Crashing problem with newer games

[malikimkr]

The problem is my machine crashes after about 10min of play in games like GTA3 and MOHAA. I’ve read MANY posts on those games forums and found many people having the same problem as well as different “solutions” to the problem. Generally this happens to processors over 1GHz, both AMD and Intel, but there doesn’t seem to be a common setup with this problem. It also happens on all windows OS’s. I have tried most of the proposed solutions only to come up empty handed. I have ruled out possible problems such as over heating case and video card. I have tried game patches, updated drivers, updated bios, swapping out new vid card for old one, messing around with directx settings, etc. Nothing seems to work. I used to run all the games fine(granted very slowly) on my old system(P2 400, 512SDRAM, GF2 MX200). My new setup is:

Athlon XP 2000
MSI GF4 Ti4400
256MB DDR333
Gigabyte GA7-VRX
300watt power supply

The only other thing I haven’t tried that I think could be the problem is a larger power supply, but that is my next step. If anyone knows what the problem might be, I would appreciate any help.

Thanks,
KR

 

[ejsmith2]

Looks like a power problem to me.

 

[juicebykurt]

you think the psu is going bad or that it doesnt supply enough power?

 

[ejsmith2]

Yeah, he needs to jump to at least a 400w. Either way, real close to 40amps on that 3.3v rail. Probably pulls a little more than that, but 40 would be a minimum.

The closest way to tell:

Load up Motherboard montior, and check your 5v rail minimum output with the logging function. If it drops to anything near 4.9v, then your underpowered.

 

[juicebykurt]

hmm... 300wts should be enough tho right? i have a 300wt and have never had any problems.
Shuttle AK31
1.2Ghz TB
256MB Nanya PC2100
GF2-GTS
LiteON CDRW
LiteON CDROM
Maxtor 40GB
LinkSys NIC
Running Win 98se

 

[williamc]

300 Watts is indeed enough long as its a good quality PSU. As mentioned above, test it with Motherboard monitor.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[Tryer]

I'm not sure i agree with the 300Watt fix. I am running an Enermax 430 watt PS and my 5 Volts gets pulled down to 4.9 volts before I am in game play. I have pretty much the same proplem you do. Total freeze in game, with nothing to point you toward a proplem. My games are Neverwinter Nights and Everquest. I would be interested in hearing your solution if you have found one.

 

[UoMDeacon]

From your initially posted information, I would tend to agree with the possible PSU problem. But an important question is, does this happen with any other games, or are those the only ones you have tried it with? If it is a PSU problem, the proper way to go about it is not to replace it with just any 400W PSU, it's more important to get a quality one than a big one. Look a brands such as PC Power & Cooling or Enermax, to name a few. These companies put a lot into the PSU to make sure voltages and everything are regulated well. They shouldn't cost too much either. A Performance series 300W can be hand from PC Power&Cooling for around $70, while I got a hold of a Whisper one from Enermax to replace my Performance one for much less.

 

[malikimkr]

Thanks for the help. Thought it was the power supply at first but found out toe board itself was bad. Actually, lots of people are having problems with the same board(gigabyte GA7-VRX/GA7/VRXP) Seems that some of the boards don't supply enough power to the CPU so you have to tweak the bios and up the Vcore voltage by 5-10%. I didn't find this out till after I RMA'd the board. Funny thing is that a lot of people have perfectly stable systems with this board regardless of PSU and others have the same problem I have and they have high end PSU's. hopefully I'll get lucky on the replacement and it will be stable. If you want to read about the problems, amdmb.com has a forum that is pretty good. Thanks for the all!

 

[UoMDeacon]

Ahhh...I remember reading issues about that combo. That's too bad, since Gigabyte is such a market leader, it is strange to think that they would make something that seems to have this type of problem. Good thing I didn't jump out and buy this mobo just yet.