[Gof]

Hi i have a very annoying, to very frustrating problem.....

At random intervals (Sometimes very long time, sometimes quickly in a row) my monitor turns off, just as if it went on power save, but it dosen't go into power save it crashes.

It happens while i play Earth And Beyond (Direct 3D game, don't play other games so not sure if game related but i think not because of the nature of the problem) The monitor just turns blank and then the led starts flashing as if the computer was turned off, sound continues for like 10-20sec then sound stops too, after sound stops the computer is dead i can't toggle NumLock anymore and the only way to get the monitor back online is a reboot. It's seems as if the Graphic Card shuts down suddenly and then after a short time the computer crashes as a result.

Ive tried everything i could think of, to rule out Memory and Cpu issues i ran Prime95 Torture test for a long time and it succeded every calculation (The primes are compared to known good numbers).

I tried bying a new PSU (400W Thermaltake) but the excact same problem still is there.

Ive also tried upgrading bios.

Ive tried checked that power save functions where indeed shut of both in bios and windows.

And ive tried installing diffrent Detonator drivers.

Ive also removed the computer case to try and lower temps.

I have done a complete reinstall of everything.

As a last try i tried underclocking the graphic card with about 20mhz on core and memory.

Still the problem was still there. I really hope someone can help me solve this, or come with suggestions of what to try to find out whats wrong.

The Specs of the computer:

CPU: Athlon XP 2000+
RAM: 512Mb DDR PC2700
MOBO: ECS K7S5A
GPU: Geforce FX 5600 (Daytona)
PSU: Thermaltake 400W (Model: LC-400ATX)

Operating System: Windows XP SP1
Detonator Driver: 52.16 (But tried with others)

(Tell me if you need aditional info)

Thanks in advance

Gof

[Chernobyl]

Hi
If your monitor is the first thing to switch off before the machine dies, I would suspect the graphics card.
If its clocked (or the AGP bus clocked) or you have tweaked the CMOS, best undo the settings and try again.
If that doesnt work, try the graphics card in another machine/try another card in your machine.

It may well be a faulty card.

good luck

[Gof]

Thx for the reply.

I don't have my card oc'ed and i even tried underclocking it below specs to see if that helped. But it didn't :cry:

Ill try and see if i can get hold of another card to try in my machine. To see if its the card thats faulty. But it never done this in The Sims (2D Game) only in 3D games.

Gof

[Chernobyl]

ok
if the card checks out alright, get a graphics card driver uninstaller. There are plenty for Nvidia/ATI floating around and remove all traces of any drivers. Reinstall the driver and Directx 9.0B.

To be honest I can think of a heck of a lot of things that could influence this problem. A good quick test is to install a new WinXP on another drive and see if yer system is ok. If that works, u know its only related to yer windows installation.
Can trouble shoot further either way

[GarrettSocling]

One thing you could to to make sure it is not an Earth and Beyond issue is to download a free benchmarking program like 3DMark03 or Aquamark3. These will stress your computer much like E&B does. Just set the program to loop for as long as it takes for you to see the error in E&B.

Actually, I'd let the software run overnight if I were you. Shake the cobwebs out...I hope your fans are good, I don't know if the K7S5A has thermal overtemp protection...

If it can run the benchmark software overnight without a hitch, then it would seem safe to say that your hardware is fine : you have a software issue. Next thing to try would be your drivers, as Chernobyl described.

If you still can't find a problem, then maybe you do want to install a temp XP onto an old hard drive. Just XP, XP updates, drivers and E&B...see what happens...

Good luck,
G

[Chernobyl]

Yeah as Garrett says, do make use of good benchmarking programs.
It would be interesting to see if the problem is with OpenGL or DirectX/3D or both.
If its with both, we havent learnt anything much, but if theres no problem with OpenGL or just Direct3D then it has to be drivers/software.
I use Quake 3 for OGL as a good quick test and 3DMark series for D3D.

Just for the record, can you completely clear your CMOS via the onboard jumper, the CMOS is capable of producing such problems as many low level hardware I/O configs are made from here. I'm sure the CMOS is capable of corruption too.
Also, a good idea is to strip the machine down completely and rebuild it (I'm sure you have already, thought I'd mention it).

[Gof]

OK ill try and get a bench like 3Dmark and loop, ill report back if that crashes too, and ill try and get that spare graphics card to swap with too.

Gof

[Gof]

I have tried looping 3Dmark for a long time now, and it didn't crash.

Maybee it is related to only this one game?

But before running 3dmark i installed new soundcard drivers, agp drivers and switched to omegas 44.03 drivers instead of official 52.16. Maybee that was what did the trick i don't know, ill have to go play EnB again now to see if i get the same crash in game.

Gof

[GarrettSocling]

I have tried looping 3Dmark for a long time now, and it didn't crash.

Maybee it is related to only this one game?

But before running 3dmark i installed new soundcard drivers, agp drivers and switched to omegas 44.03 drivers instead of official 52.16. Maybee that was what did the trick i don't know, ill have to go play EnB again now to see if i get the same crash in game.

Gof

Hehe...
I always do that too : introduce too many variables into a troubleshooting situation...

Good idea on updating (or downgrading) your drivers...never hurts. I ran on a K7S5A for about 1 1/2 years, I really liked it...
I remember that they have IDE drivers too, you might want to grab them.

G

[Mertsch]

if you switched all those thing and it did not crash do a final test and play E&B .... if it ccrshes again u can be sure its the game ...