Games crashing, need help please!

[Pck21]

Hey all,

I have been working on my parents new gateway machine since xmas because we got my dad some games and they don't seem to be working. It's got a socket 939 3500+, 1GB of ram (4 sticks), asus x1600 pro 512mb gpu, and everything else was stock. We were having these problems before and I was advised to get a new psu because it sounded like bad power to the card and board. Well I upgraded the psu to a 400-watt 20 amps on the 12v and got some more ram (it used to have 2 sticks of 256mb and it now has 4 sticks of 256mb).

Problem is I can play the games for about a good 5 minutes and they crash again only this time my computer doesn't restart. I can still hear the game noises in the back ground. My monitor just shuts off and says there's no signal.

Do I have a bad gpu? I tried these games with my other computer (the one in the sig) and they worked flawlessly. I have the same video card and practically the same cpu. Only differences are the amount of ram and motherboards.

I thought I was over heating but I took the side panel off and it still does it.

Can anyone help me or give me suggestions?? My parents JUST bought this computer no more than like 3 or 4 months ago and it was pretty expensive. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[ghost]

System Requirements X1600 PRO

420 Watt ATX 2.0 or greater power supply.Consult your computer system manual to ensure the power supply is designed to accommodate a high-end graphics card with a peak dissipation above 75 watts.

???

What are your system temps and what drivers do u have installed for ya ATi card?

 

[Pck21]

System Requirements X1600 PRO

420 Watt ATX 2.0 or greater power supply.Consult your computer system manual to ensure the power supply is designed to accommodate a high-end graphics card with a peak dissipation above 75 watts.

???

What are your system temps and what drivers do u have installed for ya ATi card?

The new power supply I just installed is this 400 watt one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2143207&CatId=1078

I have the newest 8.32 drivers for the video card and currect system temps from speed fan are: ambient(?) 36C degrees, remote 1- 25C degrees, HD 33C degrees, and a weird reading from remote 2(?) at a blazing 115C degrees. I don't know what the remote 2 is though. Could it still be the power supply?

 

[SFG99]

I had a problem similar to this and it turned out to be a faulty memory module. When the computer has been shut down for a while, does it restart before completely booting up? Or, is this just during gaming? For me to find out if it was a memory problem, i had to test each stick individually, but I dont know if you can even run any modern day games on only a 256 stick. Also, your sig says 4x512 when your post says 4x256, so which is it?

 

[Pck21]

I had a problem similar to this and it turned out to be a faulty memory module. When the computer has been shut down for a while, does it restart before completely booting up? Or, is this just during gaming? For me to find out if it was a memory problem, i had to test each stick individually, but I dont know if you can even run any modern day games on only a 256 stick. Also, your sig says 4x512 when your post says 4x256, so which is it?

You know I thought it could be a ram problem too. I'll test them tonight. The system in my sig is my computer. The computer I'm talking about is my parent's computer which is a gateway 827gm with the same gpu as the one in my sig. My parent's have 4x256mb ram while I have 4x512mb of ram.

It's so weird though. I can play The Godfather and CSI games with no problem but Battlefront II and Tiger Woods 07 can only run for about 5 mins and then the screen goes black and says "no signal". I can still hear the game sounds still playing and the computer does not restart.

 

[J_D]

How about swapping the two graphics cards over to check for faulty hardware

Or

Reinstall the graphics driver

And yeah check for bad ram I’ve had endless problems in that dept

 

[Pck21]

How about swapping the two graphics cards over to check for faulty hardware

Or

Reinstall the graphics driver

And yeah check for bad ram I’ve had endless problems in that dept

I was actually thinking about switching the cards to see if the one in my parent's computer is faulty. I'll add that to my list of to-do's tonight as well.

I just reinstalled the driver about 3 times. 2 times last night and 1 time this morning with no changes.

You know the more I think about it, the more I think the ram might be the culprit. I'll def check it out tonight.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions everyone! It's really helping!

 

[The_Other_One]

I'm leaning towards a GPU or power supply issue if the game continues to play. It could be RAM or motherboard related(perhaps even software/driver) but if the game continues to run with no video...

That power supply is pretty weak. As someone mentioned the wattage is a bit lower than the required, plus only 20 amps is pretty low for the 12v RAIL.

 

[Pck21]

I'm leaning towards a GPU or power supply issue if the game continues to play. It could be RAM or motherboard related(perhaps even software/driver) but if the game continues to run with no video...

That power supply is pretty weak. As someone mentioned the wattage is a bit lower than the required, plus only 20 amps is pretty low for the 12v RAIL.

Problem is the games were doing the same thing only with the stock 200 watt psu that was originally put in there. The only difference is, now the games play fine for 5 mins and then shut off. I'm starting to think it's not the psu anymore. Plus the psu that I put in is not weak for a non-gaming rig. I have a 500 watt psu with only 18 amps on the 12v rail with the same gpu and it plays these games and battlefield 2 on all high settings. What would you recommend I put in it instead? A 500 or 600 watt psu? That would be over kill.

I don't think it's a ram issue because I just added another 2 sticks of 256mb. Even if it was one or both of the original sticks of ram that were faulty, the new dual channeling ram would be more than sufficient to run these games.

I'm leaning towards gpu at this point. Can anyone recommend a video card that only needs a 400 watt psu with 20A on the 12v? I just need something to run these games and not take up so much power.