Help with Game Crashes

[A_Gonzales_3]

Hello!

I need help on some things. I just recently bought a new nVidia 6200 256MB video card and had some problems when I tried to play some games(Call of Duty, Age of Empires 3 Demo, Nosferatu). It worked fine the day before but after I installed a program (PowerDVD, I think or something; it came with the DVD-RW drive I just bought) I noticed that the system would freeze up after a few minutes of playing. Before I installed the program, I had no problems whatsoever when I played those games: now it seems I cannot play for more than a few minutes. The computer only crashes when I play; I watched a movie and experienced no problems at all. I also don't think it's an overheating issue, although I could be wrong.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.


My bare system specs:

AMD Sempron 2400+
Inno3D nVidia 6200 256MB
- driver version is 6.14.0010.9147
384MB RAM
Direct X 9.0c

 

[Jesse_hz]

First of all: Welcome to TechSpot! Hope you'll love this place as much as I do!

Now, when you installed the new drive, did you make sure not to toss around other things like fan cables? If you accidentally pulled one out of it's socked then that could be a reason for overheating.

Another scenario is that, before you installed the new drive, the ventilation inside your was already bad and after you installed the drive it became worse. Keep in mind that I'm guessing here as I don't know the inner layout of your case.

Third scenario is that your PSU simply isn't powerful enough to run your system. The GPU draws more power when rendering 3D than it does in 2D mode.

To test whether or not it's a temperature problem, download the free application SpeedFan and post your temperatures.

 

[wolfram]

Hello and Welcome to Techspot!!

And another possible thing is that your RAM is probably failing. Download and run Memtest86, and let it run for at least 7-8 passes (takes some time).
If you don't know how to use Memtest, check out this thread here:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62524.html

Regards :wave:

 

[A_Gonzales_3]

I just tried installing different drivers, and re-installing Windows XP. They both didn't work.

Thanks for the suggestions... I will try them out as soon as I can.

P.S.

I just remembered that the RAM is both pretty old (1 card is 1.5 yrs old, the other 2 or more). They also do not have the same clock speed(2100, 2700) and make. Could this be one factor? It's never been a problem with my old video card(32 MB Riva TNT 64). Sorry, I'm a ***** when it comes to these things.

 

[N3051M]

I just remembered that the RAM is both pretty old (1 card is 1.5 yrs old, the other 2 or more). They also do not have the same clock speed(2100, 2700) and make. Could this be one factor? It's never been a problem with my old video card(32 MB Riva TNT 64).

RAM are a weird thing. Its all dependent on the support given by the motherboard but as a general rule, if you are running multiple sticks of ram they should be nearly identical to each other, as much as possible since a) some mobo's are picky and b) maximise compatibility. Although note that its not always the case for every PC. Running the memtest instructions given should tell you if they like to play nice or not together or by themselves.

with different RAM, they will run at the lowest common denominator, so right now its running at the 2100 speed, so the extra 600 is sitting there doing nothing (waste of money at this point). Even just taking out the old one should bring you more benefits to your PC than having the old one choke the system's capable speed. Try it, it won't hurt and you got nothing to loose at this point.

 

[A_Gonzales_3]

...Bummer. I was hoping to buy a new hard drive; instead, I'd probably have to buy a new RAM card, seeing that it all seems to point to the RAM being the culprit. Oddly enough, the older card is 128MB 2700. I haven't tried removing the older one yet, I'll see how it turns out. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[N3051M]

have a crack at the memtest first before you start spending your hard earned $$$.. like i said, you can be surprised sometimes..

 

[A_Gonzales_3]

I just found out what was causing all those lockups and crashes. The store where I bought my new video card sold me a defective one. I had to return the "new" card and buy a lower end FX 5200 card to quell my boredom while I wait. The computer doesn't freeze so much anymore, I can actually play games without so much a crash. I'm still going to replace to memory modules when I do have the cash, but for now, it all seems fine. Thanks for the help.