Computer locking up

[Ether]

Hello everyone....need some help! and thanks in advance.

I have the following new setup:-
1. DiabloTek PHD650 650-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA Ready, PCIe Ready, 20+4 Pin
2. Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Quad-Core Processor, 3.2 GHz, 12M L2 Cache, 1600MHz FSB, LGA775
3. Corsair XMS3 DHX - Memory - 4 GB ( 2 x 2 GB ) - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3 - 1600 MHz / PC3-12800 - CL7 - unbuffered
4. Asus P5E3 Deluxe WIFI AP N CH1-11 C2D LGA775 Intel X38 ICH9R FSB 1600 5 Motherboard
5. XFX GeForce 9800 GTX + 512MB PCIe w/Dual Link DVI
6. Noctua NH-U12P High Performance Cooler.

Running Vista 32bit. Chipset, Bios and all new MB updates installed.

Problem: Computer locks up after just a few minutes into games i.e. Farcry2, Crysis etc.
Tried everything I know and still cant seem to remedy the problem. Any takes?

Ether

[Kursah]

Please list what you have tried, to help narrow down suggestions that may be tossed out.

That's a nice build for sure, now when it locks up, is it just the game that you can CRTL-ALT-DEL out of or do you have to push the reset button on the case? Have you updated your vid drivers? Have you applied most recent game patches? Are you running overclocked? Is there anything else that locks up the PC (i.e. watching movies, benchmarks, web browsing, etc).

I would say download memtest, furmark and prime95 and run each for a while, start with furmark in stability mode for VGA stress test, allow to run for 5-10minutes, then do memtest to ensure memory errors aren't causing the issue, then do prime95 in blend mode (or small fft's for cpu only, blend stresses cpu, mem and nb). Odds are if you're running stock none of these should be causing the issue, but it never hurts to see.

Any more info and details you can provide is much appreciated! And welcome to TPU! Hopefully we can getcha sorted and gaming in short time!

[Ether]

Thanks for the advice.
Put this comp together a few days ago so havent had much time to go over everything.
Not sure if the all the games have the latest updates but it locks up with every game I have tried including some that have the latest updates. I cant CTRL-ALT-DEL and have to reset.
The vid drivers are updated and havent tried movies or anything else yet. Everything is running standard and no overclocking. Its only games that causes the lockups as browsing the web etc and running other programs seem to work fine.

One other thing that seemed odd was when I installed the OS it read the dvd, the first screen came up, dealt with that then it seem to do nothing for at least 5 minutes before the dvd drive started up again to display the next screen. I dealt with at and waited onether 5 minutes or so before it continued to finnish the rest of the setup. Any take on this?, I hope it sheds some light.

[Kursah]

Run those stress programs, allow memtest at least one 100% run and Prime to run for about an hour, I have a feeling there's a setting off and since you're probably not doing anything else that loads your system more than a game, it's getting caught there. That's why I'm curious what happens when you run Furmark.

As-far-as your install situation, hard saying what caused that...it's something I've never dealt with as far as I can recall.

[thoughtdisorder]

Any idea what your temps on your card are when running one of the games that makes you crash?

[Ether]

Ok..will do. One more question. I was reeading the back of the pamphlet that came with the RAM where it states that the Corsair's line of 4GB memory kits are designed for the 64bit OS and installing those on 32bit systems is not advised nor supported under warrenty. Should I be worried about running my rig with this ram and could it damage anything?

[Ether]

Not sure about the temps are but ran a game right after boot. Could the temps be too high in a matter of a few minutes?. Thanks for your input.

[Kursah]

Originally Posted by Ether

Not sure about the temps are but ran a game right after boot. Could the temps be too high in a matter of a few minutes?. Thanks for your input.

Depending on case airflow, and if for some reason the vid card heatsink isn't making good contact, extremely hot temperatures are possible. Though I would assume the fan on your card would kick up to prevent that from happening, but not always. Download Rivatuner or EVGA Precision, it's an OC utility but also monitors temperatures and clock speeds. Another good program is Real Temp, the new version supports not only CPU temps but also NV GPU temps (maybe ATI too, I don't recall). Definately worth looking into, especially while running Furmark and Prime.

[Ether]

Ok thanks man...will try get the utilities you mentioned and post the results as soon as I can. Appreciate your input and time.

[Ether]

Ok!..back with some info.
GPU stability test: 1620 x 1200 x MSAA 16X : 35FPS : start 41deg C : peak after 5 min 75deg C.
MemTest: Intel X38/X48(ECC Disabled)-FSB:400Mhz-typeDR Mem 4095M-5047 Mbps Ram 600Mhz(DDR1200)/cas:9-9-9-24/dual channel
L1 - 32k-45073Mbps : L2 - 6114k-20916Mbps : L3 none.
Walltime=0:34min : Cached=4095 : RsvdMem=572k : MemMap=e820-std : Cache=on : ECC=off : Test=std : Pass=1 : ERR=0 : ECC ERR=0.

Thanks for your help and hope to hear from you soon.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by thoughtdisorder

Any idea what your temps on your card are when running one of the games that makes you crash?

I ran a test using 1920x1200 x msaa 16x and the temp leveled at 80deg C.
Is this the coreect heat range for these settings? The card is a gforce 9800 GTX 512m.

[TdiGuy]

I have a smilar problem Different system other than the gforce 9800 gtx. My system cooling is 1 120mm fan in the rear exhausting 1 120mm fan in the front sucking air in and 1 80mm fan on the side pulling air in. The exhaust shots up to 40c on the exhaust of the vga card after less than 2 minutes of game play.

[TdiGuy]

I found a soulution for this. Apparently the automatic controls for the cooling fan either flat out don't work or just do not work well. nvidia offers a piece of moding software and there is rivatune. Nvidia's software i have been told causes issues with some motherboards but its realy easy to use and works for my mobo. rivatune works fine also but i found it much more cumbersome to use and dont know how to make it auto start a profile on game launch. Only thing you need to change is the fan simply crank the fan up on game start and have it level back down on game end.

[jagass]

Switch to XP man...

[Thrackan]

Originally Posted by jagass

Switch to XP man...

I don't see anything constructive in there...

Ether, did you try a CPU stress test yet? I only see the GPU/Memtest in that post, or I'm missing something...

[Ether]

Thanks for your reply I have done a mem test which resulted in 'no errors' not sure how to test for mem heat problems though. At the moment I still cant run games at msaa16x without slowing due to a heat problem somewhere. I bought a cheap case which seemed ok but one thing seemed nuts is that the PSU fan faces downwards right onto the cpu and gpu...that has to be contributing to the problem. I am going to but a fan set for the 4gig ram, another that might cool the gpu better and try to make a cowling to divert the heat from the psu to the rear extraction fan...what do you think?.

[Thrackan]

I think I need pics to understand your setup

[driver66]

Originally Posted by TdiGuy

I found a soulution for this. Apparently the automatic controls for the cooling fan either flat out don't work or just do not work well. nvidia offers a piece of moding software and there is rivatune. Nvidia's software i have been told causes issues with some motherboards but its realy easy to use and works for my mobo. rivatune works fine also but i found it much more cumbersome to use and dont know how to make it auto start a profile on game launch. Only thing you need to change is the fan simply crank the fan up on game start and have it level back down on game end.

Lol at paint skills

[TdiGuy]

ya i saw all that and its still a pos interface in my book and there is no automation so before i play a game i have to use a hotkey to get to that control and crank it up and remember to hit another hotkey to turn it back down. I know its not a lot of work but considering both pieces of software are 100% free and the nvidia software works fine for me and it has more/ better functionality it is a clear winner in my book now i launch my game the fan speeds pick up and it no longer overheats and when i stop playing the fan speeds go back down.
As far as Xp or vista goes i have a win xp pro x64 system so if there could be compatability problems lol i would probably be experiencing them heck they still don't make flash10 for x64!

[Ether]

Yea I guess... its a demon when one doesnt have spares to pin point problems