PC Gaming Problems...

`Annihilator · 18th February 2008, 7:10pm

Ok, i've had enough of this PC doing this, so i'm going to throw it on here and draw from the collective experiences, see if anyone else has had the same problem, and so on.

Recently, a friend of mine built up a new(ish) PC tower for me, because my old one was having a bit of a problem with the CPU Fan making excessive noise. (but besides that everything ran fine, pretty much).

So, this new tower, which was mainly to get used for the same as the old one, (internet, WoW, music) seems to have a bit of a problem. Any time i run WoW, and i also tested it with UT2004, it runs for anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours, then freezes completely (no ctrl, alt + del out, no alt + tab, no alt F4, no mouse movement) which means i have to hold the power button in to switch the PC off and on again.

Everything else is fine, watching movies, the internet, listening to music, whatever, nothing else causes this problem besides WoW and UT2004. (I would imagine maybe other games would cause the same problem, but i don't have any others installed/available to me).

So, at first we thought it was the graphics card. Originally it was an ATI Radeon (the model number eludes me now, though), so we changed it out for a nVidia GeForce 6200, but with the same results.

So then we tried removing one of the memory sticks (2 sticks in originally, one 512mb and one 1 gig - removed the 512 and left the gig) with still the same results.

It's starting to do my head in now (especially since my WoW guild just started raiding Karazhan - yeah, i know we're a fair bit behind) and now I want to see what ideas or suggestions people could make on here.

The PC specs other than graphics and memory, btw, are:
Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.20Ghz

Any ideas folks?

(Any other information needed, let me know)

**PapaZeb** · 18th February 2008, 7:14pm

when you restart after the next lockup, Start - Run - eventvwr - click OK

Check Application and System event logs for any oddities or crash results. No crashes/STOP errors? Pain in the ass, then we start troubleshooting the remaining bits of hardware you've not replaced yet.

TheEdgeCrusher · 18th February 2008, 7:14pm

Have you did a fresh install of your OS and all the current drivers?

Have you made sure everything is connected nice and tight. I was getting random system blue screen crashes for 4-5 months before I realised my HD SATA cable was loose. I know it sounds silly but it never hurts to check.

If in doubt, fuck yer PC and get an Xbox.

Later Edge

starchildspace · 18th February 2008, 7:19pm

The problem doesn't like with your PC nathan, it lies with your WoW faction!

`Annihilator · 18th February 2008, 7:24pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by PapaZeb

when you restart after the next lockup, Start - Run - eventvwr - click OK

Check Application and System event logs for any oddities or crash results. No crashes/STOP errors? Pain in the ass, then we start troubleshooting the remaining bits of hardware you've not replaced yet.

Another of my friends suggested that, and i have looked but there isn't anything that could be causing WoW to do this, as far as we could see.

The only ones i see in the System tab recently are flagged as yellow exclamation marks, one saying "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts."

and the other,

"An error was detected on device \Device\CdRom1 during a paging operation."

I was told this shouldn't be the problem, however.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheEdgeCrusher

Have you did a fresh install of your OS and all the current drivers?

Have you made sure everything is connected nice and tight. I was getting random system blue screen crashes for 4-5 months before I realised my HD SATA cable was loose. I know it sounds silly but it never hurts to check.

If in doubt, fuck yer PC and get an Xbox.

Later Edge

Everything was freshly installed in the last few nights when the new graphics card was put in, and i've had the case open multiple times over the course of this problem (which has been going on for about 2 weeks now), and everything is as tight as i want to get it without putting undue pressure on things.

And i already have a PS3, so at least i'm sorted for gaming on one front at the moment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by starchildspace

The problem doesn't like with your PC nathan, it lies with your WoW faction!

Haha, i knew i'd be punished for re-rolling Horde eventually.

**PapaZeb** · 18th February 2008, 7:33pm

For the TCP thing, that's entirely possible it could be part of the problem. When I had a bad network card (wireless PCI card) I would occasionally lock up in WoW forcing a hard reboot with no bluescreen or STOP code - exact same symptoms you're showing.
You can either replace the network card, update the drivers, or see if the TCP connection limit patcher will work for you - http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads

`Annihilator · 18th February 2008, 7:37pm

The network card i have installed is (according to Device Manager) an SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter, if that is of any use.

Downloading the limit patcher as well, will try that out.

karbon14 · 18th February 2008, 7:40pm

CPU fan spinning? this is what mine used to do when the proc was overheating. shite board gave me no other indicators.

**PapaZeb** · 18th February 2008, 7:40pm

If no luck, slap a £5 PCI network card in that puppy. You'll probably see huge improvement

`Annihilator · 18th February 2008, 7:46pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by karbon14

CPU fan spinning? this is what mine used to do when the proc was overheating. shite board gave me no other indicators.

No dude, that was what the old PC used to do, the CPU fan would spin up until it started to get really loud, but even the old PC never caused any crashes, or anything like this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PapaZeb

If no luck, slap a £5 PCI network card in that puppy. You'll probably see huge improvement

I'm starting to think that will be my course of action, but i'll try out the limit patcher first and see if that changes anything.

`Annihilator · 18th February 2008, 11:57pm

No luck on the limit patcher, anyway. I also just realised, the network card replacement was going to be my next step, but thinking back, UT2004 wasn't running online at the time i tried it out (i just stuck on a botmatch with no bots, and no time limit to see how long it would run before causing the problem). So that now has me thinking about why the network card would be causing problems with a game that isn't even being played online.

Unless of course the TCP/IP error that was shown above would still cause the lock up.

It could be the end of *all* PC gaming as we (ok, I) know it for a good while.

karbon14 · 19th February 2008, 12:44am

try disabling the card in device manager and running UT again.

`Annihilator · 19th February 2008, 5:32pm

Will try that shortly. Just in from work, so going to get fed first, then we'll see how it goes.

`Annihilator · 19th February 2008, 7:54pm

Well, with the network card disabled, it still causes the same issue in UT2004. (and a record time of around 13 minutes this time).

`Annihilator · 20th February 2008, 8:35pm

Just tried to play UT2004 for a while there, still offline, while my mate that built the PC was sitting here. Crashed as normal, and after he checked the temperature of the graphics card and the CPU, both running much more hot than they should be, so it would seem we've found our issue, fingers crossed. He is going to get a roomier case that will allow more fans and better airflow to the affected areas.

We'll see how that goes.

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