This is a problem that has existed for 1 year now, and I am at my wit?s end. If anyone has any ideas..please respond. If not, it is understandable. I?m not quite sure if anyone could possibly think of anything else, but I have been surprised before. I apologize for the length of this, but after a year's worth of troubleshooting, I don't want someone to reply with "Have you tried reformatting?"
Without further delay, here is my issue.
I built a system for my brother last year for his graduation. This system is as follows:
AMD 64 3500+
DFI LanParty SLI UT
2G (2x1G) OCZ Platinum
BFG Geforce 6800GT OC
2x 250G Maxtor SATA
Sony DVDRW 16x Dual layer
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Antec NeoPower 480W
Onboard Gigabit NIC
XP-90 HSF
2 Cold-Cathode UV
Thermaltake Tsunami w/ 2 120mm fans
Samsung 930B w/ DVI cable
Ok.now when I first built the computer, after I installed Windows XP Pro and the games he plays, I ran a game and it crashed on me after about 10 minutes of play. I could make it through a round of 3dmark 2003 with no problems. The game in question is Battlefield 2. first thing I thought was.. I must be experiencing that BF2 issue. I loaded a few other games. Let them run for about 15-20 minutes but did not have any problems, but did not want to sit there for hours making sure it was 100% stable. The next day my brother was able to get in some gaming. He called me up telling me his computer is crashing. It didn?t have much of a pattern, but it could last in a game for 30 minutes then crash, or last for less than 5 minutes then crash. So, I went back to my parents house to start troubleshooting. I first thought it may be a heat issue even though everything is stock and I am running a XP-90 on the proc. The temps were fine, during load it got up to 48 but from what I could tell is no more than that. I then started searching around and people were saying the new Athlon 64?s were having issues running 2G of ram because of the memory controller. So I decided to run with half the RAM (1G stick in single channel mode.) It appeared that made the computer more stable. I was able to play Battlefield 2 and COD2 for about 45 minutes, but then it crashed. So then I decided to take my ram (OCZ Gold VX 512x2) in his computer and run it in dual channel. This was slightly more stable, and yielded the same results as running 1G in single channel) It was stable for anywhere from 30-45 but it was still crashing. Then people were saying the DFI LanParty mobo combined with the ram was possibly the problem. I put his 3500+ in my motherboard (at the time a MSI Neo2 Platinum), and my motherboard ran it fine with my OCZ Gold VX running dual channel. Then I decided to take my ram out, and put his 2G of OCZ platinum in my setup. I ran this with no problems either. I ran both of these setups for a day while I was gaming. No crashes with either HIS processor, or HIS ram. When I put MY AMD 64 3000+ in his computer, it was still crashing. So I just assumed..maybe it IS this DFI mobo. I contacted New Egg, and had them RMA the mobo, and get me a different mobo. I had them send me a MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum. Since my memory was getting close to the expiration of the warranty, I decided to trade in the 2G for 1G due to the better timings. I figured might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone, and games of that day really didn?t call for that much RAM. So I had them send me a Gig kit of OCZ Platinum (TCCD chips). Once the parts came in, I set it all up once again. Went through the exact same ordeal, only to find out the computer was STILL crashing. So I figured..ok..it?s not the ram, it?s not the processor, and it?s not the mobo. A month or two of troubleshooting and waiting on RMA?s down the drain. So I went on and on trying to troubleshoot timings, underclocking the CPU..increasing voltages on ram and processor. I was running Prime 95 stable for days, and not ONE error in memtest86 after 24 hours of testing. I was underclocking the videocard, but the one main issue was..I did NOT have a PCI-E video card I could test as an alternative. Finally, a few months later, and a million crashes later, I built a system for a buddy of mine. His computer is almost identical to my brother?s system. Same mobo, same ram, same sound, same optical drive, same power supply, even the same case. The only thing that is different is he bought a 7800GTX. His computer ran fine, and was rock stable, so I asked him if I could come over to his place with my brother?s video card. So I popped in my brother?s video card into his mobo. Within 5 minutes of playing Battlefield 2, it crashed.
Now let me also describe the type of crash that happens (and this is on ANY game..specific ones are Battlefield 2, Doom III, Call of Duty UO, Call of Duty , Counter Strike Source, Half Life 2, and the list goes on..hell even Rogue Spear which is a 6 year old game.) the game will be playing fine, and then, the monitor looses it?s signal, and the sounds continue to loop. It is not a crash to desktop. It doesn?t really ?reboot? either, you have to do that manually to get the computer to respond again.
So now, with the realization that his video card, pulled out of his system, and put into a stable system, is making that perfectly stable system crash, I was definitely dealing with a video card issue. I RMA?d the video card with New Egg. The RMA took a little while to come back, but once it did, I put it in his system, and expected the best, but got the worse. My brother does not have a bunch of time to dedicate to hours of gaming. He is typically able to play 1 round of Battlefield at a time. Typically about 30 minutes of gaming. The crashes are sooooo random. They can happen within 5 minutes, or they can last 45 minutes. So for a while, I was assuming his computer was running fine, until he mentioned to me that it was still doing the same thing. He was hesitant to tell me because the crashes were about 30 minutes apart, and he just dealt with it because he did not want to be out of a computer for another week or two. I continued to troubleshoot. Checking event viewer, reformatting a million times, only reformatting and then installing the essentials to run the game. Tried running iintegrated sound and took the SB Audigy out. Still crashing. Due to the fact that it takes 30-45 minutes for me to drive to my parents house, I cannot continue to troubleshoot. I have to make one change, and if I do not have the ability to sit down for 1-2 hours to test, I will not know it is running flaky still. Well, a year passes of me troubleshooting in the same fashion.
Let?s skip to a few weeks ago. Since we have the same mobo now, and identical hardware, I figured I would take his 2 SATA drives out and put them in my computer. When I did that..I formatted, and ran Windows with 1G of ram, and it ran fine. No crashes for over 1 ½ hours. So I figured out it wasn?t the HD. So I decided to do the same troubleshooting step I did over a half year ago. I took MY 7900GT out of my computer, and put it in his. It ran for almost an hour. Then I took his video card, and put it in MY computer. It crashed within 3 minutes of playing. My computer hasn?t crashed in AGES. I can game for days with no problems, but the second his BFG 6800GT went in my computer, my computer started crashing. It crashes with the exact same crash..no monitor signal..have to manually restart the machine.
SO ONCE AGAIN.. if my years of doing this has taught me anything is that Linear troubleshooting is ALWAYS a must, and if Computer ?A? crashes all the time, and Computer ?B? does not, and you take the video card (which you think may be the culprit) out of computer A, and put in computer B, and it makes Computer B crash. And Conversely, if you take the video card out of Computer B, and put it in Computer A, and it solves the problem..wouldn?t you assume it?s the video card?
So I RMA?d the video card once again but this time with BFG. I received it last week, and put it in my brother?s computer, but it still continues to crash. I reformatted and reinstalled but it did not solve the problem.
So what do YOU think? Do I have a poltergeist in my parents house hell bent on screwing me over? Should I light it all on fire, and buy him a whole new rig on the CC?
I can safely say I have put together over 50 computers since the year 2000. My first build was my 486SX 25MHz 4M of ram with Windows 3.1. I have been doing this a while (not as long as some of you) but I have NEVER had a problem I didn?t solve. This is the most frustrating thing in the world to me. I have spent more money in gas to my parents house to afford a whole new rig possibly.
His computer specs CURRENTLY
is as follows:
AMD 64 3500+
MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum
1G (2x512M) OCZ Platinum
BFG Geforce 6800GT OC
2x 250G Maxtor SATA
Sony DVDRW 16x Dual layer
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Antec NeoPower 480W
Onboard Gigabit NIC
XP-90 HSF
2 Cold-Cathode UV
Thermaltake Tsunami w/ 2 120mm fans
Samsung 930B w/ DVI cable
Parts I have swapped out with the parts above:
CPU: AMD 64 3000+
MOBO: Same exact mobo, and a DFI LAnParty UT SLI
RAM: 2G of OCZ plat, & 1G (512x2) of Patriot TCCD
Video: 7900GT, and 2 other 6800GT?s
HD: 160G Seagate
PLEASE HELP!!
Without further delay, here is my issue.
I built a system for my brother last year for his graduation. This system is as follows:
AMD 64 3500+
DFI LanParty SLI UT
2G (2x1G) OCZ Platinum
BFG Geforce 6800GT OC
2x 250G Maxtor SATA
Sony DVDRW 16x Dual layer
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Antec NeoPower 480W
Onboard Gigabit NIC
XP-90 HSF
2 Cold-Cathode UV
Thermaltake Tsunami w/ 2 120mm fans
Samsung 930B w/ DVI cable
Ok.now when I first built the computer, after I installed Windows XP Pro and the games he plays, I ran a game and it crashed on me after about 10 minutes of play. I could make it through a round of 3dmark 2003 with no problems. The game in question is Battlefield 2. first thing I thought was.. I must be experiencing that BF2 issue. I loaded a few other games. Let them run for about 15-20 minutes but did not have any problems, but did not want to sit there for hours making sure it was 100% stable. The next day my brother was able to get in some gaming. He called me up telling me his computer is crashing. It didn?t have much of a pattern, but it could last in a game for 30 minutes then crash, or last for less than 5 minutes then crash. So, I went back to my parents house to start troubleshooting. I first thought it may be a heat issue even though everything is stock and I am running a XP-90 on the proc. The temps were fine, during load it got up to 48 but from what I could tell is no more than that. I then started searching around and people were saying the new Athlon 64?s were having issues running 2G of ram because of the memory controller. So I decided to run with half the RAM (1G stick in single channel mode.) It appeared that made the computer more stable. I was able to play Battlefield 2 and COD2 for about 45 minutes, but then it crashed. So then I decided to take my ram (OCZ Gold VX 512x2) in his computer and run it in dual channel. This was slightly more stable, and yielded the same results as running 1G in single channel) It was stable for anywhere from 30-45 but it was still crashing. Then people were saying the DFI LanParty mobo combined with the ram was possibly the problem. I put his 3500+ in my motherboard (at the time a MSI Neo2 Platinum), and my motherboard ran it fine with my OCZ Gold VX running dual channel. Then I decided to take my ram out, and put his 2G of OCZ platinum in my setup. I ran this with no problems either. I ran both of these setups for a day while I was gaming. No crashes with either HIS processor, or HIS ram. When I put MY AMD 64 3000+ in his computer, it was still crashing. So I just assumed..maybe it IS this DFI mobo. I contacted New Egg, and had them RMA the mobo, and get me a different mobo. I had them send me a MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum. Since my memory was getting close to the expiration of the warranty, I decided to trade in the 2G for 1G due to the better timings. I figured might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone, and games of that day really didn?t call for that much RAM. So I had them send me a Gig kit of OCZ Platinum (TCCD chips). Once the parts came in, I set it all up once again. Went through the exact same ordeal, only to find out the computer was STILL crashing. So I figured..ok..it?s not the ram, it?s not the processor, and it?s not the mobo. A month or two of troubleshooting and waiting on RMA?s down the drain. So I went on and on trying to troubleshoot timings, underclocking the CPU..increasing voltages on ram and processor. I was running Prime 95 stable for days, and not ONE error in memtest86 after 24 hours of testing. I was underclocking the videocard, but the one main issue was..I did NOT have a PCI-E video card I could test as an alternative. Finally, a few months later, and a million crashes later, I built a system for a buddy of mine. His computer is almost identical to my brother?s system. Same mobo, same ram, same sound, same optical drive, same power supply, even the same case. The only thing that is different is he bought a 7800GTX. His computer ran fine, and was rock stable, so I asked him if I could come over to his place with my brother?s video card. So I popped in my brother?s video card into his mobo. Within 5 minutes of playing Battlefield 2, it crashed.
Now let me also describe the type of crash that happens (and this is on ANY game..specific ones are Battlefield 2, Doom III, Call of Duty UO, Call of Duty , Counter Strike Source, Half Life 2, and the list goes on..hell even Rogue Spear which is a 6 year old game.) the game will be playing fine, and then, the monitor looses it?s signal, and the sounds continue to loop. It is not a crash to desktop. It doesn?t really ?reboot? either, you have to do that manually to get the computer to respond again.
So now, with the realization that his video card, pulled out of his system, and put into a stable system, is making that perfectly stable system crash, I was definitely dealing with a video card issue. I RMA?d the video card with New Egg. The RMA took a little while to come back, but once it did, I put it in his system, and expected the best, but got the worse. My brother does not have a bunch of time to dedicate to hours of gaming. He is typically able to play 1 round of Battlefield at a time. Typically about 30 minutes of gaming. The crashes are sooooo random. They can happen within 5 minutes, or they can last 45 minutes. So for a while, I was assuming his computer was running fine, until he mentioned to me that it was still doing the same thing. He was hesitant to tell me because the crashes were about 30 minutes apart, and he just dealt with it because he did not want to be out of a computer for another week or two. I continued to troubleshoot. Checking event viewer, reformatting a million times, only reformatting and then installing the essentials to run the game. Tried running iintegrated sound and took the SB Audigy out. Still crashing. Due to the fact that it takes 30-45 minutes for me to drive to my parents house, I cannot continue to troubleshoot. I have to make one change, and if I do not have the ability to sit down for 1-2 hours to test, I will not know it is running flaky still. Well, a year passes of me troubleshooting in the same fashion.
Let?s skip to a few weeks ago. Since we have the same mobo now, and identical hardware, I figured I would take his 2 SATA drives out and put them in my computer. When I did that..I formatted, and ran Windows with 1G of ram, and it ran fine. No crashes for over 1 ½ hours. So I figured out it wasn?t the HD. So I decided to do the same troubleshooting step I did over a half year ago. I took MY 7900GT out of my computer, and put it in his. It ran for almost an hour. Then I took his video card, and put it in MY computer. It crashed within 3 minutes of playing. My computer hasn?t crashed in AGES. I can game for days with no problems, but the second his BFG 6800GT went in my computer, my computer started crashing. It crashes with the exact same crash..no monitor signal..have to manually restart the machine.
SO ONCE AGAIN.. if my years of doing this has taught me anything is that Linear troubleshooting is ALWAYS a must, and if Computer ?A? crashes all the time, and Computer ?B? does not, and you take the video card (which you think may be the culprit) out of computer A, and put in computer B, and it makes Computer B crash. And Conversely, if you take the video card out of Computer B, and put it in Computer A, and it solves the problem..wouldn?t you assume it?s the video card?
So I RMA?d the video card once again but this time with BFG. I received it last week, and put it in my brother?s computer, but it still continues to crash. I reformatted and reinstalled but it did not solve the problem.
So what do YOU think? Do I have a poltergeist in my parents house hell bent on screwing me over? Should I light it all on fire, and buy him a whole new rig on the CC?
I can safely say I have put together over 50 computers since the year 2000. My first build was my 486SX 25MHz 4M of ram with Windows 3.1. I have been doing this a while (not as long as some of you) but I have NEVER had a problem I didn?t solve. This is the most frustrating thing in the world to me. I have spent more money in gas to my parents house to afford a whole new rig possibly.
His computer specs CURRENTLY
is as follows:
AMD 64 3500+
MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum
1G (2x512M) OCZ Platinum
BFG Geforce 6800GT OC
2x 250G Maxtor SATA
Sony DVDRW 16x Dual layer
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Antec NeoPower 480W
Onboard Gigabit NIC
XP-90 HSF
2 Cold-Cathode UV
Thermaltake Tsunami w/ 2 120mm fans
Samsung 930B w/ DVI cable
Parts I have swapped out with the parts above:
CPU: AMD 64 3000+
MOBO: Same exact mobo, and a DFI LAnParty UT SLI
RAM: 2G of OCZ plat, & 1G (512x2) of Patriot TCCD
Video: 7900GT, and 2 other 6800GT?s
HD: 160G Seagate
PLEASE HELP!!