Games just lock up

[Dufman]

when i play, mafia, age of mythology, or battlefeild 1942, everything runs just fine for a few minutes, tyhen the games die. what happens is i hear a really annoying sound out of my speakers (same for every game).

could this be a video card problem, or a sound card problem
i have the newest soundblaster 5.1 dobly digital drivers, and the new driver release for my nvidia 420 video card.

 

[PCMarine]

Sounds like something is overheating, most likely your processor. I'm guessing you have an AMD chip, so make sure you have some good thermal paste and the HSF is properly seated.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Could be a stick of bad RAM, I've had that happen a couple times. Try running memtest, see if you can find something.

 

[Dufman]

my temp is at 43c for my proc, and 23c for my system
that is right when i have to restart my system after a game crashes
i dont think its the heat

the games ran fine before i formatted my computer yesterday, and since then, they dont seem to wokr

 

[optoman]

Did you change or move any of the hardware after you reformatted? It sounds like it could be a sharing problem or an overheating problem.

I would reinstall the video and soundcard drivers before you do anything else. Also, get one of those programs that stresses your system and actaully watch the temps as the program runs. It seems that you are checking the temp after you reboot and be then it could of cooled back down. Mine runs at 42C idle and 53C under load.

 

[Dufman]

what program would i use to test my sytem?

 

[sandorski]

Could also be a motherboard problem or even power supply. I tried looking at your rig, but like my link to my rig, yours doesn't work.

Anyway, here's a sad tale:

About 6 months back, my DVD's developed a strange audio/video synching problem. In October I replaced a Voodoo5 5500 with a Radeon 8500LE and about a month ago my system began freezing. As time passed the freezing became more frequent and then last week I could rarely get it to boot into WinXP. So I tried a few power supplies, nothing. Did a visual inspection of my Athlon XP 1700 and it looked fine, so I decided to buy a new mobo. That's what the problem was, my new mobo hasn't crashed in 3-4 days(24/7 at 100% cpu util). That may or may not be your problem, but after trying the driver thing, you may want to try out some hardware testing.