Help!!!!! weird game crashes

[PhiLoc]

I recently assembled a Athlon 64 machine using a:
Athlon 64 2800+
MSI K8T Neo FIS2R (rma'd after I couldn't solve problem I'm describing now)
now using Aopen AK89 max (same problem is occurring)
ATI 9800 AIW pro
Audigy 2
2x512 Corsair XMS 3200LL
2x 80gb Hitachi YK250 SATA in RAID 1
etc.
Anyway, when playing games, (Far Cry, CoD, Thief 3, etc) every so often the screen blacks out and there are strange sounds (kind of like trying to tune in an old radio) coming from the speakers. I thought I had a bad MB so I rma'd it and bought a different one but it still happens, (clean reinstalled everything)
Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[gordanfreeman]

i had somewhat similar problems with reguard to the audio symptom. i dont know if this would apply to you as you are running a very different mobo/cpu setup than i am since you are using a 64bit cpu. i narrowed my problem down to the audigy 2 card. after about 2 months of troubleshooting and replacing 1 perfectly good PSU (creative tech support can rot with satan isgust i figured out that apparently it was an IRQ conflict w/ the audigy card. the only way i found to fix it was to reinstall windows using a Standard PC HAL instead of ACPI. this requires a format and total reinstall of windows so dont attempt this unless you are sure it is your problem, tho. and with the symptoms you described on your system specs, i would try to find something else first. good luck.

 

[Lmronby]

I have heard of sound cards/drivers causin similair probs. Try disabling the sound and trying the game just to see if it crashes. 2 cents.

 

[gordanfreeman]

yea thats an easy way to check if its the audigy card. disable the audigy card and use onboard audio. if the crashing goes away its a good bet its the sound card. if not you basically just eliminated that as the problem.

 

[PhiLoc]

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[daveybrat]

What brand and wattage is your power supply?
I highly suggest a 400Watt or higher, and NOT generic or something that came with
your case.

 

[PhiLoc]

400 w Antec smart power.
In addition to the problem I've been having, I'm also getting VPU recover messages. "VPU recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands".

 

[PhiLoc]

:frown: I called ATI tech. support and they had me RMA the card. They sent a replacement (an obviously used one) and the same problem started occurring after several hours of gaming. I have fast writes disabled and I turned down the AGP speed to 4x and it happens less frequently but it still happens. Any ideas? This is getting very frustrating, I had no such problems when the card was in my nforce 2 machine.

 

[nanaki333]

maybe the agp port on your mobo is a piece of poop? since you replaced 2 vid cards and you get the same VPU error message. try updating all your chipset drivers and video drivers? BIOS update maybe? gotta rid out the basics.

 

[Broadkipa]

could this not be a refresh rate problem, to high a refresh rate will cause a black screen and I have heard of cases of high pitch sound as well.

 

[PhiLoc]

Samsung 900NF 1280x1024 32bit 85hz. I've always used that setting with this monitor.