Feezing

[satonmax]

Hi, I have been having some problems with running games on my system. I have an NVIDIA nForce 680i Motherboard, Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6700 processor, and a KFA2 GeForce 8600 GT Video Card. When I try to play games like Timeshift and Half-Life 2 after a few minutes of playing my computer will freeze and I have to reboot it. This also happens to me when I engage in a large process such as burning a DVD. Does anyone know what my problem is? Does it have anything to do with multithreaded applications?

P.S. I never overclock my system... in fact I have no idea how to.

[Chiefish]

Can youre power supply handle all that? Also do you have the most upp to date drivers for the vid card? Download Nvidias NTune and see what kind of temps the card is running at as well as the cpu and stuff. Most likly has nothing to do with multithread.

[satonmax]

I have an 800-Watt power supply. Also, I downloaded a DesktopX Widget that tells me my used page file memory as well as other stats. Unlike the others (virtual memory, physical memory) it is absolutely full all of the time. Would this have anything to do with my problem?

And I have read that mostly everybody tries and overclock their system nowadays. Do you think I should? How would I do that?

Thanks for your help!

[Wizzard1]

memtest86.... Run it overnight (minimally)

[Chiefish]

I wouldnt even consider overclocking until you understand the basics of it and get youre problems solved running system stock. Because if youre box isnt running stable in stock mode it will do even worse when you try to overclock it. What operating system and how much RAM do you have in that?

[satonmax]

I have XP Pro and 2 gigs of ram (four 512mb)

Guess what? I downloaded memtest86, burned the image file on to a disk, rebooted my system and ran the disk. About an hour ago I came back to check on it and it had froze!

My friend also thinks that it might be my RAM so I'll try and replace it and see how it works then. Thanks for all of your suggestions, if you have any more ideas please share them!

[Chiefish]

Chances are only one stick would be bad, so you could run memtest with one stick, then the other and see which one is bad.

[satonmax]

Thanks for all the responses! Unfortunately there is a new problem. I thought I had 4x512mb, but I actually have 4x1gb. My BIOS is detecting 4.00gb, but my system properties only show 2.00gb. I have 4 OCZ DDR2 NVIDIA SLI RAM modules. I read the lable on a stick and it showed something like: 4-4-4 2.1v. Do I have to change something in my bios? My memory voltage is only at 2v. I don't know where to change this information - I have the latest BIOS version and it seems to be lacking options. Also, would I have to reset my CMOS? How do I do that? Thanks for all your help guys!

[kosmokrator]

hhmm well enable the memory remap feature in your bios + overvolt your modules with 2.1 volt as they need for stable working...the mobo defaults give 1.8v...
try this and i think u solve ur problem

[Chiefish]

And windows xp will only show 2 gigs of ram for you , no matter what you do Unless youre running xp 64 bit, but i doubt it. In youre bios , there should be a screen that says chipset features, then there should be another choice in that screen to select system voltages, then you should see a selection for ram memory volts, adjust it to the recommended volts and see what happens.

[kosmokrator]

sorry chiefish but i have 4 gigs in my system and win xp x32 shows 3gb of ram....tha page file in limited to 2 gig per application...so...its not normal to show 2 gigs.....

[Chiefish]

You may be right kosmo, its been a while since i ran xp. i do know that it will not show the whole four gigs tho.

[kosmokrator]

the max that xp shows is 3.25gig......
2 gb may can use for one threat max
btw my frind here have an not tuned machine...i thing the not configured propertly the voltage of ram and that is the reason foe freezings...
just my idea...

friendly...Mike

[Chiefish]

I agree with you , undervolting the ram will definatly cause lockups and BSODs.

[satonmax]

Thanks you so much guys! You've been very helpful. I went to the BIOS, but I couldn't find memory remap. Also, under chipset features the only options are HPET [enabled] and C55(NB) to NVIDIA(SB) Frequency [800MHZ]. In the cell menu of my BIOS there is an option to change the memory voltage, but it is grayed out. How do I un-gray it? Anyway, I did download Dual Core Center and I changed the voltage that way. So far, I haven't had any freezes which is awesome. I am still wondering about the "4-4-4" which was on the packaging and if I should still reset my CMOS... whatever that is. Thanks again!