Needing some serious help :\

[kanopus]

Hi guys,

I'm new to these boards, was wondering if anyone could help me out with a problem I've been having for awhile. I'll try to be as detailed as I can:

I'm running WinXP (no sp) on a Athlon 2500+ Barton clocked DOWN to 1666mhz
asus a7n8x deluxe
directx 9.0c
512 ddr2700 ram (1 stick)
two hd's, 80gb and 120gb,
- 80gb partitioned into 20 and 60, system on 20gb, formatted as NTFS
- 60gb on first drive as FAT32
- 120gb second drive as NTFS
radeon 9800pro 128 (HIS Excalibur.. the one with a big heatsink..)
onboard sound
2 optical drives
no floppy

So here's the problem: when I'm doing anything with video... specifically gaming - war3, cs, wow beta... it's pretty random; sometimes i'll get a few hours, other times it'll die after 10-15 minutes - asides from just using basic office applications, my computer has a tendency to suddenly freeze, then a few seconds later, power off. I've also had it crash while using aim to videochat with the girlfriend.

I'm not sure what the cause of this is, but I have already changed out 1 video card (was previously using a ti4600) and changed out a power supply (was previously using a 365 enermax, now using an antec 480)

After the power off, I can't turn my computer on for awhile.. I feel that it has to "cool" off or something... if I hit power within maybe 5-10 minutes of the crash, it will start the boot sequence, but it won't make it to the beep, and then shut off again.

If I try again, it might get a bit further, but still crash. The only way to get my computer up and running is if I wait at least 10 minutes before I power it up, then it'll start running again.

The strange thing is, windows likes to do a chkdsk on my 60gb fat32 partition after each crash... and the only thing I have on that 60gb drive is anime and mp3's...

I don't know if anyone experienced this kind of error before.. but, as a note, it was happening on my geforce as well. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of error relating to my video card heating up.. or it might be my AGP slot.. but I don't want to throw down another 400 bucks until I'm certain (for new chip + mobo). I'm just a poor college student after all, haha.

My catalyst drivers are up to date.. I've used older drivers as well to see if there's any change - there was none. I've played with mobo settings and fed the agp slot more voltage.. i've fed it less, i've given it less apeture to play with (down to 64) i've toned it down to 4x agp, turned off vpu recovery... basically I've read other messages and those that sort of sounded like the problem that I have, I've tried...

Any help would be very, VERY appreciated.

Thanks,

-kanopus

if there's any more information you'd want me to provide, just ask.

 

[mechBgon]

A couple things to start off with:

1) Look at the third and fourth photos here, and check your installation against those.

2) do you have up-to-date antivirus and firewall protection? You sure as heck better have top-notch in both areas if you're fool enough to not have any Windows service packs installed 😕 Oooo, now I wanna do a Mr. T impression 😀

:frown: ~ ah pity de foo dat don't have sense to 'stall his service packs!

 

[kanopus]

Thanks for the reply,

The heatsink is properly seated - I did not use thermal paste however.

I just d/l'd sp2 and am about to fire it up.

antivirus is up todate.. norton 2004 runs its check every friday night.

I'm behind a router, so I don't have too many ports open.

I'm pretty sure it's not a virus - per another thread, I've installed motherboard monitor, and it would seem my CPU hits 110C and then dies...

guessing that should be the cause of it.

my question is - would a CPU overheating cause the symptons I'm experiencing?

Thanks again.

 

[mechBgon]

Yes, CPU overheat would cause that. If you don't have any thermal grease between the CPU and the heatsink, then you should remove the heatsink and apply a paper-thin coat of thermal grease to the CPU's core, and also smear a thin coat of it onto the part of the heatsink that will touch the core. I bet that will address the problem right there.

The CPU could be damaged from repeated overheats, so if the problem persists, you may want to replace the CPU.

FYI, before you install SP2 for WinXP, it would be smart to scan for spyware. Get Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3, install it, update it, and then reboot into Safe Mode and run it while in Safe Mode. Good luck 🙂