frequent crashs on games?

[bulbasuar]

I am having constant crash's while playing games like world of warcraft and guild wars. I'll be playing my game then everything will just freeze, and it begiining to happen on the desktop as well. i thought it was my new video driver (lastest forceware driver from nvidia). i normally play games on 1280x1024 and max quality and aa and fsaa. but i never had a problem until recently, even before id play the same games with no problems. now suddenly theres problems. Its confusing the hell out of me, and i dont know how to stopthe freezing.
this is my setup, http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=31103 i know im able to run my games with this quality becuase i have been doing so for a while now. but the recent problems are puzzling. any help would be great. thanks.

 

[bulbasuar]

I just rememberd when i first got my video card i had problems invovling the onboard sound not playing nice with my audigy, so i disabled the onboard sound. i tried to play guilds in windowed mode (i havent tried that) and i got the fastest freeze ive ever had, about 45 seconds and freeze. Is there maybe anything im missing here, or at least any different nvidia drivers i can try, im using 77.77. please help thanks.

 

[bulbasuar]

Me agian, so i tried disabling (even removing) my audigy card, still freeze. rolled back driver to 77.72, still freeze, and a 76 one too, still freeze. Uninstalled all my driver's and reinstalled the latest of each, still freeze. uninstall/install the game itself, still freeze... this is starting to make me sad.... :'(

 

[firerock]

Did you OC your system? What's your system, GPU temp? Are dusts clogging your fans, intake/outake holes?

 

[bulbasuar]

I got a lil bit of dust in there, maybe thats the ticket, i havent done a big clean in a couple months. as for the temp, the temperture in my apartment was pretty bad, we dont have AC and for a few weeks toronto had high 30's heat, but i didnt have any problems during those weeks when my apartment alone averaged like 28-34 degrees day and night. these problems are ocurring as the temperture is dropping outside and my apartment is nice and cold. The cpu and case temperture, mbm tells is pretty steep, 63cpu and 45case, when i firist built this puter i had litterally half that heat average. Maybe it is dust and such, or even maybe the i need a better fan system and more thermal paste. What could cuase such radical heat?

 

[kristof007]

RAM without heat shielding, CPU even with the fan and your GPU can dish out some serious heat. I touched RAM right after I turned my computer for some cleaning and what not and DAMN where they hot. I think your temperature should be fine. Probably not the PSU because your whole rig doesn't freeze. I got an extra fan from newegg .. cost about $20 shipping and all and it took about 3-5 degrees off ambient temperature. Try replacing the graphics card if you have an extra one.

You can also uninstall the graphics card and set the video for motherboard video. It will be bad quality but whatever. Turn the computer off. Take the video card out of it's slot and dust and then replace. Might not fix things but it's DEFINETLY worth a shot. Good luck!

 

[Fern]

What could cause such radical heat?

Check for dust bunnies in the heatsink fins. Make sure the fans are turning properly too

Fern

EDIT: forgot to say your rig link ain't showing any specs

 

[bulbasuar]

ok, so i cleaned her up, and now im not at 66/45, im doing 47/37, pretty nice heat difference. As for the fan, im looking at a big ole fan from zalman that i read a review for somewhere, they said it keeps the heat way down if you dont mind the sound, and im looking at replacing the whole gpu heatsink/fan. I cant take out my gpu, becuase i dont have onboard monitor support. Huh? The link doesnt work? ah heck... I'll check it out.

 

[bulbasuar]

http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=31103 <--- does that work?
http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.aspx?member=190024 <--- or that one?

 

[Fern]

Yeah, nice improvement on those temps :thumbsup:

New linkies work fine

 

[firerock]

Yep, house cleaning is a great way to keep your system on track. BTW, we have very simliar system setup. BTW, how's your crashing problem?

 

[bulbasuar]

I played guild wars for about 5 hours yesterday, didn't slow up once and didn't freeze. So I'd say I am back on track. The heat still concerns me thou, i want to take it down at least 5-8 degree's.

 

[kristof007]

I say with a single 80mm fan you could probably achieve that. I got a super tower. And old one but it's still huge and I had space for the extra fan. I got something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811998109. It's cheap and effective. You might want to go for one that's a little more expensive. The higher the RPM, the better the cooling. Good luck with the shopping!