winterchronic

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problem :- when playing some games, even old ones such as counter-strike, after around 10 minutes. the game hangs, freezes, and spurts forth a ridicolous buzzing sound, as it locks up. if i dont CTRL+ALT+DEL quickly, windows will completely lock up and i will have to reboot.
If i do CTRL, ALT, DEL, ( now heres the strange part - cos i only press it once)
my task manager shows, around 100 taskmgr.exe processes running, as you can udnerstand this lags me down a bit, and as i close each task manager window ,another 100 pop up , in the end i have to admit defeat and reboot.
this only happens when playing games. and not even modern stressful games.

additionally, every now and then, my windows will shut itself down, not reboot, but as if i had pressed the shutdown button myself

my Specs : core2duo 1.86ghz, 1.5 GB DDR2 ram. msi 975x platinum mobo, realtek HD soundcard, geforce 7600 GT, xp SP2.

what ive done the only thing that has changed recently, is a new memory module has been added ( kingston 1GB ), but i have removed that and tested on my single old one, and the problem is still there. , i have virus scanned, spyware scanned, registry cleaned, defragged, updated drivers. the usual checklist.
My PSU is 550 W so no problems there, my CPU and GPU temps are fine.
so as you can tell, im quite lost as to what it is, i dont overclock, im quite good at keeping my PC free of errors , and free of viruses/ e.t.c
so please someone help me!!!

drktitan56

What type of windows are you running?

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I have always been a street hacker if you want to put it in those terms. I prefer to call it guerrilla research of todays machines and the never ending thirst for finding out just what the hell is out there. You fear us only until you want something for free.

winterchronic

"my Specs : core2duo 1.86ghz, 1.5 GB DDR2 ram. msi 975x platinum mobo, realtek HD soundcard, geforce 7600 GT, xp SP2."

elfoozo

Some standard questions that come to mind, you don't have to anser them, they're just to jog your brain...

Did you verify your mobo can handle the 1 GB stick before adding it? Does the mfgr list any BIOS updates? Read through their changelog if possible.

Do the memory specs of the new match your original memory?

Are the memory settings in the BIOS correct?

Have you re-seated components, cables and add-in cards since you started having problems after adding/removing the RAM?

Do you have the latest drivers for your components?

Have you performed tests that isolate each piece of hardware? E.g. go into c:\windows\media and play some midi's for a while to pick on the sound card... play a video that has no audio... etc. Note: playing music cd's won't count as a sound card test because cd's generally don't get processed by the audio card circuitry.

Do you have any peripherals plugged in / turned on that you didn't normally have on in the past? Maybe a USB memory card sitting in a USB slot that normally isn't there while gaming?

winterchronic

the memory is exact same type and clock speed as my other stick. the mobo can handle it, the faults still occur when all USB devices are unplugged.
running media software never causes these faults, only games do. even if im PUNISHING my cpu with some heavy duty on the fly encoding or recording at high sample rates.
I have cleaned my PC out, reseated and checked the memory and gfx card and all cables.
bios mem setttings are at default, they worked for the single stick, and seeing as the single stick is same frequency/type e.t.c, i assume it should be the same.
hmm how did i go from two green to two red rep with this thread? lol

thanks for showing an interest, but i think im gonna do a clean install of windows, that would narrow it down, to a definite hardware issue, if it is still happening. i think ive exhausted every other avenue.

CWB

before you format and reload windows ...

could you post a listing of the processes running as indicated in task manager (after the comp chokes) ?

a list generated by "hijack this" would be better .

Bulletproof

Could you have some issues with your keyboard (hardware or drivers?) getting multiple taskmgr like that look like a 'stuck keys' issues, maybe the shutting down could be related to that to...

stealth keyloger gone berzerk???

Also Check for:
-MoBo driver updates
-BIOS updates
-Other drivers (maybe the more recent drivers are less stable?)
-Double check the BIOS RAM settings actually match the hardware (some auto-detect have issues)
-BIOS video card settings (caching, memory aperture if AGP, etc.)