Computer freezes

[nanaki333]

OK, before I go and blow some $$$ on a new motherboard, PSU, memory, whatever, I want your guy's opinions. My gf's computer is an xp1600 system. The motherboard is a gigabyte board, I don't know what particular model it is off hand, I do know it's a 333fsb via chipset based board. It's got 1x 128MB pc2100 and 1x 256MB pc2100. It has a GF4 Ti4200 with a crystan orb cooler. 40GB 7200rpm WD HDD. 1x DVD-rom, 1x 48x CD-RW. 250watt PSU. Anyway, on to the problem. I haven't been able to get it to run at the xp1600's full speed. If i set the FSB to 133, it'll run for a bit, but then the screen will start to go crazy and it would lockup. Especially when just listening to music. If it runs in 100fsb, it works fine. You can listen to music, play games, whatever. Well, except doom3. That locked up after about 10 minutes with the chip set at 100fsb. Games like the sims play fine. The comp has the latest BIOS on it, latest video drivers, latest chipset drivers. I originally had that 1x 128MB pc2100 and 1x 256MB pc2700. I swapped out the 2700 for the 2100 that's in there now with no luck. I'm thinking it's the PSU, since it's only a 250watt, it's an antec by the way. I'm not positive and don't want to buy a new PSU if that's not it. I have my spare asus a7v8x board I can throw in if that's the problem. I don't know, I just don't want to rip everything out. Cause whenever I work on a PC, I get questioned about what every little piece I mess with is.

 

[OMG1Penguin]

I am thinking PSU as well... POSSIBLY the RAM. Don't expect doom to run well with 384mb of ram even if you did have a really nice psu. The sims is much less taxxing on your system as a whole than doom would be. Try just putting one stick of memory in and seeing if that solves the problem.

More than likely the psu though.

 

[nanaki333]

eh.. doom3 ran playable on a machine here at work. it's a p4 1.8, 384MB pc2100, radeon8500. yeah though, i think i'll just throw in one of my spare PSUs tonight.