Author Topic: Blue Screen/Crashing Mystery (Read 358 times)

Casper1 · « **on:** June 13, 2005, 05:54:20 PM »

For some reason, which I cannot pinpoint, I am having trouble playing AH b/c of crashing to blue screen of death.

I can play for approx 10-20 minutes before I blue screen with awful schreeching and looping in the background. Sometimes the crash does not blue screen, and goes back to the DT.

Here are my Sys Specs:

-Asus A7N8X0E MoBo
-AMD Mobile 2400+ CPU (OC'ed, with huge 92mm AlCu Zalman cooling fan/sink and lots of case fans, including a desk fan blowing in the case to make sure it isn't heat)
-512 Geil PC3200 DDR RAM @ 400 MHz
-Radeon 9500 128 MB Gfx Card
-SB Audigy ES Soundcard
-2 HDDs (WD 80 and 25 GB)
-Belkin WiFi card

I am pretty experienced with PCs and gaming and thus solving the problems that come up with the two...

I am pretty sure it is a hardware problem, as I have not done anything new with a driver/software to my recollection. I have also gotten my machine to crash and auto reboot with running a 3Dmark2001 benchmark...it crashes on the Nature 'Game'.

Here's what I have done thus far to troubleshoot:

- Reinstalled game, completely
- Removed Soundpacks
- Changed Video Drivers many times, from Catalyst to Omegas, 3-4 different back versions
- Updated Sound Driver
- Ran ATiTool for a long time with no crashes
- Ran Prime95 overnight with no crashes
- Reinstalled DirectX9c
- Used SpeedFan to monitor heat (and put desk fan on to really cool her down)
- Checked System Logs for Criticals (found a few, but with no 'good' info)

tonight, I am going to re-inspect the CPU die/heatsink connection and re-apply. I am also going to try lowering the CPU clock to get it down to a nomnial level.

Anyone have any other ideas, I am baffled beyond belief with this one....

Thanks!!

Casper1 (in game)

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 13, 2005, 06:33:38 PM »

Some things you could try (if you havent already)

I know you said you tried different drivers. I also know how frustrating it is trying to track these things down. I also know that such frustration is your worst enemy. When you changed drivers did you completely uninstall any trace of the old ones? If you went to different series numbers I would even go so far as to do a registry sweep and clean out all references to the old drivers before installing the new ones. Usually one of the good driver cleaners will do this for you, but not always.

Check the drivers for your sound card. Different games are often widely variable in how sensitive they are to certain sound card drivers. Make sure they are up to date.

Since you are playing for some time before this happens, it makes me think (as you have) that its a hardware issue. The biggest hardware problem is overheating. What temps are you running at load? At idle? Do you know what temps your video card is running at load? No matter how hard you try, OCing can be hard on a CPU. Desk fans really dont help much in my experience. My XP2600+ stubbornly runs at 48-52C under load no matter what I do, unless I turn down the overclocking. Knowing your temps at load, you can check your documentation for what temps your BIOS considers "dangerous". Look to see if your BIOS uses "thermal throttling". It makes your CPU skip clock cycles to help it cool down, or slow down the heating process as it approaches the limit so it has a chance to cool. Skipping clock cycles can also wreak havoc with CPU intensive programs like Aces High. Also check to make sure the video card isnt overheating. Check the same things on it that you checked on your CPU.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #2 on:** June 13, 2005, 11:52:28 PM »

its a sound loop issue

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

the nvidia drivers need updating for your a7n8x

i have an -e deluxe and i had to run the 4.27 international drivers on my mainboard or id get a sound loop then lockup . (win 98se )

Hope that helps

Casper1 · « **Reply #3 on:** June 14, 2005, 06:48:03 AM »

Roscoroo -

Does this cause issues even if I do not use the onboard sound?

(and is this the proper piece of software you are referring to? http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_audio_4.57_win2kxp)

PS - I thought I narrowed this issue to my Gfx card by running some more AtiTools and seeing my PC crash/reboot when stressing the Video Cards memory.

Ill try both fixes and see what happens.

I have definetly isolated heat.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #4 on:** June 14, 2005, 12:20:26 PM »

thats probely what u need . (im on 98se 1.5)

but if your sound is fully disabledon the asus mb .. then it may be a conflic with the sound card also .

i'll show ya what my config is for a baseline ..

Asus a7n8x-e del .
2500+ @ 2.4 ghz (420 enermax Ps)
4.27 international drivers , stock marvel lan drivers.

9600 pro 128 . 4.7 cats

i'm on the nforce sound and the 4.27's stopped the game lockup that i was having .

are you set to slow boot for memory test also ??? (fastest way to catch bad ram) also your over clock setting may be alittle off .. (im not saying its bad )
just that some combo's just dont like every setting .
ill use 2.0 ghz as example here

15x133 seams stable no errors but crashes now and then.

12x166 stable w/ good temps

10x200 unstable errors alot

thats just a quick example of what you might think about too , hopefully you understand what im getting at about clocking.

(back to work ... )

Casper1 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 14, 2005, 10:20:56 PM »

For whatever reason, clocking my memory speed down fixed this problem.

Very odd.

Thanks for the help anyways guys!

Roscoroo · « **Reply #6 on:** June 15, 2005, 01:04:24 AM »

Cool you caught on to what i ment about clock settings .. and how it relates to this set up ..

ive built about 15 pc's with the a7n8x and one setting works great on 1 but not always on the other .. not shure why but thats how it is .