PC Gamers and Geeks (Help Please)

Cafe Society
1

Current Sys (nothing o/clocked):
MSI K7N2 Mother
AMD 2.8
1GB PC2700
Geforce 4200i 64MB
Nvidia Audio MCP2 (don’t know much re. this which is a concern.)
XP SP2
300W PSU!

Used predominantly for gaming. CS Source crashes within 2 mins to 2 hrs with “memory cannot be read” error.
Tried the following so far:
Updated Nvidia drivers, display and audio
Swapped RAM incl. Removing one stick at a time
Memtesting various software
Changing voltage and mem timings (just made it worse)
Defrag
Haven’t flashed the BIOS as that scares the shit out of me
Basically whatever Steam said to try

However, it now bombs on Battle for Middle Earth (mem read errors) and Sacred…… not a happy bunny.

Question is: Should I upgrade the PSU to 350W next? I saw somewhere that Geforce 4’s suck up power. Only thing is that this machine is a year and a bit old and never had problems before I started messing about with drivers and such.

Or is this a case of Re format? Loathe to do that as I have a good bit of software that isn’t on disk, e.g. Nero that came installed. Alternatively I could roll back to the factory settings (ghosted on backup partition) which would hopefully leave the preinstalled software…

Any help greatly appreciated. I have just enough knowledge to do some real damage…

2

As you’ve done the most immediately troubling memory thing, you could try running scandisk.

Open My Computer > Rightclick C: > Tools tab > Error checking > Check now > Select both options > OK and close all boxes > Repeat for any other partitions > Restart then go away for a while.

It’s a long shot, but better to get anything out the way that can be solved by fiddling with software first.

Here’s a good page for estimating power requirements it definitely errs on the side of caution, but that’s not unwise.

Just throwing out ideas really, good luck.

3

Wild far out there guess… but could the memory errors becoming from the video card?

You really need at least a 128 anyway . At least that’s how you can pretend to justify it. :wink:

And if you do switch cards, stick with nvidia. Going from an nvidia to a radaeon creates a whole host of driver problems.

4

Have you used Memtest86 overnight?

The RAM could be ok, but your motherboard could be on the fritz. It could also be a power supply issue. See if someone can lend you a PS before running out and buying one.

5

Thanks guys. AC I did run MemTest overnight with no errors, so I think the sticks are ok. I’ve just gone out and grabbed a nice quiet PSU. The only one they had was 500W, so that should do the trick :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Domokun, I’ll try a scandisk just in case. You never know, it may be swapping to a bad sector somewhere.
Blackclaw Could absolutely be the graphics. Thats the next upgrade but I’d like the system stable before jumping to another card. Of course if all else fails, I’ll pop the new card in.
I think there may be some issues with IRQ sharing, seem to remember the Graphics being shared with USB or IDE, can’t recall exact. Thats on the to do list too.

6

How is your case cooling? Can you look at the video settings and find a temperature for the video chipset? The other suggestions are good, but it could be the video card getting hot.

7

You need a better video card. I have a 128mb, and it’s barely enough for some of the top end games.

8

Rogue I know the cpu temp is fine but yes I have concerns about the card overheating. Seems to crash on high end games when the card will be running round like a loon (bless him).
I went out and bought a 500w PSU, and will probably invest in a 6600GT this weekend. Was going to install the PSU last night but experienced no crashes whatsoever. I think the pc waits for me to do something (like reset bios to default settings last night), then dangles some hope in front of me and next day snatches it away.
Does anyone else have a vindictive pc?