Maximum PC

My system is prone to lockups, not very often, but always when I am playing a game. It would usually happen at least 30min into playing.

When my PC locks up, the screen just goes blank and the power-saving message from my monitor pops up, like when I turn the PC off. I have had this videocard for a bit and the problem has progressively gotten worse.

I'm wondering if this may be a power issue, although I thought I would get other's opinions before calling it that and end up being the actual videocard.

My specs are listed below and I do have all drivers updated. Thanks for any helpful info.

Gigabyte GA-G31M Micro ATX Intel Mobo
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8 GHz
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital 160GB 7200rpm SATA 3.0 GB/s
Western Digital Caviar SE 320 GB 7200rpm SATA 3.0 GB/s
EVGA GeForce 9800GTX+ w/ 512Mb RAM
ASUS 20x DVD+/- DRW-2014L1T DVD Burner
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430w ATX12v PSU
Apex TM-302-3 MicroATX Mid Tower
21.5â€

It could be a lot of things. It could be a power problem, it could be a driver problem, it could be an OS problem, or even a motherboard problem. Have you tried updating to the latest drivers?

I thought I had included that in my first post, but yeah, all drivers are up to date. The only thing that sorta leads me to suspect a power issue is that the problem became more frequent after installing the 2nd HDD. I was sure my power supply would still be enough to support my system, so I thought I'd check here first.

The problem didn't occur with my Geforce 8600, which is why I'm unsire of which way to go.

put the 8600 back in, reinstall drivers, and see if the problem goes away.





Ted

I will see if I still have the 8600, which I'm pretty sure I do, and see if it happens again.

You know whats really odd...it seemed to happen the most when I played World of Warcraft. I haven't played in about 2 weeks and can only remember the PC locking up few times since.

I'd usually say your power is good, but I'm just not a big fan of Thermaltake products of any kind, let alone their PSU's. That 430W rating, may be every other quality product's 380W model.

If it were heat, I'd think you'd get artifacts that grow as it heats up that eventually just gets out of hand visually far before it just locks. When you go underpowered, it just stops like you're describing. It may work all day, but then put it to use and stress a rail, and it just stops.

Unfortunately I cannot find my old 8600 (we have moved quite a bit from state to state and then even in state since last year, I probably got rid of it at a yard sale or its in a box somewhere)

I did check on the heat issue first to see if that may be the cause, but according to Everest everything was running within reason.

One thing I remembered just now when I built the system: I initially had 2 DVD drives, but when I powered the system on the first and subsequent times, the drives would not open. I thought it very odd and the only thing I could reason was that it was a power problem. I took the one drive out and haven't had that problem since.

Since then, I updated the CPU from a P4 3.0Ghz to a Core Duo, the ram from a lower speed (can't remember exactly) and added a HDD and, of course, changed the videocard.

Thats the reason I am confused on whether it's power related, have had no other sysmptoms until the videocard. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a new power supply and see how that goes.

So I have been looking at power supplies, and with my specs listed, I was wondering what you all think of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371003

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371023

Or any other suggestions would be great, like a brand thats pretty reliable. I always thought Antec was a decent brand to go with. Thanks for any help, and thanks for all the prior help. I really hope this fixes the problem, I've had the PC lock up on my every night this week so far. And again, only when playing a game.

Edit: I'm just wondering if 300 - 400w is too low a range for what I have in my PC?

Do you live near a computer shop? If so, you should get the PSU from there, so that if that's not the problem, you can just drive it back and return it.

I had this problem with my 9800 set up. Eventually I ran Memtest86 and found out my memory was bad. I changed it out and hadn't had a lock up since. My power supply is a Thermaltake 750.

I bought this psu for my sisters pc and it works just fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371007

I believe in overkill because these psus today give out what the system calls for and no more. I like the overhead for hot summer days when the psu falls short of the stated output.

Nasty

I bet it's Windows XP MCE. It's not meant for use as a usable PC. It's MCE. That comes free with Win7 HP and works fine. Hell to pay with MCE XP.