PC rebooting

[EstoyLoco]

I'm not sure why but my PC seems to boot whenever I run my game specifically Asheron's Call 2...
Sometimes it seems to run for awhile, then crash...

I'm thinking it might be my drivers?
Right now im using the lastest build of nForce and ATI Radeon unified drivers...

Should I use manufacturer's drivers instead?

 

[Chudilo]

It's your power supply. you need at least 350Watts with a High power video card like that. If you have a special cooling setup , then you better of with even a 400Watt.

it could also be your memery but first is a lot more likely.

 

[EstoyLoco]

i'm using a 300W Antec PSU right now

is there a program that monitors and logs PSU settings/activities?

 

[CTho9305]

I think chudilo is wrong. Everybody likes to claim you need a 400W PSU, but that really isn't usually true. I'm running an OCed XP2100 on a 250W PSU. A good quality, lower-wattage PSU will usually suffice. Anyway, are you running winXP, and do you have the autoreboot feature on? By default, XP will reboot rather than BSOD. I recommend saving yourself a potentially wasted power supply purchase and instead using memtest86 (www.memtest86.com), followed by some prime95.

 

[EstoyLoco]

thx ctho,

Ill get those programs and test it out...

i uninstalled the nvidia and ati unified drivers, and reinstalled my manufacturers ones...
So far I got it test it for 30 minutes without a single reboot...

 

[jhites]

It does sound like a memory issue to me, as CTho9305 has already mentioned.

You did not give your system specs which would help to get more informed information.
Mobo, cpu, ram and settings for these. Overclocking or Not?
Be sure to run MemTest86 using all 11 tests (advanced) and you will find out pretty fast
if it is a memory issue.

 

[MDE]

What is your CPU temperature?

 

[EstoyLoco]

AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Antec PSU 300W
Leadtek nForce2 400 Ultra K7NCR18D PRO2
PowerColor ATI Radeon 9600 PRO
GIEL PC3200 DDR400 6-3-3 / 2.5 CAS 512MB x 2 / TOTAL: 1Gig
Hauppauge WINTV Theater
1x4 port USB2.0 PCI card
Maxtor 80GB ATA133 7200RPM
Zip drive
Toshiba 16x DVD
OptoRite 4x DVD+-Burner

NO overclocking at all

BIOS settings:
FSB: 166
MEM: 400 / 6-3-3-2.5CAS / dual DDR
AGP: 66
PCI: 33



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Readouts:
Vcore: 1.632~1.679 (fluctuations) / 1.648 (typically)
Vddq: 1.488~1.504 / 1.504
Vmem: 2.640~2.656 / 2.640

CPU: 47 C
System: 42 C
CPU Fan: 3970RPM

CPU FSB: 166MHz
Mem: 399MHz
PCI: 33MHz
AGP: 67MHz

CPU ratio: 13.0
Vcore: 1.647V
Clock: 2170MHz

Power Supply:
3.3V: 3.296V
5V: 5.053V

 

[EstoyLoco]

Ok I think I might have something narrowed down...
it seems to reboot exactly on the dot...

I ran Prime95, and opened Windows Task Manager to the Processes tab
I watched Prime95 and everytime it starts its increments of 100,000K memory usage...
it hits 900,000K, then a second or two later... restarts...
I think everytime it hits the 1GIG mark its restarting...

This is on test1 of the torture test, it wont even get past it.

 

[EstoyLoco]

well a little disappointing, its the memory thats wrong
my memory is GIEL DDR400 6-3-3-2.5

It even crashed on memtest test4

so anyways in the MB, I changed it to DDR333 7-4-4-2.5
let memtest run for 7 hours, and it seemed to have worked

good news is my cpu stays at a steady 47C and my system at 42C

 

[PCHPlayer]

gotta love it when folks figure out the problem on their own . Good job!
I would be a little disappointed if I could not run my memory at the "rated" speed though. Perhaps you could exchange it.