Seriously Po'ed. Any Help Appreciated

[Railven]

Hello,

 

Let me get started by giving a brief description of my problem. It is very annoying! I just recently upgrade my computer and everything is working great so far, although I can't upgrade my BIOS past 1.1 since it causes my system to not boot. The major problem I am experiencing is when I attempt to play games my system would either reboot or crash to the desktop. This has happened to me while playing Battlefield 1942 and Medal of Honor. Before the upgrade it didn't do this and it ran very stable. Nothing is OC'ed yet because I want to stabalize it before I attempt anything. I have a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB, prior I had a Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB, and I also have the latest Catalyst and system drivers from ATI.com. In my Display Options I have my settings set to Balance for both OpenGL and Direct3D. I have no other problems when I run software or use the computer. It seems to only happen with games, and oddly not even UT2K3 crashes like the other games.

 

Here is the system information:

Pentium 4 2.6c ghz w/ Hyper Threading (MSI temperature reads temps at 10 C's then Hardcano 9, temps are at 31 C idle and around 43 C fully loaded)

MSI 865PE Neo2-FIS2R (before had an MSI 648-L Max)

2x 512MB Corsair XMS 32x8

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb (before had a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128mb, soon to get a Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb)

2x Maxtor Diamond 9 120gb

Thermaltake Xaser V1000A w/7 Fans 2x Front Intake, 2x Side intake, 2x rear exhaust, and 1x top exhaust. (my old case had 5 fans but it did have a slot for the side fan to be directly over the AGP slot, this one does, the 2 side fans are position so that the AGP slot is between the two fans.)

Thermaltake Spark 7 Heatsink with a Thermaltake Smartfan 2

Audigy Platinum 2 (latest drivers)

MSI TV@nywhere

 

I wonder if my Radeon is overheating or what? Does anyone have any ideas what can be going on? A few of the forums I've visited that had a similar problem as I have said that it could be either my Radeon 9800 overheating or something to do with the Hyper Threading in the OS. I attempted to switch my processor from Mutli-processor to Standard PC and it worked, but I got a few other problems and lost my Hyper Threading capabilities. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

RAILVEN

[sYstEmATiC]

yeah...if your going to play games...then you want the HyperThreading OFF.

Your vid card could be overheating but i dont think so....make sure the fan on the heatsink of the videocard is still spinning.

Also...this may sound dumb because i know you said you hadn't oc'ed anything yet, but try to raise your vcore up one setting. (when you do this, make sure to keep a close eye on your temps for a while.)

 

i say raise the vcore because my dads cpu wont run stable even at idle in windoze on the stock voltage. even when its all at stock speeds!

[Pngwyn]

This may sound simple, and I may sound stupid for suggesting it, but you have a lot of juice suckers on there.

 

Is your power supply strong enough?

Have you monitored your vcore voltage to make sure it is consistent on output?

 

It sounds like maybe when your Vid card kicks into high gear it is sucking too much juice.

 

Dunno, worth a shot. Good Luck.

 

Pngwyn

[Monkey6915]

could be ram either bad or not all the way in

[Railven]

Hey guys thanks for the information. I ended up reading a crap load of MSI forum posts and it seems like the new MSI 865PE-NEO2 FIS2R is a problem prone motherboard. Well I ended up rereading the whole manaul, looking up my RAM's specifications, rewiring a little for better air flow (I moved the nearest PCI card away from the AGP to create an airflow gap), and then reset my RAM in accordance to a Dual Channel Linear setup. I raised the voltage on the DRAM to 2.7 and then kept a close eye on the vcore output. Everything is running smoothly now, no crashing when playing games, it auto-overclocks when I need the juice (got a 6300 in 3DMark03), and I'm just glad it all works. Thanks again guys. Oh the PSU is a Thermaltake TruePower 420W

 

RAILVEN

[sleepybp]

I would like to point out that Railven has way to much money! You said u just upgraded from a 9700pro to 9800 pro, soon to be 9800 pro 256meg, or something like that. Dude what the heck!? thats probly over $1000 !! And the difference in performance between all 3 of the vid cards is what i consider almost negligible!!

[blippy]

yeah fo real, this guy has too much money...or needs a girl to spend it all on....take your pick

[Railven]

HAHA, hey thats not nice. I have a girlfriend and insane bills but I also have a Best Buy credit card. I actually sold my Radeon 9700 Pro on Ebay and ended up buying a Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB from another Ebayer. However the time difference inbetween me mailing out the Radeon 9700 to the Ebay buyer and me getting my Radeon 9800 from the Ebayer would be at least a week. So I went bought a Radeon 9800 from Best Buy, gave my girlfriend the receipt to hold (I'd lose it) and when my new ATI product is in I'm taking the Best Buy one back for a refund. So in all I didn't pay any extra aside form the difference of a 128mb and a 256mb, which thanks to Ebay was only 20 dollars. And if what happens to me again (where my original Radeon 9700 died after a few weeks, I'll RMA it with ATI).

 

RAILVEN