hey guys, ive been browsing this site for a while and decided to finally register and post. the information here is invaluable 
anyway, lately (past 1-2 weeks) ive been having an issue where my pc will randomly lock up, and lately its been getting much worse...to the point where it crashes anywhere from 10 seconds to 5minutes, sometimes 10-15minutes after being in game.
when it first started happening the video output would...well crap itself. screen would be filled with usually lines either going horizontal or vertical if i remember right, then 5-10 seconds later it would lock up (initially it would still take input commands, i.e. i could type and the pc was fine, just the video output was messed for the few seconds before it froze).
after talking to a few people i assumed that the memory on my video card was bad. i ran memtest86 to test my normal memory, and given how it screwed up the video output prior to locking up, i assumed it was a video card issue. given that my card was a few years old, i figured id go get a new card.
after browsing this site i decided to upgrade my raedon 9800 pro 128mb with one of the cards listed in the suggested cards thread here. my new card is a Radeon X800 GTO by Sapphire.
i also got a new case, so after installing everything in the new case and getting it all fixed...i went and installed the new ati drivers and then tried my games again. at first it was fine, didnt crash and had no issues. unfortunately now...it seems to have come back...which makes no sense to me. the crashing doesnt happen as fast however.
what i am wondering...is there anyway to verify what part of the computer is having the issue? or is it possibly a misconfigured option somewhere? the only games i play are everquest and wow and sometimes CS. the only games ive tried this with and had the issue with is CS and WoW.
also, my pc would randomly lock up without being in game, but it would take significantly longer. in other words, i coudl have the pc on for a day or so and then it would randomly freeze. this again lead me to believe it was my video card's memory...as it only seemed to crash during times of high graphical load.
is it possible it is my motherboard? upon moving to the new case i cleaned a lot of dust out from within the tower and made sure everything transferred smoothly. and given that its happening with my new video card im guessing its either my memory or possible the agp slot on my motherboard.
is my assumption that it is probably the motherboard a good one? crashing has kept me from playing any of the few games i do play (well dont have cs installed atm - i DID reformat and try a new copy of windows, but that didnt help). if you guys have any ideas on things to try or ways to rule out certain parts of my pc as the problems, id love to hear it.
thanks 8)
sorry if this is long 🙁
anyway, lately (past 1-2 weeks) ive been having an issue where my pc will randomly lock up, and lately its been getting much worse...to the point where it crashes anywhere from 10 seconds to 5minutes, sometimes 10-15minutes after being in game.
when it first started happening the video output would...well crap itself. screen would be filled with usually lines either going horizontal or vertical if i remember right, then 5-10 seconds later it would lock up (initially it would still take input commands, i.e. i could type and the pc was fine, just the video output was messed for the few seconds before it froze).
after talking to a few people i assumed that the memory on my video card was bad. i ran memtest86 to test my normal memory, and given how it screwed up the video output prior to locking up, i assumed it was a video card issue. given that my card was a few years old, i figured id go get a new card.
after browsing this site i decided to upgrade my raedon 9800 pro 128mb with one of the cards listed in the suggested cards thread here. my new card is a Radeon X800 GTO by Sapphire.
i also got a new case, so after installing everything in the new case and getting it all fixed...i went and installed the new ati drivers and then tried my games again. at first it was fine, didnt crash and had no issues. unfortunately now...it seems to have come back...which makes no sense to me. the crashing doesnt happen as fast however.
what i am wondering...is there anyway to verify what part of the computer is having the issue? or is it possibly a misconfigured option somewhere? the only games i play are everquest and wow and sometimes CS. the only games ive tried this with and had the issue with is CS and WoW.
also, my pc would randomly lock up without being in game, but it would take significantly longer. in other words, i coudl have the pc on for a day or so and then it would randomly freeze. this again lead me to believe it was my video card's memory...as it only seemed to crash during times of high graphical load.
is it possible it is my motherboard? upon moving to the new case i cleaned a lot of dust out from within the tower and made sure everything transferred smoothly. and given that its happening with my new video card im guessing its either my memory or possible the agp slot on my motherboard.
is my assumption that it is probably the motherboard a good one? crashing has kept me from playing any of the few games i do play (well dont have cs installed atm - i DID reformat and try a new copy of windows, but that didnt help). if you guys have any ideas on things to try or ways to rule out certain parts of my pc as the problems, id love to hear it.
thanks 8)
sorry if this is long 🙁
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