Crashing/Freezing Problems

[Aolish]

one of my friends asked me to post his problem on this forum in the hopes of someone being able to fiqure out what is wrong. here is the post (copy and pasted what he said)

I'm having a big problem with my computer...Everytime i would play a game like unreal 2004 or any game it would freeze my whole computer....so i ran some test on my ram and that wasnt the problem it pass all the test...next opinion was to format...i did...same thing happen..then i was thinking is my 350 watts non name brand power suppy...bought a new 400 watts name brand power supply...same problem happen again...next step i took my video card to test it...works great on my friend computer....i took out all my pci's and just installed the video card...i format again...same problem...right now im thinking its my cpu or my motherboard is dying....HELP PLEASE...I WANNA PLAY DOOM 3!!!!

the spec is
CPU AMD 2100+
Motherboard= Gigabyte GA-7VAX
RAM= 2x 512mb Corsair Xms CMX512-3200C2PT
Video Card= Aopen Nvidia 128mb 4200ti
2 hard drives= 120gb WD and IBM 45gb
Sound Card= Santa Cruz


If anyone can help my friend out its greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[demon42]

Is it heat? how OC'd, if at all is it?

 

[PepperDog]

I seem to be having very similar problems here.

Everything works fine BUT 3D games. Although I have found that reducing my FSB to 333 fixes the crashes 100% as far as I can tell.

The more I think about it, I believe my problem lies in low +5 and +12 rails from my PSU, even though it is a "good quality" ANTEC TRUE380S. I'm running a ATI 9800NP, which is probably sucking alot of juice when in-game leading to instability, but why at 200FSB and not at 333? Sucks to have paid so much for good components and have these problems....

You may try backing down your FSB a little at a time and see if that might help. I know it sucks to not get the most out of your system, but for me it at least lets me play.

Good luck...P

 

[raystorm]

I know the OP and I was helping him out. I suggested all the things he mentioned such as using memtest to test his ram, testing his videocard on another pc...etc.

Now its pretty much either his cpu or motherboard. Its good that we rounded it out to those two. What I would like to know is if there is any way to test his cpu in the command line (DOS).. y'know..like memtest. A cpu test you can install on floppy or cd and test the cpu without having to go into windows (since it freezes in windows).

His pc is not overclocked and it worked perfectly for about a year before the freezing stuff occured. Its not heat either as he monitored his temps in the bios (yea..not perfect but good enough) and his room is air conditioned. He once had to replace the northbridge fan (I THINK its called the northbridge.. its like a small fan 1 inch in diameter that is near the agp slot). He did try the pc with his case opened to make sure the cpu fan was working (its fine).

So is there some kind of cpu test he could try before he send the board to gigabyte??

thanks in advance.