Hey guys and girls, My problem with my PC crashing seems to have become more widespread - it will now hang in an application like FIFA09 or Crysis Warhead and sometimes Source games, and with a sound loop stutter. I've defragmented my harddrive so it shouldn't be the problem, and I only bought it less than a year ago. The last crash on Crysis showed two graphic glitches (what looked like incorrectly drawn vertices), but that was an odd occurance (the hang is usually just a screenshot of the game and indefinite pause). My specs are: Intel E4400 C2D 2.0Ghz CPU 2GB DDR800 Kingston RAM 8800GTS 640Mb from BFGTech 400GB Primary HDD Asus Motherboard ULTRA X-Connect 500W PSU (oldest component ~3 years old i think) Any ideas? Thank you for your help.
I might be wrong, but this could well be down the PSU. Mine has been doing similar lately, K8 spec PC here, but like you, my PSU although good, is a few years old now. So I think thats to blame.
First run memtest, then make sure your graphics card is adequately. Then it might be you PSU. Ultra isnt the best brand of powersupplies sometimes.
Complete new install of Windows XP SP2 (tried two times completly new clean setup) - Newest Windows Updates - Newest dirver updates - Skype 3.2 and Skype 3.5 beta (same result) - No other programs running (no virus scan, etc.) - Windows Firewall off - System check o.k. - Win hardware manager: all devices valid and o.k. - Sound check o.k. - Windows sound recorder works proper - Windows Mediaplayer 11 gives correct sound _________________________________________________________ Carhartt Work Pants budapest property
Help! This has worsened and now my PC just restarts entirely on its own and it has done this 3 times in the last hour. I've cleaned the graphics drivers using Driver Cleaner and then just did a new install of the latest nvidia drivers. I haven't been able to try a new PSU but if you guys can help ascertain that it is definitely the PSU then I'll have to buy a new one.
I'd suggest checking the normal stuff first as these things are usually memory, temperature or voltage related. First run memtest to check the ram. Then check temps and voltages under both graphics and CPU load (ATI Tool Artifact Scanner and Prime Torcher Test) If all those come up clean, check the Event Viewer for entries around the reboot time.
Will do that later on today when I get home. Another thing you might want to know is that sometimes my PC will sound like its on, but when I turn on the screen, it says that there is no video signal from the PC. This is odd since the PC's power light is on..
That might be a problem with the graphics card or power supply. You could always try reseating the graphics card and any additional power connectors it has.
Forgot one more thing. When I started my PC today from this 'off-but-still-on' state, AVG said that there wasn't enough free memory for it to do an antivirus pattern update. I am so confused.. Thanks for pointing out which apps to use for the tests I'll do later though. I wouldn't know what to use otherwise :/
how full is your 400GB HDD, if you have packed it all the way to the top like 350GB full then page filing would fail resulting in a 'not enough memory' error pontential. with the design of the nvidia cooler on the 8800GTS series, they become packed with dust, but you say the system is a month old, its still possible to happen. i would monitor the GPU temps in between crashes! lol!
My HDD is about 70% full. Just defragged it last week. I attempted memtest earlier and i had no errors up till around 25% on two separate memtest processes (the program suggests it for multi-core CPUs) but then my PC just froze and the screen was static. Does that mean it's my RAM? I'll try the other tests now.
Reporting back. ATI Tool Artifact Scanner reports pixel errors every second and the test doesn't continue for more than 2 seconds till an artifact shows. The weird thing is that my GPU is at the factory clock of 550/792Mhz. Even when I reduce the speed, I still get errors. Do you think I have one of those buggy nvidia cards? I wasn't able to check my CPU voltages and temps since AI Suite isn't working for some reason. Any ideas what this all means?
