High End gaming rig acting stupid

Jecht

Jecht

Big Geek
i have run out of patience with my new build as of yesterday. I dont know what the problem is, but i suspect it is lack of power juice. Here is the problem:

Almost always, during Half life 2, id say anywhere from 5-10 minutes, my computer reboots, with a blank screen, or reboots to desktop, then reboots again, its pretty random, but usually it crashes first. I used to think it was overheating, but it cant be, because i get the same problems from another area. this was the first area

The other area is, when i put in a data dvd that i had made, to copy files such as mp3's from, when i go to explore it, or just view disc contents, browse around for a sec, the computer then reboots on its own, sometimes it will freeze during reboot, sometimes not. If it does make it to the desktop, it reboots right when it gets to the desktop, most i seen it do that was 2 times after hittting desktop. I tested each cd/dvd data disc on another computer and i get no problems. I am having really no trouble installing games, or applications though, so i dont think its the dvd drive. I also tried installing drivers via exe usb2 from both a cd, and on the drive itself, and the computer kept rebooting, acting the same way it did when i tried to view a discs contents. Is this a power thing or what? what is causing these reboots? thx

p.s my power supply is a OCZ Modstream 520
 
That sounds like quite a tricky problem to debug. My first suspicion when your getting random crashes like this is overheating but you've already looked into that. It *could* be a corrupted filesystem so I would suggest a fresh re-install of Windows just on general principles though I suspect the problem is hardware-related. You could also try replacing the memory as suspect RAM chips can also cause random, inexplicable crashes as well. Try those out and let me know how it goes.
 
here are the results of memtest86:


Walltime=8:38:00
Cached=1024M
RsvdMem=257M
MemMap=e820-Std
Cache=On
ECC=Off
Test=Std
Pass=24
Errors=0
ECC Errors= blank

Results Courtesy of Memtest86 v1.51

ramspecs=200Mhz (DDR401)/CAS:3-4-4-8/Dual Channel (128 bits)
 
Well it doesn't look like the memory then. And personally I would use a re-format as a last resort. I'm not sure what you should do, but somebody here probably does.
 
If you've got a lot of non-essential cards or external devices (sound card, firewire decives, NIC's, etc) then try unplugging those and then have a look at the CD again. It might be an IRQ conflict (unlikely but it's worth a shot) so take out as much as you can and try it then.
 
all that perhephs that are connected are:

Audigy 2 ZS ( not the cause, because problem existed before this )

BFG 6800GT ( slight oce'd to 385/1020, not the cause because problem existed before overclocking )

since my drive is a plextor 716SA serial ata, i have "heard" about problems with this drive. i will try a reformat if you guys think its the wisest decision next. Oh yeah, i have played battlefield 2 with everything cranked up and the computer acted fine....this is pretty strange, i would think that bf 2 would cause more heat than hl2, so i dunno, clueless :s
 
You may want to make sure you've got the latest nForce 4 drivers too. Secondly, look at the specific instances where you're getting the problems, in this case HL2. There could be a driver-specific issue there as well.
I'd also return the video card to stock speeds as well and reset the BIOS to the default settings.

I also noticed you've got the OCZ 520 PSU. There's been reports of that particular OCZ PSU giving hell to the DFI boards a few months down the road. You may want to look into a different PSU (like the Enermax I'm using with my Ultra-D).
 
I do have the latest nForce4 drivers, and i will try down clocking my video card to stock speeds...but i forgot to mention another problem i was having. when i try to install the usb 2 drivers....right after the message box in the tray displays ' found usb 2 hub ' the pc automatically reboots....gets to desktop, boots again, desktop, boots again, it kept happening untill i halted it to the bios, where i then took this picture:

http://www.geocities.com/[email protected]/DSCF0027.JPG

the cpu fan speed as u notice says 0. but my m1a is plugged in correctly to the cpu fan header, i dunno whats up with that, and it is indeed spinning. also, is the atx +12v voltage supposed to go below 12? by the way big B, i tested hl2 and it crashed just under 16 minutes into the game, took a lot longer that time then my last few tries, where it was only like a few minutes...how would i go about changing the driver that runs the game? thx
 
Hmmm, your... dual screen background (nice BTW) seems to make the important part too small to see. Think you can take a shot of just the window?
 
Just an idea, if your RAM will allow change your RAM timings to 2.5,4,4,7 or 2.5,3,3,6 or something like that.
 
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