My computer keep crashing - Please help

O

omega2

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Does anyone know why my computer keeps crashing? It crashes when I play any 3D games (like Earth & Beyond, UT2k3), playing any videos (whether it's DVD, divx, rm, wmv), and in Microsoft office (doesn't matter which part i'm using whether it's word, excel, etc.). Funny thing is that when I'm browsing the web, it's fine, even with flash video, it seems ok. But the others I have listed above seems to crash my computer. Doesn't matter which version of Windows XP I use, whether it's Home or Pro, both will crash doing the same stuff, even with a little different setup. Does anyone know why this is happening?

My system specs are as follows.
-AMD Athlon 1.2Ghz
-Asus A7V-133 Motherboard (Via base chipset)
-832MB SDRAM
-ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder video card
-SoundBlaster Live
-3COM NIC 905B
-Sigma Design RealMagic Hollyplus MPEG decoder card
-Adaptec 5100 USB 2.0 card
-One other thing, all drivers are up-to-date.
 
You using the latest video card drivers?

That is the source of many problems like that :(
 
Any error messages? If not right click my computer/properties/advanced/startup & recovery. Untick automatic restart.
 
By the sounds of it, the crashing only occurs when the cpu usage is high, therefore it might be a heat issue. Check your heatsink is mounted securely and all your fans are working.
 
Originally posted by jumpy
By the sounds of it, the crashing only occurs when the cpu usage is high, therefore it might be a heat issue. Check your heatsink is mounted securely and all your fans are working.

Not quite sure about this one. Because i run some cpu intensive stuff like Seti@Home, and it doesn't crash. But when I run office and start typing, it will crash. Even watching video or playing games will crash. Don't know why office would crash, it isn't something that require lots of resources.
 
More thoughts

Hello there

Just some thoughts on your problem (some ideas for you to try).

1 - If you have an ASUS motherboard, I imagine that it has the VIA chipset on it. Make sure you update the bios for this chipset (VIA 4n1, I believe) -- Had a similar issue even on my workstation 1 (see below).. I only get Intel chipsets now -- I have no problem on any of my Intel boxes (maybe just coincidence).

2 - From what I have found AMD has not been too stable with XP and running media -- althougth with Office it has been ok. As metioned in another reply (heatsink) -- run the ASUS Probe utility (should have come with your motherboard) -- good way to tell temp of CPU.

3 - Check the system/event log to see if there is anything in there that may help tracking down the problem.

Let me know what you find out.
 

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