lockups & freezes

[Kerry Penver]

Hi,

I've just built a PC with a PC Chips M729 motherboard and PII 300MHz, 64Mb PC100 RAM, Win98, Video Excel 3DPro 740 AGP, ATX power supply, DirectX 7.0a.

It locks up when I'm playing games, i.e. the screen halts, the power ON/OFF button no longer works. So I have to use reset which works.

This seems a similar problem to one entered by others on this bulletin board, So I'll try the suggestions made to them. But does anyone know of any good diagnostics software which will prove the correct working of specific PC components. For instance my CD Rom seems to be running slow, and I'd like some confidence that the graphics card is OK. How can I pinpoint whether it's the processor / graphics card / CDROM / Drivers which is at fault ?

The suggestions from other entries which I'll try now, is running with the case off, and re-seating the components.

[Nathan G]

I would first try to identify if this a harware failure or software. "It locks when playing games" some questions about this may help. Does it lock up at the same point in games and on different games?? If it happens at the same time/everytime its probably a SW/driver or game issue. Does this failure happen right away or after several minutes of playing? If its after a couple minutes of playing and seem random in timing its more than likely a heat issue.
You may want to try and analyze your system with SiSoft Sandi http://www.sysopt.com/sandra.html
If removing case doesnt solve it and Sandi is no help , i would set Display adapter to standard VGA and test. ( Adapter cards have been giving me a fit lately) hope this help a little..good luck!

[gene1938]

this isn't a answer to your question ,but I also have a PC100 MB. Had the same kind of problems only mine would lockup any time. Always ended up giving the 3 finger salute(control,alt,delete)-or reset.Whats your CPU temp?? mine was @45C-added two case fans(a 12volt& 4"120 volt) now temp is 34C this seems to have helped.had to modify the case but no big deal-Also do you have Diealectric grease between your CPU& heatsink/fan??

[Nathan G]

10-7

[This message has been edited by Nathan G (edited 01-07-2000).]

[Kerry Penver]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, I try that diagnostic software out.

The PC hanged at random times during the games, and in any game running under windows, but older DOS games didn't hang up.

One or two games, (pinball ones) seemed to hang the PC quicker than others. So I tried these games with the case off, and they lasted a little longer than usual. I felt the temperature of the various heat sinks in the PC, and found the graphics processor getting very hot. I've now fitted a fan from my old 486 processor to the graphics processor, and so far it seems to have stopped the PC hanging in all but one game, and in that game "HEDZ" the symptoms are subtly different, so I suspect it's a problem with the game.

Thanks for all your help. I'm still not sure if my CD is running correctly, it fails to reliably read some CD's created on a friend's CDRW, but I guess that's not unusual.

[richamies]

I got 2 CDROMS here on 2 seperate machines, sometimes they just dont like cd's made by burners, its just a fact of life I'm affraid http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif One is even a quad speed and that doesnt help with reading them http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif Oh well never mind