Is this a cooling issue?

Hello,

My PC has been hard crashing during some gaming. What's funny is that these are not the latest and greatest games available. For instance: Starcraft, Plants vs. Zombies, Uplink (2001 era) and other simple games will hard crash my system. After the crash, my system won't post (just stays at the Biostar splash image). I have to completely turn the computer off, wait about 20 seconds, and then turn it back on and then everything is normal. According to TPowerII my CPU idles around 45 degrees C, SYS temp is at 28 degrees C. While playing these games, the CPU goes up to around 60 (63 highest). I can't seem to figure out what is causing this.

System specs:
Biostar T Power Motherboard
Athlon 64 X2 6000+
5 gigs corsair DDR2 memory
300gb WD Velociraptor HD
300gb WD 7200rpm HD
evga geforce 8800GT
Corsair 620HX power supply

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Since no one else has responded and I happened to see this, I'll take a stab at it.

Does the computer normally overheat?

Your specs are excellent for those games (as you implied).

Is there a possibility that certain drivers were damaged? Video for instance?
I know Starcraft uses Direct3d, DirectX, or something to that extent as far as the name is concerned.

If none of this helps, a creative idea would be to run a Virtual Machine (VM).
You will need a copy of your Windows install disc.
You will need a trial of VMWare Workstation.
Use that trial to create a VMWare Image of some version of Windows by putting your Windows install disc in.
You will need VMWare Player.
Use VMWare Player (which is freeware) to run Windows using the VMWare Image created by VMWare Workstation. After this, you no longer need Workstation (it's also a trial, and the software is expensive).
Install one of the problematic games on Windows inside of VMWare Player and see what happens.

While this may sound like a lot of work, it doesn't take that long to complete. Not to mention, if nothing else works and no one can help you, what have you got to lose? If the game runs fine inside the VMWare Player, then obviously something is wrong with your primary OS and not the computer itself. Your primary OS would probably have a driver issue of some sort and can hopefully be fixed without reformatting.

Usually if your PC is overheating it will not let you turn it back on, or if it does turn on, will quickly turn back off; it would not sit at a blank screen. Make sure you have all of your drivers updated, and you update your BIOS as well. It is possible that your video card or PSU is defective and not performing like it should (though I doubt it). If you think it's a cooling issue, pop the side of the case off and blow a fan directly into it to keep it cool (only due this temporarily). The temps you posted though are not unusually high.

Start with drivers and an updated BIOS first. Can you buy a new power supply from a retailer just to test that (usually in the states you can return it within 30 days)?

Product returning time frames are dependent on where you purchase it from.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.. My bios is up to date, and all drivers are up to date. I'm using Vista 64, forgot to mention that. I like the virtual machine idea, perhaps I'll put XP on a VM and test out everything there. When I did a system upgrade, the only thing I didn't upgrade was my processor (the 6000+). Could a the problem I described be the processor?
Thanks.

Edit: Is it possible I'm overjuicing the power supply with USB devices? Would this cause the system to crash? I have a boatload of them, so maybe I'll unplug some of those.

Have you checked Device Manager to see if anything is corrupt? Something could be corrupt and Device Manager may not be able to tell. If the processor is compatible with your hardware, I can't imagine how that would cause an issue.

I have something like 8 USB devices attached to my computer. I don't think the USB devices would do it, unless you're charging a car from the computer .

The VM idea would at least be able to prove if the issue is software related or hardware related.

That's kind of an obvious statement.....

That's kind of a useless statement. As if he wouldn't know he would be allowed to return a product he purchased. Not to mention, it's not worth the hassle when there are other methods to trying to pinpoint the issue.

I'm going to try to VM method this week and see if I get the same problem. I'll post a report after I'm all done testing. Thanks for the suggestions guys, you've been very helpful.

Have you tried regular games like CS:S for instance?

Something that could also be causing this and I haven't yet seen mentioned is faulty RAM. Faulty RAM can cause completely random crashes, and there are tools freely available on the internet to test the RAM. Games like Starcraft shouldn't be crashing on a system that is well over the specs and personally I don't think it can cause an overheating problem, unless you have very noticable overheating problems with other programs as well.

In addition to what he said, if it is the RAM. Use MemTest to check.

Describe "regular games" without giving an example of what games are "regular".



He hasn't mentioned anything about software besides those games crashing. If it were faulty RAM, I can't imagine why it would crash only due to games and not other software.

Graphic Intensive, Crysis, Call of Duty, etc.

I don't understand how they are "regular", though. AFAIK, any game is a "regular" game. They all contain graphics, and you have to play them to win.