Ns Kills My Computer
jeujitstu
Join Date: 2004-03-01 Member: 27008Members
Join Date: 2004-03-01 Member: 27008Members
<div class="IPBDescription">NS = death</div> I'm about to pull my freakin' hair out, I can't play NS!!
<u>So the problem is this:</u>
- Start NS through Steam
- Connect to server
- Enjoy playing as much as I can, because I know <b>IT</b>'s comming
- Melt-down.
The computer just turns <b>off</b>. No warning. The only way to get the dern thing back on is to unplug the power cord from the back, plug it back in, then it will start. This problem has reared its ugly head in the past week and a half. Going from rarley to all-the-freakin'-time. I had 2.0 thru the newest version work perfect. When I got beta 3.3 I had that silly client.dll problem, but a re-install of NS fixed that right up.
<u>Things I have done to try to fix it:</u>
- Remove and re-install NS beta 3 ver. 1 , NS beta 3 ver. 3, Steam, Half-Life
- Got Service Pack updates - and even more updates
- Yell at computer/cry
Nothing has worked. It's 4:53 in the morning, all I want to do is play Natural Selection. I can't sleep.... haven't played this WHOLE weekend... *twitch*
System: (if it will help... somehow, please god)
AMD 1.9ghz
GeForce 5200+ 256mb
Win-blows 2000 Professional
1 gig o' RAM
Eh? Any ideas?
<u>So the problem is this:</u>
- Start NS through Steam
- Connect to server
- Enjoy playing as much as I can, because I know <b>IT</b>'s comming
- Melt-down.
The computer just turns <b>off</b>. No warning. The only way to get the dern thing back on is to unplug the power cord from the back, plug it back in, then it will start. This problem has reared its ugly head in the past week and a half. Going from rarley to all-the-freakin'-time. I had 2.0 thru the newest version work perfect. When I got beta 3.3 I had that silly client.dll problem, but a re-install of NS fixed that right up.
<u>Things I have done to try to fix it:</u>
- Remove and re-install NS beta 3 ver. 1 , NS beta 3 ver. 3, Steam, Half-Life
- Got Service Pack updates - and even more updates
- Yell at computer/cry
Nothing has worked. It's 4:53 in the morning, all I want to do is play Natural Selection. I can't sleep.... haven't played this WHOLE weekend... *twitch*
System: (if it will help... somehow, please god)
AMD 1.9ghz
GeForce 5200+ 256mb
Win-blows 2000 Professional
1 gig o' RAM
Eh? Any ideas?
Comments
It sounds very much like a stopped CPU or graphics card fan. Just pop open the case while it's running see that all the fans are running correctly. You could also put memtest86 on a bootable floppy/CD and run it to check for memory errors(it's rare, but a stick of memory that has been working fine can go bad).
Looking at system specs, you seem to be overclocking things(never heard of 1.9 GHz athlon xp's). Try running with defaults or try running prime95(will almost allways crash your PC if you have minor CPU instabillity problems or heat problems).
AMD Athalon XP 2600+ ~1.9 ghz
I was thinking of heat issues as well. The cpu fan checks out visually ok. I might jack the box open later today and give it a closer inspection. I am not overclocking. I don't really play any other games on my computer. The same problem happened with The Specalist. I was thinking Half-Life was the problem, but...
I'll try installing another game and giving that a go. If that doesn't work... My Winblows 2000 Pro is a warez version. This did not affect preformance before though(not shure if it would).
What are your computer core temperatures? Can I get the temp. without using bios at startup? Soooooo frustrating... What is this magical "prime95" you speak of?
thankyousomuch
AMD Athalon XP 2600+ ~1.9 ghz
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
... oh yeah, there's some ~1933 MHz athlon xp's, sorry.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Can I get the temp. without using bios at startup? Soooooo frustrating... What is this magical "prime95" you speak of?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If your motherboard supports it you can get the temperature with something like mother board monitor. They sometimes screw up so check that temperatures are similar to those in bios(when in bios you are not really putting the CPU under much strain so temperatures will even out to something quite low after a while, often refered to as idle temperature). If idle temperature in windows is vastly different then idle temp in bios then assume it's incorrect and try to find another application to check it.
Prime95 is a program that tries to find very very big prime numbers. It is very good at stressing the CPU as much as you possibly could and it WILL crash if your having even slight problems that might not even be enough to crash games. Run it for something like 15 minutes in that "benchmark" mode and if it doesn't crash you can be pretty sure that whatever problems your having have nothing to do with the CPU.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I got a program that tells me the internal temperature. The CPU temperature was around 57C. Is this unusually high?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you have just been siting round in bios for a while then yes, that's high and under load temperatures would probably rise into the seventies and cause crashes(at about ~90C your processor is likely to die). If this is just after a crash then temperatures do seem a bit high but they are not necessarily the problem(60C under high load is not usually a problem but you would probably like a bit of a safety margin).
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->When we built my computer I put just a dab of that heatsink goop onto the processor... Maybe I should put more? I'm gonna ask some dude who lives in the other dorm about it. He's got a really nice computer.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
When applying thermal paste you want a thin even layer, ideally it should be almost translucent. Wash away the goop on both surfaces with a solvent that will completely evaporate without leaving traces(pure isopropanol, pure aceton etc.). Try not to get fingerprints on the cpu core or sink, they can hurt more then you might think as they can be nearly as thick as the layer of thermal paste(!).
<a href='http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1149273,00.asp' target='_blank'>installing an athlon xp sink</a>
<b>3000</b> r_speeds !
I've always been interested in my internal temperatures and how to monitor them without going through Setup. I downloaded the SpeedFan you recommended <a href='http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php' target='_blank'>here,</a> but am wondering, can you use this proggy to monitor ONLY? Or does it necessitate your changing all the settings for when these fans come on/turn off?