amount the BIOS will let you. Try that and run Prime95 again, watch CPU temps. Good temps are mid 30's at idle and high 40 to low 50's under load.

Hit DEL on boot up. In my BIOS it's CELL MENU, not sure what it is for yours. It should be listed as Vcore though: range for Pentiums are usually 1.6V or higher. (whatever it is increase it by 0.05Volts)
 
k i went in to the bios and the vcore was at 1.60 but it wouldn't let me alter it, it wasn't in a highlighted section so i couldn't even reach it if you know what i mean
 
yeah i did the mem test and it got to 1500% roughly before the machine switched off......with no errors and now its started switching off randomly now, not even when a game is running, i have a piece of ram in another computer, do ya think it would be worth swapping them to test, the windows error report is now saying its a device driver
 
Some faulty ram can pass memtest.

Yes try swapping the ram with the stick in the other computer.

Also while you`ve got your case open, clean out any dust, and debris.

Check all cables, and connections, and check the capacitors on your mobo.

Look for any that are domed(swollen), or leaking. Look HERE for further info about capacitors.

Regards Howard :)
 
ok on ispection of the motherboard some of the capacitors have rounded tops whilst others are flat, are the rounded ones bulged?
 
Do you mean like this?

capblown_3.jpg


If so then your mobo is deffinitely suspect.

Regards Howard :)
 
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