pc crashing after 30 mins when playing games.

I've recently got a new pc.

I've tried to play Oblivion and Guildwars, both should work ok, but after 20-40 minutes, the pc blue screens (says nothing on it though) and restarts.

I have an error report from windows if it helps.

It doesn't seem related to anything I do, it just seems to happen after a certain time. It's REALLY annoying lol.

Mobile pentium 4 180ghz
1gb of ram
radeon 9800 pro

thanks a lot

stef

 

Gotta agree with TimW. If I understand your specs, Pentium 4's in laptops run hot.

Try EVEREST (free).
Open up "Computer", and click on Sensor.
That will report some temperatures depending on BIOS capabilities.

Everest Home Edition. www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181
When you run EVEREST, Click on "Computer" icon, then on "Summary", then on "Report" (at top menu), then on "Quick Report Summary", down to "Plain text". Save it to a file, as whatever name you like, (maybe PCddmmyy--with ddmmyy being the current date). Then it can be posted for all to see.
PS: Scroll down the report and delete all the stuff starting with Offset, to reduce the size of the report.
Bazza

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Thanks, It's a not a laptop though, it's a shuttle.

Shortly after making a thread here I tried halving my resolution, after it ALWAYS blue screening every 10-30 mins, it didn't blue screen once, for two days (I played 4 hours at a time.)

But just now it's started bluescreening again. (just turned it on today) I don't know why it's done this, do you still think it would be a heat issue, it seems weird that the resolution helped?

 

Have you run EVEREST yet? What temps did it report? Bazza

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Hi, I've uploaded it in an attachment, it didn't seem to have to option to do a quick summary, sorry Thanks again

 

Oh and just to save you looking, the temps are:

Motherboard 38 °C (100 °F)
CPU 54 °C (129 °F)
Aux 48 °C (118 °F)

 

Looked at your profile, it didn't list what part of the world you in.

I've had problems with motherboards in the past that were heat sensitive, I turned down the air conditioning to verify and as a short term fix. You need to keep track of the temperature in your house, while it shouldn't make a difference many times it does. The worst case I experienced was a bad motherboard, sucker took over a year to die a decent death.

<IF> it is a temperature problem you might be able to add more fans in the case to pull in more cool air or suck out more hot air, basically the same thing.

Another thing to look at is dust and dust bunnies. Fans create them, so make sure the case is cleaned out. Major note, vacuum cleaners or air blowers can burn out fans very easily by rotating their blades past their maximum speed, and burning the electronics out inside the fan (most computer fans are brushless, which means they have solid state electronics). Just holding the blades still will safe guard against that problem. Even a casual spinup can do the damage though.

Your temperatures lists are slightly high, but if it were my computer I wouldn't think twice about them. The CPU is pretty typical, the case temperature (which is what I interprete the other two as more or less) should be a slightly cooler, but again, not that bad.

I have a computer (my BBS/house server) that stays on 24/7 year round. I have to vacuum it out every year or so. When I build a computer (usually old) I usually put 1 fan if front of the case, 2 in the back, and 2 on the hard disk. Been burned a few times by temperature.

That reminds me, do a through check with a flashlight and make sure all your fans are rotating at reasonable, consistant speeds. The power supply fan is especially important, it can cause the power supply to prematurely fail, and sometimes cause symptoms similar to yours.

 

Look next time you post with system crashes can you tell people straight out that YOU HAVE OC. No offence but this will stop people from making estimations and inferences into your prob when this is the first port of call BACK OFF YOUR OC:

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 3006.72 MHz (original: 1800 MHz, overclock: 67%)
CPU Multiplier 12.0x
CPU FSB 250.56 MHz (original: 100 MHz, overclock: 151%)
Memory Bus 250.56 MHz

CPU Cache:
L1 Trace Cache 12K Instructions
L1 Data Cache 8 KB
L2 Cache 512 KB (On-Die, ECC, ATC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 02/25/2004-Canterwood-6A79BH29C-00
Motherboard Name Shuttle FB75 (1 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset Intel Canterwood i875P
Memory Timings 3-3-3-5 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
PAT Enabled

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM1: OCZ OCZ466102DDCGER2-K 512 MB PC3700 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-9 @ 232 MHz)
DIMM3: OCZ OCZ466102DDCGER2-K 512 MB PC3700 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-9 @ 232 MHz)

From the report it can be seen that your FSB is OC by 151% giving an 61% increase to CPU output but your RAM is @232MHz compared to FSB@250MHz thus it appears you are suffering a bottleneck with a poor memory divider (FSB: DRAM should be at 1:1 or DRAM>FSB but not FSB>DRAM your RAM is struggling to keep up, your VID CARD also would be struggling with Oblivion).

Back of the FSB and get your memory divider to 1:1 and then see how you go but I would aim for about a 30% OC and seriously test for stability before you crank it any higher. My 2c.

 

I'm in england, it never gets REALLY hot here, but it is summertime here.

I bought some spray to clean the pc out, thanks for the tip about holding the fan! It shouldn't be dust though, it's a very newly made pc.

Sorry about the OC thing, I didn't actually know lol. A friend made this pc for me, so I don't know too much about it.

I think I have a friend who can help me with the overclocking thing, explaining it step by step on the phone. If not, can I get back to you? I will let you know how it goes in any case

 

Look if the problem still persists you should move this to the OverClocking Forum as that is where the most experienced people in that area are. Winter is the OC time as it does generate significant heat for all the components on your mobo and in summer you should back it off or use only in an airconditioned environment, this is why your CPU is idling at 54C but your environment is quite hot as well (North Bridge, South Bridge, etc). You should tell your m8 off because OC can and does shorten the life of your hardware!!!!!!!!

 

Heres how companys set specs on hardware (not saying i agree or disagree with anyones choices regarding overclocking)

Say we are making cpus, we pull 1 chip out of a batch and test it until we find the highest speed it can run at then mark all chips in that batch at that speed. That doesn't mean that chip b from the batch isn't cabiple of running at a slighty higher speed even though its unlikly. So even though it does shorten life span on hardware, some people don't care/have enough money that they replace even certian time period no matter what, that for them it may be worth overclocking.

 

I know that hardware is set to "Safe" limits (to minimise the average user having to return it frequently) and the majority can stand a slight OC for prolonged periods but it really is for "very experienced" end-users imho and should only be used inconjunction with in-depth and prolonged stability testing. I would not hesitate to infer that if stefstef ran memtest86 and then prime95 that we would begin to note errors using these assessment and stability testing apps and unless you know how to rectify this dillema well you can have serious and or complex problem. Just from coarse level observations I could note that the memory divider was indicating that FSB>DRAM and thus FSB was pointlessly generating data that the RAM could not process and we have the beginning of a bottleneck. I don't even OC, am no expert, but I have read a lot about it and can see what is sticking out. So all I'm saying is it is for endusers who know how to rectify subtle problems.

 

I wasn't clear, I do definitaly agree with you BoldEagle, and would say that if your having any weird issues with your pc, the first step is to take it to normal settings (not overclocked).

 

Your fine I certainly didn't take it personally I just don't want people to rush into OC if they look at above info and see what his CPU is doing without "Fully undertaking and comprhensively understanding what they are doing". I want to OC my PC1 below but only after I have "Thermal Management" completely under control.

 

Well I talked to the guy who made it, and aparantly the OC really shouldn't be a problem. He told me that if anything it was underclocked? Because of some weird reasons, I don't quite understand.

Anyway him and my other friend both agree the video card is overheating, this may well be the case because when i point a fan at the videocard, I can play the games perfectly.

I've been told to fit a huge fan on the outside pulling air out and fit a smaller fan pointing on the videocard, I guess I'll see how this goes.

 

Well that wouldn't hurt and you could certainly start there. Do you know how many fans you currently have? The Vid Card would be generating heat but is this OC if not then it operating within normal temps boundries and yes it will be contributing to the overall "environmental temp" of your system but is it the primary contributing factor?!?!?

I have two rear exhaust (1 is the PSU) and 3 inlets (1 towards the Vid Card iteslf). So yea start of with a good outlet fan at the top rear of your case if you have a mounting for it.

 

You can never have too many fans...

I have several computers I've build that have fans designed to fit in a slot (not the mother board, the case slot). I put them next to the video card. They suck air out and force air over the video cards heat sink.

 

tho, even with 1gb of ram oblivion can still take up nearly all of that, oblivion takes a incredebily fast computer to work well on