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Strange computer problem
Dud - Jun 5, 2004
  Dud Jun 5, 2004
My brother's computer has this strange thing where he's playing Call of Duty Single Player, and gets killed; at this point the screen freezes, immediately turns black, and the computer restarts itself (all of this takes about 1-2 seconds). Other games that should run flawlessly freeze and are choppy. This is a more than decent computer, I made it with a Pentium4 1.8a processor, PC3200 512 MB Ram etc...

Any ideas? :huh

 racketboy Jun 5, 2004
make sure the heatsink and fan of your GPU and CPU are on good for one.

 Dud Jun 5, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by racketboy@Jun 5, 2004 @ 05:35 PM



 make sure the heatsink and fan of your GPU and CPU are on good for one.


They're on good. I just checked. :cheers

 it290 Jun 5, 2004
Could be bad RAM or a flaky motherboard. Test your RAM with memtest86 and ensure that the timings are set correctly in the BIOS.

 Alexvrb Jun 5, 2004
That sounds likely, assuming it isn't a software problem. Could also be unstable power caused by a cheap PSU, I've seen that sort of issue wreak havoc.

 Dud Jun 6, 2004
Thanks for the responses, I'll look into some of this stuff tommorow. :banana

 Dyne Jun 6, 2004
what video card do you have in there?

 Dud Jun 6, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Dyne@Jun 6, 2004 @ 10:54 AM



 what video card do you have in there?


ATI® Radeon 9200

 Dyne Jun 6, 2004
i wouldnt think that card could handle that game acceptably. make sure you got the latest Cat's or see if the version you have now has a conflict with that game. what other games run choppy? its a good chance its your card. its not the greatest thing to run recent games.

 Alexvrb Jun 6, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Dyne@Jun 6, 2004 @ 06:02 PM



 i wouldnt think that card could handle that game acceptably. make sure you got the latest Cat's or see if the version you have now has a conflict with that game. what other games run choppy? its a good chance its your card. its not the greatest thing to run recent games.


I'm afraid you are incorrect here, his GPU is not the problem. Don't be so quick to judge it - it isn't a juggernaut, but it isn't total junk (assuming he didn't buy a crappy SE/LE model!!). My brother has a Duron 1.6Ghz (which is actually a decent performer), with a KT133A board, 384MB of PC133, and a Radeon 9000 classic. It runs Call of Duty very well, because Call of Duty is one of those games that was built very well. It also does quite well with Battlefield 1942+expansion and even Battlefield Vietnam. Not to mention the fact that he is encountering not only speed issues, but gross, unnatural speed issues, and stability problems. Actually, even if he has the cheaper 9200SE, he still shouldn't have these issues. He'd just have to turn down settings.

So assuming it isn't a software problem (drivers, etc), it is most likely either PSU, mainboard, or RAM.

 Dud Jun 6, 2004
Dyne got it. It was running games well at max settings (Call of Duty, Pandora Tomorrow etc...) but after a while it must of put too much stress on the GPU, we turned down the graphics settings and everything works fine.

 racketboy Jun 6, 2004
yeah!

 Dyne Jun 6, 2004
its also a possibility the card was overheating and turning the stuff down alleviated some of that.

 Dyne Jun 6, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Alexvrb+Jun 6, 2004 @ 02:01 PM-->
QUOTE(Alexvrb @ Jun 6, 2004 @ 02:01 PM)