How little is too little? (Power supply - Having some probs)

xxkrnxstylezxx · Post by **xxkrnxstylezxx** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:32 pm

Well, I really think I need a new PSU. I'm having random freezes when I play Farcry. They don't happen often, but they've been happening more.

Specs:
AMD 64 3000+ Winchester
Asus A8N Deluxe
ATI X800 XT AIW
Seagate 160GB
2 x Crucial 512mb
Audigy 2 ZS
Seasonic Super Tornado 350watt
NEC 3520A
Zalman CNPS7000B-cu
2 x Globe 120mm Fan
Zalman Multi Fan controller

If you would like to help me with the issue, look below...
----------------------------------------------------------------

I've had many random freezing while playing Farcry this week. It just freezes up into a black screen and there's either a whine or the sound that was there keeps freezing. It's only been happening while I'm playing the game, not when I'm just idling or surfing the web...I only play Farcry and usually similar maps, but it freezes at random times (sometimes an hour later, sometimes 20 minutes, most of the times never)

And when I restart, it says there was a critical error in windows (see pics below).

Here's what I know.

*I doubt it's temperature problem because my CPU max is 50'C and my X800XT max is constant 75'C (i've heard this card runs hot. I had 2 and both were the same temperatures.) I have two 120mm case fans.

*It started happening more after I installed the X800XT AIW. It did happen before too with the 6800 i had before, but a little bit less.

*Maybe it's my PSU (Seasonic 350watt - but a reliable and very efficient PSU). Now that I think about it, I'm guessing it is this. But this never happened with my 6800 and P4 2.8 system (just noting).

*Might be the Audigy 2 ZS - from the whining sound when frozen.

Pic of error..

Thanks for your help

erikt · Post by **erikt** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 4:58 am

I find it hard to believe it's a lack of power. I'm running a P4 3.0G
(Northwood), 1Gb PC3200, and a 6600GT off of a Seasonic 200W PSU.

I'd focus at first on the Audigy. I've had lot's of trouble with Creative
drivers in the past.

erikt

megazero · Post by **megazero** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 9:44 am

i have had your type of problem with another game, GTA: SA, anyways I got it to sopt freezing by updating my sound drivers, some people buy different sound cards to stop it if update drivers dont work

xxkrnxstylezxx · Post by **xxkrnxstylezxx** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:13 pm

I'll update my Creative drive or uninstall it to see if it works. Creative drivers are known for problems...

Although, I think my system needs a more powerful PSU. Isn't a 350w PSU pushing it with these parts?

erikt · Post by **erikt** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:56 pm

xxkrnxstylezxx wrote:Isn't a 350w PSU pushing it with these parts?

You're nowhere near 350w, and that's a quality PSU you have, so it will
have no trouble providing what your system needs. As I mentioned, I'm
running a more power-hungry system than yours off of a 200W PSU, with
no stability issues.

erikt

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 3:36 pm

Well, might as well start with the easy ones.

Open the case, have a box fan blowing into it. Play Far Cry. See if it still freezes. If it stops, heat is likely to be the problem.

Next, try to disable sound in Far Cry. Don't know if that will completely deactivate the driver, or does it just turn the volume to 0. That should tell you if Creative's at fault here. I'm not too crazy about Creative drivers myself, with a whole array of their products.

Don't forget to test your system for stability without graphics and sound using Prime95 and memtest86.

I've had random freezes myself. Turned out that I needed to set AGP Fast Write off on my Asus A8V Deluxe when using 9800 Pro. Probably not the same problem, but checking BIOS might be worth a shot.

After that it's the joy of installing drivers and swapping hardware.

Good luck.

L3thal · Post by **L3thal** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 4:03 pm

Hi, same thing has been happening to me lately. I been getting random reboots/bluescreens also. 99% of the time, it happens while playing online games. Sometimes it will go several days without crashing, other times it reboots about every hour. I also have the SB Audigy 2 ZS and 6600GT(previously ATI 8500), and have tried reinstalling sound and graphics drivers, swapping GFX cards, to no avail. I just got a new PSU, so I'm sure thats not the problem, and temps are pretty good. Think I got it narrowed down to two things:

1. bad/incompatable memory stick(s)
2. bad motherboard

I'm gonna try running memtest to see if it brings up any errors. I was planning on getting a new mobo/CPU combo in a few months anyways, but I may have to do it sooner than I thought.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 4:17 pm

Hello:

As everyone has already said, I very much doubt that it is the PS. On the same Super Tornado, I rebuilt a 1.4gHz Thunderbird system:

4 x 256GB RAM
2 x 80GB Samsung, Win2K boot & Win98 boot w/ key switch
2 x 160GB Western Digital, RAID 1
2 optical drives
5 PCI cards (NIC, modem, USB2, SoundBlaster, FireWire)
Antec SLK-3000B
floppy
64MB nVidia video (older model, I forget which one)

The Thunderbird 1.4 is more power hungry than the Winchester...

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:14 pm

Windows blows. It's unstable. Get used to it or switch to linux.

dano · Post by **dano** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:31 pm

Windows blows. It's unstable. Get used to it or switch to linux.

thats constructive...

maybe try taking out your sound card to isolate it. (out of the pci slot)

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 7:58 pm

Sometimes uninstalling and reinstalling a program might fix the problem. You also may want to consider reinstalling Windows. I use Windows 2000 on my rig, and if it froze up (rarely) and I had to use the reset button, the registry would get partially or entirely screwed up, forcing me to resinstall.

Sounds like a software problem, make sure all your drivers are up to date, windows is updated, FarCry has the latest patch, and the computer is free of spyware and viruses. Also, get drive cleaner. Sometimes old drivers left on the system will cause problems.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 11:56 pm

If you google farcry freeze or far cry freeze, you will get quite a few hits.

I hope this quiet PC forum does not become a general PC problem forum.

xxkrnxstylezxx · Post by **xxkrnxstylezxx** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 4:42 pm

Sorry for the late reply. I've updated the drivers and I think the freezing is gone. I can't say for sure because I haven't played it much lately, but it doesn't freeze with BF2 Demo.

m0002a, I wanted to ask here just about the PSU because most other forums always say more power is needed. I think people here know much more about the real power output needed.