Video card lock ups. I've seen this a lot here!

[Eednam]

I've tried three different video cards in this computer and none have worked as well as they should.

Computer specs:
.windows xp
.Processor: AMD Athlon xp 3000+ 2.16 ghz
.768 MB of Ram

Video cards i've tried:
.ATI Radeon 9550 AGP
.ATI Radeon PCI
.Nvidia 6200 (current video card)

All came up with the same "system stop error." More specifically I start playing World of Warcraft and after an hour or so it freezes. Sometimes the sound repeats itself and then it freezes or it stops for a few seconds and then fixes itself. Most of the time I have to restart it manually but sometimes it restarts iself and shows the same "stuck thread" error.

Thanks for any help!
.

 

[Rik]

What ram sticks have you got???
What make and wattage psu have you got???

Also, please list what you have already tried and tested to avoid us suggesting things to you that you have already done!!!!

 

[Eednam]

Thanks..

i have a 400w ATX Switching Power Supply

Ram 333
256 + 512 = 768

I've taken it in for repairs and had the bios checked and everything that they could find wrong with it they fixed. I thought it might have been the video card when I first tried the ATI 9550 but then when I used two other cards it had the same affect. I considered heating and got a bunch of new fans and checked temperatures every so often.. everything is normal. Keep in mind that i've tried PCI cards and AGP cards. I am now using the Nvidia 6200 AGP card.

 

[Tmagic650]

Just use the 512MB stick. Remove the 256MB stick and see if your video stabilizes

 

[wolfram]

Hello and Welcome to Techspot!!

Google & download Memtest 86, and let it run for at least 8 passes. That way, you should know if your RAM is defective.

Regards :wave:

 

[Eednam]

Ram

I took the 256 stick out and ran it for awhile.. it was slower but it didn't freeze... but then it started to restart itself again. The screen just goes blank and the computer restarts or sometimes just sits there blank trying to restart.

 

[Rik]

Have you run memtest on your ram as previously suggested????

 

[Tmagic650]

I took the 256 stick out and ran it for awhile.. it was slower but it didn't freeze... but then it started to restart itself again. The screen just goes blank and the computer restarts or sometimes just sits there blank trying to restart.

Go into Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup and Recovery, Settings and uncheck "automatically restart"... This does sond like a failing memory stick

 

[Eednam]

Could you tell me how to use Memtest? I don't currently have my floppy drive installed.. didn't think i'd need it. It says I need to download to floppy and then run from there. Is there a way around this? Thanks.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Take a look at these Memtest instructions HERE.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[tifc8lraz]

Could it be an overheating problem?

 

[Eednam]

This is the error code that I get from Windows:


Error caused by a device driver

Thank you for sending an error report to Microsoft.

Error report summary

Error type : Windows stop error (A message appears on a blue screen with error code information)
Solution available? : No (see Next steps)
What does this error mean? : Windows has encountered an error from which it cannot recover and needs to restart
Cause : Unknown device driver
Computer symptoms : A message appears on a blue screen with error code information (for example: e.g. 0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)
Additional steps for you to take : Important: Please continue to send error reports so analysts at Microsoft can study and try to correct the problem as quickly as possible

Information about this error

You received this message because a device driver installed on your computer caused the Windows operating system to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error." A stop error requires you to restart your computer.

Next steps

We have analyzed your error report and at this time are unable to determine the exact cause of the error. However, Microsoft will continue to analyze this error report to try to determine the specific cause of the error. If we are able to find the cause and correct it, and you encounter the same problem, you will receive an updated response that includes instructions for resolving the problem.

 

[Tubby3120]

Is this only a problem when you play WOW? if you use addons-mods some of them can cause an assortment of problems with windows, a few of the really poorly writen mods have massive memory leaks and make bad memory calls. Try deleteing your mods and/or the WTF folder in the wow directory and see if the problem still happens.