Strange computer problem

[Dud]

My brother's computer has this strange thing where he's playing Call of Duty Single Player, and gets killed; at this point the screen freezes, immediately turns black, and the computer restarts itself (all of this takes about 1-2 seconds). Other games that should run flawlessly freeze and are choppy. This is a more than decent computer, I made it with a Pentium4 1.8a processor, PC3200 512 MB Ram etc...

Any ideas? :huh

 

[racketboy]

make sure the heatsink and fan of your GPU and CPU are on good for one.

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by racketboy@Jun 5, 2004 @ 05:35 PM

make sure the heatsink and fan of your GPU and CPU are on good for one.

They're on good. I just checked. :cheers

 

[it290]

Could be bad RAM or a flaky motherboard. Test your RAM with memtest86 and ensure that the timings are set correctly in the BIOS.

 

[Alexvrb]

That sounds likely, assuming it isn't a software problem. Could also be unstable power caused by a cheap PSU, I've seen that sort of issue wreak havoc.

 

[Dud]

Thanks for the responses, I'll look into some of this stuff tommorow. :banana

 

[Dyne]

what video card do you have in there?

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by Dyne@Jun 6, 2004 @ 10:54 AM

what video card do you have in there?

ATI® Radeon 9200

 

[Dyne]

i wouldnt think that card could handle that game acceptably. make sure you got the latest Cat's or see if the version you have now has a conflict with that game. what other games run choppy? its a good chance its your card. its not the greatest thing to run recent games.

 

[Alexvrb]

Originally posted by Dyne@Jun 6, 2004 @ 06:02 PM

i wouldnt think that card could handle that game acceptably. make sure you got the latest Cat's or see if the version you have now has a conflict with that game. what other games run choppy? its a good chance its your card. its not the greatest thing to run recent games.

I'm afraid you are incorrect here, his GPU is not the problem. Don't be so quick to judge it - it isn't a juggernaut, but it isn't total junk (assuming he didn't buy a crappy SE/LE model!!). My brother has a Duron 1.6Ghz (which is actually a decent performer), with a KT133A board, 384MB of PC133, and a Radeon 9000 classic. It runs Call of Duty very well, because Call of Duty is one of those games that was built very well. It also does quite well with Battlefield 1942+expansion and even Battlefield Vietnam. Not to mention the fact that he is encountering not only speed issues, but gross, unnatural speed issues, and stability problems. Actually, even if he has the cheaper 9200SE, he still shouldn't have these issues. He'd just have to turn down settings.

So assuming it isn't a software problem (drivers, etc), it is most likely either PSU, mainboard, or RAM.

 

[Dud]

Dyne got it. It was running games well at max settings (Call of Duty, Pandora Tomorrow etc...) but after a while it must of put too much stress on the GPU, we turned down the graphics settings and everything works fine.

 

[racketboy]

yeah!

 

[Dyne]

its also a possibility the card was overheating and turning the stuff down alleviated some of that.

 

[Dyne]

Originally posted by Alexvrb+Jun 6, 2004 @ 02:01 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alexvrb @ Jun 6, 2004 @ 02:01 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'> <!--QuoteBegin-Dyne@Jun 6, 2004 @ 06:02 PM

i wouldnt think that card could handle that game acceptably. make sure you got the latest Cat's or see if the version you have now has a conflict with that game. what other games run choppy? its a good chance its your card. its not the greatest thing to run recent games.

I'm afraid you are incorrect here, his GPU is not the problem. Don't be so quick to judge it - it isn't a juggernaut, but it isn't total junk (assuming he didn't buy a crappy SE/LE model!!). My brother has a Duron 1.6Ghz (which is actually a decent performer), with a KT133A board, 384MB of PC133, and a Radeon 9000 classic. It runs Call of Duty very well, because Call of Duty is one of those games that was built very well. It also does quite well with Battlefield 1942+expansion and even Battlefield Vietnam. Not to mention the fact that he is encountering not only speed issues, but gross, unnatural speed issues, and stability problems. Actually, even if he has the cheaper 9200SE, he still shouldn't have these issues. He'd just have to turn down settings.

So assuming it isn't a software problem (drivers, etc), it is most likely either PSU, mainboard, or RAM. [/b][/quote]

and when you say "well" with a rig like that i assume most eye candy off and 800*600 right?

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by Dyne@Jun 6, 2004 @ 04:15 PM

its also a possibility the card was overheating and turning the stuff down alleviated some of that.

That seems likely, as the 9200 has a heatsink but no fan. And the case is nothing special either.

 

[Alexvrb]

You should have some airflow in there. You'd be surprised how many people on Steam think they're "lagging" but its overheating. You would be probably be able to fix the problem cheaply with a slot fan. For now you could always run with the side panel off.

Dyne: No, either 1024x768 with the rest on low, or 800x600 on medium/high settings. Call of Duty is very well built, and for that matter so are the Battlefield games. They run quite well. I've even had them running fine with similar settings on a Kyro II. Call of Duty at a LAN beats the crap out of CS - you shoot people and they fall over, rather than your bullets randomly spraying left and right.