-URGENT need of Help, with my new computer.

from Stardock Forums

Hey guys, i recently bought a new desktop, with the specs as follows:

- Windows XP Pro

-Intel QUAD CORE Q6600  @ 2.4 Ghz

- 4 GB DDR2 RAM

- 320 GB hard drive

- Nvidia graphics card, 8800 GT

 

ok, so as we can see, its a very fast computer, which is much better then my old one.. and i mainly wanted a faster one to have better gameplay, and smoother gameplay.

Now, here is the problem, everytime i play my game, once every about 4 hours on average, it just randomly freezes... and after a few seconds, restarts by itself, and if im listening to music whilst it freezes, the music also gets stuck and you here this weird noise, until it restarts.

You could say its normal, if its a 512 mb RAM computer, with bad graphics etc. but its not, the requiremtns of the main game i play is just 512mb ram, and i have 4GB. and i also never had this problem from my old computer. So i went back to the shop, he told me it might be bad RAM sticks, he replaced them but it still freezes, so do you guys have any idea, what i have to replace? could it be the motherboard? just tell me what i have to change, beacause its under warranty and he replaces anything i need for free.

thanks.

819 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Sounds liek you don't have enough of a power supply to handle the power of it.

For a machine like that, I'd suggest nothing lower then 700watt psu.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
First thing to do is find out if you have a warranty direct from the manufacturer. If you do, call the manufacturer directly, because they have more experience with large numbers of users. If the guy at the shop built it, you're probably stuck with him. If not, this is a brand new computer, so you should have some free toll free tech support.

The next thing to do is run all the Windows diagnostics, especially hardware diagnostics. Run your Windows help, and it should open all of those for you when you do the troubleshooting options. My guess is if those diagnostics find nothing wrong, you may need a newer version of the nVidia driver. My computer used to crash in games right and left until I updated my nVidia driver. Computers do not always come with the latest version. It only crashes during gaming, right?
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Telling you right now, psu can't handle the load.

If not enough juice is distributed, it can cause crashes, reboots, freezes.

Try another psu, one that's 700 watts or above and a good brand. I bet the crashes go away.

It's really simple. The full wattage of a gpu doesn't come alive until a game is played, and a 3d one. If the wattage goes over when he plays, it'll crash.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
i have same cpu and dual 8800gtx oc's in sli so... first off give more specs. like Zellio said psu rating, ie 650 watts 700 or whatever. and give driver info. what drivers you have running that nvidia card. bios rev. mobo info. is this rig home bulit? and is your xp pro 32 bit or 64 bit. 32 bit wont fully read 4 gig ram and with 512 card that will basically cut that ram to 3.5 gig ue to memory address mapping. but iam with Zellio on the psu rating or ram voltages. but give more info. more we have the better we can help


Naz
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Hey, just updated my driver, still freezes, i took it to the guy, i told him to change the power supply, and it actually froze way more, i dont know what he did, but in 2 hours if froze 3 times. which was WAY more than what it was doing before, so maybe its the power. maybe he put less, im not sure... ill see.

Also, how can i find out how much power ( watts) its currently running?