New PC freezes during games

[stromgald]

My setup is a Chenming 118-matx case with AMD Athlon64 3000+, MSI RS480M2, PQI 1GB DDR SDRAM, Gigabyte 6600GT graphics. The computer hangs while I'm playing Halo or Neverwinter Nights and I have to reboot. It doesnt freeze at the beginning of the game, sometimes I could play Halo for half an hour before it freezes.

I'm not sure if its a driver issue (its a new computer, so I loaded new drivers from nVidia and MSI recently) or a hardware issue. I don't think its overheating because during gaming my CPU temp reads only 59C, and my graphics card stays at a consistent 50-55C no matter what I'm doing. The only overheating possibility in my mind is the southbridge on the MSI motherboard, which doesnt have a heatsink or fan (its also too hot to touch). The PSU is only 300W, but it was running an extra hard drive and CD drive which I took out and moved to another computer, so its load is much lower than it was a few days ago. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wpshooter]

To see if it is a heat issue, take the side off of the unit and get yourself either a small desktop fan or if you have one, place a floor fan where it can blow directly into the side of the computer. Then play your games and see if either it does not freeze or the period of time for it to freeze is extended.

Also, 300 watt PS sounds sort of low for the hardware you are running, especially if it is one of those cheap off brand models.

 

[stromgald]

Yea, I was worried about that too when I bought the case, but from what I've read, the 300W PSU is much better than the 420W one in the Aspire X-qpack (which is a clone of the Chenming). And I had extra stuff hooked up to it earlier. I'll try playing with the case off. I'm really hoping its a driver issue so I don't have to muck around with the hardware anymore. I've done much more tweaking with the hardware to get this new computer to work than my last build. But then again, if it was a driver issue, it shouldnt freeze at random times. :frown: