PC Games always freeze

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Josh92safc

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Hello

About 4 month ago my PC started crashing when I Played games like Counter Strike Source or Garrys Mod, it completely freezes, i have to manually reset it.
It never crashes straight away it ranges from about 5 minutes in to about an hour but it always crashes.

I dont think its my power supply because i had it replaced last week and it hasnt changed anything, i also downloaded a core temparature program and it said that my idle temp was about 35 degrees and when i was in the game it was about 48. I took some of the case off aswell and cleaned some off the dust.
Ive updated all my video card drivers also but it didnt help.

also I have a Nvidia geforce 6600 graphics card
1.8ghz processor
1 gb ram
running windows xp

Any advise would be great! thanks
 
Try running Memtest86. Also another possible issue could be your HDD but will see what Memtest finds.

Instructions
Download the pre-built version of Memtest86 (Link Below) and burn it onto a CD using ISO Recorder (Link Below) after this boot off the CD and start the test going and let it run for 3-5 hours (Minimum of 7 Passes) or Overnight which is best.

Memtest86 - http://www.memtest.org/
ISO Recorder - http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
 
F12 and then boot from CD/DVD.

Just keep pressing F12 and start up then try Memtest.

But I got blue screens while running Half Life 2 with onboard graphics so it's something to do with steam.

Update to Windows XP Service pack 3. Update the games with patches.
 
Try monitoring your CPU and Video card temperatures. It could be temperature related. For CPU monitoring I use "Core Temp" and for my graphics card I use RivaTuner it works with both ATI and Nvidia cards.
 
Hi,

I think you already checked some vital issues:
not too much dust
temperature
Power Supply

As the others stated testing your memory would be an good idea.

Another thing you could look out for would be an failing HDD - there are some tools you could check your SMART-Data from your HDD with. I currently remember SiSoft Sandra being one of them (SMART log´s all what´s happening to your HDD - also fault´s - so if the log comes up with loads of them a new HDD could help you out).

Do you have a virus scanner or sth. like that running - sometimes a virus can crash some parts of your system (not always after a certain amount of time)?

Hope sth. I wrote helps you out. I´ll think about the problem some more.

Cheers
 
Thanks for all your help, ill try running memtest later tonight :) Also I downloaded Rivatuner, how do I check the temperature of my graphics card on it?

BTW I did have an anti virus program running, it was AVG, I closed it and then tried a game again but no changes. :(
 
I downloaded Speedfan like woody said and it said that my GPU was at 57 Degrees Idle and it went up too about 75 Degrees while in game. Is that normal and do you think that it could be over heating? :confused:
 
Having looked for Normal temps for your card it seems anything between 45-60C is ok and no more than 80C underload seems to be ok since it is a very hot card.
 
I had a very similar problem and it turned out the Voltage on my Ram was not compatible with the voltage for my Motherboard ram required 1.9v while the motherboard only accepted 1.8v and such it would hang the system if the ram ran at full speed, I had to underclock the ram from 800MHz to 750Mhz which then stoped the problem, it maybe you have a similar issue, worth a look.
 
Josh92safc said:
So does that mean that its definitely not temperature related?
Click to expand...

Yes those temperatures are within the normal limits for the Card.

Will wait till you have run memtest86 now. Darth_Terra1s' thoughts might be worth looking into when you have run memtest86 as well.
 
What chipset do you have? Is your cpu an amd athlon? I read on wikipedia once that geforce 6600 video cards have compatibility issues with some via or sis chipsets and amd athlon cpus. This sometimes causes the computer to completely lock up in games.
 
Sorry for not posting in so long, ive been busy.

Ok, I ran memtest overnight for about 11 hours, I got 20 passes and no errors!
 
Have you had anymore freezes on the Games?

Try testing your HDD now with your HDD manufacturers test, normally found on the Support or Download Section of their website.

Your second choice after the HDD would be to look at your Graphics Card, try taking your Graphics Card out and running the Game on Low Settings.
 
I found out that I have a Maxtor HDD so i went to their website and downloaded a diagnostic tool called "SeaTools for Windows"

I did a couple of tests and I passed them all, although at the beginning and end of all the tests it said that it failed to log something?
 
I'm not sure how it works since I don't have a Maxtor Drive. I am having a look at how the software works and will post something because you can use different HDD tools on different makes of HDD (Mine Is Toshiba so I have to use other tests since they don't provide 1).

Have you had anymore Freezes on the Games?

I have been running the Sea Tool Thing you downloaded and didn't see the message your referring to, try using another HDD Testing Tool like Hitachi or Seagate.

Also try selecting "Help" on the program and then click on Log File it will be in the area where Sea Tools was installed it should tell you on there if it Passed Or Failed On A Test.
 
what chipset and cpu do you have, if your chipset is sis or via or your cpu is an amd athlon, then chances are your video card is incompatible with your system. My friend has the same problem with his system. His video card (a 6600GT) is incompatible with his amd athlon which is making games freeze. I replaced it with a geforce4 just to test it and it worked fine. Do you have an older video card? (a geforce4 or fx or something like that) If so, test the system with that and if the freezing stops, your video card maybe incompatible with your cpu and/or chipset or it may be faulty.
 
I downloaded SIW but i'm still completely lost, nissanman said something about a via chipset i think I might have something made by via because whenever i turn my computer on this window flashes up for a second that says Via Raid or something?
 
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