My computers keep crashing - Please help

[omega2]

Does anyone know why my computer keeps crashing? It crashes when I play any 3D games (like Earth & Beyond, UT2k3), playing any videos (whether it's DVD, divx, rm, wmv), and in Microsoft office (doesn't matter which part i'm using whether it's word, excel, etc.). Funny thing is that when I'm browsing the web, it's fine, even with flash video, it seems ok. But the others I have listed above seems to crash my computer. Does anyone know why this is happening?

My system specs are as follows.
-AMD Athlon 1.2Ghz
-Asus A7V-133 Motherboard (Via base chipset)
-832MB SDRAM
-ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder video card
-SoundBlaster Live
-3COM NIC 905B
-Sigma Design RealMagic Hollyplus MPEG decoder card
-Adaptec 5100 USB 2.0 card
-One other thing, all drivers are up-to-date.

 

[mechBgon]

For starters...

• What operating system do you have?
• What brand and model of power supply do you use (the label will probably say, if you're not sure)
• Could it be temperature-related? What's the temperature inside your case like, if you know?
• What brand(s) are your memory modules? Are they PC100 or PC133?
• Is your CPU a 100MHz-based or 133MHz-based one?

 

[omega2]

Does matter which Windows XP i use, whether it's pro or home, both will crash doing the same task. For the power supply it's a 300W Enermax brand. For memory, it's a mix of generic and Kingston brand running at the speed of PC100. Can't remember off the top of my head, but i think it's running on a bus speed of 133Mhz. Don't know about the temperature, but if running the seti@home program doesn't crash my computer, then can't really seeing heat being a problem, because when I have the seti@home running, the CPU gets a few degrees hotter than normal. It only crashes when I run/use those apps/games.

 

[mechBgon]

Ok... suggestions:

• that's a lot of load for a 300W Enermax, which has only 170W available on the 3.3V + 5V lines. Consider something like an Antec TruePower 330 (242W on 3.3V + 5V) or a Sparkle Power 350W (220W on 3.3V + 5V)
• try using less memory, just the Kingston stuff
• try running the CPU in sync with the RAM (100MHz bus)
• you could have a weak CPU, I had a P3 450 that was fine until something made a call to its MMX unit and then BLAMO it would blank the screen and sit there with the fans and drives still running

I realize you might not want to live with the RAM running slower or with less RAM, but as troubleshooting steps, they might reveal something.

 

[omega2]

I have a question, how come when I run the seti@home, it's fine (doesn't crash), and that is more CPU intensive compare to MS office, or watching videos (that usually takes about 20% at most of CPU load)? I remember hearing something about ATI's card, something about their hardware being unstable. Could this be another factor too?

 

[mechBgon]

Try Memtest86, you can find a link to it in this thread: Memtest. It makes a bootable floppy that runs tests on your RAM, and it doesn't play gentle either. If your RAM, motherboard or CPU are corrupting data, it will probably bring it to light.

 

[JUNGLEROTT]

Make sure the fan on your vid card is operating properly. I had a similar problem with my machine crashing after a couple of minutes of gameplay......turned out the fan on my gf3 ti500 was no good any more. It would overheat and cause the system to shut down.

 

[911paramedic]

Sounds like a video problem to me. Web browsing and flash are pretty much 2D rendering, but games are pretty demanding. Sounds like a video overheat, or bad drivers. It may also be a pagefile.sys or swap file issue, trying to use too much memory and falling on its face.

 

[omega2]

911paramedic, i really do not think it the video card's problem, but haven't ruled that out as a possibility yet. The reason why I came to the conclusion why it can't be the video is because, when I watch any videos on my computer, the computer will crash, same with working with Office.

 

[911paramedic]

Go into your admin tools, then to event viewer. Click on the system icon in the left-hand window. It will bring up a LOT of stuff in the right pane, and look for red "X's" or yellow "!" icons next to entries. Read what it says next to them, and click to get even more information about the error.

That is a good way to see why errors are happening.

 

[omega2]

911paramedic, it does catches all the error that quit back to the desktop (which are much of those type of crashes anyways), but fails to log all the total crashes, the one where you have to press the reset switch (or in some computers where there is no reset button, turn off and on your computer).

I tried using mechBgon, idea in using less memory (even though i don't like to loss memory), but anyways, it does appears to be working, at least for now. But before I removed a stick of memory from my computer, i ran the memtest86 (using the latest version), there wasn't any errors when the test results came out. So, that leaves me with one question. Why is it when I remove the memory, it appears to have solved the problem (at least for now, just hope it problem free from here on)?

 

[911paramedic]

That memory stick was probably bad. Do yourself a favor and use memory like crucial in the future, that generic stuff sucks.