System Crashing with any graphics applications
theapproach
Kings Road, London
Hello people
I need your help!
Having read an article abnout building computers and wanting a value for money relatively fast machine, I decided to go about and make one with the following specs:
maxtor 120gb ide drive
asus a7n8x-e mobo (nvidia chipset)
asus 9950 (nvidia fx5900) 128mb
antec sonata case
1 gb kingston value ram pc3200
win xp
Having built this and followed the instructions to the letter, and having updated all the drivers as far as possible i am having the problem that regardless of the game or app whether 3dmark03, operation flashpoint or halo, it crashes after a short period of play (1-2mins).
It also appears that the silicon image sata raid drivers are installed, and i can't get rid of them although they are unneccesary! Is there an uninstaller application? Could that be the reason for the crashing.
I have a microsoft intellimouse usb.
Thanks!
I need your help!
Having read an article abnout building computers and wanting a value for money relatively fast machine, I decided to go about and make one with the following specs:
maxtor 120gb ide drive
asus a7n8x-e mobo (nvidia chipset)
asus 9950 (nvidia fx5900) 128mb
antec sonata case
1 gb kingston value ram pc3200
win xp
Having built this and followed the instructions to the letter, and having updated all the drivers as far as possible i am having the problem that regardless of the game or app whether 3dmark03, operation flashpoint or halo, it crashes after a short period of play (1-2mins).
It also appears that the silicon image sata raid drivers are installed, and i can't get rid of them although they are unneccesary! Is there an uninstaller application? Could that be the reason for the crashing.
I have a microsoft intellimouse usb.
Thanks!
0
Comments
Also, you can ALWAYS try www.memtest86.org ... Test your memory... You never know!
What sort of crashes are you getting? (describe them).
Other than that also try memtest and post the version of your video card drivers.
I originally had a radeon 9800 but it seemed to get very hot, and i thought that might be the reason for the crash, so I purchased the nvidia card instead, hoping that would be the solution. it did not appear to be. Is a 380w psu really not enough for this computer? i have noticed the psu pumping out a fair bit of hot air and it only has one small fan. maybe that could be the solution.
The crashes tend to be exception errors, and seems to be regardless of the game. Sometimes the computer does reboot entirely, but less often than it crashes to windows.
I currently have the most current bios for the asus mobo, nvidia forceware latest version, nforce driver latest version. do i need any more drivers?
One of the hard disk power cables is connected to the graphics cards and an exhaust has been installed below the card to remove heat. i also have two 120 mm fans on the case; one front, one back.
That is the SM code!
Bye for now!
I got the URL wrong earlier - it's memest.org
I don't think the PSU overheating is causing the problem. If anything, I'd mount that spare fan as close to your video card as possible.
Oh, and while you're at it, put the 9800 back in if you can. It's faster, has better image quality, uses less power, and generates less heat anyhow. (you'll want to back up your documents and stuff before doing this).
It could also be an overheating CPU. How hot does the CPU get? And do you have a desk fan or something you can position to blow air into the side of the case (take the side panel off, blow air across motherboard, cards, etc.)?
my cpu temperature is normally about 48 degrees. The temperature of the graphics card does get pretty high, but the radeon seems to be hotter than the geforce card, which is why i thought I could solve the problem by getting the geforce card. unfortunately i do not have a voltimeter, but the power unit does get very hot, and the sonata is meant to be quiet running so the psu only has a small 8cm fan which might not be effective enough.
I have connected hardware to as many of the connectors as possible from the psu. maybe connecting them in series as opposed to in parallel (using as few connectors as possible) would be better for the psu. I will give it a try.
Actually, that'd be worse for the power supply. Antec power supplies are very, very good, and while it runs hot, it's most likely well within its specs. It COULD be power related, but I really think it's heat related, especially if your CPU normally runs that hot- the GPU is probably up near 70-80*C (they usually run a LOT hotter than the CPU). Try getting a fan of some kind blowing air into the case with the side panel off.
You're right, it wouldn't be a long term solution. The thing is, though, that right now, we have absolutely no idea why it's crashing. There are a number of things that could cause a computer to crash:
1- Heat
2- A flaky power supply
3- Windows (see the last line in my sig
4- Bad RAM (highly unlikely in this case)
and there are probably some others that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head.
The way you debug a computer is simple; you go down a list of possible causes for the problem, and check to see if they're the actual cause. If it MIGHT be overheating, you cool it off. If it still has the problem, you check the next thing on the list, and so on and so forth, until you find the cause of the problem.
I suspect that it's probably heat related, but I don't know for sure. It's probably the easiest one to check for- besides putting a fan on the computer blowing into it, you can just take the computer out of the case, and set it up on a non-conductive surface, like the kitchen counter or something. You might try that, and see if the problem goes away.
I have also attached a zalman cooler to the graphics card and cooled the inside of the pc extensively with a fan I burrowed from work. Strangely enough, the mb temperature incresed by exactly 4 degrees yesterday when i installed the new nforce drivers, but besides that, heat for the computer shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully this will narrow things down like you said geeky1
The cpu temperature is down at around 42 degrees and rises to 47 when in use.
I have also used Burn-in to test the system and it appears to run ok with no reported errors. I will test for a long time to see if that will make a difference and help me locate the fault.
I hope it isn't a software issue- i just can't imagine how I would sort that out!
The psu still gets incredibly hot though despite the cooling.
PSU? Maybe, but I think your GPU is overheating. The best heatsink available is no good if it is surrounded by hot air. The ventilation opening won't necessarily bleed off hot air if there's not enough positive case air pressure to force out the heated air.
I recently recieved an error at start up saying that windows had recovered from a serious error, which it then claimed was related to one of the drivers. It did not say, however, which driver it was, but I will try and find it out somehow. The cooling is now adequate within the case. I realise that I made a mistake with the zalman cooler for the gpu. It appears as if the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer V1 is better, plus it funnels the hot exhaust air straight out of the case, which is a bonus. I think I will have to get it, to be sure. Damn! Wasted money on the zalman one. Do you think that is a good course of action?