I ended up stumbling across this post after a random search in Google.
It seems as if my problems are extremely similar to Sven's in that while, and seemingly only while, playing 3-D games I tend to constantly experience my computer locking up. In the time that it has been happening, which has been a long time, the occurances seem random, completely random to me at least.
The computer essentially just completely locks up and the sound appears to repeat or skip. The only way to get everything "going again" is for a nice press of the reset button on the case.
Along with a complete lock up, I always experience what feels like the computer "lagging behind" at some points. It's rather hard to describe. Everything's going fine and it suddenly starts to "skip." The entire system doesn't lock up but everything gets very "jerky" and "skippy." These are horrible descriptions I know, but it's very much like lag from online games, but experienced offline as well.
I'm assuming it's from the video card, I never experience this type of "lag" in normal 2-D work. Sometimes it never locks up at all, but it's easy to say that I experience this lag practically all the time I'm playing a game.
At first I thought it was inadequate cooling due to a crappy case or issues regarding a rather low-end power supply. Both of these have been replaced. Here's the case and here's the power supply. I did as much research as I could on both. The power supply, from what I read, is incredibly stable (per Tom's Hardware) with very few fluctuations in it's output. I love the case, it's massive and in frequently checking the air output temperature in the most untechnical way possible (my good old hand), the air tends to never be hot. After reinstalling all of my components into the case and hooking up the new power supply, the exact same issues occur so I have to assume that it's neither case cooling or the power supply.
What's logically left, in my mind, are the processor and video card. Both the CPU and GPU have the stock HSF. Being that both stocks suck, it's leading me to think that it's most likely cooling issues with the video card. The fan's loud sometimes, emitting a sound that can't be normal (just doesn't sound right). The heatsink for the CPU is littered with dust that really is not coming off very easily. I'm thinking it's time to just replace both.
Here's where all of this crap leads. I'm not confident with myself in dealing with the CPU HSF and even less with the GPU HSF. I'm sure I can end up doing it successfully, I'm essentially just afraid of losing these parts.
Neither part is very expensive anymore, but I had gotten the video card (x800Pro) very close to it's release date. The CPU's an AMD64 3400+ (Socket 754). Does anyone have any experience in replacing either HSF's? Any words of wisdom for one fearful to attempt this? My apologies for the ridiculously long post, but I wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out.
It seems as if my problems are extremely similar to Sven's in that while, and seemingly only while, playing 3-D games I tend to constantly experience my computer locking up. In the time that it has been happening, which has been a long time, the occurances seem random, completely random to me at least.
The computer essentially just completely locks up and the sound appears to repeat or skip. The only way to get everything "going again" is for a nice press of the reset button on the case.
Along with a complete lock up, I always experience what feels like the computer "lagging behind" at some points. It's rather hard to describe. Everything's going fine and it suddenly starts to "skip." The entire system doesn't lock up but everything gets very "jerky" and "skippy." These are horrible descriptions I know, but it's very much like lag from online games, but experienced offline as well.
I'm assuming it's from the video card, I never experience this type of "lag" in normal 2-D work. Sometimes it never locks up at all, but it's easy to say that I experience this lag practically all the time I'm playing a game.
At first I thought it was inadequate cooling due to a crappy case or issues regarding a rather low-end power supply. Both of these have been replaced. Here's the case and here's the power supply. I did as much research as I could on both. The power supply, from what I read, is incredibly stable (per Tom's Hardware) with very few fluctuations in it's output. I love the case, it's massive and in frequently checking the air output temperature in the most untechnical way possible (my good old hand), the air tends to never be hot. After reinstalling all of my components into the case and hooking up the new power supply, the exact same issues occur so I have to assume that it's neither case cooling or the power supply.
What's logically left, in my mind, are the processor and video card. Both the CPU and GPU have the stock HSF. Being that both stocks suck, it's leading me to think that it's most likely cooling issues with the video card. The fan's loud sometimes, emitting a sound that can't be normal (just doesn't sound right). The heatsink for the CPU is littered with dust that really is not coming off very easily. I'm thinking it's time to just replace both.
Here's where all of this crap leads. I'm not confident with myself in dealing with the CPU HSF and even less with the GPU HSF. I'm sure I can end up doing it successfully, I'm essentially just afraid of losing these parts.
Neither part is very expensive anymore, but I had gotten the video card (x800Pro) very close to it's release date. The CPU's an AMD64 3400+ (Socket 754). Does anyone have any experience in replacing either HSF's? Any words of wisdom for one fearful to attempt this? My apologies for the ridiculously long post, but I wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out.
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