Computer Crashes/Freezes in every 3d game

[rkarsk]

This computer crashes very often in practically all 3dgames, and I have no clue why. I emailed Galaxy (my video card maker) and they told me to hook the graphics card up to its own cord, without anything else connected to it -they also told me to install older drivers. Both of these "fixes" did not fix my problem.

Under advice from several others, I decided to ditch my generic 400W PSU that came with my case and invest in a good quality powersupply, which I did. It didn't help one bit.

Then, I got some more ram, not necessarily to solve the problem as to increase performance, but that still didn't help.

So, I reformatted. All games ran fine for the 2-3 hours of play, and then the crashing started again.

I turned off fast writes, I turned on compatability mode with my mobo (in rivatuner). Nothing in my computer is overclocked.

This isn't a heating issue because my GFX card idles at about 42 and goes up to a max of 60 under load. I have 5 fans in my system.

I applied AS5 to my processor, the nforce chip, and the my GFX card ram/core/hsi bridge.

I've tried different driver versions for my gfx card - Including the newest, the 76.45's, and the 77.30's (current).

After reformat I installed all of the latest drivers apart from my graphics card.

I can play anywhere from 5 minutes to 2hours and it will crash in random times between then, without any symptoms before hand (perfect FPS and everything, and then BAM). What happens when it crashes is the sound when it crashed just starts looping very quickly, and the only remedy is to reestart the computer. Other times the computer will just freeze for a second and restart (happens less often).

Any suggestions?

AMD Athlon 64 3000+
MSI K8N-Neo2 Platinum Nforce 3 Socket 939
Enermax Noisetaker 420w PSU
OCZ Performance Series 1GB DDR400 Ram Cl2.5 (2x512 Dual Channel)
Galaxy Geforce 6600GT
Sound Blaster Audigy LS
Maxtor 20gb 7200RPM IDE
Seagate 80gb 7200RPM SATA w/NCQ
Pioneer DVD Burner

 

[rkarsk]

Bump, please help - I'm desperate

 

[mechBgon]

What voltage are you setting your RAM for? If it's at AUTO, crank it to 2.8 volts and see if that stabilizes the system.

If that doesn't help, yank the Audigy 2 and test without it in the system.

 

[rkarsk]

You are my hero.

I never thought that my ram could be undervolted.

I didn't go with the 2.8 (thats the most my mobo lets me do btw), i went with 2.65 and it works great.

Thanks again dude, if I wasn't so poor I would give you some cash.

 

[mechBgon]

Sweet I bet you're glad that's sorted, now fire up them games!

 

[rkarsk]

A brief glimpse of hope... gone.

It didn't crash for about 4 hours yesterday after applying the voltage settings, something that was previously unheard of.

I fired it up today (still at 2.65) and it crashed about 5 minutes into the game.

Upped the voltage to 2.7, will go test now.

 

[rkarsk]

Crashed again

 

[mariosoft034]

You already tried memtest of course?

 

[rkarsk]

Yep, memtest reports 0 errors.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Try disabling Write Combining (Display Properties, Settings tab, Advanced, Troubleshooting tab). It's worked a couple times for similar issues. Don't forget to reboot after you disable it.

 

[rkarsk]

Disabled it, game ran for about 3 hours without crashing. (incase that sounds misleading, i'll clarify saying that the game never crashed).

Hopefully this isn't another fluke

 

[rkarsk]

Well, after atleast 5 hours of gaming I think it worked.

Now, is there anyway to enable the write combing option without having it crash again?

Also, why would write combing cause this? Thanks.

 

[cheapherk]

If you are still crashing- Try this. I haven't had a problem since.

 

[Tu13erhead]

rkarsk, check your email.

 

[rkarsk]

Sorry about not replying sooner to your emails! I went out for a camping trip with some friends and haven't been able to access a computer. I should have told you. Sorry again.

Anyways, with write combing disabled games crash much less frequently, but the problem still persists.

I've read somewhere (may have even been this thread or your emails, not sure) that this is because an issue with the Nforce 3 Ultra boards, nvidia cards, and athlon 64 processors.

I downloaded the newest nvidia drivers which also seem to have reduced the amount of crashing I experience.

But alas, the problem is still not gone.

If there are any suggestions that pop out, please share - but if you have to do any sort of work or research to help me with this, don't bother as I don't want to waste anybody elses time.

I've decided to sell the parts and just go for a PCI-E motherboard, possibly SLI. That way i'll be able to upgrade my video card in the future (AGP cards are a dying breed, not to mention more expensive). I figure nows the right time to do it, as my parts still have a relatively high retail value and I won't lose much on this.

Thanks again, I really appreciate everyones help.