Hello everyone. I'm sorry about this essay, I tend to write as I think. My PC tends to crash when CPU or RAM intensive applications are running... well, intensively. For example, if I view a web page with many images or play a game at a high (1024x768+) resolution. It also crashes when I multitask, such as typing out a Word document and listening to an MP3, and then flipping open some web pages to scroll 'vigorously', as I do (My poor mouse). This has been happening for some time now, but I chose to let it slide as I had other priorities, but now I'd like to start playing UT or AoE again, and, well, can't. At first, I thought I had a RAM problem (256MB SDRAM, two sticks). I downloaded a popular shareware DOS application for checking memory which I would recommend to anyone if I could remember it's name, as it is simple to use and pretty effective (touch wood), which informed me, after I looped it's 'burn in' test for a full night, that my RAM was fine. Well, I judged this myself based on 50 Passes and 0 failures of it's tests. I then updated my video drivers (GeForce4) to no avail. I tried running my system with a few background programs as possible, and still no joy. This afternoon, I called a local PC 'guru' who, after I explained my other ideas, kept referring to my heat sink and fan. I had my motherboard replaced last year, and although I'm sure whomever did so would ensure the two were applied well, with thermal paste; I began to question this earlier today. I ran my PC at half memory (1 128MB stick in one slot, then changed over after 'testing') and ran it into the ground. I attempted to make it crash, so to speak, but couldn't! I ran AoE at max resolution, played some tunes, and played about in Word simultaneously, and other than being a little slow, it worked fine! I used both sticks in both slots to do so. When I did this, I had my case off. I have one internal fan over my sound card, one attached to my AGP, and one over my CPU (1.33Ghz Athlon). Could this fan be dodgy and overheating my CPU, causing these rouge crashes? A crash last month caused my to format my HDD, as Windows (XP) just wouldn’t boot afterward. Phew! Thanks for your time!

What motherboard do you have? It all sounds like a power issue to me. Have a look in the BIOS at the voltages of the following rails. They should all be within 3-5%. You're CPU is a big power drainer along with your video card. +3.3V +5V +12V

Sorry ben, I'm not sure what you mean. My board is a K7S5A... manfufactured by, well, I'm not sure. I found a +12V in my CMOS, it's value was in the 12,000s. Could you expand a little on your suggestion please?

M@, It would be nice if someone somewhere did a web site on how to troubleshoot a generic situation such as yours as so many of your symptoms have multiple possible causes. that said, the k7s5a is notoriously bad with sdram. Your memory may pass any test and still commit timing errors with the motherboard which like a bad marriage are equally likely to be the fault of either party if one is not strong enough to carry the other. If you have any ddr laying around give it a try. If you have another vid card laying around give it a try. A power hungry vid card along with underable ram and an underable mobo is lucky to last.

by the way, the k7s5a is made by ECS

this might not be up to it but just check if u have an option for spread spectrum in your bios. If it is enabled then try disabling it.

One more thing that I would try (if you haven't fixed it already).... My comp was doing the same thing to me. I tried to solve it for weeks to no avail. Finally I tried the pro's. But no matter where I took it, they said it was fine. Yet when I would bring it home, same thing. It would crash for no apparrent reason under the same circumstances as yours. All I did was take the side off my case and run it like that. Believe it or not, problem solved. I have since discovered that it wasn't my processor at all, or even the memory, for that matter. My stupid chipset was over-heating. I took off the heatsink, against other's opinions, and replaces it with a copper heat-spreader/fan for about $20. I have put my case panel back on and have still had no trouble for the last few months.