DrDisco
8th February 2007, 01:13 PM
Hey guys and gals!
My game PC crashed yesterday. It was one of the most depressing moments of my life! I'm running:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
MS-7025 ATX Motherboard (K8N Neo2 w/NVIDIA nForce 3 Ultra Chipset)
1 Gig of RAM (two PQI 3200-1024 DBH 512 MB Dual Channel PC3200 2.5-.-.-7 sticks)
Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics card
SoundBlaster Audology card
Windows XP Professional
On some games in the couple years I've had this machine (and always on any of the BattleField titles) the PC locks up pretty close to the beginning of the game and I get the stuttering "da-da-da-da" sound of some hung music. I would reset the machine to break it out of this state, try again, and if I got the same hang-up I just gave up trying to play the game. A majority of the games, however, ran fine (EQ2, WoW, Oblivion, etc.).
However, yesterday I go and get the new Vanguard game and load it up. At the character creation screen the system locks up on me again. I reboot. Try again, freeze again. I go online and find the latest driver for my video card and load it. Try again, get a little further in the game, and then it locks up again. I reboot, try again, and this time I get all the way into the game and am running around having a good time. After about 15 or 20 mins. of gameplay, the system locks up again. I reboot. This time, I get to the Windows splashscreen with the little "progress bar" along the bottom and that bar is moving VERY choppy and VERY slow. It finally acts as if it's going to go to desktop and the whole system reboots again. My monitor shows no incoming signal but the fans are all running on the machine. I try to hit the restart button but nothing happens. I turn the machine off from the back. Turn it back on, same thing happens. Do it again, same thing.
I decide to see if I can run in Safe Mode and I can, but it loads VERY slowly. I restore the system from a previous point and try again. Same problem. Can't get into Windows. Load up in Safe Mode again, VERY SLOW.
I then get my bootable CD of Windows XP and whip the hard drive clean, load a new version of Windows. Took over 5 hours to load XP on that machine. Insane! At the point where the install begins to ask you some questions, the screen just stops. My mouse moves around fine, but nothing is happening. Can't click "next", the little "hurricane" icon isn't moving. So I hit restart. This time I boot up into Windows but VERY slowly again.
I suspect my video card is having problems so I get another AGP cheapie from my wife's computer and toss that in the machine. Still VERY slow to respond. I don't think this is a video card issue.
Now I turn to you folks. Any ideas? I DID have problems with my RAM when I first got it building this new machine. It's suppose to be dual-channel but it has NEVER worked as such. Tried it on three different motherboards and not a single one could use it as dual-channel even though it's labled to be as such. So...I'm suspecting my RAM may be the cause. Would RAM make the machine respond so horribly slowly? I mean, Windows reports seeing all 1 gig of RAM so it's not like it's running on something slower. But also recall that until yesterday, most programs ran fine with a few exceptions. NO application software EVER gave me problems. I run video capture software on that machine which takes tapes and coverts them to mpgs. Never had it lock up. Never locked up on the internet either. ONLY on SOME games (BattleField series and Vanguard).
HELP!!!
ETA: I have a new power supply (a few months old) so I don't think that's the issue, either. UPDATE: While the machine was running slow, I still tried to get over there and load up some MB drivers, USB drivers, etc. Seemed to work "ok" but was a bit sluggish. I attributed that to no drivers being on the video card. However, I was fiddling around behind the PC and unplugged a USB cable that was in the system (not attached to anything working). The system suddenly froze. I rebooted only to have it freeze on the Windows splash screen again (and again and again as I tried a few more times). Needless to say the machine is now sitting there as a doorstop waiting for me to figure out what part to replace to get it in working order again!
My game PC crashed yesterday. It was one of the most depressing moments of my life! I'm running:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
MS-7025 ATX Motherboard (K8N Neo2 w/NVIDIA nForce 3 Ultra Chipset)
1 Gig of RAM (two PQI 3200-1024 DBH 512 MB Dual Channel PC3200 2.5-.-.-7 sticks)
Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics card
SoundBlaster Audology card
Windows XP Professional
On some games in the couple years I've had this machine (and always on any of the BattleField titles) the PC locks up pretty close to the beginning of the game and I get the stuttering "da-da-da-da" sound of some hung music. I would reset the machine to break it out of this state, try again, and if I got the same hang-up I just gave up trying to play the game. A majority of the games, however, ran fine (EQ2, WoW, Oblivion, etc.).
However, yesterday I go and get the new Vanguard game and load it up. At the character creation screen the system locks up on me again. I reboot. Try again, freeze again. I go online and find the latest driver for my video card and load it. Try again, get a little further in the game, and then it locks up again. I reboot, try again, and this time I get all the way into the game and am running around having a good time. After about 15 or 20 mins. of gameplay, the system locks up again. I reboot. This time, I get to the Windows splashscreen with the little "progress bar" along the bottom and that bar is moving VERY choppy and VERY slow. It finally acts as if it's going to go to desktop and the whole system reboots again. My monitor shows no incoming signal but the fans are all running on the machine. I try to hit the restart button but nothing happens. I turn the machine off from the back. Turn it back on, same thing happens. Do it again, same thing.
I decide to see if I can run in Safe Mode and I can, but it loads VERY slowly. I restore the system from a previous point and try again. Same problem. Can't get into Windows. Load up in Safe Mode again, VERY SLOW.
I then get my bootable CD of Windows XP and whip the hard drive clean, load a new version of Windows. Took over 5 hours to load XP on that machine. Insane! At the point where the install begins to ask you some questions, the screen just stops. My mouse moves around fine, but nothing is happening. Can't click "next", the little "hurricane" icon isn't moving. So I hit restart. This time I boot up into Windows but VERY slowly again.
I suspect my video card is having problems so I get another AGP cheapie from my wife's computer and toss that in the machine. Still VERY slow to respond. I don't think this is a video card issue.
Now I turn to you folks. Any ideas? I DID have problems with my RAM when I first got it building this new machine. It's suppose to be dual-channel but it has NEVER worked as such. Tried it on three different motherboards and not a single one could use it as dual-channel even though it's labled to be as such. So...I'm suspecting my RAM may be the cause. Would RAM make the machine respond so horribly slowly? I mean, Windows reports seeing all 1 gig of RAM so it's not like it's running on something slower. But also recall that until yesterday, most programs ran fine with a few exceptions. NO application software EVER gave me problems. I run video capture software on that machine which takes tapes and coverts them to mpgs. Never had it lock up. Never locked up on the internet either. ONLY on SOME games (BattleField series and Vanguard).
HELP!!!
ETA: I have a new power supply (a few months old) so I don't think that's the issue, either. UPDATE: While the machine was running slow, I still tried to get over there and load up some MB drivers, USB drivers, etc. Seemed to work "ok" but was a bit sluggish. I attributed that to no drivers being on the video card. However, I was fiddling around behind the PC and unplugged a USB cable that was in the system (not attached to anything working). The system suddenly froze. I rebooted only to have it freeze on the Windows splash screen again (and again and again as I tried a few more times). Needless to say the machine is now sitting there as a doorstop waiting for me to figure out what part to replace to get it in working order again!