TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

I built my pc in Jan. to play Everquest2 and Oblivion, but when I get on the game, it freezes, and there is a high pitch noise in my speakers.

Mobo P4S800D-X
3.2 P4
2G RAM
Chaintech Geforce 6600 GT 128m
soundblaster audigy 2
Rosewill 550W PSU
lite-on dvd player
dvd-r
80G western Digital SATA HD
3 case fans

I have tried a number of things to fix it, I have ran memtest86, removed sound card to see if that was the problem, unplugged numerous things to see if it was a power issue (I had bought the 550W to upgrade a 450W psu thinking that was the issue, I was sadly wrong), heat isnt an issue, my cpu runs at 41C on average, Mobo runs at 30C on avg. I have updated my bios, my vid card drivers, soundcard drivers, swapped the ram sticks with each other, I have tried a different video card and it locks up too. I have tried running 3Dmark, but after it loads up nothing else comes to the screen, just a black screen. Are there any older drivers that would work better than the new ones? I have also updated my agp drivers for the motherboard. Help needed, I'm at the end of my rope.

hi

try setting the game options for the sound and video to default...
if you havn´t tried ...

I'm not sure if this will solve the problem but since you have a PCI sound card, did you disable the onboard sound in the BIOS?

I do normally play games on default now, and yes, onboard is disabled. I also turned off antialiasing and anistropic filtering

have you tried "Aplication controlled" antialiasing and anistropic filtering...
also do the games try to launch internet aplications when you start them...

one more thing in your bios what is the apeture size for the Grafics ... make it the same as the grafics card (128)...

those are very helpful suggestions! i had that similar problem as the OP. doing those suggestions... no more freezing or locking up.

cheers

I have tried all that too, what I think the problem is that my vid card is overheating, I took the side off the case and touched it while I was playing Oblivion and it was hot enough to kinda burn me, so I ordered a new fan and heatsink to see if that works.