Every game crashes or blue screens.

[Supermanowar]

Here's the thing, for the last many months, I have had a problem with games on my computer crashing. This is not just some games, but nearly every game, including Oblivion, World of Warcraft, Command and Conquer 3, and Unreal Tournament 2004. Also, playing StarCraft causes a blue screen and I also blue screened while attempting to rip a DVD.

I thought it might be my RAM, so I took each out (I have two 512MB sticks) and the problem persisted.

Also, I had to reinstall Windows XP on a new hard drives last week, and I still have the problem.

The only idea I have left is that there is some problem with the chipset on my motherboard, but I do not know what to do about it.

Here are my specs:

AMD Athlon XP 2800+
2 sticks of 512MB PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9800
Motherboard: Biostar M7NCD Pro

The chipset on the motherboard is NVIDIA nFORCE2 400 Ultra/MCP.

Please help, I would like to play a game for more than 10 minutes at a time.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Do you know what the temperatures are like for each of your major components? And how these compare to the temparature thresholds for each component?

I had a similar problem with an old MSI KT333 board, it was the norhbridge overheating(cos I put a crappy h/s on it). Once I put the supplied fan back on with some Ceramique it was fine again.

 

[Supermanowar]

The display on the front of my case says everything is normal. It says it displays the temps for the CPU and HDD, but I think the CPU thing may be on the video card.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Have you done any o/c ing with this machine?

Google search for "Biostar M7NCD Pro" overheating yields some results suggesting northbridge overheating, amongst other things, due to some overclocking.

You could download Motherboard Monitor to get some more temperature readings.

Hope it helps

 

[Supermanowar]

I have done no overclocking.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Originally posted by: Supermanowar
I have done no overclocking.

No need to get short. Nothing wrong with a bit of overclocking.

Give it a good ole vacuum cleaning (can of compressed air if you want to be namby-pamby) and try running with case open and big fan blowing air in if you've got one.

That's if you believe it's a heat problem. If you don't, then this would almost eliminate overheating if symptoms continue.

 

[Supermanowar]

I certainly do have a lot of dust in my machines, but I don't have my air can now. Also, I run my machine pretty much 24/7, if overheating were the case, would it overheat during normal usage or when I am not using it?

 

[concreteDonkey]

All I can say for sure is that my old system seemed to crash pretty randomly. I would leave it with apps running but not doing anything, go and get a drink, and it would sometimes hang by the time i got back. I might've got away with an hour playing a really intense game sometimes. It was only after I figured it out and rectified the n/bridge that it seemed so obvious what the cause was.

Honestly, I would get in there with a vacuum cleaner. Just be very careful, it won't be sucking anything up until you get about a 1/2" away then it will lunge at it's target and clamp on. So be careful in that last 1/2". It's so satisfying seeing all the crap leaving your system too.

I vacuum my pc every 6 months or so and it still works. Also, everything is thermogreased with the one syringe of Ceramique I bought (about 4GP from thecoolingshop.co.uk) and there's still some left. Reduced the CPU temp in Motherboard Monitor by a few degrees.

 

[TheBiggmann]

I dunno exactly what the story was with mine but when i first built it i got blue screens like once a day and they gradually increased in frequency so i took it in cuz i didn't wanna deal with figuring out what was wrong and they did something with the ram timing i believe. I dunno, just throwing it out there, maybe it'll spark something in someone more knowledgeable's mind.

 

[Supermanowar]

It's not my system crashing most of the time, it's the games (and only the games). Everything else is fine.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Supermanowar
It's not my system crashing most of the time, it's the games (and only the games). Everything else is fine.

Games rank among the most taxing applications you can run on a PC and thus can make instabilities and problems pop up that are usually inert when running simpler, less demanding applications. Since your machine also BSODs while ripping (a very CPU intensive task) this might indicate that anything that taxes your setup more than normal is the culprit. Which means: there's a problem with your machine, and the games are just making it evident.


Do try to get the dust out of your machine. Dust acts as an insulator, and as it builds up, there will be less heat dissipation.

Reinstall the latest CPU, Chipset and GPU drivers.

Run Memtest86 on each stick of RAM separately, for some hours. You can leave it running overnight.

 

[Rottie]

you said you do have a lot of dust then dust can cause a lot of heat. Try clean it with air can blower.

 

[daveybrat]

I vote for dust as the AthlonXP series ran very hot to begin with, adding a layer of dirt and dust onto them can cause some serious problems. Clean your pc thoroughly before wasting time troubleshooting the rest of your pc. Make sure to clean out the fan on your Radeon 9800 as well, they ran extremely hot.

 

[concreteDonkey]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
I vote for dust as the AthlonXP series ran very hot to begin with, adding a layer of dirt and dust onto them can cause some serious problems. Clean your pc thoroughly before wasting time troubleshooting the rest of your pc. Make sure to clean out the fan on your Radeon 9800 as well, they ran extremely hot.

...oh and he meant to mention, using a vacuum cleaner.

 

[daveybrat]

Originally posted by: concreteDonkey

Originally posted by: daveybrat
I vote for dust as the AthlonXP series ran very hot to begin with, adding a layer of dirt and dust onto them can cause some serious problems. Clean your pc thoroughly before wasting time troubleshooting the rest of your pc. Make sure to clean out the fan on your Radeon 9800 as well, they ran extremely hot.

...oh and he meant to mention, using a vacuum cleaner.

No, i didn't mention that.....because a vacuum cleaner is useless IMO. You really think a vacuum cleaner is going to 'suck' all of the dirt out of the cpu fins and video card fan?

A can of compressed air or even better, a dry air compressor is the best. Really blow out all of that built up dust. I use a compressor here at work and the pc's look new when i'm done.