Thriceborn
08-11-2009, 07:42 AM
Hi,
Just built a PC for the first time in 8 years and I am having a problem with nearly all the games I tested so far. Most of the games crash the computer forcing it to reboot. I have tried two different OS, updating the video card drivers, unplugging components, double and triple checking the hardware....
Here are my specs:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU + fan: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550
Case: RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Desktop Memory Model KHX8500D2/2G
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Graphics card: EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
CD/DVD: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model GH22NP20 - OEM
OS tried: Vista-64bits and XP pro with Service pack 3.
Drivers: Most up to date graphic card drivers.
Here are the games that do not work: Half Life 2 (steam), HL2 lost coast (steam), HL2 Episode 1 (steam), Neverwinter Nights (retail), Call of duty 5 (retail).
Games that work fine: Max Payne (does not install in Vista, XP only, retail), Jade Empire (steam)
Type of error encountered: games will crash once the game starts to play or sometimes even in game menus. The higher the resolution and video card effects, the quicker the crash occurs. If I lower the resolution and game effects, I can play sometimes for a few minutes before the system reboots.
- HL2 min settings. Played for awhile without problems.
- HL2 max settings: crashes on menu, crashes nearly immeditaly in game
- HL2 lost coast: played at max settings for a good 10 minutes before crash the first time.
- HL2 ep1: crashed on first screen at max settings, then second attempt crashed on introduction
- Call of duty 5: crashed on menu, at the end of the first loading, during the intro, a few seconds into gameplay, and a few minutes into gameplay
- Neverwinter nights: on anything but max settings, it crashes when you select the start a new game and then go to the module screen. I managed to start a new game but setting the game to minamal settings, then changing them in game and it crashed after about 10 minutes.
- Jade empire: worked perfectly for four hours straight. Seemed faster in Vista.
- Max Payne (XP only): worked fine on max settings.
Solutions tried:
- Ram: tried with one of the two sticks of ram, and then with the other. Both times the games crashed.
- Ram: ran memory tests all night. No errors found.
- Tried installing the drives for the video card again
- DirectX was updated to Dx10
- Tried different OS
- Tried changing graphic card settings from nvidia control
- Monitored CPU temp on the cores. Usually around 50C on all cores but it did go up to 72C once before a crash.
- Tested graphic card with a software called Fur (something like that). Results seemed good. Graphic card Fan started to kick in at around 80 F. Remained at around 88 f. System was stable.
Clues: before the PC reboots, I can deffinatly hear something in the PC go super fast and make more noise than normal. It sounds like a fan but I can't tell if it is the one on the CPU or the one in the Power unit.
All the rest of the PC works fine. No problems with the net or watching Netflix movies streamed. Music is good too. I do not know why certain games work on Max settings without problems, but others have trouble even on low resolutions. Neverwinter Nights and Half life 2 are both old games and the much more recent Jade empire works without a hitch.
Posted this on DAL computer help but I thought it wouldn't help to try my luck here too.
Just built a PC for the first time in 8 years and I am having a problem with nearly all the games I tested so far. Most of the games crash the computer forcing it to reboot. I have tried two different OS, updating the video card drivers, unplugging components, double and triple checking the hardware....
Here are my specs:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU + fan: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550
Case: RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Desktop Memory Model KHX8500D2/2G
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Graphics card: EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
CD/DVD: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model GH22NP20 - OEM
OS tried: Vista-64bits and XP pro with Service pack 3.
Drivers: Most up to date graphic card drivers.
Here are the games that do not work: Half Life 2 (steam), HL2 lost coast (steam), HL2 Episode 1 (steam), Neverwinter Nights (retail), Call of duty 5 (retail).
Games that work fine: Max Payne (does not install in Vista, XP only, retail), Jade Empire (steam)
Type of error encountered: games will crash once the game starts to play or sometimes even in game menus. The higher the resolution and video card effects, the quicker the crash occurs. If I lower the resolution and game effects, I can play sometimes for a few minutes before the system reboots.
- HL2 min settings. Played for awhile without problems.
- HL2 max settings: crashes on menu, crashes nearly immeditaly in game
- HL2 lost coast: played at max settings for a good 10 minutes before crash the first time.
- HL2 ep1: crashed on first screen at max settings, then second attempt crashed on introduction
- Call of duty 5: crashed on menu, at the end of the first loading, during the intro, a few seconds into gameplay, and a few minutes into gameplay
- Neverwinter nights: on anything but max settings, it crashes when you select the start a new game and then go to the module screen. I managed to start a new game but setting the game to minamal settings, then changing them in game and it crashed after about 10 minutes.
- Jade empire: worked perfectly for four hours straight. Seemed faster in Vista.
- Max Payne (XP only): worked fine on max settings.
Solutions tried:
- Ram: tried with one of the two sticks of ram, and then with the other. Both times the games crashed.
- Ram: ran memory tests all night. No errors found.
- Tried installing the drives for the video card again
- DirectX was updated to Dx10
- Tried different OS
- Tried changing graphic card settings from nvidia control
- Monitored CPU temp on the cores. Usually around 50C on all cores but it did go up to 72C once before a crash.
- Tested graphic card with a software called Fur (something like that). Results seemed good. Graphic card Fan started to kick in at around 80 F. Remained at around 88 f. System was stable.
Clues: before the PC reboots, I can deffinatly hear something in the PC go super fast and make more noise than normal. It sounds like a fan but I can't tell if it is the one on the CPU or the one in the Power unit.
All the rest of the PC works fine. No problems with the net or watching Netflix movies streamed. Music is good too. I do not know why certain games work on Max settings without problems, but others have trouble even on low resolutions. Neverwinter Nights and Half life 2 are both old games and the much more recent Jade empire works without a hitch.
Posted this on DAL computer help but I thought it wouldn't help to try my luck here too.