3d rendering related crash, need help

[michaelsuave]

ok, here is the skinny. I'm running a 9500 radeon pro, 512 mb ram and i have an MSI nvidea 2 motherboard and i'm running windows xp. my problem when i start rendering 3d graphics (playing a game) is the eventually the system will lock down on me, processor goes blank (because the little red light is no longer flashing) and the screen locks down, can't control alt delete, have to do a manual restart or power down. I'm thinking that it might be my motherboard, i need some suggestions on how to fix this problem, or if that doesn't work, a suggestion on a good/well tested tried and true motherboard. I'm not as familiar with whats the best on the market in motherboards, so if you could help me out with this, it would be great. thanks guys.

[OneManArmy]

so you mean it does this no matter what game your playing?

[michaelsuave]

yes, it happens in whatever game i play, and only in games. if its movies or graphical files or whatever its fine, but when it has to render terain or much movement, after a while it just freezes, it takes a while, it doesn't freeze when you get right in, usually about a minute to 5 minutes in, just about the time i get my hope up that i figured it out and fixed it, thats when it crashes :), sucks, don't it.

[OneManArmy]

whats your power supply? and hows cooling in that PC?

[michaelsuave]

power supply i'm not sure of, but i'm running 3 fans plus a forth on the vid card. In temperature reading averages between 38 to 40 during normal usage, when i'm not playing a game, i need to look at if there is a temperature spike when i'm playing, but i have never noticed one before, and my temperature warning doesn't click on. everything is still powered it looks like when it freezes, network connection still works, and screen stays with current picture still on it. do you think its the power supply, or the motherboard?

[OneManArmy]

wekk I'm thinknig one possibility is that your radeon isn't getting enough juice. those suckers lover power....

[Agathon]

Hello,

Does the motherboard have onboard video? Do you have another video card, or another computer to test you Radeon 9500 in other than your main computer? You need to narrow down the problem. Try playing the game with the mobo onboard video. Yes, it will be laggy, but it will tell you if it is a mobo problem or a video card problem. Another test would be to take your video card out and put it in another friend's computer which works presently in the game.

The computer remaining stable outside of games makes me suspect it is a IRQ problem, driver problem, or DirectX problem. Make sure you the latest drivers for your sound and video, make sure you are running directx 9 (you should since the game requires it), and then tell me if you have ACPI on or not. You'll find instructions on how to find out in another recent thread here I posted. Often people have computers with ACPI on, and then they try to play games on the machine. You cannot play games with IRQ sharing between your video, sound, and Internet connection hardware (modem or NIC). They MUST have separate IRQ's, your at best your system will be laggy and at worst it will crash and burn!

Let us know,