Games Locking up Or Crashing?

[WazMeister]

I recently bought my wife a Shuttle, so she could play Sims 2 and Roller Coaster games till her hearts content.

When I first got it, I formatted it and put all nice new drivers on like a buet.

Installed Sims2, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and through the xmas holiday she played for hours on end!

Now few weeks later, some reason playing sims 2 after about random 10 to 15 or even hour play the whole computer freezes and I have to hard power down.

Roller Coaster Tycoon does the same, sometimes it may just crash to windows but its mainly the freeze.

Its really annoying me and defo her!

I've reinstalled gfx card drivers, tried diffrent ones inc omega. Ive tried new bios update, changed ram (as thouht it was ram problems), cleaned gfx card fan/heat sink incase it was heat.

I had many suggestions like heat, drivers etc but ive tried fixign these with latest, diffrent ones and a fan blowing over the dam thing!

Anyone got suggestions?
How can it go from fine.. to suddenly few weeks later to crashing games.
Windows works fine, stress test on Sandra worked fine and even he ATI tools Artifact thing ran fine for 20 minutes?!?!?!?!?


Just bit strange tbh.

Spec is follows-
Shuttle X FX51
XP2000
512mb ram (got another 512mb but taken it out incase it was the problem and swapped it with new 512mb).
GF Ti 4400
80 gig HD

IF anyone helps me resolve this easily and surely and fast I swear I will kiss you.
heck I'll even tip you a donation via paypal!
Cheers in advance guys I know you know your stuff!

Rgds

WAz!

[briareos_kerensky]

Probably it's one of those cases where it's impossible to track down the source of the problem. For example, Dawn of War runs fine on my computer, I can play for hours without any problem, however if I do a skirmish and leave the game idling for a while it freezes the whole computer; however, if I leave it idling during internet skirmishes, it doesn't.
As you tried everything I could have told you and Sandra's stress test runs fine, I can only tell you to try 3D Mark or any other graphic intensive benchmark and leave it running for an hour or two and see what happens.
You can also try to uninstalla the games and then reinstall, but I doubt this will solve anything...maybe patches will help.

[abigsmurf]

Heat is the most likely cause. Get speedfan, run an intense 3D program for a while and look at the temp.

[WazMeister]

I got motherboard monitor, run 3dMARK fine and CPU is 55 and case 48.

Seems fine..


Weird

Any more suggestions?

[briareos_kerensky]

run 3dMARK fine and CPU is 55 and case 48.

For how many times/hours? To be sure it's not an heat-induced problem you should leave the benchmark running for a couple of hours.

[WazMeister]

I kept runing the test one after the other 4 times ina row.

Not a option to get it running....

I not got full thing.

[EvilBoris]

I had a problem like this recently, tried everything. I eventually concluded that my motherboard wasn't very compatible with ram. I had to lower the speed of the ram slightly and it fixed my problems

[CMcK]

Check the Shuttle BIOS and see what temperature the fan starts to ramp up. If you think it's too low change.

Check the HDD ribbons aren't block airflow around the chipset.

I had a similar spec SFF Shuttle case which ran pretty hot so I replaced the fan with a Panaflow and it was fine after that.

[Leon Retro]

Whats the range of voltage fluctuations like compared to when the computer was first built? if it's increased then it could be component failure, as the only thing that appears to have happened from the perfect state is the device has been subjected to usage, and thus wear and tear. I would suggest having replace electrolytic capacitors on a small enclosed hot computer with organic solid polymer capactors such as Sanyo Oscon.

[WazMeister]

I just got in after leaving ATI dev tools running the artifact test, to see what temp it goes at.

Was out for a good 5 hours and PC had a warning from motherboard monitor saying "HEAT ARLRM, CPU at 85c IGNORE OR CLOSE"

But at corner even tyhough the programs all still running, meaning it still be heating up.. it says 54 in the tray so I did ignore.


Is 85c bad or a cpu in a shuttle? It warned me as that is what I set it at.



Maybe i should change ram speed from 133 to 100?

[WazMeister]

Check the Shuttle BIOS and see what temperature the fan starts to ramp up. If you think it's too low change.

Check the HDD ribbons aren't block airflow around the chipset.

I had a similar spec SFF Shuttle case which ran pretty hot so I replaced the fan with a Panaflow and it was fine after that.

this kinda fan you used?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Panasonic-Panaflo-80mm-Case-Fan-FBA08A12L_W0QQitemZ300190031679QQihZ020QQcategoryZ42003QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD7VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m123

Might be worth a try?!?!?

[Jei]

I used to build Shuttles for living and know exactly what kind of a pain in the ass they are.

As it's already been mentioned it's more than likely down to heat, especially with the symptoms you've mentioned. Personally i'd boot into the Bios and monitor the Temperature of the CPU there. Leave it running for a good amount of time and just keep an eye on it.

A lot of shuttles I built used CPU Coolers/Heatsinks that required the Thermal Compound to be manually put on....you haven't forgot have you? Should be a nice sticky mess between the CPU and the Cooler.

Failing that try running it with the outer case off and see if the problem replicates.

Lmk how you get on, or if you're anywhere near Manchester supply me with large amounts of caffine in a mug and i'l pop over

[WazMeister]

I did not build, Bought it 2nd hand.

Thats the problem, might have to crank it open and re-apply some termal liquid.

She was playing some RCT3 tonight with out a crash for a hour or 2... maybe its fixed?

I went to BIOS and changed the FAn settings from SMART FAN to FULL so its at full speed all times. maybe thats helping? Dunno....

But before the temps did not seem that high... weird.

Fingers rossed it might be fixed, if not I post again tomorw
GOnna hit sack! I let 3DMARk run all night and see what happens.

Cheers Jeimuzu, Awesome man you are!

[Rossco]

You should crack it open and have a wee look at the thermal paste just in case though, even remove it and apply some new stuff too!