Random crash playing 3D games.

[KIAman]

My friend has a computer he just built running fine but some stuff doesnt work.

He plays warcraft3 for about 1 minute and it will lock up, then the computer will reboot after 5 more seconds, then when back into windows it said windows gave an error and saved the dump or something.

Same thing happened playing Dungeon Siege.

His computer specs as follows.

Windows XP Pro
Epox 8k3a+
512mb Generic Samsung pc2700 @ 2.5-3-3
120gb Maxtor HD
Built by ATI Radeon 8500 with cat 2.4 drivers
Athlon XP 1600+
16x DVD drive
7-80mm case fans
SMC netcard
Generic 350W PSU 180W combined 5v+3.3v
built in sound


Any help is good. It seems to happen any 3D game.

 

[spanky]

i would think its a psu issue

 

[boran]

yeah, I would also think the PSU cannot deliver what it states, maybe just try a PSU from a buddy (a decent enermax or so)

or try underclocking yer video card and CPU, to see if it still happens ...

 

[microAmp]

That "dump" is a memory dump.... the extention is .dmp if I remember correctly.
That .dmp file will take up about 550 MB of space on the HDD, close to the size of your RAM, might want to delete that to free up space.
There is another thread that said you can a program to look into that .dmp file and might help you determine the problem, I briefly looked but couldn't find it. 🙁

Edit: Found the thread....

 

[PCMarine]

Make sure you turn off all of that "Reboot automatically on crash" etc. options

 

[KIAman]

Arrgg. It turned out to be the video card. It was an Built by ATI Radeon 8500. I put my card (exact same one) into his and it worked perfect. Do you think ATI would take this as an RMA even though it only crashes playing games?

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: KIAman
Arrgg. It turned out to be the video card. It was an Built by ATI Radeon 8500. I put my card (exact same one) into his and it worked perfect. Do you think ATI would take this as an RMA even though it only crashes playing games?

I would think so since you trouble shooted with an exact same kind of card, one can play 3D games and the other can't....