Sudden Reset: Rewening my gaming! :(

[24747comper]

Well I am a gamer, i go to lan parties, enter tournies, and when im in the middle of the game and suddenly my system reset - you can probly tell how mad i will get.

Well, im posting here because I can't figure out why this is happening. I have an idea, but im not sure what exactly it is, and how to fix it.

When it happens, and my pc recovers, on startup i get a "windows has recovered from a serious error" this eliminates my comp overheating or hardware problems. When i let windows try to fix itself, it tells me my drivers are bad/faulty/not correctly installed/blah blah. But im pretty sure i have the latest and greatest for my system. Im also pretty sure the drivers it means are my video card drivers. My system is saphire9800 pro, 3200+ amd xp 32bit, asus a7n8x-x motherboard. I think the problem might be that I am using the ATI 9800pro cat4.6 drivers ATM - because i cant seem to find cat4.6 released for saphire yet. I think this might be the problem - but i cant find the best drivers for my system. Should i try windows update? im running a 56k net so i wanted to post on here before I tried DLing it. Any input would help, or if you think its not my VGA then recommend me what you think. Again the problem is i get sudden resets in the middle of games, its happened to me in: Diablo II, BFvietnam, BF1942, ut2k4, maybe some other i cant remember - but im on direct 3d mode with d2. It also ussualy happens when i make an action such as fire a gun (ie when i shoot the gun my comp resets instead).

Thanks!

ps. if you know where i can get saphire cat4.6 instead of just plane BBA please let me know, windows doesnt seem to find it for me with WU.

[Vampiel]

What kind of power supply do you have?

[24747comper]

420 aspire came with my x-alien case.

[Vampiel]

Runs speedfan and tell us your temp's.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Download memtest86 and let it run for a couple of hours to see if you get any errors.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Im not sure how reliable Aspire is but it could be your power supply b/c all of that hardware will need a good power supply. If you have another PSU you can try then I would do that as well.

The problem you are having points toward a hardware issue.

[24747comper]

asus probe says my comp is running about 30C so thats why I dont think its overheating. and iv had this psu since i built this comp and it just started doing it after i got my 9800pro installed, which was about 2 months after i got this thing built.

Also this memory thing wont work for me, daemon tools wont pick up the image file....

[Vampiel]

Then it's prob. the video card or the power supply.

[Magua]

Start with the Power supply, do you have a spare that you can try? That should be enough watts, but I don't know anything about the quality of aspire.

[24747comper]

u think it would help to take out some extra power stuff in my comp like a pcislot fan that doesnt do very much?

also windows does tell me that it reset because of a fatal error and that my drivers caused it....

[Vampiel]

Fans and such do not draw much power, so it wouldnt help much. Have you tried re-installing you video card drivers? What directx version are you using?

I still stick to my statement that it's prob. your power supply. Do you have the power connection to the video card hooked up to anything else? If so make sure you have it on it's own line with nothing else shared on it.

[24747comper]

i disconnected it from a fan, maybe this will help
...

[Vampiel]

So it was plugged into something else. That can cause issue's.