PC crashing during games

[Davegod]

Since I built this new rig it's 'crashed' during games, though at varying frequency and usually a 'soft' crash in that WinXP just forces the program to close with that "sorry for the inconvenience" dialog box.

I cant figure what's causing the problem at all. It crashed sometimes during Quake4, the first thing I played on it. Then it seemed to go OK for a while with rare crashes during FEAR and DOD:S, but is at it again now I'm playing with Civ4. I've noticed its better some times than others: can go a week all clear and then like today it's been down half a dozen times already. There's not been any problems outside of playing games.

Temps? They're apparently fine (42c CPU, 46c GPU immediately after playing). Rails seem ok to me, assuming that the 1.52v Speedfan shows on the 3.3v rail is wrong one way or the other. Tried various Forceware and Detonator...

Any ideas? I'm going nuts, my previous two builds went months between crashes.

specs in sig (3700+, Epox 9NPA+Ultra, 7800gtx, 2x512mb Ballistix, 430w Antex truepower, no overclock except factory one on the 7800gtx)

 

[Davegod]

Anyone? 🙁

I'm quite happy to go spend my meagre savings of the hard-earned on a new top range PSU, or whatever will fix it, but I cant fathom what might be going wrong here 🙁

Few other things I've tried:
- disable AVG monitoring
- disabled sound
- quit zonealarm

 

[sniperruff]

how hot is your room? either temps, or excessive mem use on a shaky stick.

 

[Davegod]

Hmm, Running with the case door off doesnt help, room is reasonably cool (I expect <20C), all temp readings for other components appear nice and cool.

However, I just checked and the ramsinks are hot to the touch, I couldnt feel much airflow from the cpu HSF passing over them either... That reminds me, I have CnQ on, better disable that for now. Civ4 does seem to hammer RAM so a hot/dodgy stick might well explain why the problem is easily at it's worst with that game. Crucial are great for replacements so it'd be a relatively painless diagnosis too 🙂

I'll acquire a floppy drive or a blank CDR and try memtest86, meanwhile I'll get that cpu fan running full whack and maybe it'll cool down the stick enough. Few thigns to go on anyway, thanks 🙂

 

[Slugbait]

A RAM slot might be faulty. It's not unheard of.

Another thing to consider: you may have a Starforce game installed. It's been known to cause some system instability.

To check to see if Starforce is installed: Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager. Click View->Show Hidden Devices, then expand Non-Plug and Play Drivers. If Starforce is listed, that's likely your culprit. You can find out how to remove it here. Note that any installed games that use Starforce will probably cease to run after removing it.

 

[Davegod]

Well i turned off CnQ and disabled the smart fan temp (previously was at 55C, very likely never being hit so fan was on slow rpm always).

No crashing.

Next I'll try them on/off individually and see what's the culprit. Maybe I'll get a 90mm Thermalright or other HSF that'll overhang the ram slots, pity though as the stock one is giving excellent cpu temps and I'm not looking forward to basically having to rebuild in order to get a monster heatsink's rear plate on. Cant think of any way to get airflow on the ram without serious case modding.