Problem with new computer

[chevyordeath]

I just put together my new computer this weekend. Using a few parts from my old AMD Athlon X2 4400 and some new parts I bought from Newegg. My new build is in my sig. The parts I used from my old build are; The case, the DVD rom, my Seagate 320 GB Sata drive, my Antec True Power 2.0 550W PSU, Creative X-Fi Audigy Extreme Music, and my XFX Geforce 8800GT. The CPU, motherboard, and RAM are all new.

I have all drivers up to date, latest Bios and chipset drivers from DFI. First game I installed to see what the new build could do was, Bioshock. I played for a few hours last night with all settings on high using DX10 shaders, ran smooth no issues.

This morning I go to play some more Bioshock, everything is going well. Then all of the sudden the PC locks up completely unresponsive and I got a high pitched continous 'beeeeeep' from my speakers. No BSOD or anything just a complete lockup. I restart the PC and immediatly go into bios to get a quick temp check on my cpu, which was reporting at 44* C. I don't have any software to get a temp read from my video card, but I would hate to put blame on it because I have had this video card for a long time now and have had no issues with it what so ever.

So after that I decide to install Company of Heroes, with all patches and DX10 update. Get everything going, set all my options to high, and start a new campaign. I got as far as the opening scene when you are storming the beaches of Normandy, a few seconds after it switches from being a video to actual in game full graphics rendering, then boom. Same thing, system locks up, high pitch noise from the speakers that do not stop until I hard restart the computer.

So now I am beginning to be worried. I check the event viewer and there are no errors or warnings any where. I do not think it is a heat issue but I guess it could be a possibility. I am thinking that this is a driver issue. Either with the video card or sound card.

I am not sure what to do. I could try using older drivers for both my GPU, and my sound card. I was also thinking about disabling my sound card and uninstalling it completely then trying to game and see if I get the same issue.

What do you guys think about this issue? Have you seen this kind of thing before?

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

[+PeterUK MVC]

Check your GPU temp when you run this in stability test.

http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

The CPU could of cooled down by the time you looked at the temp in the BIOS, run a CPU test and check the temps with this.

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

[chevyordeath]

I will give those 2 things a try right now.

I will say I just went back into Company of Heroes. All my video settings are set to max except anti-aliasing which I left off. I went into audio settings and set my sound quality from ultra, to high. I ran the CoH performance test and got all the way through with no lockups with an average FPS of 35.

[Alexandre.]

Same thing happened to me after I installed Vista then COD4, tryed to play, it locked up, screen glitched, higp pitch noise. What happened was the graphics card fried leading to teh Mobo frying. I don't suggest you continue playing anything till you check the innards of your PC ;)

[chevyordeath]

Alexandre, I agree. I am trying to do some testing and monitor temps right now.

Peter, I can't get HW monitor to run. As soon as it opens vista pops up with "HW Monitor has stopped working" and it closes. I have tried both 64 bit and 32 versions running them as administrator.

How ever before it closes I can get a look at the CPU temps, but they are kind of confuesing. There is 3 rows and 3 columns of temps for the cpu.

TMPIN0 - 36* C

TMPIN1 - 44* C

TMPIN3 - 59* C (this one worries me as that is a high for the PC just sitting on idle.)

I am going to run the FurMark stability test right now and see how that does.

[chevyordeath]

Still can't get HWmonitor to work. But, before it pops up and says "Program has stopped running" I managed to scroll to the bottom of the screen before it closed. The above readings I gave are not for the cpu. The cpu reading on all 4 cores was 41* C on Idle. I was also able to see the video card temp, it was at 61* C.

[chevyordeath]

Ok, I let FurMark run for 90 seconds and started up HWmonitor and scrolled fast to see the GPU temp before it closed. it was at 81*C.

Is this too hot for the GPU?

[+PeterUK MVC]

TMPIN0 - 36* C

TMPIN1 - 44* C

TMPIN3 - 59* C (this one worries me as that is a high for the PC just sitting on idle.)

That might be the south bridge SB600 not sure if AMD can handle this temp.

You could try putting a fan over it next to the ram.

Ok, I let FurMark run for 90 seconds and started up HWmonitor and scrolled fast to see the GPU temp before it closed. it was at 81*C.

Is this too hot for the GPU?

Its getting to be a bit hot...run it for longer and see if your PC locks up.

Do you not see the temp in FurMark when its running?

[Mannlich]

Use Coretemp or Realtemp 2.7 to monitor your cpu temps and be sure that nothing is overheating. Let us know what the temps from those programs are. What cooling are you using on your cpu?

In my experience, a hard lock like that usually occurs when there is some type of glitch with the CPU. Usually if it is a memory or driver conflict, you will get some kind of BSOD. That has just been my experience though. Your GPU temp is on the high side, so that is certainly something to watch out for. You could always try using Rivatuner to manually set the fan speed on your card to 100%.

[Squuiid]

Try this: REMOVE the SB Audigy from your system, I would bet money that this is your problem.

Creative's SB cards have sucked with hardware incompatibilities since the SB Live 5.1 card. The Audigy's are known for the issue you mention. High pitch squeal.

Remove it and see your problems disappear.

My two cents...

[Mannlich]

Try this: REMOVE the SB Audigy from your system, I would bet money that this is your problem.

Creative's SB cards have sucked with hardware incompatibilities since the SB Live 5.1 card. The Audigy's are known for the issue you mention. High pitch squeal.

Remove it and see your problems disappear.

My two cents...

Agreed, ditch the X-Fi and use your onboard sound. I got rid of my X-Fi a while back...never really liked it.

[chevyordeath]

Update.

Before I ran FurMark again, I remembered that the front of my case has a dust filter over 2 80MM intake fans. It was CAKED. So I took the filter out, and left it out.

I started up FurMark. I let it run for 18 minutes. I exited out opened HWMonitor and GPU was reporting 75* C.

So I think the GPU is fine, and removing that filter improved air flow a lot.

I have 2 front 80MM intake, 1 80MM exhaust on the top, and 1 80MM exhaust in the back, plus the 120MM fan in the PSU. Air is moving through pretty good now. CPU temp is also fine.

edit:

The further I take this the more it is leading me to believe that it is the sound card. I think I am going to try what you guys said and remove the audigy and drivers and stick with my onboard sound. I am also willing to bet that my lock up problem goes away.

[chevyordeath]

Removed my Creative X-Fi sound card, wiped all the drivers and software. Restarted the computer, enabled onboard sound and downloaded latest drivers. Everything seems to be running okay now. I have been playing CoH for a while now with no issues what so ever. Hopefully things continue to go well. Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

[+PeterUK MVC]

Removed my Creative X-Fi sound card, wiped all the drivers and software. Restarted the computer, enabled onboard sound and downloaded latest drivers. Everything seems to be running okay now. I have been playing CoH for a while now with no issues what so ever. Hopefully things continue to go well. Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

You removed the dust filter which improved the GPU temp so it could have been just that.

[Squuiid]

You removed the dust filter which improved the GPU temp so it could have been just that.

GPU temps at 80 degs are fine. Well within normal.

Was defo not the temperature. ;-)

[chevyordeath]

The new pc is still going good. Loaded Crysis up last night. Have all video settings at 'very high' with no anti-aliasing. I was playing smoothly for a couple hours before I went to bed.

If it doesn't crash on Crysis, then I think it will be good, lol. I am not sure if I can think of any other game that would tax a computer more then Crysis, lol.

[Squuiid]

Cool, glad to hear it man. Gotta love Creative and it's sh 1t Soundcards.

Seems ASUS now have the market cornered since they bought the exclusive rights to the C-Media HD CMI8788 chip in their Xonar range.

Either that or stick with onboard as most of us do! ;-)