Hello, just recently i've upgraded my computer with new graphics,motherboard,ram and processor. And since the upgrade the entire system has been unstable. When the processor is busy for some time (let's say 20 minutes) the entire system froze down. That means when I play some game after some time it crashes. It happens only when the processor's usage is between 90%-100% for some time. It doesn't happen with usual office working in Windows. When the computer frozes, i have to restart the computer and windows XP doesn't detect (on reboot) any error. The temperature of the processor just before crashing is around 60C/150F (with open case). Temperature when working in Windows is around 53C/127F. The processor hasn't been overclocked, it's in default settings. It used to be much worser, it was crashing after 5 minutes and after increasing (slightly) the voltage it lasts longer but still it's very unstable. Please can you help me what to do to make system stable again? Thank you very much. My computer: Epox 8RDA3+, AMD Athlon XP 2500+,Ati Radeon 9100, 512 DDR RAM, Sound Card on motherboard, Harddisk WD600 60GB, WIN XP Prof. SP1.

it could be a power supply problem but is more likely that the cpu is overheating. Run this program for 15 minutes a few times and see if it locks up at the same temp each time. http://www.geocities.com/btvillarin/Downloads/Toast.zip.

thanks for your help, i will try it, but i don't think that it could be overheating, 'cause 60C/150F(with open case) it's pretty low for AMD processor.

You said you the temp was 60c before it crashed..was that after you played the game? cause when you play a game the temp could rise maybe 15c or more then the idle temp. and will drop drasticly within seconds of ending the game. Also video cards freeze up if there's a problem with it or if it gets too hot. I would also check the p/s like johnoh said, maybe it was good for your old system but not for this one.

thanks, i tried the program "toast" and it went just fine for 30 minutes without crashing (temperature at 66C/150F). but this program just uses cpu without using RAM. It didn't touch RAM at all. And i tried other "toaster's" programs that use cpu and RAM simultaneously.and there is the problem I think, 'cause when using those kinds of programs computer crashes almost immediately. however I tested RAM with Windows Memory Diagnostic and Goldmemory and these apps didn't find any problem. I don't know why it is doing, it think it could be incompatibility cpu and ram in extreme stress. don't know. does somebody have any experience with it? thanks for help.

tgif, It sounds like you only seem to have the prob. during graphics intensive apps.I had a simmiler prob was able to fix it by putting small fans on both the agp chip on the motherboard and on the vid chip on my ATI radeon9200 vid card (neither comes fac. installed)the fans are cheap and its well worth a trip to your local comp shop. most monitoring prog wont acurately tell you what the individual chips are doing so dont take the risk of friing your video. I also upgraded my power supply to 400 watts from the recomended 300 watts so for less than 100 bucks my probs were over good luck sys. specks MB-MSI K4 ultra vid card ATI Radeon 9200 ddr ram 1 gig Ultra pc2700 333 mhz W/heat sheilds proc. AMD XP2500+ (Barton) OS Win XPpro power supply Antec 400 watt hdd WD 7100 rpm 120 gig

Im almost positive thats an overheating problem. Try to throw in a couple more case fans.. or even buy a better CPU cooler. Shaggee0ne has a point a couple fans on your cards and chipset would help greatly.