I have just purchased a new pc. It's an Is7-e2 ABIT motherboard, with two 512mb ram sticks, ones a kingston, one was standard, An ATI Sapphire 512mb AGP8x Video card, and a P4 3.2ghz with hyperthreading tech, and two hard drives and one dvd burner installed on Windows XP Service Pack.

The Problem is that when im playing farcry, I've only gotten like 20-30 mins into it, the computer crashes. If that wasn't annoying enough it crashes at random sometimes, especially when im running a couple programs at a time, one usually high-end.

But now, worst of all, after two attempts to install Command and Conquer generals during installation, before i can even set it up, the computer will shut down. I have two memory dumps available if that would help.

I really don't know what to do... My CPU is running at 70-80degrees faranheit according to my bios. My bios is apparantly new and up to date, windows xp is updated, my ati drivers are updated running the latest version of catalyst.

Someone please help. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

70-80 Faranhiet? Are you sure thats not celcius? Most temp. readings will be in celcius and if that is your temp for celcius, that is way to hot. Check your heatsink and make sure it's seated properly. Did you put themal paste on it?

Another thing is it also sounds like it could be your ram. Try pulling one stick out and runing the programs you have problems with. If it still does it, pull that one out and put the other in and try again.

ASUS A8N-SLI
A64 3000+@220x9
1gig Corsair XMS
EVGA 7800GT
Enermax 535W
Dual 80gig WD.

The 70°C - 80°C load temperature is not shocking on the P4 especially if it is a Prescott, however it is not the acceptable norm considering the ripple effect of the overheating on your system.

As suggested above, check the HSF, make sure it is not installed incorrectly, the fan is working and ensure there is a thermal film between the heatsink and the processor for effective heat transfer.

I'll also advise you check the HSF, case fan(s) to clean out any dust bunnies accumulated over time, same goes for your video card, and generally ensure your system is sufficiently ventilated.

One last thing, is your system under powered and What kind of PSU and video card do you have in that system ?

When Google isn't your best pal

Yes it was celsius, my fault. Now, I have an ATI Sapphire 512mb ddr2 grahpics card. I checked the heat sink but i don't really know what im looking at. There's a metal piece i took off that was connecte via snap on hooks and there was a diamond of gel in the center that lined up with the piece underneath but was awfully close to the padded square that was around it.

the power supply i am unsure of. it doesn't say the make or model but it's capable of 500watts and there's an orange sticker on it that says 430 watts.

there is no dust, i cleaned it out yesterday but it crashed today.The ram are of two different types but i won't know for sure by testing one at a time because the restart is random.. I could try it with the installation of the game but id rather that be a last resort, i don't like opening uip the computer, closing it, restarting it, opening it again.. etc.. etc...

if it's nescecarry i will do whatever it takes.

to tell you the truth i did a ram test and it's funny. the ram i purchased on ebay is showing no errors but the ram that came standard with my pc has errors. I'm running memtest under windows and what do you think about the reliability of the program?

thanks for the support guys.

Hey...

Take one stick out for while play few games see what happens. do this with both sticks...

I had problem like this before kept crashing when i was playing games or running any heavy app like photoshop. i replaced my ram has'nt given me problem since...

Ken

When you say your system crashed, you mean auto restart or just shut down or giving ur BSOD or everything froze? If is auto restart/shut down, then 70-80C is causing it... Somwhere in the BIOS it should have a shutdown temperature setting... Make sure you turn that off to aviod high temp shut down.. As far as BSOD goes, its most likely related to memroy.. Try to tune down your CAS latency to 3-3-3-8... Lastly froze during installation seems like your CPU needs a bit more voltage... Try +0.025v for ur CPU vcore...

TMP-Man

Asus A7V classic rev 1.05
Athlon XP 2100+ @ 130x17 = 2209Mhz 1.81v
768MB PC133 RAM @ 130Mhz 2-2-2
40GB 540RPM + 120GB 7200RPM HD
128MB Radeon 9500 mod 9700 @ 358/586

"Somwhere in the BIOS it should have a shutdown temperature setting... Make sure you turn that off to aviod high temp shut down.. As far as BSOD goes, its most likely related to memroy.. Try to tune down your CAS latency to 3-3-3-8... Lastly froze during installation seems like your CPU needs a bit more voltage... Try +0.025v for ur CPU vcore..."

I wouldn't try to raise voltages being already at 90ºc at the BIOS!! Imagine on heavy gaming. Sabertooth is right though, if your system automaticly shuts down it might be a setting in the bios doing it whenever the temps go too high. I'd leave that alone though... 90ºc it's pretty hot even for pentium's 4 (Besides your's is not a prescott is it?). I think is either unproper heatsink installation, the psu, or the ram sticks. If you have two different ram sticks they should both run at the timings of the worst of them, even if one can handle better speeds. Although the bios should do that automaticly but set them yourself just in case.
In the sticker on the side of your psu, there should be information about the AMPERAGE. What is the amperage for the 12v+ rail??

Free

I'm pretty sure it was the ram cause i was using memtest and the one stick was getting errors, I took it out and it appears fine... btw how do i change the voltage anyway?

I was getting auto restarts but i changed xp to not do that and i got a BSOD. It said there was PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA

Did you check the heatsink on your ati card? I was talking about checking the heatsink on your CPU cus thats a tad on the hot side. Anyways, it's probably your ram, but I'd still take a look at that CPU heatsink.

ASUS A8N-SLI
A64 3000+@220x9
1gig Corsair XMS
EVGA 7800GT
Enermax 535W
Dual 80gig WD.

actually... i ran a test...

Motherboard 28 °C (82 °F)
CPU 58 °C (136 °F)
PWM 56 °C (133 °F)
Maxtor 6Y160M0 57 °C (135 °F)
Maxtor 4R080L0 56 °C (133 °F)

You know, my power supply is making a constant whirring sound that fades out then comes back, it doesn't happen all the time... How can i check out what kind of supply i need, i plan on getting a new one.. any reccomendations?