Unique hard crash; unknown cause

[dasmoose]

Hi guys -

My problem is that the system freezes with a constant tone over the speakers after several minutes of gamplay in darwinia. I was able to complete garden and containment, however when I got to Yard the system kept crashing after about 5 minutes of gameplay. See below for progress. When not playing darwinia, the system stays up indefinitely; i usually have music playing constantly or am watching videos, browsing, etc. I completed the original Aliens versus Predator over the weekend, so I believe the problem is specific to either darwinia OR more modern games.

The crash does not generate a blackbox text file, and a reboot is necessary to use the system.

OS: Win2k (fresh install, less than 1 week old)
CPU: Intel P4 2.66ghz
RAM: 1gb
Direct X 9.0c
GFX card: NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300, 128mb (running latest drivers, 6.14.0010.8426)
Sound: SB Audigy Gamer (running latest drivers) / Onboard sound - see below

Attempted fixes:
-Patched darwinia to latest version
-Updated soundcard drivers to latest version
-Updated directX from 9.0 to 9.0c
-Removed soundcard + drivers, enabled onboard sound - fixed problem long enough to move onto next level, however game now crashes within a few minutes of this level (generator)
-Tried turning all hardware acceleration off both in darwinia and in the control panel; tried with soundcard and onboard sound, made no difference

I am at a complete loss as to what the problem is. I would be EXTREMELY grateful for any assistance given, as I absolutely love darwinia and had planned to spend my last few weeks before going to uni completing it.

[dasmoose]

Update: It appears the problem is not confined to darwinia - i was just watching a google video and the exact same thing happened. I rebooted, loaded up the same video and was able to watch it the whole way through.

I would really appreciate any ideas anyone has. This is really driving me crazy.

[trickfred]

....Google your motherboard to see if there's any ram timing/compatibility issues?

(Off the top of my head, I've had wonky ram that caused weird problems that I thought was a sound card issue once)

[dasmoose]

Another possibility - CPU was at about 60 degrees C before starting darwinia. AFter the crash in darwinia, the BIOS gave the CPU temperature as 90 degrees.

I'm thinking possible overheating. Anyone had similar problems with high temperatures?

[trickfred]

Yikes.

Take the side off your case, and point an 18" or bigger fan right inside, on high. Once your CPU's dropped in temp a bit, try playing again and see if it crashes again (with the fan on). If it doesn't, or it does but it takes a lot longer, then that's yer problem. Go get yourself a better heatsink for your CPU (a nice big copper one), and maybe adjust/increase the number of case fans.

Guild Wars, for example, is a pretty graphically intensive game, and I used to hit 61 playing it, but I've got one of these now, and the temp doesn't go past 42.

[Montyphy]

That is one scary heatsink.

[trickfred]

Scary, yes. Good at what it does, hell yeah.

[Montyphy]

My eyes are getting old. It looks like a block of copper hence why I like BIG pics.

Is it any bigger than a stock heatsink?

[trickfred]

The stock one is just a hair under 2.5 x 2.5 x 1.75 inches. The Thermaltake's just a hair under 3.5 inches cubed, with slight narrowing near the base.

Edit: Took the side off my case to measure, and the CPU has dropped to 38.

Edit2: Bigger pics of Rev.1, essentially the same (I have Rev.2)

http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=135

[Montyphy]

I'd be too worried of the thing breaking off.

Mine is 31C idle. Using a AMD stock heatsink and fan

[trickfred]

Oh well, the stock sink never really performed well in my case, side on or off, so I doubt it's an airflow issue. *shrug*

And it's on pretty solid - I was afraid I was going to crack my chip it's so tight. It's not going anywhere.

[Montyphy]

Ah, thanks, those pics were a lot better.

There's a few things that may explain why I have lower temps. Most obvious is probably because I'm using an AM2 single core AMD which uses only 62W. Plus, I personally think I have a case with excellent airflow:
1x 120mm intake on the front
1x 120mm exhaust on the side
1x 120mm exhaust on the back
1x 80mm exhaust in the top.
The PSU has 2 80mm fans for through-flow. Plus I'm running an AM2 single core AMD which runs on 62W.

How do you measure your CPU temp? to you place the probe between the heatsink and motherboard or do you just place it on the base of the heatsink?

[trickfred]

Built-in motherboard sensor (A7V600-X). Easier. No muss, no fuss.

Athlon XP 3000+ (Works plenty fine for me, I'll upgrade next year, or whenever there's better 64 bit driver support)

2 80mms at the front, 4000rpms - 2 crappy 80's near the top rear, maybe 2500rpm's or so, and a silent 120mm in the PSU (An OCZ Modstream 450W), not that the silent part matters with the 2 4K rpm-ers at the front. Next purchase is a fan bus, methinks. I'm also thinking of maybe putting an exhaust for the TT heatsink in the plexi, that might alleviate the extra 2 degrees with the side on.

(I'm not an uber-case modder or overclocker, but I get by)

[Montyphy]

Built-in motherboard sensor (A7V600-X). Easier. No muss, no fuss. Very Happy

Ah, my case has 3 temp probes, 1 to be placed near the CPU, 1 near the HDDs and one for the PSU. Has a LED read out on the front.

Although, I'm certain I have an onboard sensor since I remember seeing temp readings in the BIOS. I would rather be able to know the temp without restarting.

Athlon XP 3000+ (Works plenty fine for me, I'll upgrade next year, or whenever there's better 64 bit driver support)

Heh, I upgraded from an Athlon XP 1800+. For some reason its decided to hog the CPU when copying or moving files so it grinds to an halt.

As for 64-bit driver support. That looks a long way off. I think I'm going to have to uninstall WinXP x64 from the thing since I'm finding it hard to get anything working on it.

(I'm not an uber-case modder or overclocker, but I get by)

Neither am I. That's why when looking for a case I made sure it atleast had an exhaust in the roof and why I'm still running the CPU at stock.

[dasmoose]

Hi guys - touch wood but the indications are that the problem is solved.

I followed fred's suggestion of using a fan with the side of the case off - used a temperature monitor, the highest was about 83 degrees. I was able to complete the generator level, which took aproximately 20-30 minutes. This is far longer than the normal time before crash. I then turned the fan off, and started the Yard level. The temperature started climbing gradually, about 30 seconds after it hit 95 degrees the freeze happened.

I'm gonna buy me a big-ass heatsink and fan.