Did these probs start before or after you OC'ed some of your components? i noticed ur GTX is OC'ed as is ur CPU. Perhaps setting them back to stock and seeing what happens. And check ur BIOS settings such as voltages, PCI-E Freq etc. Does XP still crash or is it jus in games now? Could b third party software causing this prob. Try MSCONFIG and disabling all start up progs, and hit the services tab and hide all microsoft services leavin u with jus third party services and disable and then reboot. If XP's runs fine after then start re-enabling one at a time until it crashes again. Then you'll know whats causing the crashes. Hope this helps you.
It has been like this from the start. I have put them back to stock. I am 100% sure that it's not my videocard since my 8800gts 320 (which has always worked) gives me the exact same problems. I left all my voltage, PCI-E freq at auto so they were always unchanged. The strange thing is that it only crashed in certain games. I have left rivatuner running in the background while playing cod4 for 2 hours and after playing I checked my temps and the max temp I got was 81°. It's definitly not a heat problem because crysis for example crashes randomly and the temps are either 65° or 70°. But in vista, cod4 crashes after like 2 minutes. I have tried to put everything to low quality so that it doesn't stress the gpu much and it still crashes after 2 minutes so it is not the videocard. When I have my new motherboard, I'm gonna do a clean vista install. Thanks for your advice
Well I have read on a Dutch forum that a guy who has the same motherboard with other components has the same problem. He also gets random freezes in xp. He already changed his power supply and that didn't work. He also posted a Everest screenshot where you can see the psu voltages and his +12V rail was low. But when he put the same psu in another computer, the +12V rail was normal again. I have downloaded Everest and checked if my +12V rail was low too. Here are my psu voltages: CPU Core 1.36 V +3.3 V 3.28 V +5 V 5.00 V +12 V 11.31 V +5 V Standby 4.99 V As you can see, my +12V rail is really low. Now when you look at it like that, you might think that it's the psu (which is still possible) but the guy who had the same problem tested his computer with 2 psu's (one 600W and one 700W) and with both of them he got freezes in windows xp. He then tested the 700W psu in another computer and then he got 12.xx V on the +12V rail. Could it be that the motherboard is causing this?
Frohman0905 I wouldnt bet on psu cause other voltages than +12 are really great, only this one is strangely low, and second thing your psu is really really solid firm. But maybe there is something wrong with +12 cable, look at it and try to disconnect and connect again ? One way or another in my opinion the safest bet is still motherboard, but you cant rule out psu unless you try it in different pc.
@Football Fan: I'm almost positive that it's my mobo because the other guy who has the same mobo also has good voltages except for the +12V rail. Tomorrow I'll have my money so then I will order the Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3. I have heard good things about Gigabyte so I wanna give them a try. It's AM2+ and has one pci-e 2.0 slot so I'm also a little future proof. @SubtleOne: No I'm not from the UK. I'm from Belgium. But still, thanks for the link!
Guys, I have some great news! Today, I have received my Gigabyte motherboard together with an Arctic Alpine 64 PWM cooler. I had never installed a motherboard and a cpu before so I was pretty excited. I first read the instruction manual and then I got started. Taking off the stock cpu cooler was easier than I thought. I took a tissue and whiped off the remaining thermal paste on the cpu. I then installed it very carefully on the Gigabyte motherboard and that was also pretty easy. As well as installing the Arctic cooler. I then took out my old motherboard and installed my new one. I checked like 5 times if every cable was inserted and then the big moment came. First boot on my first ever self-installed motherboard. To my surprise everything was totally fine! I went into the bios and changed some things like boot device etc and then I installed vista. Also, while checking out the bios I found the menu where you can see your voltages. My +12V rail was much higher than with my previous one. Previous one was in the lower 11 and this one was at 12.50 or so. Which was a good sign for me. After installing vista, I installed the necessary updates and drivers (installed the 175.19 drivers from nvidia). I then downloaded atitool since it locked up my pc with my previous motherboard. It didn't lock up! I did the stress test for over an hour and not a single artifact or lock up. Then came the final test: crysis. I installed the demo and played through the whole game with high settings in dx10 and it didn't crash! I am so glad now and I can recommend Gigabyte to everybody. The installation was easy (never installed a mobo before), bios is simple and it even imrpoved my vista loading time. My 8800gtx is rock stable now and I even gained fps! That shows how a bad motherboard can effect your gaming experiences. PS: Never ever buy Asrock!
Good advice, I certainly won't be again... Gigabyte ftw (my next motherboard is definitely going to be Gigabyte lol)
Glad for you Frohman ! On the side not, it is not important to recommend gigabyte, it is important to recommend avoidng A$$Rock
Hehe I know. I'll never buy from them again, that's for sure. Here are some reading from everest ultimate with the new mobo and cpu cooler installed: Temperaturen: Moederbord 30 °C (86 °F) CPU 27 °C (81 °F) CPU #1 / Kern #1 30 °C (86 °F) CPU #1 / Kern #2 34 °C (93 °F) GPU 46 °C (115 °F) GPU diode 51 °C (124 °F) GPU geheugen 46 °C (115 °F) GPU omgeving 40 °C (104 °F) Hitachi HDS722516VLSA80 30 °C (86 °F) HITACHI HDS725050KLA360 44 °C (111 °F) Koelingsventilatoren: CPU 2296 RPM GPU 2306 RPM Spanningswaarde: CPU Core 1.36 V +3.3 V 3.28 V +12 V 12.32 V VBAT Batterij 3.02 V DIMM 1.82 V GPU Vcc 3.24 V It's in Dutch but I think it's understandable. As you can see, my +12V rail is much healthier. My cpu temps went down a lot. It used to idle at 40° and now it idles at 30°!
