Freezing Problems!

[Avs_Sakic]

When playing any game my computer freezes. I have tried SO many things to fix this problem it is unreal. Here is what I have done: reformat of hard drive, updated every possible driver, thought it was an over heating problem so I put in a fan card w/ two fans on it, 2 seperate fans, cleaned out all the dust inside, ran a memory checker. Might be my video card but don't have an extra one to test it. Please, please help. Very frustrated :banghead:

[TheBaron]

first a question : in windows, what are your temps like (actually if you can give us an exact list of components in your system that'd be great too)

now three things to do:

a) run memtest86+ for several passes, see if you get any errors
b) reseat your cpu heatsink, if its using a thermal pad buy some arctic silver 5 and use that instead
c) check your psu voltages

[Avs_Sakic]

How can I see my current temps in Windows? The only way I know is in the BIOS.

a) I ran memtest86 for about 4 or 5 passes and there were no errors at all
b) I already reset it and applied some artic silver to it
c) I bought a new power supply because I thought that might be the problem. I put the new one in, 480W dual fans, and the volts are right where they are suppose to be

[TheBaron]

well thats just some funny stuff then.
to check temps and voltages in windows you can either use motherboard monitor (i.e. mbm5) or all manufacturers have their own utility (check the website). i'd like to check those numbers, because otherwise you've got something really funky going on

[Avs_Sakic]

I can't find the utility to identify my system temp. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction. Here is my motherboard:

Made by - MSI
Designed for - Intel Pentium 4 (Socket 478) Processor
SiS 648 Chipset Based
648 Max-L (MS-6585)

BTW, here are my system specs

Pentium 4 2.4GHz
512MB DDR Memory
128MB Radeon 9500 Pro

[Leonardo]

We've got a Motherboard Monitor download link right here (http://www.short-media.com/download.php?dc=47) at the Short-Media downloads section. With MBM, you can monitor temperatures and fan speeds. It's a little tricky to set up, but not too bad. Here's the way mine's set up:

[RWB]

Anything like this?
http://short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12482

[Avs_Sakic]

Would anybody be willing to help me out with the Motherboard Monitor. I am totally clueless on how to se it up to show the apporiate temp and voltages. Thanks...

[Avs_Sakic]

Nevermind, just didn't look hard enough. Here are the temps in windows when the comp is just idle.

36c CPU and 35c Case

[TheBaron]

well damn. well alright what type of video card do you have? if you have an ati card, try turning off vpu recover and fast writes. update to the newest catalysts.

[Avs_Sakic]

I have an ATI 128MB Radeon Pro 9500. I have the 4.4 drivers. I disabled fastwrites, tried changing the AGP to 4x from 8x. I'll try turning off vpu recover

[ryko]

In your BIOS, can you adjust the agp voltage? Default is probably 1.5v. Try bumping this up to 1.55v or 1.6v if you can. Not all mobos have this option, but newer ones generally do. The added voltage adds stability to some of the radeon 9500/9600 series cards.

Make sure you have adequate cooling when doing this. You may want to reset the stock hsf on your 9500pro and add some as5 instead of the stuff that was used at the factory.

Also, sometimes it matters what order you install all of your drivers. For instance, after a fresh format and installation of xp w/sp1a and all updates, install your chipset drivers first, then all other hardware drivers, then install the newest cat 4.4s.

Another thing that i thought of is...where did you buy your card? New from a store/online? or from a friend or ebay? If it's was new, you can RMA, if not you might have gotten a bad card.

[Avs_Sakic]

I switched out my ATI card and put in a NVIDIA and it still froze. Could it be the motherboard? Can you test it or not? I am really confused about this whole freezing thing. Geez...:bs:

[Gobbles]

what OS are you using...???

what do you have running while the game is playing?

Gobbles

[Avs_Sakic]

Windows XP and most of the time I use EndItAll to end all conflicting programs

[Leonardo]

Conflicting programs? That more symptomatic of Win95/98 than of 2000/XP? What problems did you have that prompted you to run EndItAll? I'm not familiar with that program; but maybe there's a link with your prior problems or the EndItAll program and your current problem.

[Avs_Sakic]

EndItAll ends unnecessary programs that are running in the background. I have tried not using it and it still freezes

[Jason1]

Did anyone every find a fix to this problem? Because I have a shockingly similar setup and Im getting the EXACT same problem. Here's my setup:

Intel P4 Northwood 2.66Ghz
ATI Radeon 9500pro
MSI 648Max-L mobo
512megs ram.

The problem is NOT the ram, I know that, ive run memory tests for long periods of time with no problems. I too have tried an unthinkable amount of things to fix this. There HAS to be a way to fix it. There just has got to be.

[entropy]

you guys _may_ want to give this link a shot, I didn't read through the entire thread, but from what I gleaned it looks as if the board doesn't fully support ddr400, which i think you would have. just an idea, you might want to look at some of the links there
http://www.8dimensional.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416&start=0

[Jason1]

Thanks for that link, so far what ive read in there makes perfect sense. I'll probably try some things and get back to you guys.

[Avs_Sakic]

In the link posted above someone said they fixed their problem by doing this, "turning down the DRAM/CPU frequency from 200MHz down to 167MHz did the trick, and its been running fine." How can I turn it down and where do I do it at? I looked in the bios and I couldn't find it. Help please...

[Jason1]

If you have the same BIOS as I do, from the main menu, you go to there area where you can change your CPU frequencies and things like that, I believe its the one on the upper right from the main menu, cant remember correctly. They will list a bunch of different CPU/Dram ratios. Just keep trying ones until it changes down to 167. I did this as well, and so far it seems to have done the trick.

[Avs_Sakic]

Alright I found it and changed it. Hopefully this will solve the problem I have been having for over 3 months. :thumbsup: