Computer lock-up during games

[Mursilis]

I've recently begun experiencing lock-up of my computer during games - everything freezes, the sound goes into endless loop of the last sound played, and I've got to reset the machine. I've tried switching out my Creative SoundBlaster Live card for a generic C-media card (because I've heard some machines have issues with SB cards), but the problem is the same. The strange thing is, some games (such as Battlefield 1942) used to run just fine. Now, it locks up 2-3 minutes into the game. Rise of Nations also only works for a few minutes, then it hard-locks. I ran memtest to check the RAM, and no errors were found. My specs are:

Athlon XP 1700+
512 DDR RAM
ATI 8500DV AIW v-card
SB Live sound card
two hard drives
two optical drives
Win XP Home

Thoughts? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[azntiger0586]

maybe power supply is becoming flakey.

 

[Mursilis]

Originally posted by: azntiger0586
maybe power supply is becoming flakey.

Any way to test this?

 

[Mursilis]

Originally posted by: azntiger0586
maybe power supply is becoming flakey.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I yanked the generic 400W PS and installed an Antec 400W, but I still get the same problem. Any other ideas?

 

[ianbergman]

What is your motherboard make/model and RAM make/model?

I was having the exact same problem with my old MSI board, AthlonXP 2100+ and generic RAM. Installing better RAM modules mostly fixed the problem; it didn't go away entirely until I bought a new board/processor, however.

Anyway, I'd make sure that your graphics card isn't overclocked and/or going bad, and your RAM isn't faulty. I'm afraid the only way to do this in any certain manner is to swap everything out one piece at a time and see if the problem goes away. The bad news is from my experience, this is probably a hardware problem; hopefully with a more inexpensive component though.

Of course, it's always a good idea to make sure you have all the latest drivers for sound card, chipset, and graphics card, and that you have the latest BIOS installed. Let us know how it goes!

 

[jmagg]

Sounds like heat.
Check the processor heatsink/fan for excess dust.

 

[Mursilis]

My motherboard is an Abit KG7-RAID. I've got two hard drives in it, but they're not in a RAID array. I had a stick of Crucial 256 PC2100 RAM in there along with a generic stick of the same, and tried swapping them out with a single stick of PNY 512 DDR333, but that didn't solve the problem.

I checked the system for dust, but it was pretty clean. I don't think heat is an issue, because I've got lots of fans, etc. The case is also in my basement, where's very cool. Nothing is being overclocked in the computer.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.