Freezes, BDODs, and other strange happenings...

[j4719]

Hi All,

Ever since I bought this computer, just over a year now, I have had problems with it. I returned it to the guy I got it from, and the problems went away, for a while. I brought it back again and the guy really couldn't find anything wrong with it, so reinstalled Windows XP, I think, as well as drivers, and so on. Eventually, it came down to my having to buy a new edition of XP, as I didn't have the original disk, reformatting, and reinstalling XP.

This seemed to make things a lot more stable, until I tried to play games. The main games I play are HL2, Neverwinter Nights, some of the older ones like Icewind Dale2, Baldur's Gate 2, and Ultima Online. When I play everything the computer will freeze. This usually happens within 10 minutes, perhaps a few minutes of play. Everything will freeze and after about probably ten seconds, the screen will resize itself, almost as if the resolution is being reset. I have screen resolution set to 1024 by 768, and the same setting for games that can go that high. I can't cntrl-alt-del out of it, nothing lights up on the keyboard, eg pressing num lock, and I have to press reset. However, Ultima Online will not do this. I play it in a window and I don't think it has ever happened while playing it. I have tried playing HL2 in windowed form, but it will still freeze.

I occasionally have had the computer freeze when I have too many IE windows open at once, or am downloading a file and have a few IE windows open to different sites. A couple times it has frozen when I went to scan a file with Norton's AV. I have also had, although not for a while now, BSODs, as well as the message on boot-up "Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter". Normally when that happens I turn off, push the cables for the HD and mobo in, not that they are loose or have come out, and that usually fixes that.

Some of the BSODs messages I have got include:

Machine_Check_Exception

STOP: 0x0000009C (0x00000004, 0x8054FF0, 0xB2000000, 0x00070F0F)

Another was:

A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated

STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x888FC3D0, 0x888FC544, 0x805C7478)

When this last one happened, there was a click sound from the computer as if the reset button had been pressed or something like that.

A similar one was:

STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x89968990, 0x89968B04, 0x805C7478).

I ran memtest for 11 hours, no errors came up at all. I also downloaded Everest and checked out my voltage and that, it seemed fine. I shall put my specs in next post.

[j4719]

This is from Everest. If people need any more info, please ask. I have tried many things to fix this problem, flashing BIOS with latest updates, updated drivers, and so on. Thanks for any help.



Field Value
Computer

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

OS Service Pack Service Pack 2

DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

Computer Name

User Name



Motherboard

CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3000+

Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce3 250, AMD Hammer

System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)

BIOS Type Award Modular (09/22/05)

Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)

Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)

Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)



Display

Video Adapter RADEON 9550 Secondary (256 MB)

Video Adapter RADEON 9550 (256 MB)

3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350)

Monitor LG Flatron ez T910B [19" CRT] (1444391671)



Multimedia

Audio Adapter Creative SB0090 Audigy Platinum Sound Card



Storage

IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce3 250 Parallel ATA Controller (v2.6)

IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce3 250 Serial ATA Controller (v2.6)

SCSI/RAID Controller ITE IT8212 ATA RAID Controller

SCSI/RAID Controller Silicon Image SiI 3512 SATARaid Controller

Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive

Disk Drive WDC WD2000JB-55GVA0 (186 GB, IDE)

Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4160B (DVD+R9:2.4x, DVD+RW:16x/4x, DVD-RW:8x/4x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:40x/24x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)

Optical Drive LITE-ON DVD SOHD-167T (16x/48x DVD-ROM)

SMART Hard Disks Status OK



Partitions

C: (FAT32) 9991 MB (4452 MB free)

D: (FAT32) 19992 MB (11724 MB free)

E: (FAT32) 14991 MB (13570 MB free)

F: (FAT32) 100734 MB (63788 MB free)

G: (FAT32) 24995 MB (12897 MB free)

H: (FAT32) 19992 MB (12942 MB free)

Total Size 186.2 GB (116.6 GB free)



Input

Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard

Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse



Network

Network Adapter Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC (192.168.1.33)



Peripherals

USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - OHCI USB 1.1 Controller

USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - OHCI USB 1.1 Controller

USB2 Controller nVIDIA MCP2-S - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller

[j4719]

Just wanted to add that I checked out the BSOD messages I got, well, the one I could find, and they really didn't seem to help, at least to my not very technical mind. I have also updated pretty well, if not everything that has drivers. I noticed today that there are some new drivers for the Audigy released, which I shall download and install later, but I really don't think they are the problem. Anyway, if any one can help or offer possibilities or advice, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[j4719]

Just an update:

I completely uninstalled the drivers for my audigy card and installed the newest drivers for the card. I thought I would see if it made a difference. I started up HL2 and before I could click on Load Game, it froze, sound looped, then the monitor went off, the orange light was on instead of the green light indicating the monitor is on. So I had to reset. I really don't know what to try next. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[vikeor]

did u check temperatures?

and next time use the EDIT button

[Micro Bean]

Just Curious how come so many partitions on that system? I would go with NTFS format not FAT 32 Yes check your temperature and what Powersupply do you have?

[Kyuzo]

I see you have two gigs of RAM. Is it two, three or four sticks?

[j4719]

Thank you all for your responses so far. From what I can see, my powersupply is a Macron Power Model: MPT - 301, output is 300W max. I hope that helps. I have two sticks of RAM, 1 gig each. The guy who set up my computer partitioned it for me, breaking it up into different drives for different things, such as movies on one, games on another.

I just noticed on Everest under Computer, then DMI it says: Warning - Accuracy of DMI cannot be guaranteed. When I got that message about the disk boot failure, it was always when it was booting up saying: Verifying DMI Pool Data... I don't know if that is of any help, though. Thanks again for you help everyone.

[j4719]

I will check the temps later. Sorry, forgot to do that.

Just checked the temp when computer is just doing nothing, that is, not playing games or running any other high-end applications. On Everest it says (and I bolded the data):

Field Value
Sensor Properties
Sensor Type ITE IT8712F (ISA 290h)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte K8NF / K8NS / K8N Ultra / K8NXP Series

Temperatures
CPU 39 °C (102 °F)
WDC WD2000JB-55GVA0 35 °C (95 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 3245 RPM
System 1854 RPM
Power Supply 3125 RPM

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.54 V
+3.3 V 3.31 V
+12 V 12.29 V
VBAT Battery 3.10 V
DIMM 2.61 V
Debug Info F 34 36 5B
Debug Info T 25 39 06
Debug Info V 60 A3 CF 9F C0 68 38 (77)

After playing HL2 for a minute, and it did crash, it was 41 C (106 F) for the CPU and theother was 35 C (97 F). I checked the BIOS soon after, just to be sure, and the CPU was 40 C.

Again, I hope this helps in some way.

[j4719]

Can anyone suggest what else I can try? I sort of don't know which way to turn or what to try next. Thanks again.