out of ideas

I recently bough a Biostar TA785GE 128M motherboard. I switched over the Athlon 64 X2 processor, 2GB DDR2 800 memory, 80GB PATA HD, Zotac 8400GS videocard and the Lightscribe Supermulti drive from HP onto this board. Im having headache issues, everytime I play a game, the computer freezes up. Ive tried installing different drivers for the network card and graphics card. Nothing seems to work. Also the motherboard has built in ATI HD 4200 graphics, I even switched to it and I still have the same problem. Running WIndows 7 64bit Ultimate. Ideas?

 

Couple of things spring to mind.

Firstly, you said "I play a game" , are you reffering to 1 game or all games?
Also please give some examples of these games or the 1 game if only tried 1.

You may also want to dissable the onboard graphics if you have a card plugged in, sometimes this is done automatically, other times it is not, so check that too. (this is checked in BIOS... WARNING! if you do not understand bios, do not change things or at least write down what you change. Fiddle with BIOS at your OWN risk)

Edit: Also, when you say "freezes up" do you get any error messages? or is it total lock up requiring you to power down and restart?
Little more detail will help us help you

 

the onboard graphics were disabled, i checked on the bios. if i play world of warcraft, it gets laggy after a few minutes then freezes little by little and locks up, no error. another game is killing floor on steam, if freezes me in multiplayer then im able to play after 5mins of being frozen but itll continue to freeze then lockup, same goes with rollercoaster tycoon, team fortress 2, etc. im able to browse the internet though. when it freezes up no error codes at all and i must restart

 

Is your power supply up to the task?

 

the zontac 8400gs graphics card doesnt need power supply but its a stock 300watt PSU from HP

 

Just Googled it 300 is suppose to be enough, though some others state 350 300 may be iffy if you have other items drawing. Link below draw your own conclusion!


http://www.google.com/search?q=zont...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

One More: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0355494

 

You're running the game from a relatively slow PATA drive, have you defragged? What size Virtual Memory do you have? How much available memory do you have if you check in Task Manager 4-5 minutes after booting up?

Your freeze up may be down to your network drivers, have you checked that you have the latest version from the makers? Have you checked your download/upload speeds?

 

the hard drive has been cleaned and defragged. i keep installing different drivers but no to avail, ive even tried a pci wifi G card and disabled the built in network but it continues the same. after a few minutes of bootup i have 6/700mb of 2gb available from the task manager the zotac graphics card is 512mb of ddr2 memory

 

http://www.speedtest.net/ to check your connection speeds.

Start > Run > dxdiag > front page, look for the Page File sizes.

 

As it happens only playing games I would make sure your CPU heatsink is on properly (with good contact with the heatsink compound). Are the CPU settings correct in the BIOS?
With it only happening when gaming it sounds like something is getting stressed and hot. You may want to check the memory too.

Sam

 

page file is 1314mb/2268mb available

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1146123711.png

 

Just for elimination purposes I would run ...

http://majorgeeks.com/Speccy_d6358.html

This will show your temps of CPU, GPU etc

Run it while desktop idle.
Note temps.
Fire up a game and run it for a minute or so, then minimize the game and check temps again.

Also might be worth you running "memtest" (usually Slot 1A and 1B for 2 sticks, but thats mobo specific and will be in your manual)

If I'm honest it's the "Roller Coaster Tycoon" thats throwing me, it's a pretty easy game to run at least until you get real busy.

Also make sure your ram is seated properly and in the correct slots.

Going back to what phil said, a 300w PSU is pretty low, even though your gpu specs say it's enough. But lets try and eliminate other stuff first.

 

at idle the CPU is 100+ F
the hard drive is at 80 F


running world of warcraft the cpu would hit up to 110F but would drop down.
memory is seated properly. basically the power supply unit is the culprit?

 

You're SURE those are Fahrenheit temperatures? Almost all temp readouts are in Celsius.

 

You can change it from Celsius to Fahrenheit And YES I AM SURE.

 

Ok, so nothing definitive here as far as I can see. Underpowered PSU is still a possibility though.

When you tested with the built-in HD 4200, did you pull the 8400GS first?

Do you have, or can you borrow, another graphics card to test with?

 

Yes, when i used the ATI HD4200 , i removed the 8400GS. The other graphics card is in a custom built pc that requires a connector from a power supply unit.

 

Ah, could you shut down the other PC for a while and borrow the PSU to test with the older PC?

 

I noticed a sticker ontop of the power supply. I removed it and it had an original PSU sticker with a rating of 250W MAX...WTF?

 

That's the original PSU - from HP?

 

Yep it came like that

 

Sheesh! Sure, a good 250W PSU will likely outperform a poor 350W, but one of the major players is stooping to that?

Ok, I guess you'll need a new PSU then

 

Why would it need a higher watt PSU?

 

Simply because a GOOD 250W PSU will have some headroom to spare, PSU's lose a little of their power over time; some say you should allow a loss of 10% per annum. So, a good PSU with a conservative 250W rating might output 280-300W when new, reducing to around 200-220W after 5 years.

A POOR 250W PSU however, may never reach 250W output even when new and it could drop to sub-175W inside 3 years.

Input your system details into the PSU calculator at ASUS and see what you need. I'd estimate 275 -325W.

Buy (or at least borrow for a few days of testing) a good 350-400W PSU. Without good, clean power, you'll always be having problems.

 

The link you posted, gave me a "
Your Recommended Minimum Power Supply is 250 Watts "


Lol?

 

Yes, but thats minimum, and those calculators only give a guide.

So with it only being minimum it is only taking into account normal running, not gaming, when you game you power needs increase.
Personally I wouldn't even look at anything under 400w. But as Satrow said, try and borrow one first just to make sure.

This is where we could get into the whole Single or multiple 12v rails argument :-D

 

v Lol. I will, any recommendations on a PSU manufacture? I just dont want to waste my money on one thatll blow in a few months.

 

It depends on how accurately you filled in the data.

Recommended MINIMUM (assuming good quality) is what you should be reading into it

 

The latest real data I have is this, not ideal as it doesn't cover all makes/models - it's just the return rates from one online supplier in France.

Antec looks a pretty safe bet but there will always be exceptions to any rule.

 

ive installed a 450w PSU, seems to be stable but the temperature in speccy shows the graphics card as 130F?! and average 110F+