Bewildered March 19, 2007 Share Bewildered Member March 19, 2007 Sometimes I'll be playing CS and my screen will go completely black and the machine will reboot. This just started happening about in the last month or so. The machine is about 3 years old -- motherboard: ASUS A7V8X-X processor: AMD Athalon XP Barton 2600 video card: MSI GF4 TI-TD8X 8900-060 RAM: 1G Kingston ValueRAM Windows XP Any ideas -- I have 2, although I'm not sure how to verify either. A. My video card is going bad B. My memory is going bad I like the memory idea better -- since CS is about the only memory intensive app I ever run on the machine -- and I think I bought really cheap RAM. Also, occasionally (less frequent) CS will die with a memory read error. Anyone know how to verify either of these -- or other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters March 19, 2007 Share stutters GC Alumni March 19, 2007 i'd put my money on an overheating video card -- has the fan stopped moving? but i'm no hardware guru. i'm moving this out into a public forum where you'll find some more qualified help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher March 19, 2007 Share Preacher Member March 19, 2007 (edited) OK I have a few suggestions: 1rst make sure everything is updated - drivers windows etc. 2nd buy a can of compressed air and blow out the CPU heatsink- fan and case fans (don't forget the video card fan and power supply) 3rd uninstall/reinstall steam +CS:S 4th run Memtest http://www.memtest.org/ 5th after it shuts down check to in your bios what the CPU temp is/ mainboard too 6th post results here and I'll offer more advice or links to where you can get your stuff as cheap as possible Edited March 19, 2007 by Preacher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX March 19, 2007 Share NOFX Member March 19, 2007 my guess is overheating.. try any logical step to make sure good airflow is getting through the inside of your pc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo March 19, 2007 Share Cujo Member March 19, 2007 (edited) ram, power supply, fans failing, video card, motherboard, and hard drive dying all could cause this problem. in fact there are probably more potential causes. if you've not changed anything in windows recently to cause this then don't worry about drivers or updates. focus on the hardware. is the case clean up dust and are the fans spinning. if yes then start swapping out parts. also, should point out that this machine is probably at the end of it's css life. check back here before purchasing any new hardware for this system and we'll ensure you pick the right ones looking to the future. Edited March 19, 2007 by Cujo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler March 19, 2007 Share boiler Member March 19, 2007 (edited) for what it's worth, my computer was doing something similar in any game about a year back. random restarts right in the middle of a game. The problem stopped when I upgraded my power supply from the cheapie one I was using, and it seemed to stop the problem. I was running a 7800gt on a cheapie 400w with borderline-spec power for that graphics card. Do you know what kind/spec of the power supply you have? I can't imagine bad ram would only act up during gaming and not during other non-gaming usage, but I'm not quite as knowledgeable about diagnosing problems as others. Your problem just sounded like the one that I was having, so I thought I'd share my experience did you notice any artifacting of the graphics before the restarts? The more symptoms you can gather, the easier it is to pinpoint the problem! Edited March 19, 2007 by boilersax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher March 19, 2007 Share Preacher Member March 19, 2007 The reason I suggested updates and drivers was due to steam constantly updating and possibly making use of the newer updates/drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uther Pendragon March 19, 2007 Share Uther Pendragon Member March 19, 2007 Sometimes I'll be playing CS and my screen will go completely black and the machine will reboot. This just started happening about in the last month or so. The machine is about 3 years old -- motherboard: ASUS A7V8X-X processor: AMD Athalon XP Barton 2600 video card: MSI GF4 TI-TD8X 8900-060 RAM: 1G Kingston ValueRAM Windows XP Any ideas -- I have 2, although I'm not sure how to verify either. A. My video card is going bad B. My memory is going bad I like the memory idea better -- since CS is about the only memory intensive app I ever run on the machine -- and I think I bought really cheap RAM. Also, occasionally (less frequent) CS will die with a memory read error. Anyone know how to verify either of these -- or other ideas? Is it overclocked? My older machine was and started rebooting in CS and other apps. Memtest said memory was fine so I took the CPU back to stock and no more reboots. Hope yo find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bewildered March 20, 2007 Author Share Bewildered Member March 20, 2007 Well, I opened it up last night to see if the fans were running. The fans on the video card, processor, and power supply were all running. The front 90 mm case fan was running, but the rear 120 mm that pulls heat out of the case was not. It was not connected to power. I blew everything out with some compressed air, plugged the fan back in and hopefully this is the fix. Thanks! Do you know what kind/spec of the power supply you have? COOLMAX CX-450 ATX 450W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clueless March 20, 2007 Share Clueless GC Alumni March 20, 2007 I had a similar issue a long time ago when I had a bad stick of memory...run memtest to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher March 20, 2007 Share Preacher Member March 20, 2007 And if you have an old or cheap power supply, an upgrade might be in order. Here is a fairly decent one for cheap http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...=0&NoMapp=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boiler March 20, 2007 Share boiler Member March 20, 2007 (edited) COOLMAX CX-450 ATX 450W for what it's worth, the "cheapie" power supply I eluded to before that was causing my reboot issues was a Coolmax 400W that came with my coolmax case. I know yours is a little beefier and probably a little higher quality (being the CX type), but I wouldn't rule it out as a potential source of the problem unless you have a spare laying around that you can try. I'd say if you could afford it upgrading your power supply (or trying a spare in it's place or something) might be a good thing to try if your memtest run comes up alright. That PSU preach listed looks pretty solid, and for a good price. I don't know much about the brand myself, but others seem to say its good. If you're planning on doing a more major system upgrade in the next year, it might be wise to go for a little more power, maybe Antec or Thermaltake or something that would give a little more headroom for newer hardware. Keep us posted if you figure out the problem! Edited March 20, 2007 by boilersax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bewildered May 7, 2007 Author Share Bewildered Member May 7, 2007 This is mostly just a follow-up, but I have a question too. My problem is gone. I did all of the things recommended here. I popped open the case and blew everything out. Oddly enough, my 120mm case fan had become disconnected. This took care of the reboot problem. I still had problems with CS:S locking up occasionally, I uninstalled/reinstalled drivers, and did a clean install of Steam and that did the trick. Now, heres the question. ZD was complaining about registration again (doh!), and the subject came up about monitors, FPS, etc. My FPS is still incredibly low; I'm usually between 30 and 50. Is it mostly just that my system is old -- so just all around weak? Or is there possibly a weak link in my current hardware? Besides the hardware listed above, I have an ACER LCD -- 16 ms response. Honestly, are there any LCDs that would give a decent response -- like if I upgraded to one of those fancy 2 ms response LCD monitors? Or should I wait for an OLED monitor? Please edumacate me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage May 7, 2007 Share ZeroDamage Member May 7, 2007 I am not 100% sure on how it works to be honest, but what I do know is that your cl_cmdrate can only go as high as your frame rate. The higher your frame rates, the higher your cmdrate which affects your registration. My monitor can only go as high as 60fps if I want to keep my fps in sync with my refresh rate. I get nasty tearing otherwise so I have little choice. My system is also limited by the high resolution that I play at which is why I am upgrading; if I played on a smaller 19-inch screen at lower resolutions, I would be fine. I confirmed the registration problem on my end with Norgman yesterday. I do not have a recommendation for you at the moment for a monitor. I am hoping for a confirmation on what I think is correct at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 7, 2007 Share Cujo Member May 7, 2007 a vid card upgrade would benefit you but i wouldn't spend more than about 100-150 on an agp card. also, that may take you into new power supply territory so it may not even be worth it depending on whether you build your own computers and could carry over the psu to a new build... try and find a new or used 9800pro or 6600gt agp card for less than 100 bucks. 6600gt is obviously the better card. both are better than what you have and should help your frames and get you running dx9 for better image quality. i'm actually pretty impressed that your system is getting that kind of fps. i would not suggested upgrading your monitor on your current hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters May 7, 2007 Share stutters GC Alumni May 7, 2007 if you want, i have a 128mb 9800se (agp) i'm not using anymore. the fan spins, but should be replaced. other than that, pretty solid. PM me if you're interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher May 7, 2007 Share Preacher Member May 7, 2007 The x1600pro - x1650pro 512mb cards are very inexpensive and give the most bang for the buck as far as low price to high performance in an agp card. Here is one at newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102073 Honestly I would hold off for a while and set some cash aside. With prices dropping so fast you can get a very nice new system for around $500 or a very good C2D system in the $900 range. Heck M2 has this one for sale now (very nice deal if you have the $$) http://www.gamrs.co/forums/in...mp;#entry401311 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters May 7, 2007 Share stutters GC Alumni May 7, 2007 if you're more in the $30+shipping range, you know who your boy is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroDamage May 7, 2007 Share ZeroDamage Member May 7, 2007 I haven't heard back from DNA lately and I will have my system up for sale in the coming weeks unless he decides to grab my video card and memory. If he does that, then I plan to keep my mobo and cpu to upgrade an existing secondary system that I use for video encoding and the like; it would be a great free upgrade for that system. Otherwise, I am selling everything for a measily $400 combined (without the case). That includes the PSU, mobo, RAM, vid card, and cpu. You can see my link here: ZD's for Sale DNA has first dibs though so I am waiting for him to respond as to whether he wants this setup. It will not be available until later this month though. (only a couple of weeks) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo May 8, 2007 Share Cujo Member May 8, 2007 sj, that's a nice deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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