First of all my system specs:
Athlon64 3000+ socket754
Chaintech VNF3-250 Nforce3
512MB DDR-RAM
120GB WD hard drive
10GB WD hard drive
Geforce3 Ti200
DVD-ROM
DVD-RW dual layer
Chieftec 360W power supply
Using on-board sound audio
Ok here goes:
A few weeks ago, after installing a brand new 120GB WD drive and installing WinXP all over again (along with my applications) i had a strange reboot going on when clicking to play Star Wars Galaxies. The phenomenon was happening very rarely - once a week or so - and soon id forget it, believing that it was caused by the game (it doesnt have the best coding ever anyway). Everytime the computer was rebooting and WinXP sent an error report, it said that it was caused by a device driver that they couldnt identify.
Yesterday though while i was playing Battle for Middle Earth, the screen froze and soon after, the rebooting happened once again. After reloading WinXP, the error report said that the problem was caused by the Nvidia display driver (couldnt use DirectDraw or something like that). Weird. After that i started a full diagnostic check-up:
Went to WD's website, downloaded and ran every diagnostic utility that was available, which the 120GB hard drive passed with flying colours. I also ran the scandisk utility of WinXP, no bad sectors. I ran both Norton Antivirus and PC-Cillin (updated with the latest definitions) no viruses or trojans were detected. I also ran Prime95, stressing my CPU for about an hour, the machine didnt hang or crash at all. I havent tried Memstest yet, cause i have my floppy drive disconnected. Note that i had all the latest motherboard (Nforce 5.10) and graphics (66.93) drivers installed. My temps i think are ok: CPU: 43-44C when idle, 49-50C while running Prime95 and around 46-47CC when running a game or a movie. Mobo temps seem to be at a 27C stable at all times, thank heavens for the many fans i have installed.If the CPU temps seem a bit high to ya, its probably because i havent applied Arctic Silver5 yet and used a thermal compound that came with the mobo & also using the stock fan/cooler that came with the CPU.
So now i have concluded to the two following: Either the power supply simply cant cut it and needs to go, or my videocard is at its last. I re-installed the Geforce drivers, used coolbits 2.0 and underclocked the videocard, played Star Wars KOTOR2 for a good one hour today, no reboots. I also had the system running ALL DAY downloading some stuff while i was at work, no problems. I came back home and found it running as i left it.
SO my dear friends: What are your opinions?
Athlon64 3000+ socket754
Chaintech VNF3-250 Nforce3
512MB DDR-RAM
120GB WD hard drive
10GB WD hard drive
Geforce3 Ti200
DVD-ROM
DVD-RW dual layer
Chieftec 360W power supply
Using on-board sound audio
Ok here goes:
A few weeks ago, after installing a brand new 120GB WD drive and installing WinXP all over again (along with my applications) i had a strange reboot going on when clicking to play Star Wars Galaxies. The phenomenon was happening very rarely - once a week or so - and soon id forget it, believing that it was caused by the game (it doesnt have the best coding ever anyway). Everytime the computer was rebooting and WinXP sent an error report, it said that it was caused by a device driver that they couldnt identify.
Yesterday though while i was playing Battle for Middle Earth, the screen froze and soon after, the rebooting happened once again. After reloading WinXP, the error report said that the problem was caused by the Nvidia display driver (couldnt use DirectDraw or something like that). Weird. After that i started a full diagnostic check-up:
Went to WD's website, downloaded and ran every diagnostic utility that was available, which the 120GB hard drive passed with flying colours. I also ran the scandisk utility of WinXP, no bad sectors. I ran both Norton Antivirus and PC-Cillin (updated with the latest definitions) no viruses or trojans were detected. I also ran Prime95, stressing my CPU for about an hour, the machine didnt hang or crash at all. I havent tried Memstest yet, cause i have my floppy drive disconnected. Note that i had all the latest motherboard (Nforce 5.10) and graphics (66.93) drivers installed. My temps i think are ok: CPU: 43-44C when idle, 49-50C while running Prime95 and around 46-47CC when running a game or a movie. Mobo temps seem to be at a 27C stable at all times, thank heavens for the many fans i have installed.If the CPU temps seem a bit high to ya, its probably because i havent applied Arctic Silver5 yet and used a thermal compound that came with the mobo & also using the stock fan/cooler that came with the CPU.
So now i have concluded to the two following: Either the power supply simply cant cut it and needs to go, or my videocard is at its last. I re-installed the Geforce drivers, used coolbits 2.0 and underclocked the videocard, played Star Wars KOTOR2 for a good one hour today, no reboots. I also had the system running ALL DAY downloading some stuff while i was at work, no problems. I came back home and found it running as i left it.
SO my dear friends: What are your opinions?
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