I have a very odd problem with my new rig. I've never seen anything like it before, and I am desperate for help. I can't even begin to guess as to the source of the problem, although I have some reasons to suspect RADEON 8500 LE OEM.
Here is how it manifests. It happens when I play 3D games. This bug happens with Operation Flashpoint and it also happens with Dark Ages of Camelot. It's random. Sometimes it happens 1 minute into the game, and other times it happens 8 hrs into the game. But it's very consistent in that it's guaranteed to happen 2-6 times a day. When it happens, the computer hard locks/crashes/hangs (no input is accepted of any kind), and starts to emit a loud, harsh, staticy, buzzing sound that seems to come in spurts: bzzzz-zzz-zzzzrzzttz-zzztt-zzzz-zzzzzz...
This sounds comes through the speakers.
I can safely rule out any trivial explanations. It's not a microphone (don't have one), and not cables or anything like that. The sound it makes when it crashes is absolutely aweful and I am worried it's ruining my hardware.
I am very upset (just spent $500 getting all these upgrades) over this.
Anyway, here are my specs (so, most of the rig is new, but not all):
ECS K7S5A mobo (new) (SiS 735)
Newest AGP driver for ECS mobo from www.ecsusa.com
256M + 133M PC133 SDRAM chips (recycled, and from different manufacturers)
RADEON 8500 LE OEM (from newegg.com) (new)
3c905xx 3COM Ethernet card (recycled)
SB Live! Value (recycled)
USB extention board (with 2 extra USB ports) (recycled)
AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33 Mhz) (new)
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM (recycled)
Plextor 16x/10x/40x CD-RW (new)
Maxtor ATA-66 30Gig HD (recycled, but fairly recent)
300W generic power supply
Windows 98SE OS
"Recycled" means I've reused the part that I already owned
. I also have a nice Enermax cooler on the CPU with thermal compound. CPU temp ranges from 35C to 52C when under heavy load. Case temp is around 35C. Not the best, but not bad. I don't think overheating is the problem, because my other rig runs CPU at 60C and I never have any problems with it.
I have tried 2 RADEON 8500 drivers now: 4.13.7206 and 4.13.7191, and it happens with both drivers. My other drivers are all up to date (except 3COM), downloaded from the web few days ago.
I've posted a similar message on DAoC game forums and I got some replies from people who had the same problem. It seems like RADEON 8500 card is the common denominator.
Also of note: it seems to run fairly stable in the desktop. However, it *did* crash one time while simply web browsing in the desktop. No sound was playing at the time, and there was no noise during the crash, but the screen went black and the box hard-locked, requiring a reset.
If you had/have this problem, please post here. Also, if you think you know what might be causing it, or have any other ideas, please post. All help is greatly appreciated. Happy holidays!
Here is how it manifests. It happens when I play 3D games. This bug happens with Operation Flashpoint and it also happens with Dark Ages of Camelot. It's random. Sometimes it happens 1 minute into the game, and other times it happens 8 hrs into the game. But it's very consistent in that it's guaranteed to happen 2-6 times a day. When it happens, the computer hard locks/crashes/hangs (no input is accepted of any kind), and starts to emit a loud, harsh, staticy, buzzing sound that seems to come in spurts: bzzzz-zzz-zzzzrzzttz-zzztt-zzzz-zzzzzz...
This sounds comes through the speakers.
I can safely rule out any trivial explanations. It's not a microphone (don't have one), and not cables or anything like that. The sound it makes when it crashes is absolutely aweful and I am worried it's ruining my hardware.
I am very upset (just spent $500 getting all these upgrades) over this.
Anyway, here are my specs (so, most of the rig is new, but not all):
ECS K7S5A mobo (new) (SiS 735)
Newest AGP driver for ECS mobo from www.ecsusa.com
256M + 133M PC133 SDRAM chips (recycled, and from different manufacturers)
RADEON 8500 LE OEM (from newegg.com) (new)
3c905xx 3COM Ethernet card (recycled)
SB Live! Value (recycled)
USB extention board (with 2 extra USB ports) (recycled)
AMD Athlon XP 1500+ (1.33 Mhz) (new)
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM (recycled)
Plextor 16x/10x/40x CD-RW (new)
Maxtor ATA-66 30Gig HD (recycled, but fairly recent)
300W generic power supply
Windows 98SE OS
"Recycled" means I've reused the part that I already owned
. I also have a nice Enermax cooler on the CPU with thermal compound. CPU temp ranges from 35C to 52C when under heavy load. Case temp is around 35C. Not the best, but not bad. I don't think overheating is the problem, because my other rig runs CPU at 60C and I never have any problems with it.I have tried 2 RADEON 8500 drivers now: 4.13.7206 and 4.13.7191, and it happens with both drivers. My other drivers are all up to date (except 3COM), downloaded from the web few days ago.
I've posted a similar message on DAoC game forums and I got some replies from people who had the same problem. It seems like RADEON 8500 card is the common denominator.
Also of note: it seems to run fairly stable in the desktop. However, it *did* crash one time while simply web browsing in the desktop. No sound was playing at the time, and there was no noise during the crash, but the screen went black and the box hard-locked, requiring a reset.
If you had/have this problem, please post here. Also, if you think you know what might be causing it, or have any other ideas, please post. All help is greatly appreciated. Happy holidays!
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