New PC keeps freezing as games start...

xrapidx

xrapidx

Honorary Master
Joined
Feb 16, 2007
Messages
42,202
Reaction score
4,049
Location
Cape Town
My girlfriends brother-in-law just bought a new desktop, running:

a Intel board and CPU
A-Data 800Mhz DDR2 1GB x2
Leadteak 9500GT graphics cards

OS: Tried various... currently on 7RC2

GFX Driver: Tried MS driver and latest NVidia

Each time they start a game, it freezes as the actual game play starts... computer locks up completely and needs to be restarted... literally 2 seconds into each game.

Things I've tried:
1.) Swap memory out.
2.) Try the onboard graphics card instead of Leadteak
3.) Different OS.
4.) Different GFX card drivers
5.) Tested games to be working on other PCs.

Anyone have any ideas for what else it could be.
 
Have you tried swopping out the PSU?

Get the Ultimate boot cd, burn a CD and run the memory tests as well as a few other tests.

Try passmarks burn in test too.
 
gdiza said:
Get the Ultimate boot cd, burn a CD and run the memory tests as well as a few other tests.

Try passmarks burn in test too.
Click to expand...
Very good idea. Might be the CPU that's overheating. Does the board give any messages once it goes through the POST again? The Intel overheat beep code is "high-low, high-low, high-low", if I remember correctly.
 
xrapidx said:
My girlfriends brother-in-law just bought a new desktop, running:

a Intel board and CPU
A-Data 800Mhz DDR2 1GB x2
Leadteak 9500GT graphics cards

OS: Tried various... currently on 7RC2

GFX Driver: Tried MS driver and latest NVidia

Each time they start a game, it freezes as the actual game play starts... computer locks up completely and needs to be restarted... literally 2 seconds into each game.

Things I've tried:
1.) Swap memory out.
2.) Try the onboard graphics card instead of Leadteak
3.) Different OS.
4.) Different GFX card drivers
5.) Tested games to be working on other PCs.

Anyone have any ideas for what else it could be.
Click to expand...

Lets see whats left after eliminating swapped components... either cpu, psu or motherboard. My bet would be on cpu.
 
I'd say look at the power supply. The graphics card only really pulls juice when running games.

To test the processor just run prime95.
 
Thanks - haven't tried the PSU, I'll give it a shot this evening.

CPU is running at a low temp, think around 50 degrees... definitely not a heating problem, I checked the first time it happened.

No message once restarted, not in Windows or from the BIOS.

You can run Windows for hours and its fine - but as soon as you start a game, literary as the first 3D screen appears, before you even get to move the mouse.

Maybe I must see what it does in one of those graphic performance testing apps...
 
Last edited:
Cpu running at 50 degrees in winter? is that under load or when nothing is happening?

If it is 50 with no load it may well run much higher under load.
 
Have you updates the software... vista has a bug with the latest nvidia dirver and more that 2gig ram.. so does win7 I think you need to update the patch is in vista sp2
 
killadoob said:
Cpu running at 50 degrees in winter? is that under load or when nothing is happening?

If it is 50 with no load it may well run much higher under load.
Click to expand...

45-55 degrees with no real load - but the game doesn't have change to load the PC either.

greggpb said:
Have you updates the software... vista has a bug with the latest nvidia dirver and more that 2gig ram.. so does win7 I think you need to update the patch is in vista sp2
Click to expand...

Tried Windows XP, Vista and Win7... all do exactly the same. Also, PC only has 2GB of ram.
 
Yea the game will load your cpu without a doubt and if the heatsink is not on correctly the cpu temp will sky rocket and the pc will shut itself down.

What cpu is it? why in winter is it sitting 55 degrees?

My amd dual core in a small box with a 9800gx2 pumping out air with no fan never climbs above 45 during gaming(under load) so yea you should run prime95 and test the cpu temp and monitor how high it goes under load.

You should put in another gpu because the gpu may be faulty. 50 degrees with no load is not a low cpu temp in fact that is rather high in my opinion.
 
Definitely check for overheating. Simply open a command prompt and type: dir C:\ /s. Run a few of these at the same time and you CPU will max out, see if it reboots then...
 
killadoob said:
Yea the game will load your cpu without a doubt and if the heatsink is not on correctly the cpu temp will sky rocket and the pc will shut itself down.

What cpu is it? why in winter is it sitting 55 degrees?

My amd dual core in a small box with a 9800gx2 pumping out air with no fan never climbs above 45 during gaming(under load) so yea you should run prime95 and test the cpu temp and monitor how high it goes under load.

You should put in another gpu because the gpu may be faulty. 50 degrees with no load is not a low cpu temp in fact that is rather high in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Will check - most of my home PCs run at around 60 degrees... The doesn't reboot - it just locks up, and needs to be shutdown by holding the off button for four seconds, on restart I check the CPU temp in the BIOS, and its 50odd degrees...

Tried the on-board graphics card - same problem, so that rules out the graphics card.
 
xrapidx said:
Will check - most of my home PCs run at around 60 degrees... The doesn't reboot - it just locks up, and needs to be shutdown by holding the off button for four seconds, on restart I check the CPU temp in the BIOS, and its 50odd degrees...

Tried the on-board graphics card - same problem, so that rules out the graphics card.
Click to expand...

That's most likely the problem, CPU's don't have much mass and don't stay hot for long. If the CPU were to suddenly spike, it would heat rapidly, and then cool equally fast; by the time you get to the BOIS it has cooled down.... Try the DIR and run speedfan to measure in realtime what is happening....
 
Otherwise, what can I run that does real time temp. logging to a flat file - so I can check what it was when it froze.
 
Well if you run prime95 with coretemp for instance you can start prime95 and check coretemp as the cpu starts heating up.
 
killadoob said:
Well if you run prime95 with coretemp for instance you can start prime95 and check coretemp as the cpu starts heating up.
Click to expand...

Thanks - give it a try this evening.

greggpb said:
Realtek Hd audio drivers have cause the same type of problems recently


http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardw...op-onboard-realtek-high-definition-audio.html
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?p=435638
Click to expand...

Never even considered Audio - I'll disable it and see what happens.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X