help! windows keeps crashing during warcraft 3

[cd1680]

Hi I am new to this forum, so please dont scream at not doing everything right.

Whenever I play Warcraft 3, the computer crashes in around 5-10 minutes. It shows a black screen and then the monitor turns off. I can not SEE ANYTHING at all and must turn off the computer forcefully.
any help is greatly appreciated. thx.
Edit: i have tried playing it while disabling the antivirus and firewall but it still doesnt work. it also sometimes showed a blue verticle bar on the top of the screen that moved when i moved my mouse.

I have just built the computer 2 days ago. Here are my specs:
amd athlon 3500+ socket 939
k8t neo 2-F
512 MB dual channel pc2100 ddr sdram by Micron (i think) running @ 129.4mhz (cpu-z)
ati radeon 9600xt
seagate 80gb hd
maxtor 80gb hd
asus cd-rw
pioneer dvd
windows xp pro w/sp2
Edit: antec smart power 450 watt psu

Thanks alot.

PS. I notice that even though in cpu-z and my computer it properties it says that i have 512 mb of ram, but in system information (start-->run-->msinfo32) it only shows that i have physical memory of 256mb. maybe this is the problem? can some1 help?
by the way, these 2 256mb sticks were fine on my old comp (i took them from a sony vaio). they didnt crash when i played warcraft, but now they are crashing for some reason

 

[amdskip]

What power supply (brand/model) are you using?

 

[cd1680]

Antec smartpower 450 watt
i dont think thats the problem.. its not a cheap power supply

 

[Xenocide187]

It might be your video card. Does everything freeze, including your keyboard, when your monitor is off?

 

[cd1680]

not everything.. i just edited the post above saying that it also sometimes showed a blue verticle bar on the top of the screen that moved when i moved my mouse

 

[Xenocide187]

Have you tried other games? I'm asking this to make sure whether or not it is actually the video card, which is what I think that's going wrong.

 

[cd1680]

im not sure if other games crash because i dont play them. but i will install some later and see what happens. and i also plan to update the drivers (new ati catalyst driver i think).
thx

 

[Xenocide187]

No problem. Oh and don't forget to configure your drivers, sometimes one check box can make a world of difference.

 

[Xenocide187]

Use this to help you configure your driver.

 

[cd1680]

i just tried running warcraft again today and it ran perfectly fine! how weird. im thinking that its because of cpu heat, since the time when it crashed, i had left the computer on for 48 hours before. im gonna try to get a zalman 7700 soon.

 

[cd1680]

well my computer has been fine for a while but i now it started crashing again. i checked the cpu heat and it is only at 41 C at idle. i read other forums and 41 C is a pretty normal temp. i dont kno what is happening. can someone help?

 

[resStealth]

well from what im hearing the newer ati drivers arent working well, causing bsod's and other errors. try going back to an older version of the drivers, and also that ram sounds cheap. get about 512 megs or so of corsair,crucial,kingston,ocz or other good brand and see if that helps.

 

[cd1680]

i will try to get ram but that is the last resort
i found another guy who sounds like he was having the EXACT same problem as me
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic9708.html

can anyone help?
thx

 

[blodhi74]

just for the heck of it ...open the case and point a fan in vid cards direction .... see if get better results

 

[cd1680]

i have switched the ram but still it crashes

but i figured out a way that it doesnt crash. i put it in opengl mode. i just type -opengl after the shortcut to the game. but the graphics doesnt look as good as originally.

now i am just wondering why is it that opengl doesnt crash? what is the mode that it originally launches in if it isnt opengl? why does opengl work but the other thing doesnt?

can any1 help? thx