New build hard locking while gaming

[toronado97]

So I put this together on Wednesday. Fresh windows xp SP3 install. Computer seems to run just fine until I play games. While gaming, the computer will hard lock at random, giving the sound stutter thing, the whole shebang. Have to reset manually to get out of it. It's happened twice while playing WoW, and several times while playing Dawn of War 2, including once while just sitting on the main menu screen.

The crashes happen at irregular intervals; sometimes I can play for hours before it happens, other times it happens after 20 minutes or so. I'm using the 178 nVidia drivers if it matters, but it almost sounds like a RAM issue.

The only used components are the 8800GT, and the 320 GB drive which is being used as a storage drive and isn't involved in this issue. Any help would be appreciated; if I need to RMA I have to do it ASAP of course. Thanks!

 

[techmanc]

Have you check for overheating problem esp gpu?

 

[toronado97]

The CPU is definately not overheating. I've run an IBT on it and it doesn't break 60 degrees, and that was with it overclocked to 3.4 ghz. I turned the OC off and reset all the performance settings in bios back to defaults to see if I just had an unstable OC and its still doing it. As for the GPU, I use EVGA Precision and have it set on 60% fan speed, which is where it's been since the day I bought it. Have 2 80MM exhaust fans right on top of it as well pulling air out of the case, and the AC7 Freezer Pro is set to exhaust hot air into the PSU's intake so both heat makers should have ample exhaust.

 

[techmanc]

So what the total hardware build whats listed in your sig?

 

[Exterous]

I would maybe download memtest and see what that comes up with. Also I would think Prime95 running as a stress test could help narrow the issue as IIRC it doesn't do any video card stressing, just RAM and CPU (so if it doesn't crash we can be pretty sure its vid card related)

 

[toronado97]

Yeah Techmac, build is in sig now. Exterous I figured I'd try a memtest as my next option, or possibly put my old sticks of RAM in it to see if it's still a problem. Just really weird to have a total lock rather than a BSOD or the like.

 

[techmanc]

You should check ram at some point. Also check your drive connections/cables and power connection to see there tight and run with minimal hardware to see if a hardware conflict. Is the any master/slave setup check those? Minimize and not used peripherals com ports ect in BIOS. Check that you cards are seated well. Have the right chipset drivers installed?

 

[toronado97]

Master/slave is fine, and i've double checked all the connections and everything is seated properly etc. Yes the chipset drivers are the correct ones as far as I can tell.

 

[techmanc]

disable the hardware other than OS hard drive and try some playing some games.

 

[toronado97]

You mean turn off the storage drive and DVD Rom? Can I do that in BIOS or just manually disconnect em in the chassis?

 

[techmanc]

I was recommending to actually disable them to see if there was any hardware conflicts being caused. If that was the case then reintroduce them one at a time and retest your gaming.

 

[toronado97]

Just spent 18 hours running the Small FFT test in Prime 95 with no issues; I think that probably rules out the CPU or motherboard being the culprit. Will do memtest all night tonight and see what shows up with that. If it's clean too I'll start taking devices out one at a time, and if that doesn't fix it I spose a reformat may be in order.

On a side note, the default settings for the E5200 should be 12.5x modifier and 200 MHZ correct? I ask because the motherboard defaulted to a 1.7 ghz clock speed on it, I think 8.5x 200 mhz, and I want to be sure I have that set correctly.

Edit: I am also concerned about my temps. While the CPU certainly isn't overheating, it's running none too cool. At stock speed (2.5 ghz) I'm idling at 42C, and with Prime95 going both cores were sitting on 53, which isn't awful, but I feel like those should be better with an AC Freezer 7 on there. I used Tuniq TX-2 TIM on it, properly applied so I don't know if these temps are normal and I'm just being weird, or what.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

53C is fine for a load temp for CPU and you don't need to be concerned. I'm surprised it's that low if your idle temps are 42C.

Have you monitored your GPU temps? If this tends to happen while gaming, I would suspect the video card or drivers. Is there a reason you're using old drivers? Pretty sure there have been several WHQL releases since 178.

Also, anything logged in event viewer?

 

[toronado97]

GPU Temps don't go above 63C while playing Dawn of War II CoOpBoy. I'm using the 178 drivers simply to maintain continuity from last build to current; I had no issues with those drivers before. I will update them later however I have no had a game crash in two days now. Random problems are random, sigh. Did 6 passes of memtest386 last night as well and no problems cropped up.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

For what it's worth, I've had similar problems in the past (especially with WoW) and it can be rather mysterious. Without any configuration changes, I can go from hard lockups one day to smooth sailing for several. I eventually wiped my XP system disk and installed Vista x64 because I have 6GB of RAM to address, and I haven't had any more WoW lockups since. It might just be that starting from a clean slate helped my issue since I hadn't reformatted in some time.

These kind of audio-stuttering screen freezes are common with WoW, I think. I haven't heard anything about DoW2. It might not be your system causing the problem specifically. Have you had lockups like these in other games?

 

[toronado97]

Honestly those are the only two I've played since building the new rig. I'm usually a one or two game at a time person, and WoW is one of the two 99% of the time. I think it's pretty obvious that I've ruled out system stability at this point though, so I'll probably driver cleaner the 178 drivers, install the latest ones, and just roll with it. Just not entirely comfortable putting a new system together and having trouble out of the gate.

 

[toronado97]

Update:

Wiped old Audio drivers and nVidia drivers, installed the latest ones I could find. Went afk with Civilization 4 at the menu screen, came back 45 minutes later to a hard lock. This is after running 10 loops of intel burn test and having no irregularities in the testing. CPU temp doesn't break 60 degrees stock, GPU hasnt' gone higher than 75 so I know it's not temperature related. I'm really torn for ideas at this point, it passes memtest, it passes prime95, it passes IBT, temps are normal, drivers are up to date, I play a game and sometimes it's fine, others it hard locks. WTF.



Edit: Also, sometimes, but not always, when I reboot after a lockup, the computer won't post. It beeps at me rapidly about 10 times, then resets itself again, after which it will post. I'm beginning to wonder if this PSU isn't up to the task.

Double Edit: I pulled out the RAM to put my old G.Skill 2x1GB DDR2 800 in there just to start trouble shooting individual bits of hardware, and now I can't get the computer to post. The only way it will post is with 1 stick in slot 1, either old RAM or new RAM doesn't matter. This is interesting to me because I RMA'd the first motherboard I got from Newegg for doing the exact same thing; it was the UD3R. So...I'm left to conclude either that two motherboards have the same problem, or that there's a problem elsewhere, but what else could cause a problem with RAM like that? It's too late to do tonight, but I think tomorrow I will put the E6400 in there and see if I still have problems. If so, pretty sure I'm just going to do a full RMA and say eff it, clearly I wasn't meant to do this upgrade.

 

[toronado97]

Alright, I decided to put the E6400 in there and it still does the exact same song and dance. Won't post with memory anywhere but slot 1. Before I take this motherboard back to Frys, does anyone disagree that swapping out the RAM and CPU pretty much rules out anything other than the Motherboard at this point? And if you're in agreement with me, I'd like a suggestion for something else; I've had 3 Gigabyte motherboards in the last 2 years, and they've all either performed poorly or were simply nonfunctional, and I'm done with them. Asus I'm guessing but I really don't know of a comparable motherboard in this price range. 100-140 dollars.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Did you clear your CMOS?

Edit: This is also happening to my old A64 3200+ on an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, at least in WoW. I'm wondering if it's related to the game or Nvidia drivers specifically.

 

[toronado97]

Not sure how to clear the CMOS, and this problem isn't just occurring in WoW. It won't play Empire Total War, Dawn of War II, or Civilization 4 without locking up at various points in gameplay.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Read your mobo's manual or google how to clear your CMOS. It usually involves shorting a jumper and/or removing the CMOS battery temporarily. It's a common step in fixing boot problems, but be advised that it will reset your BIOS to defaults.

And I understand your problem affects multiple games, but WoW is the only game installed on my affected box. I also have good CPU & GPU temps, but I haven't tested my RAM or hard drives.

Have you checked for entries in event viewer? If you're encountering bad drive sectors or anything, it might be logged. Mine shows nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[toronado97]

I have quite a few Application Warnings all pertaining to Application Error and Application Hang on the games I'm having problems with. Any particular info in there that might be useful?