Weird system crashing problem

J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
I just upgraded my system and whenever I play UT2004 the screen goes black and sometimes the sound starts looping. Then after about 10-20 seconds the system restarts by itself. This same problem happens with the game Rappelz too.
I can run games like Cod4, Bioshock and UT3 easily on high settings with no problems.
I have an MSI 9600GT (V801 model), Intel E6750 2.66 CPU and an ASUS P5K-SE motherboard.

What do you think the problem could be?
If you need anymore information just ask.

Thanks.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
What exactly did you upgrade? Did you reinstall the GPU drivers after first using DriverCleaner, and have you made sure your RAM is operating at the manufacturer's voltages?
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Kougar said:
What exactly did you upgrade? Did you reinstall the GPU drivers after first using DriverCleaner, and have you made sure your RAM is operating at the manufacturer's voltages?
Click to expand...

I upgraded my whole computer. Everything is different to my old computer which was able to run these games.

I did update the driver but I didn't use DriverCleaner (never heard of it before). I'll try that and see what happens.

I'll take a look at the ram voltages too.

Thanks for the suggestions Kougar.


:techgage:James Crysis:techgage:
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Did running DriverCleaner help? It does sound more like a GPU-related issue than anything else, but if not, it could be the RAM.
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
No DriverCleaner didn't help. I even installed an even more up to date driver than the one I installed before and still nothing.
Would running memtest do anything? If not I can always replace it with the new RAM I have sitting on my desk which I've been putting off because I'm lazy and my comp is wedged in between my desk and my dresser. :p
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Ok I've just replaced the RAM and that didn't make a difference whatsoever.
So it's not a problem with the GPU driver or the RAM. What else could it be? Could it be something in the actual system that is making it do it? If so, what can I do about it?
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Well, did you ensure to install all the latest drivers for the motherboard, latest video drivers, and especially if you use Windows Vista to ensure it was fully updated?

You also need to physically verfiy in the BIOS that it is giving the RAM the correct voltages, it's such a common problem with boards that it's necessary to check it for almost any problem... especially rather finicky problems like yours that make little sense. ;)
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Well I've been reading some info around the net where people have pretty much the same problem as me. I'm yet to find someone with exactly the same problem but so far I've found that the problem with most of them ended up being software.
Someone was saying that Microsoft can crash when it encounters a clash or something with different software (drivers, different applications). He said there go into Device Manager > Advanced and in there you can add programs where it ignores this process or something :S
I'm not at my computer now so I can't do it but I've been in Device Manager plenty of times before and never found an Advanced button or anything like that. Does anyone know anything about this?
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Still not fixed :(
I've taken it to work and had a play with it there. A friend of mine said that he had a friend at work that had the same problem a little while ago and found that the problem was the monitor. I've tried it at work on several different monitors so there is no way it can be the monitor.
Scanned it for viruses and after everything was cleaned up nothing had changed.
I put the graphics accelerater down I thought it had fixed it because I was able to play a full mission. Then I went on the internet and it lasted about another 5 mins and then crashed again.
At work we even put in a test hard-drive and did a fresh install of XP, then loaded up the game and the graphics drivers (nothing else) and it was still having the same problem.

My thought is that the graphics drivers are conflicting with the game, that is the only logical explanation in my mind. I don't know what else I could possibly try, except wait for another driver update and see if that makes a difference at all.

-James Crysis-
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I should ask again, is it only a few select games that this is happening with? I know for a fact that UT2004 is very fussy with regards to computer settings, because when I used to overclock in the past, I used to have similar things happen. My computer usually just BSOD'ed though.

Because you installed XP and still have the problem, I'm lead to believe it is indeed a hardware issue. First and foremost, did you upgrade to the latest available BIOS? One thing you might want to do is head into the BIOS and reset all settings, then save and go into Windows. See if the problem still persists.

You might also want to go manually change settings like Kougar said. There could very well be one small setting in there changed, that shouldn't have been. If you haven't been in there to mess around, then that might not be it either then.

As for the monitor, that in no way would have anything to do with it. It displays video only, and could care less what it's transmitting. If it happened all the time, even apart from games, then it could be the monitor, but you are only having problems with games.

Are you able to download CPU-Z and show us screenshots of the main screen and also the memory tab? One idea also is to go into the BIOS and manually set voltages. Set the RAM to 2.0V and the CPU to 1.3000V and see if that helps anything.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

As it stands now though, I'm leaning towards blaming the GPU itself. I have used three different 9600GT cards, and while not in that particular game, I've never had a problem with any of them, in any title. If I am able to find time later today and the benchmarking machine becomes free, I'll install a 9600GT and test out that game specifically and see if I encounter anything like that.
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Thanks Rob, that would be absolutely awesome if you could check that card for me on your benchmarking machine. Haven't had that much time to fiddle with it today but I was able to find enough time to take out the 9600GT and install a Radeon X300. I ran the game for long enough to know that it wasnt going to crash, so I guess that means it has to be the GPU.
I also downloaded CPU-Z and ran it, I'll see if I can post some pics later if you still need them. One thing that I'm worried about is that in the RAM tab it is displaying that the speed is 400Mhz or so, but my RAM is supposed to be 800Mhz :confused: whats up with that??

- James Crysis -
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
It's displaying the SDRAM speed which is 400Mhz for DDR2 800. DDR stands for dual data rate which simply means that the ram reads and writes on the upswing of the clock and on the downswing as well. SDRAM only writes on the upswing of the clock cycle which is how PC2100 (DDR-266) gained close to double the performance of PC-133 ram even though they both ran at the same clock rate.

That's is why you have DDR2-800 that has a clock rate of 400Mhz.
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Well something I didn't mention earlier was that I had a Belkin G wireless network card in there as well, and haven't been using it since a couple of weeks ago when I got a 15 metre network cable because I was fed up with the slow wireless speeds and the constant dropping out (which seemed to just be me).
I didn't take the card out because I didn't think it would do any harm to leave it in there. Today I was discussing my problem with one of my colleagues and he suggested that maybe I should take the wireless card out and see if that will make any difference because he was having trouble with a Belkin G card that he had in his computer a while ago. At the time I thought it couldn't possibly make a difference, but I decided to just try it anyway.
I took it out and tried the game and OMG... for the first time in this computer I could run UT2004 with no problems. I ran it for about 25 mins and it didn't crash or anything. Even now I still can't comprehend how that could have possibly been the problem.
Dam I hate computers... :p
 
Last edited:
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
Yeah, It's a Love / Hate relationship.
Almost like being married....but now you can turn it off and walk away....and you hear nothing.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Merlin said:
Yeah, It's a Love / Hate relationship.
Almost like being married....but now you can turn it off and walk away....and you hear nothing.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
Click to expand...


And just like women, when computers chuck a spat, it can take weeks to find out what the real problem is :D
And I don't even have a girlfriend...
 
J

James Crysis

E.M.I.
Actually there's another update. It's not fixed at all. I don't know why but at that one time, the game decided to play happily with the wireless card out.
It is doing it with the following games:
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode 2 (works with episode 1 :S)
Rappelz
Rohan
UT2004

I'm thinking about trying to claim my card on warranty if the next driver update doesn't fix it.
 
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