Games in general, keep locking up.

[Dash]

Hola.
I don't usually do this.. register on forums, and start asking questions.. but I think I have a serious problem on my hands.
Two nights ago, I completed my new PC (P4 3.0Ghz, 512mb DDR, ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128mb, 120g Western Digital HD).. I started loading up anti-virus software, then my drivers, and finally my games.. Everything was fine yesterday, up until late night.. where my gaming addiction gets the best of me. While trying to play Desert Combat, 30 seconds into the game.. the computer just froze, out of the blue. I thought it was a problem with BF1942.. so, I stopped playing it, and switched to another game.. Half-Life 2 Deathmatch. There were no problems, until about 10 minutes into my game.. my computer froze again. Then continued for awhile, until I loaded up this morning, and tried to play BF1942, and HL2 single player.. both programs froze. BF1942 about 10 minutes in, and HL2 about 5 minutes in.

So, I thought it may have been a problem with my heating.. I checked my CPU temperature in BIOS, and it read around 52oC.. nothing above normal. My system temperature was 32oC.. so, I think that rules out overheating.

I'm out of ideas, and any help would be appriecated.
Thanks

[TJolly]

Hi

Are your drivers up to date?

[Dash]

Hi

Are your drivers up to date?
Hi.
Yes, I do believe they are.. I think there was a corruption in ATI HYRDAVISION that prevented the complete installation of the latest Catalyst driver.
Assuming that is the problem, would that be the cause to all the games freezes?

[TJolly]

Could be.

Ensure all your drivers are up to date and visit windows update to get all the necessary updates for your os.

I'm presuming you are using xp. Have you installed the service packs?

[Dash]

Could be.

Ensure all your drivers are up to date and visit windows update to get all the necessary updates for your os.

I'm presuming you are using xp. Have you installed the service packs?
Okay, well.. it appears as though my Catalyst drivers are running fine.
Service Pack 2 is installed, and Windows has updated everything.. yet the problem still presists.

[TJolly]

Any error messages?

Try uninstalling the games and install one by one but playing the first game before installing the second and so on.

[Dash]

Hmm, I think it may be a problem with my Sound card (Creative Audigy 2 Value).. something about them being too far away from my video. I'm going to try to move it.

[Dash]

Okay, I moved the Soundcard down two slots, and the problem continues..
Any more help would be great.

[smurfy]

How hot is your VIDEO card getting? CPU & System may be OK but sounds like the GPU is cutting out.
Try and keep the PCI slot next to the AGP free to improve airflow.
Try running with the case cover off for a while.

[Dash]

How hot is your VIDEO card getting? CPU & System may be OK but sounds like the GPU is cutting out.
Try and keep the PCI slot next to the AGP free to improve airflow.
Try running with the case cover off for a while.
Hmm, well.. I did two things at the same time. I moved my Audigy 2 next to my AGP slot, and at the same time, took off the case cover, and placed a room fan facing into my case.. (the video card was.. a bit hot).. and I haven't had any problems since.
Unfortanetly, I still do not know what caused the problem.. wether it was the sound card, or the video card overheating.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

[Dash]

Alas, the problems return.
It appears as though it's one of two things:
1) My Creative soundcard acting up
2) My video card becoming too overheated to function.

Any ideas on how to cut down on both of those?

[TJolly]

Hi

Try installing another additional fan. Give the inside of your pc a good clean to get rid of dust.

[Vercades]

I started loading up anti-virus software
What kind of A-V software are you using? Running those kinda programs in the background has caused games to lock up or lag alot. If you use Norton Anti-Virus you could disable it while you play and enable it back again if you decide to do anything else like surf the net.

[x23]

Hello,
Dash, just some input. I would bet that it is your GPU overheating, i have a friend that put together a PC very similer to yours same ATI card i think. His ATI card burned up, but got it replaced for free by telephoning ATI. Also, i have a creative audigy 2 sound card and have never had any problems aside from getting original install drivers after i lost the CD.