AsRock 775 Dual-VSTA Gaming Trouble

[fman]

Hi. I have an AsRock 775 Dual-VSTa board with an intel e6300, 2x 1 gb corsari value select ddrII 667 memory and an Nvidia 6800 LE. Up untill a few months ago I could play games on my computer (Halo 1, Need for Speed, and a couple of others. I´m not much of a gamer). The problem is now every time I install a game I can´t play it. My computer crashes after about 1 minute of running a game. It´s not that the game process won´t respond, my monitor simply goes black and I have to turn off my computer and turn it back on again. I´ve installed the Portal: First Slice demo, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Half life 2 Deathmatch demo, all with the same disatrous results. Has anyone here had any similar problems or know what could be causing this problem? I´ve played with many of the options in the bios like changing the memory mode to DDR 266 (533), changing the IDE strength,forcing my agp card to 4x and 8x,etc. I was once able to play Splinter Cell for about 7 minutes and I think my DDRII memory was set to DDR. Is there any option I can change for the ram (speed, multipliers?). I have a feeling it might be a problem with my ram, but I don´t know. I´ve heard about memtes, but if it finds any problems with my ram, can they be fixed or am I screwed. Thanks. I´m desperate to play some games, have´nt done so in a really long time.

Ps: I haven´t tried running halo 1 again, but I doubt it will work, the only game I can run is chess master, anything else that is more demanding crashes my pc.

 

[Mondoman]

Definitely download and run memtest86+ (which is different from "memtest"). Make sure you complete at least a couple of complete "passes" without any errors. Although Corsair's Value Select line is low-quality, they DO back it with a lifetime warranty and have a good support/return process -- if you find any problems, you shouldn't have any issues in getting the modules promptly replaced under warranty.
Since you are able to run Windows and start games, a couple of possibilities are:
1) A heat issue in CPU or graphics card. Open your case and make sure all the fans are running properly, and clean out all the dust bunnies.
2) A failing power supply (especially if you have an el cheapo/no-name power supply). All power supplies slowly lose capacity over time, but the cheapo ones do so more quickly and more severely. Running games tends to be when your PC draws max power.

 

[fman]

Thanks for your reply. I am going to run memtest86+ as soon as possible. So, if I do find any errors I shoud try to return the ram? And if I don´t find any errors, is there any option I can change like the ram voltage or something to see if that fixes the problem. You know, it might just be a power supply problem. When I used to play games I had a 220V 650W powersupply of a decent brand, but now since I moved back home I had to get a no-name 550W powersupply. Well thanks, I was hoping I could just fix this by changing some settings since replacing my ram would take a long time since I bought it on newegg and don´t live in the States.. and I´m not thrilled about having to spend money on a new psu.

 

[homonculus]

Are you sure that the dreaded dust bunnies haven't crept in, crapped and crept out again?

 

[fman]

Huh, I guess I´m also going to try to get rid of the dust bunnies. My graphics card and processor supposedly have artic silver 5 on them, but I´m not 100% sure since I didn´t build the pc. I´ll let you know what happens.

 

[bigblockchevy]

maybe low power to either the cpu,ram or vga. it the ram is bugging out it could do that too. try to de-frag the hd .

corsair has a very good rep for RMA. i have sent back a total of 3 sticks of corsair and one stick was a very old stick of ddr1 266 for which they sent me a new one no questions ask. one time they sent me ddr2-800 on some new ddr 675 that was doa--ya can't beat that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: bigblockchevy
try to de-frag the hd .

That's the last thing I would try if the system is unstable. It might corrupt all his data!

 

[bigsnyder]

i agree, no defrag

 

[fman]

Hey. Well I cleaned my gpu with a can of compressed air (it was really really dusty) and was able to run Splinter Cell :Chaos Theory... for about 21 minutes, than my computer crashed. I reset it and tried to play again but it only lasted for about a minute... I guess it lasts a bit longer when my graphics card has been cooled off. I don´t know. Im going to run memtest86+ right now...

 

[JustaGeek]

Check your Power Supply...