Strange crashes.

[Tyreal]

Just recently, after adding my 8800 gts, I've been experiencing strange crashes. It usually occurs when I play Medieval 2 Total War for extended periods of time. All of sudden it just restarts the computer.

I just passed it off as a random incident but today I opened up Firefox and the system crashed as well. I'm starting to think my power supply is going.

The rig I'm using is in my signature. My overclock is Prime95/Orthos 10 hour stable (would have gone for 12, but I had to use my PC in the morning to post news). I'm not certain, but I recall testing my ram using memtest86+ a few weeks ago and it checked out fine.

Any ideas?

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Tyreal

I'm not certain, but I recall testing my ram using memtest86+ a few weeks ago and it checked out fine.

Any ideas?

First idea would be to retest the RAM and rule out that uncertainty. Barring that, I'd disable the system from restarting to see what kind of error code you're getting:

Right-click MY COMPUTER
Select PROPERTIES
Click the ADVANCED tab
Click on SETTINGS under Startup and Recovery
Uncheck Automatically Restart under System Failure

Also check your temps (particularly your videocard), since this is mostly occuring after extended gaming sessions. And finally, since it's Ty, be absolutely certain that you check user headspace and timing.

[Tyreal]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

First idea would be to retest the RAM and rule out that uncertainty. Barring that, I'd disable the system from restarting to see what kind of error code you're getting:

Right-click MY COMPUTER

Select PROPERTIES

Click the ADVANCED tab

Click on SETTINGS under Startup and Recovery

Uncheck Automatically Restart under System Failure

Also check your temps (particularly your videocard), since this is mostly occuring after extended gaming sessions. And finally, since it's Ty, be absolutely certain that you check user headspace and timing.

I'll be sure to change those settings.

My temps are fine, 50ish idle and it doesn't go up much higher at load.

[Panda Man]

The NeoHE series has mixed reviews. It could very well be that the PSU is going out on you, if you have a different PSU (and you've ruled out that windows isn't having issues... which are you using btw?) I'd try it out. The only Antec PSUs I trust are the truepowers, the NeoHE and smartpower's are really not that reliable IMO.

Also, 50 idle seems a tad high, but you are OCed. I'd turn down the OCs for now.

[Tyreal]

Originally Posted by Panda Man

The NeoHE series has mixed reviews. It could very well be that the PSU is going out on you, if you have a different PSU (and you've ruled out that windows isn't having issues... which are you using btw?) I'd try it out. The only Antec PSUs I trust are the truepowers, the NeoHE and smartpower's are really not that reliable IMO.

Also, 50 idle seems a tad high, but you are OCed. I'd turn down the OCs for now.

50c is the temp of the videocard. It may be a bit lower but I'm at school and I can't check. My CPU temps are great.

I don't have any psu's on hand and I don't have much money either. I'll see if I can borrow one from a friend.

[Quakindude]

Tyreal,

I've been experiencing some random crashes with my 8800GTS installed as well, especially in Vista. Rolling the drivers back to 100.65 has been helping a lot of folks with their crashing problems. For Windows XP users, the newest driver is version 97.94. There's been some issues with the 8800 series in XP as well. In Vista though, Vista can drop the video card then reinitialize it, saving you from a hard lockup. In XP, you simply lock up.

There's no rhyme or reason for who is affected by these problems. The hardware is as diverse as the people who own it. Software setups are the same. I've been dealing with random lockups all day today and yesterday in Vista and XP. Vista recovers, but it happens every 10 seconds while gaming in Vista. I'm going to try the new drivers from Nvidia for XP tonight.

I also have the Neo 550 HE in this system. I also now have a different PSU for it. Will keep you updated, but a lot of folks seem to like the newest driver from Nvidia.

[Tyreal]

Thanks Quakindude. It's good to know that I'm not the only one with problems. I'm using the 97.92 Xtreme-g drivers. It doesn't crash but sometimes it just slows to a crawl. It will eventually crash. Otherwise the system will just restart.

What powersupply did you get? If I really have to get one, I'll get the 600w GameXStream. It's cheap and still good :D

[Quakindude]

I needed two of them actually. So I have a new OCZ GameXStream 700W and a new Hiper 730W I'm going to review. I LOVE the OCZ PSU's, but this Hiper PSU is looking mighty fine. If weight is any indication of quality, and it usually is for PSU's, this Hiper should kick ass.

[Tyreal]

Sounds good sounds good. Keep me updated.