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Random Computer Freeze please help

L

Lock-Jaw

n00b
Joined
Oct 4, 2004
Messages
6
Okay guys, I built a new computer a few months back and since I haven't been able to get it to play games with 100% stability.

The specs:
Asus K8V SE Deluxe (latest BIOS)
AMD 64bit 3000+ CPU
2x Corsair Value RAM DDR400 516MB
ATI AIW 8500DV Video Card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card
1x Maxtor 120 GB ATA/133
2x 80GB SATA in a RAID 0 array.
Plextor PX-712A Drive
500 Watt PSU
Windows 2000 Pro
All the drivers and BIOS are running their current builds.

Now, on to the problem when I play a game after some time it will out of nowhere freeze, and by that I mean the screen goes black, monitor says it no longer gets a signal from the video card. Now the sound will continue like normal for few seconds but depending on if the ATI driver is able to recover the card it will either lock the sound or it will come back. Once in a while in windows it will give me an error that it can not read a block of memory from a specific address, I know I wish I wrote down the address but didn't. The problem seems to happen more often in UT2004 then WoW. However Older games like Quake 2 have never caused this issue.

Things I have tried:
New Motherboard (didn't help)
New CPU (didn't help)
Swapped RAM from another computer, though it is slower ram (same problem)
Switched to on board sound and remove sound card (didn't help)

Anyone have any ideas on what could cause it? At this point I’m at my wits end and will listen to any ideas.
 
I did, The one I have now Isn't the original one. I put in this new one and it didn't help at all.
 
I did try it with another one laying around, but that card may of not been much better. I'm thinking about trying another video card and another set of ram and seeing what if it would do anything.

Could I be overlooking a BIOS setting somewhere?
 
Try monitoring your CPU temps. I had the same problem, where newer games would randomly freeze, but older ones wouldn't, and found i didn't have enough thermal grease on the heatsink. I ended up getting a HSF with a thermal pad so i didn't have to mess with applying the grease myself. Problem solved. Motherboard monitor is a good program to try.
 
at idle it sits around 40 C, the highest I've seen it go is around 46C. Is that too hot for the chip. I'am using the OEM Heatsink/Fan while I know it isn't the best cooling option it should be enough right?
 
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