Computer locks up in Games

[TLAM Strike]

Occasionally my computer will lock up in games (its only happened in games, not in any 3d modeling software like max). Its happned in Europa Universalist III, Shells of Fury, Call of Duty I. Very low end games will not seem to lock it up like Harpoon I. Anyone have any ideas, below is a report on my rig.



--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer UGM-109A-TLAM-N
Generator ************
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2010-05-25
Time 22:25


--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name UGM-109A-TLAM-N
User Name ***************

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Celeron D 320, 2400 MHz (18 x 133)
Motherboard Name MSI P4MAM2-V (MS-7095) (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8751A Apollo P4M266A
System Memory 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (03/30/05)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter GeForce 6200 (256 MB)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6200 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6200 AGP
Monitor Dell M780 [17" CRT] (5322DE6CXF89)
Monitor NEC MultiSync FE700 [17" CRT] (0587953BA)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! Value (CT4780) Sound Card
Audio Adapter VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller

Storage:
IDE Controller VIA Bus Master IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller Virtual CloneDrive
Disk Drive WDC WD400BB-00FJA0 (37 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive WDC AC313500D (12 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive ELBY CLONEDRIVE SCSI CdRom Device (Virtual CD-ROM)
Optical Drive LG DVD-ROM DRD8160B (16x/48x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200A
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 12935 MB (2351 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 38154 MB (2840 MB free)
Total Size 51089 MB (5191 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Network:
Network Adapter VIA Compatable Fast Ethernet Adapter
Network Adapter WPN311 RangeMax(TM) Wireless PCI Adapter (192.168.254.1)

Peripherals:
Printer HP Photosmart C4200 series (Copy 1)
Printer HP Photosmart C4200 series
USB1 Controller VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
USB1 Controller VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
USB1 Controller VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
USB1 Controller VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
USB2 Controller VIA USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller

Problems & Suggestions:
Problem Disk free space is only 7% on drive D:.

[kiwi_2005]

okay just my opinion.

1. The old Celerons were not gaming cpus - office work more like it.
2. You have 7% of disk space left try freeing more up
3. 6200 grfx card, the 256ram type?

Your games are old though where the above mentioned shouldn't really be the problem apart from the lack of disk space.

Antivirus? Turn it off or uninstall it just to see, i use to get lock ups that would happen every couple of seconds and last for 1-2 seconds at a time, drove me nuts i use to disable the anti-virus as well so never thought it would be that, till i deleted the antivirus altogether and the lock ups ceased.

[TLAM Strike]

Ok I just cleaned up about 7 GB worth of old stuff. And yes my GFX is 256 meg.

I'll burn off a couple more GB of old movie files and erase them and see how it goes tomorrow night.

Oh and my AV program is AVG. Is that been known to cause lockups when gaming? I played SH4 for about a year with no lockups without AVG installed because my computer was not linked to the net.

[kiwi_2005]

one AVG version that came out was real bloated so i read but that would of been fixed with an update.

I see this though:
Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! Value (CT4780) Sound Card
Audio Adapter VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller

If im right do you have two sound cards enabled? The SB live is the card if im correct and your got the VIA AC'97 on-board? You can disable the AC'97 in BIOS so only the SB live is using up resources.

Another option is do a full disk fragmentation of your drives sometimes a defrag fixes a lot of problems.

[Wolfehunter]

Ya I think kiwi is on the right track. Two sound cards might be borking your games.

SB should be a better one.

Also your Celeron is outdated. I remember them being tough chips you maybe able to overclock them without any heat issues. There very stable. Last time I heard about that was over 7 years ago. :hmmm:

[CaptainHaplo]

Does the vid card have a fan on it - or is it one of those ones that used passive cooling? Could also be an overheating situation - some games pushing the card just a little too hard. Make sure the heatsink is clean, and if it has a fan that its running smooth.

[Arclight]

That's what I thought too, but the 6200 I have is passive. Might be different models though. Or make sure there's some airflow through the case, ambient temp could be climbing too high.

Maybe replace the cooling paste. Don't honestly know, but it might lose conductivity over the years.

[TLAM Strike]

I uninstalled AVG and installed Avast! instead and I have not experienced a lock up since. I think that cleared the problem. I'll post again if it happens more.

Does the vid card have a fan on it - or is it one of those ones that used passive cooling? Could also be an overheating situation - some games pushing the card just a little too hard. Make sure the heatsink is clean, and if it has a fan that its running smooth.
No fan. I cleaned all the dust from the system about a month ago so it should be clean.

That's what I thought too, but the 6200 I have is passive. Might be different models though. Or make sure there's some airflow through the case, ambient temp could be climbing too high.

Maybe replace the cooling paste. Don't honestly know, but it might lose conductivity over the years.

I checked the heat levels using Everest and they are within operating parameters if a little hot. But that could be because of the warm days we have been having. I moved the tower so the vent fan on the case has more room to vent heat.

Currently the temps are:
Temperatures:
Motherboard 43 °C (109 °F)
CPU 54 °C (129 °F)
GPU 59 °C (138 °F)
WDC AC313500D 51 °C (124 °F)
WDC WD400BB-00FJA0 68 °C (154 °F) I only looked up my CPU's temp but my current temp is 10 degrees below its max rated temp.


I bought some thermal paste and if it keeps acting up I will put a new coat on.

[kiwi_2005]

I uninstalled AVG and installed Avast! instead and I have not experienced a lock up since. I think that cleared the problem. I'll post again if it happens more.


Yep the antivirus strikes again :nope: I hate security software, i have comodo security suite which is not bad but 95% of the time i have it fully disabled only turn it on if im about to open a zip file or install an application. Otherwise it stays off. Nothing wrong with comodo its just that its another resource hog that i don't need to run 24/7.

[Seth8530]

Have you considered the possibility that your PSU is on the bender? If your hardware is not over heating it could be that when you run load intensive programs that your cpu, gpu, and other devices are drawing more power than your PSU can supply. What is your power supply rated at?