New Computer Freezing out of the box

W

Wildcard

Big Geek
Hi

I just recieved a new computer and it seems to do normal things like desktop work or internet browsing fine, but if I try to play a game, it locks up. I do not over clock anything. When it does this, there is a total loss of control, the sound goes into a loop, and the only thing I can do is a hard shutdown. It did this with Everquest2 within the first 10 to 15 mins. I lowered all the graphics way down, and it then happened while zoning my character in. The computer came with age of empires 3, so I tried that. It lets me play for maybe 20 minutes and then would do it. Now, it will not even get past the intro movie.

I installed the drivers for an amd dual core processor on a 32 bit windows system from AMD and this did not help. I reduced the power management settings to the minimal settings per AMd's website. I did all the windows updates it would give me, I upgraded dot net to 2.0. I upgraded directx to the newest version 9c. I ran the dxdiag and it didnt show any issues. I ran a memory test using the windows program and it did 2 passes with no errors.

The computer is called a Gamer Fire 1600 (from ibuypower)
It has a 450 watt power supply
Athlon 64 x2-3800+ [AM2] OEM
A CM Aquagate Mini 80 MM Liquid Cooler
System board is ECS KA3 MVP Crossfire-3200
video cards are [PCI-E}Sapphire x 1600xt 256mb
Western Digital 250 GB JS [8M SATA-2]
OS is Windows XP media ctr 2005
it has 2 [ddr2-800]corsair 512mb pc6400
sony dw-120 dvdrw

The Video cards were set for crossfire mode when i recieved it. I have tried to install the most recent Radeon Driver for XP Multimedia Edition with no luck. Right now I have set it back to the driver that came with the cards, which says it is 8.24. I tried one of the omega drivers too, and it had no effect (was 6.7 I believe). I tried updating the sound driver because the sound was looping during the freeze, and that didnt help so I installed an audigy gamer card and disabled the onboard sound. This gave me the same result so I uninstalled it. I called the tech support and he said it sounded like a video or hard drive issue and wanted me to try one card at a time, moving them to different pci-e slots and seeing if it would happen then. I tried each card alone in each slot and age of empires would go for about 20 mins and then freeze. (One of the pci-e slots looks slightly warped, but even if i dont have a video card in there, it still freezes, and I was also able to play agoe of empires for 20 mins with a card in that slot) I have tried playing with the side cover off and a fan going as well to see if it was heat related. The cards seem to hover in the 45-51 degrees.

At this point, short of sending it back =(, I do not know what to do. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated

Thank you!
 
do you know the PSU make & model

to find the PSU power you need check here

cos for a crossfire setup you need a beefy PSU, if unknown PSU check PSU for a label (probsbly under the system lid
 
Hi,

It is a raidmax power supply. It says it is model number rx-450k (ky-550atx) atx 12v. It says the total output wattage is 450 w. If my power supply is too weak, do you think it would be causing this problem?

Thank you for your help! :)
 
Hmm, I just read that sticky post about the PSU. Will see if i can get a better one :)

Thank you for the suggestion :)
 
That and ibuypower is known for crappy desktops. You're better off putting your own together. Laptops are a different story with them. But yeah, it could easily be your PSU that lacks, I believe raidmax is what came with that case as ibuypower cases are often times raidmax, they're not exactly reputable for power supplies.

A little anecdote- I gave my upstairs neighbor and close friend my old computer components when i upgraded. It was a pentium 4 478 3ghz processor, an asus motherboard, a gig of ram, Geforce FX5950 and he had his own drives. The case was still his own raidmax with raidmax power suppply. at any random time in any game and sometimes even outside of the game, the computer would restart, shut down, or freeze always requiring a hard reboot....I wound up upgrading my power supply and handing him my thermaltake...now everything is fine. I've never heard anything good from raidmax, but adding your story to it, that makes for two bad stories to zero good ones.
 
donkey42 said:
to find the PSU power you need check here

cos for a crossfire setup you need a beefy PSU, if unknown PSU check PSU for a label (probsbly under the system lid
Click to expand...

have you checked here to see how much power you require ?
then check the max output of your PSU probably on a label on the side of your PSU, you may need to remove your systes lid to read the label) then compare what you need to the max output of your PSU, also check out Big B's PSU sticky
 
donkey42 said:
have you checked here to see how much power you require ?
then check the max output of your PSU probably on a label on the side of your PSU, you may need to remove your systes lid to read the label) then compare what you need to the max output of your PSU, also check out Big B's PSU sticky
Click to expand...

it doesnt matter if he even needs 300watts of power and the psu is 450watt or 550watt, if its a crap company or an unkown brand, then it wont be able to handle it. u coud even raplace that psu with something like an antec 400watt psu and it shud be more than enough
 
izzy007 said:
it doesnt matter if he even needs 300watts of power and the psu is 450watt or 550watt, if its a crap company or an unkown brand, then it wont be able to handle it. u coud even raplace that psu with something like an antec 400watt psu and it shud be more than enough
Click to expand...

true, but checking the output is a good place to start
 
iBuyPower has basically guaranteed a working system, and they have not delivered. Instead of troubleshooting it yourself, this would be a situation where you should be taking them to task about getting you a working system. If I pay for something, I expect it to work out of the box. If it doesn't, I take it back and get it replaced/fixed.
 
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