Issue with computer

Highonbread

About, dunno, 3 months ago I installed 256 mbs of ram, and a geforce4 ti4600 video card. Since then, I've suffered from random 'crashes' to where basically my computer turns off, but the monitor stays on and so forth, and the computer is still actually on (sorry if that's confusing). Sometimes sound will continue playing, or get stuck in a loop, but it basically makes it so I have to turn off the computer at the power to get it to reboot.
I am really unsure of what is causing this, but it seems to happen more frequently with (I am an avid gamer) higher-stress games. I've brought it in to a Best Buy a few times for support, but they just sort of jerk around for awhile, then say they can't find anything was wrong with it (they installed the ram and video card).
I am currently running Windows XP home edition on a HP 1300 mhz, 512 mbs of ram. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could tell me if the RAM is the problem(that is what I thought, and what some people had told me) and what I should do if it is (the ram is Kingston). If it's not the RAM, what could it be?

For a bit of clarification on the problem, the screen goes black, and the power light on the monitor turns yellow (as it does when the computer is off, but the monitor is on). The computer's power light is also on, and I can hear it running, and as I said before, sometimes can hear the sound.

Thank you very much in advance and I apologize for the extremely confusing message.

Kali

sounds like the RAM to me, normally if their was a problem with the graphics card (overheating or such) it would manifest itself in glitchs or noticeable faults in the display.. take the memory out and leave it out for a few days see if the problem re-occurs.

GRAHAM2002

You have suddeenly put alot more stress on your power supply.

Does the blackout happen when u are using power hungry games
or when there is a sudden surge in graphic power needed ?

Then it may well be the power supply that is faulty

BigEejit

There might be a overheating problem, is the inside of the case hot?

Highonbread

Thanks for the prompt reply everyone.

Kali) Yeah, that's what I was thinking, that the RAM is the problem. It was suggested that I change my Kingston RAM for a better brand. Any suggestions?

Graham) How would I check if my power supply was faulty, because the problem occurs most often when I am playing very high-stress games. For example, when I was playing Unreal 2 I would have the crash every couple of minutes, but when playing an older game like Counter-Strike it never occurs.
If my power supply is faulty how would I go about fixxing the problem?

Big Eejit) Generally my computer is very cool, even though i leave it running alot.

Again, thanks everyone.

BigEejit

If its crashing under heavy load it may be your processor overheating ... try to get it to fail again and when you reset the pc go into the bios and check out the cpu temperature (it might have already gone down again though:( )

Highonbread

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but how would I go about doing that?

Col_Loki

When ur pc crashes, instantly hit the reset button on ur pc. When its loading up at the start, press del and it gets u into the BIOS - the pc settings if u like. In there find "Pc health" - it will tell u the motherboard & cpu temp. Write em down and post em here.

Keith@modified

If its a memory problem MemTest86 will tell you for sure.

By all means have a look at the temp in your Bios but before messing with ur PSU and anything else for that matter give the memtest a run.

Instructions r given and r pretty fool proof.

Conlai

If I understand you the PC locks up and doesn't reboot itself. If your PSU is under stress then it will normally cause a reboot. You say the sound seems to be in a loop, if this is the case then try installing an older more stable version of the nvidia drivers. I've seen this before and that has cured it. RAM issues are more, well, random in nature. Hope this helps.

ando

The symtoms you are having are very similar that I was getting with a mainframe server we had in town. The problem was a corrupt pagefile

Highonbread

Well, I'm back:

I ran half a gazillion memory tests and turned up 0 faults.

BigEejit

Originally posted by ando
The symtoms you are having are very similar that I was getting with a mainframe server we had in town. The problem was a corrupt pagefile

Er ... by mainframe do you mean like a IBM 9672 or a zSeries or something? ..or do you mean just a powerful x86 server ... they are quite different things

Highonbread

Well, I went into BIOS and found my computer was sitting at 50 degrees. Take note that this was not during a a crash, or even an especially high-stress time.

Is this good/bad/fixxable?

Thanks again.


If anyone could, it would be appreciated if they could help me more directly, my email is Highonbread@msn.com, and my AIM is Highonbread.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Keith@modified

50 is not over the top but its slightly higher then what it should be but still at that temp should not be causing ur system to reboot.

Highonbread

If it isn't the heat, and it's not the RAM, then would it be the power supply?

Anyone mind helping me out here again, as far as checking what mine currently is, and maybe what I might want to get?

Thanks

Wolf

TBH I still think it could be the RAM what speed is the mboard and what make and speed are the RAM baords.

I have a funny feeling that is been cause by the RAM un syncin due to it been different makes/speeds. This would cause some sort of bit error and down the system goes.

Also, that might be jibberiship Id also try getting some benchmark software to push your machine and see where is low on the bench mark or better still see a what point it crashes in the test.

GRAHAM2002

If you have a spare power supply or a friend that has a good machine plug the good one into your machine a repeat the game that it seems to crash in. If it does then that is the prob.

Have u also checked the voltage of your power supply it may be low, but I doubt it.

Good Luck