What's wrong with my computer?

**cbh** · 03-31-2003, 10:20 AM

Before I upgraded my old PC, I could play a lot of computer games without fearing of hanging or automatic restarting. Now my PC is getting weird. It'll either hang or restart automatically wherever I play new computer games or intense FPS games. This is strange to me!

I have opened up the side panel and allow air circulation for my PC. The problem still persists! Now I can only play Counter-Strike and Diablo 2. I can do anything on my PC but I just can't play new games anymore.

PC Specification:

AMD 1.2GB Thunderbird Athlon
ABit KT7A motherboard
IBM 12GB harddisk
Ricoh 40x10x40x CR-RW
40x Asus CD-ROM
SoundBlaster Live 'Value'
Hercules Prophet II Ultra 64MB
320 MB SDRAM
1 casing fan
1 floppy drive
1 HP normal printer
1 Iomega 100MB drive
Cambridge SoundWorks 2-point
Adlas plug-n-play monitor
Win98 SE (Updated)
Motorola cable modem

I also have an extra video card. It's Xelo 128MB GeForce 4 DDR. But I can't use it because my PC will hang wherever I play a game. Including CS!! I don't know why but I tried the Hercules card and my PC, at least, can play.

Is it heat problem? Is it Windows corruption? Harddisk problem? Pls help me... It's driving me nuts!!

**deadkenny** · 03-31-2003, 10:23 AM

Can you decribe the process you followed when you installed the new video card? Did you simply shut down the computer, open it up, pull out the old card and pop in the new one? Did you first uninstall the existing video card (remove the drivers)?

**rraehal** · 03-31-2003, 10:39 AM

I think this could be a driver or DirectX issue. I would reinstall DirectX (any version you choose required to play your games) and get the latest drivers for the Vid Card. My friend has the Prophet card and his system works with WarCraft 3, a N64 emulator, a playstation emulator, and many more. They all use Direct3D and work fine. (His system is only a P2 450)

What else have you changed in the PC lately?

**chubtub** · 03-31-2003, 11:52 AM

Might want to try running 'dxdiag' and see if that shows any problems.

Start | Run (type) dxdiag

Just a shot in the dark.

**Bigjakkstaffa** · 03-31-2003, 12:27 PM

Upgrade DX + the via drivers, try the beta test ones that fix a lot of the VIA issues. Also try running without the case off for a while and check your fan/heat sink

--Jakk

**Eric Legge** · 03-31-2003, 04:05 PM

It looks to me as if whatever you upgraded is the cause of the problem.

Eric,

http://www.legge40.freeserve.co.uk/BuyerBeware.htm

**Cyan** · 03-31-2003, 05:19 PM

What are your temps at?

and check and make sure that the fan on the GeForce card is... well... spinning

**cbh** · 04-01-2003, 12:11 AM

Originally posted by deadkenny
Can you decribe the process you followed when you installed the new video card? Did you simply shut down the computer, open it up, pull out the old card and pop in the new one? Did you first uninstall the existing video card (remove the drivers)?

My cousin helped me troubleshoot the video card problem. He uninstalled the old driver and shut down everything. Then he took out the old card and put in the GeForce 4 and installed the new driver.

I played Warcraft 3 with the new card and it just hanged within five minutes. That time, I only used DirectX 8 and DirectX 9 is not out yet. I reinstalled the DirectX 8 but no use. Then my cousin changed back to Prophet and I could play Warcraft 3 for a long time. Strange?

**cbh** · 04-01-2003, 12:12 AM

Originally posted by chubtub
Might want to try running 'dxdiag' and see if that shows any problems.

Start | Run (type) dxdiag

Just a shot in the dark.

I have done the sequence after I installed the latest driver for Prophet. Nothing wrong!

**cbh** · 04-01-2003, 12:14 AM

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
Upgrade DX + the via drivers, try the beta test ones that fix a lot of the VIA issues. Also try running without the case off for a while and check your fan/heat sink

--Jakk

I tried installing the VIA drivers and my whole computer crashed. My cousin said something in my PC is resisting the drivers. So I did not dare to install the VIA motherboard drivers anymore.

**cbh** · 04-01-2003, 12:14 AM

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
Upgrade DX + the via drivers, try the beta test ones that fix a lot of the VIA issues. Also try running without the case off for a while and check your fan/heat sink

--Jakk

I even opened up one of the side panels wherever I am using my PC.

**cbh** · 04-01-2003, 12:16 AM

Originally posted by Cyan
What are your temps at?

and check and make sure that the fan on the GeForce card is... well... spinning

Currently, I am using Prophet and the fan is spinning. Temperature? It's quite stable. But I have to use BIOS to check it. Any other way to check temperature on the Windows?

I'm using Win98 SE.

**ukulele** · 04-01-2003, 12:04 PM

Originally posted by cbh

Currently, I am using Prophet and the fan is spinning. Temperature? It's quite stable. But I have to use BIOS to check it. Any other way to check temperature on the Windows?

I'm using Win98 SE.

Try Speed Fan .

Also you should run memcheck86. You could have a bad ram chip.

**cbh** · 04-02-2003, 09:25 AM

If I have bad RAM, why can I still play some of the games?

**deadkenny** · 04-02-2003, 09:32 AM

Have you checked out the new card in another system? Could it simply be that there's a problem with the new card?

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