Need some help please

[beach2nd]

Hi everyone I could really use some help figuring out what is wrong with my mother's computer. Very frequently when playing different games the whole computer will lock up and have to be restarted. On the screen will just be a bunch of different colored vertical lines and a constant beeping sound will come out of the speakers. The specs are as follows:

Intel P4 2.53 Ghz
Epox EP-4G4A
512 MB of Kingston PC2700 (DDR 333)
GeForce 2 GTS (32 MB)
Win XP Pro SP1

It originally had a GeForce4 Ti 4200 (64 MB) that I switched out to the GeForce 2 GTS thinking the video card was bad. I have tried many different graphics drivers as well. Keep in mind that these are not cutting edge games that are trying to be played, mostly children's games, Hoyle Casino, and The Sims. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[casper114]

Does it only occur when playing games? If so you may have some bad ram. You should definitly get sp2..... well it's worth a shot at least. Check for overheating in the bios aswell

 

[beach2nd]

Originally posted by: casper114
Does it only occur when playing games? If so you may have some bad ram. You should definitly get sp2..... well it's worth a shot at least. Check for overheating in the bios aswell

Yes it only happens when playing games. I'll try and find some ram to swap out and check the bios. Anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[beach2nd]

bump

 

[Varun]

Maybe the sound card - try and swap it or just remove it and see what happens.

 

[monster64]

Not bad ram, the ram is overheating. The exact same thing kept happening to me when I played games. Either put a heatspreader on that ram, or if it already has a heatspreader put some active cooling on it.

 

[beach2nd]

Originally posted by: monster64
Not bad ram, the ram is overheating. The exact same thing kept happening to me when I played games. Either put a heatspreader on that ram, or if it already has a heatspreader put some active cooling on it.

Any recommendations on a good one and where to get it? Thanks.

 

[monster64]

Before jumping to conclusions, take off the side off the the case just to see if you get the error again. Its ram all right but it could be the vga ram, not just the cpu ram.

 

[beach2nd]

It is definatley overheating. I went over there and got it to lock up and then when I tried to restart it I would just get beeps and it wouldn't even boot back up. After letting it cool off for about 15 minutes it booted back up again. I have the cover off on the side and a small fan blowing directly into it. I told her to use it like normal and let me know if it still locks up. I have a feeling it won't with the fan blowing directly in the side of the case though.