GAMES CONSTANTLY CRASH! FX-53,X800XT,1g ram,built pc myself

[Tyler98133]

i built a pc in october of last year and ever since then i've had a problem with games always crashing. i am to the point of throwing it out the window b/c i built the system just for gaming and it wont work! anybody who can help, i owe you big, like $2,000 big. i'll describe best i can...

Abit av8 pro mobo
amd fx-53 cpu
ati oem x800xt video card
audigy 2zx sound card
kingston kvr 2x512mb (1gig memory)
antec 550w ps
thermaltake cpu cooling fan

almost every single time i sit down and start playing a game my computer randomly crashes. it varies in the ways that it crashes
i.e.
--sometimes it throws a blue screen reboot (this is always accompanied by a very high pitch noise that emits from the speakers right before rebooting???),

--sometimes i get crash to desktop w/o any error message.

--sometimes i get crash to desktop with an error message relating to physical memory dump: critical error.

i have tried multiple forums, browsing to find a solution, but never figured it out.

i have the latest catalyst drivers from ati (fast write disabled)..i've been told some people have compatibility problems with audigy sound cards..maybe this??? i've heard kingston memory can sometimes suck...tried memtest86 for awhile, didn't find errors.. and these random crashes only happen when playing games! i'm so ready to give up. can somebody please help me find my solution!!! shouldn't this setup perform like a beast?? i'm angry!

p.s. this system runs hot so i keep the side of the case removed w/ an external fan blowing inside the case..i don't overclock anything.

sometimes i can play the games for an hour before crash, sometimes 15 minutes, even 5 minutes.. it is completely random. most often the blue screen, screech sound, and reboot happens, and when it restarts windows i get a critical error message. next time it happens i will copy, paste the details of the message. i think it says physical memory dump or something like that.

list of games played include:
far cry
doom 3
ut 2004
gtr fia
guild wars

and the most recent: battlefield 2 demo

 

[Vigilante]

Sounds like it could be a sound card issue to me.
Does your motherboard have onboard sound? Of course it probably does. Makes sense a crash during a game when doing a LOT of sound operations.
It won't hurt to pull the sound card out and use the onboard sound for a while and see. I would try that first.

Also, right click My Computer and choose Manage. Go and look in your error logs and see if you can find a clue as to what is crashing. A file name? Or something like that. Check the application log as well as system log.

Another thing might be this: how close is your sound card to you video card inside your case? If the sound is in the PCI slot under your video, not a good idea. Sometimes this can cause frequency conflicts or some such nonesense. Try putting your sound card as far from the video as possible.

good luck

 

[Tyler98133]

i will try pulling the sound card...i should probably check to see if there is any driver updates for that thing too.. i do place it as far away as possible from vid card. i'll try these things out and report back.. thanks a bunch for the feedback, any more ideas would be great too!

 

[LNCPapa]

And in the future please do not double post. Place your thread in the appropriate area and if you get it wrong we'll move it to the right area.

 

[Tyler98133]

ok, sorry about that. i wasn't sure if i was in the right spot

 

[Arnoldo]

I was having the same problem when i put in my New Ram. I fixed it with 1 of the older sticks. Its now running at 333 instead of 400 but it means i now have 1.28GB ^^. Try inserting 1 of your older ram modules.

Cheers

P.s- I still havent figured out why it happened :-S

 

[S33D]

My problem is my computer is fine when i go play Call Of Duty my computer just crashes as soon as i get on!!! When i go try and play PlanetSide it jsut crashes or jsut reboots!!!no error message just crashes so i have to reboot!! What can it be??

 

[Vigilante]

Check the Windows error logs.

Right-click My Computer and select "Manage". On the left, click Event Viewer. Then look in the System Log and the Application Log. Look for ERROR events and they will be on the days that your system crashed. Tell us what those errors are (error code, description, type, source etc...)

If the log files don't give you any clue, the next step may be to reload the games and update ALL your drivers. Including Windows Updates and DirectX.

cheers

 

[S33D]

well there is this that was mostly on there that was an error :

Event Type: Error
Event Source: W32Time
Event Category: None
Event ID: 29
Date: 1/2/2003
Time: 6:00:56 PM
User: N/A
Computer: HOME-IY27PVXRCZ
Description:
The time provider NtpClient is configured to acquire time from one or more time sources, however none of the sources are currently accessible. No attempt to contact a source will be made for 14 minutes. NtpClient has no source of accurate time.

There was about 15 of them so i dont know if that might be it, and also how can you find out if you have installed the right drivers and which ones your suppsoe to have..???

Also.......

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: EventSystem
Event Category: (52)
Event ID: 4354
Date: 11/07/2003
Time: 17:16:01
User: N/A
Computer: HOME-IY27PVXRCZ
Description:
The COM+ Event System failed to fire the ConnectionMade method on subscription {406D4D92-7542-4665-B37C-55CBEF73373F}-{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}-{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}. The subscriber returned HRESULT 80004001.



This one was the msot aswell but that was on aplications!!!

 

[Vigilante]

Here is the error for event 4354: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;319590
Related to MSN stuff. So follow those instructions I guess.

Some info on Event 29: http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?app=EvLog&code=&source=W32Time&eventid=29
That one isn't really a problem.

But surprised that is all the errors you get. When it crashes and comes back, does XP say it recovered from a serious error? Make sure you send the error report, in case there is info on it.
-------

As for drivers, the main ones to look for are chipset and video card. Chipset being if you have like nForce2 or something like that, then you want to get the latest nForce drivers from nVidia.
To check the versions, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the hardware tab and then Device Manager.
Click the plus (+) sign next to Display Adapters. Then double-click your video card to see its properties. Once inside the properties (properties of any hardware in that list), go to the Driver tab. This will list the provider, date and version of the current driver.

Once you have that info, go online and try to find the new driver and compare versions. Most people either have nvidia or ATI video card. Go to http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_77.72.html to get the Forceware driver for nvidia cards. Go to https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27 to get the Catalyst driver for Radeon cards. Scroll down to the "low speed" section and get just the driver and control panel only.

Instructions are similar for other cards. But you'll want to check chipset drivers, video, sound, and possibly network. Although those may be part of the motherboard and therefor part of the chipset.

In any case, update them drivers. Then do Windows updates as well, which there is a link in the Start menu at the top of the list for All Programs.

Whew! Hope that helps a smidge

 

[Alex_]

Games randomly crash and reboot, no error message Final fantasy XI and UT2004

Hey,
We just bought a new computer a little while ago:

Amd Athlon 64 3000+
Radeon 9800 pro 128mb
222gb dual hardrive
4 sticks of 512mb ddrram

Now, i actually just bought unreal tournament 20 minutes ago, i installed it and started to play. It worked for about 5 minutes then the screen went black, but i could still hear the sound, then it rebooted.
When i play final fantasy it will do the same thing, although i can play for longer times, i can usually get a good 30 minutes or and hour before it will crash.

These are some of the errors being logged:

08/07/2005
10:12:40 PM
Application Error

Faulting application pol.exe, version 1.15.2.0, faulting module tparty.dll, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x000021e0.

08/07/2005
5:11:38 PM
Application Error

Faulting application idriver.exe, version 8.1.0.293, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.2180, fault address 0x000106c3.

(there were numerous ones of this)

07/07/2005
5:54:46 PM
Application Hang

Hanging application Installer.exe, version 1.0.0.1, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

(there were numerous ones of this)

Now this one is for my wireless mxlaser mouse.
05/07/2005
6:25:48 PM
Application Hang

Hanging application SetPoint.exe, version 2.40.855.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

(there were numerous ones of this)

05/07/2005
5:14:32 PM
Application Hang

Hanging application hl.exe, version 1.1.1.1, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

03/07/2005
9:16:17 PM
Application Hang

Hanging application rundll32.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

Now i didnt know how many to put up, it might be to much, but i wanted to give everyone an idea of whats going on. And sp maybe you could find some important ones, because i dont know which ones might be the problem.

These are system errors, some of them are for my graphics card, which i think might be the problem.

08/07/2005
9:09:28 PM
ati2mtag

The driver ati2dvag for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

I had this one about 150 times :

Service Control Manager
(lots of them happend all at the same time and date)

The Application Management service terminated with the following error:
The specified module could not be found.

Well, thats a small portion of the errors, and to remind you, we got this computer about 3 days ago.

Thanks alot

 

[Vigilante]

Well I don't want to look up every one of those! But I'll give some advice.

For the errors that list a file name, do a google search for that file, such as "hl.exe". Or in some way find out what the file belongs to. Then try to update or remove that faulty application or driver. Reload it, etc...

But I'd say the ATI error is the big one. Did the system come completely assembled and you didn't have to load any drivers?
Go to the ATI link I posted above and download the Catalyst, as instructed. Run those two downloads and see if that helps.

If not, that is to many errors for a brand new system, you may want to take it back and have them check it
Because it sounds like something wasn't loaded right. Or somethingS.

good luck

 

[devilman99]

prob the card needs extra coolin'

I recently recovered from a real bad experience after upgrading my inno3d nvidia geforce 4 mx 400 to Powercolor's ATI Radeon 9800pro. Check if the symptoms and suggestions fit your case.

System specs:
P4 2.4ghz
ECS L4A8S2 motherboard
Kingston PC2700 DDR333 512mb x 2 sticks
Powercolor ATI radeon 9800pro 128MB, 256-bit
Creative SBLive 5.1 Digital
Digituz 400W power supply
Win XP SP2

Symptoms:
- once 9800pro is installed, PC rebooted, the system may sustain for abt 15mins before getting BSOD. error msg varies between IRQ not less or equal, some system files being reported, and memory dump

- even booting in safe mode can have BSOD

- even formatting hdd can encounter problems

- memtest on ram sticks reported 0 errors after 5 passes

- downloaded latest catalyst drivers, BIOS, soundcard drivers, everything. Still gets the friggin' BSOD/reboots

- if lucky enough to play 3d game, game may hang up totally with constant 'tee' sound, or just auto-reboot the system 10mins into the game

- system can just reboot once you double-click on the game icon on desktop

- virus scan reported nothin', spyware programs reported nothin'

- when switched back to old vga card, things are fine

*** vga card cooler casing is hot, its 8 bga ram chips feels hot. the entire goddamn card feels un-naturally HOT !!!

My card was brought back to the shop. They tested it using this hw, which i did not know the full details:

AMD64 3.2ghz
MSI mb
antec power supp

Techician ran a 3dmark03 test that scored around 6000 points. So, my card is technically NOT defective.

There are a few factors that may explain why I can't get that friggin card to install in my pc:

motherboard
power supply
processor

since the above are the 3 major differences in the test. Since my motherboard and processor could work with the old graphics card, I reckoned that the problem may be the power supply. The stock power supply may not be able to handle the demanding 9800pro with these crappy specs:

+3.3V == 14A
+5V == 28A
+12V == 16A

It is noted in forums that discuss pc power, that the above voltages are the most important in determining power quality in the pc. They are used to calculate combined and approx the total power. It is also recommended to have at least 18A for the +12V line. And especially for gamers, it is important to have a good power supply. How to roughly check if your power supply is good? Lift it up... does it feel light? If yes, you probably have a lousy power supply that probably wouldn't cut the cheese during gaming.. cuz it contains lots of air inside...

The 9800pro has a dedicated 4-pin molex connector that needs power. It may be shared with that of a hdd or optical device. Because of this sharing, a crappy power supply may not be able to handle the loads, and results in hanging or rebooting.

For my case, the cooling of the card may also be an issue. Somehow I do not think the card should get that hot, even when not gaming. The stock cooler, though has a larger metallic heat sink, has a little fan that I would not consider is powerful...

So, I went out to change my ATX power supply, and get a 3rd party vga cooler. Got a Tagan 380W model TG380-U01, Zalman vga cooler VF-700-Cu, and 16 ddr ram copper heatsinks. The Zalman also comes with 8 bga sized ram heat sinks for current vga cards. It has a big fan and copper ventilating fins. Looks menacing...

The TG380-U01 has the following specs for the 3 power rails:

+3.3V == 28A
+5V == 37A
+12V == 22A (very generous!)

After installation of Tagan power supply(Heavy!) and Zalman cooler, which came with detailed instructions, I could install the 9800pro and have it run 3dmark03 with 5000+ points with no system hang or reboot or BSOD. I also noted that the overall vga card temp has dropped tremendously, from feeling hot to lukewarm. The fan is strong and blows warm air off the card well. ram chip do not feel hot anymore - the heatsinks did their job.

Important lessons learnt:

1) Never underestimate the importance of quality power when using good cards that are designed for heavy gaming

2) If the card feels kinda hot even when NOT gaming, it may indicate that the stock cooler is not good enough to dissipate the heat from the vpu

 

[MrSpiff]

temperature might be the problem

I agree with devilman, I had the exact same problem you are having right now, but with the Radeon 9600SE card. And I was running games like Warcraft 3, and UT2004 when it crashed. I tried everything...using thermal compound, checking RAM, uninstall/re-install, and I started to wonder if it was the heat. Thats when I foung the problem was the heat and my CPU (when I was putting my comp. together I think I slightly messed it up somehow, it really doesnt perform the way its supposed to), my case had bad air flow, I was getting up to 55-60 degrees C for my CPU, and my case temp was around 50. I finally decided to get a new case, partially because my old case was pretty bad, and I didnt want to mess with fans. So I bought a Cooler Master Cavalier w/PSU, fixed everything, temperature dropped an amazing 15-20 degrees on each, and I haven't had a crash since.

 

[Alex_]

Temperature

Im not to sure if i said this already in an earlier post,

but everytime the computer crashed, i would go into bios and look at the temperature while it was booting. And the temperature was always around 35-40 degrees celcius...and if im not mistaken, thats a perfectly fine temperature for it to be running around.

I sent it in today, and they have started looking at it, so when they tell me what was wrong, if they do find out, ill be sure to come back and share my information to see if maybe the problem with everyone elses computer, was the same with mine