Lockups while playing Video / Games

[Hiro]

Hey guys, I just had a little problem thought everyone here would be able to help with. Don't post often, but I read the boards a lot and everyone looks pretty knowledgable. :D

System Specs :
AMD Athlon T-Bird 800 Mhz
Asus A7V KT133A
128 Megs PC133 RAM
ATI Radeon VE AGP
Diamond Monster II Sound Card
Kingston NIC
Windows 98 SE
20 Gig 7200 RPM Hard Drive.

What happens, is this : Computer fully locks up after about 20 mins of screwing around or about 5 mins after starting a video game. Sounds like an overheating problem I think. I think it lies in the fact that the case has the power supply dwindling DIRECTLY over the CPU / Heatsink / CPUFan. The Power Supply is literally about 1/4 - 1/2 inch from the top of the CPU Fan.

The Case is from Fry's and is about a year old. It was housing a P3 before this but the P3 was a Slot 1 P3 500 so the CPU wasn't directly beneath the Power Supply where as the Athlon is.

Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. :D

[Edited by Corsec on 03-26-2001 at 07:09 AM]

[topane]

Can you take a temperature reading? How hot does it get? That setup with the ps right over the cpu doesn't seem to be a good thing. Did you ever have any trouble with the old PIII?

[Hiro]

There were various problems with the OS and lockups every now and then after running for about 3+ hours but the CPU was a Slot, not a Socket, so it had a bit better circulation of air I guess you could say.

After letting the CPU sit there for about 3 hours, then turning on and hitting BIOS right away, CPU starts at about 121 Degrees Fehrenheit (sp?).

Im sure that after about 5 mins of a high graphics game, it would hit about 140+. This is where my thoughts about overheating come in. :P

[topane]

Damn, that's getting pretty warm. I'm not really sure what to tell you about your cooling because of the placement of the power supply, though...

[Hiro]

changed cases and still locking up. =\

anyone got any ideas?

[topane]

What kind of cooling you got?

[Hiro]

figured it out. the problem was the sound card.

figures its the least likely suspect.

Thanks for the attempted help Topane. :D

[phlick]

As I was reading through this I was think sound card... I had a somewhat similar setup.. well, almost anyway...

But the gist is that sound cards will cause driver conflicts on the system and screw everything up. (video too)

[Hiro]

seriously, i know what you mean. its amazing how much of a pain in the a.. it was to find out it was the sound card. i mean, i play music and it doesn't lock up. ONLY when it was a combination of both video and sound.

kinda odd.

[cruelpupet]

I would still be worried about your temps though. Are you overclocking? Are you sure you have good contact between your heatsink and chip?

[Hiro]

Actually, the temperature problem was fixed when I switched cases.