Help another Gamer out! [system lagging and crashing]

[sarro]

Hi,
my system has been stuttering as of late while playing games (SoF2 and CS:S) and sometimes even crashing when I load them. I've asked a ton of friends about what it might be and most seems to suggest its overheating--although I believe there could be more to it.

My system specs:
(CPU 1) AMD Athlon™ XP 2600+ (256KB L2 Cache, Socket A) @ 2088MHz (166MHz FSB)
(Motherboard) ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N8X, version REV 1.xx
(Video controller 1) RADEON 9700 PRO (Processor: RADEON 9700 PRO AGP (0x4E44)), 128MB, 1280x1024x32, 90Hz, driver version: 6.14.10.6660 (Video controller 2) RADEON 9700 PRO - Secondary (Processor: RADEON 9700 PRO Secondary AGP (0x4E64)), 128MB, driver version: 6.14.10.6660
(Network adapters) 1394 Net Adapter, RAS Async Adapter, WAN Miniport (L2TP), WAN Miniport (PPTP), WAN Miniport (PPPOE), Direct Parallel, WAN Miniport (IP), Packet Scheduler Miniport, NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, Packet Scheduler Miniport, Linksys Wireless-G USB Network Adapter, Packet Scheduler Miniport
(Operating system) Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (SP2), version 5.1.2600 (44 processes running, 357.07MB free RAM, installed 1y 27w 2d 11h 1m 54s ago, 9h 1m 7s uptime, 5d 13h 10m 38s uptime record)
Memory = 1Gb (512x2) OCZ Plat.Rev2

So the most annoying thing is that my regular frames in CS:S will go from a constant 60-90 fps to about 5-15 at certain times (no matter if theres any explosions, fire fights etc) and the game will basically be unplayable.
Also, when my system crashes and restarts it will stall at boot saying theres a "keyboard error or no keyboard detected".

Aside from the possibility of overheating, could this be because of a buggy motherboard (rev.1 A7N8X's aren't too great), dying processor, bad power supply, or anything else?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to sort this all out before a CS:S match tomorrow night!

 

[leSLIe]

since your connected to the internet at the time that you´re playing i wouldnt discard some shady application running on the background, i would recommend to you to format your drive and reinstall your OS.

 

[x X CLoud X x]

quite D/L porn = no viruses that would crash your computer during gameplay. A reformat / reinstalling Source could solve problems if it doesnt then you know its your hardware

 

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Is your keyboard USB? The USB on my old A7N8X was really flaky and tended to cause similar problems. All of the resources were sucked up looking for devices that Windows thought just mysteriously disappeared. I had to put an adapter on my peripherals and plug them into the PS/2 ports. After that all was well. If you're using USB, try that and see if it helps.

 

[sarro]

Yeah Evil, I get weird USB errors with this motherboard.
I don't think it has anything to do with internet or software since the same thing will happen during the playing of recorded demos and I've already tried reformating & reinstalling programs.

 

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Yeah, it sounds like it might be a hardware thing. Try something like THIS for your keyboard and mouse. That might be a cheap and easy solution. CompUSA and the like usually have these things on the shelf, or your peripherals may have included them in the box (mine did).