hl2 and cs:source freeze my computer

[Scant7]

after i play hl2 or source for a while my computer will unexpectedly crash and totally stops responding and the sound loops. i have to restart and load the game back up each time it happens and this is very annoying.

i've tried different cat drivers, i've tried playing the games without sound, everything is at stock, i've tried different resolutions and disabled all but primary apps from starting up with windows. my temps are fine, 41 degrees under intense gaming or stress, and 30'ish at idle. my 3dmark05 stock score is 4636 which is not bad. i don't need to reinstall windows, as i just installed windows less than a month ago. i'd try disabling fastwrites, but i have pci-e card.

any help is appreciated, thanks.

pc specs as same as sig except im using 1gb mushkin memory

[pcgirl]

Have you tried reinstalling the game? Seems like you've covered everything else...

[Scant7]

yes i have... i was just playing right now except this time after it froze my computer restarted itself...

[CeeDeeJay]

I would check the rails on my power supply it may not be keeping up under load.

[Scant7]

how would i check them?

just ran prime95 torture test for 5 hours, no errors, passed all tests

[yo4444]

I have a friend having the EXACT same issues. I had him install ASUS Probe(h has asus mobo) to check temps, which were high, but he was getting a warning on his 12v rail. Running at over 13v. That is what I suspect is causing it.

You can get speedfan (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=337) or MBM5 (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311) to monitor your mobo if the manufacturer doesn't have a monitoring tool for it.

If your rails are off by too much (+/- more than 5-8%) you can definitely experience instability issues when stressing the PC.

[Scant7]

well comp just froze again, although i was able to get in like 40 mins of gameplay before it happened. here is a ss of my rails and temps.

http://img163.echo.cx/img163/4241/temp5hw.th.jpg (http://img163.echo.cx/my.php?image=temp5hw.jpg)

[CeeDeeJay]

There are several issues it could be but I still suspect the power supply when under the load of playing your game. Do you have another power supply you could use to plug in and test it with??
When you took the PS reading you posted was it during your game??

[Scant7]

no that one was prior to playing, this one is during gameplay:

http://img253.echo.cx/img253/4940/ssintense6te.th.jpg (http://img253.echo.cx/my.php?image=ssintense6te.jpg)

no i dont have another ps

[CeeDeeJay]

There are several possible problems.I would try to check them out one at a time.
1) Because it occures in more than one game you would suspect that it might be a driver problem instead of a specific game problem.I would try to reload the vid drivers and if that doesn't work I would try to find a older set of drivers and try them.I know you have done this but I would readdress this.
2) Just to be sure I would try unloading the games and reload with a friends games and test and see if the problem still occures.I would also check the FAQ of the game sites and MB sites and see if others have this problem.
3) It could still be a power supply problem that works well until the time the rail crashes and you have your system crash.I would find a friend with a power supply and test the unit with another power supply.
4)It could be that the games have corrupted your windows and you may have to do a reinstall-I would try everything else first.
5)It may still be a problem specific to your game and I would try a friends copy to try to eleminate this alternative.
6)I would also totally unload my sound drivers and try reloading as it may be a glitch in them.
7) You didn't mention if you had an overclock if so I would return it to default.I would also be concerned about my sata drivers and would check for an update.There are a few glitiches that have had to be addressed by the mb manfs or the drivers.
8) I would also do the mem test (again if your done it) just to make sure your memory hasn't developed a bad spot that could be haunting you.
Am I correct in understanding that the only time this has ever happened is when your playing one of two games??

[four4875]

i have a problem like that at times, but its usually when ive been playing with sv_ variables in the game. ig i hit enter and space a couple times it gets pas the error message that hl2 gives me (but cant se caus game is in the way)

and i would reccomend testing PSU with a multimeter over the mobo's readings, its more accurate that way. and try updating any driver you can.

[CeeDeeJay]

If it was me I would go completely thru my machine updating everything that needs it.We one time found a unit that had a vid update found only on Microsofts update site and nowhere else that addressed a issue that solved a computers problem.Because I only go to the vid cards web site for driver updates I hadn't thought about going there for that update.Possible updates-OS/Vid Card/Drives/MB/Sound
Sometimes such a simple thing as the order you put in updates effect there preformance.Good Luck

[Scant7]

I've been outta town for a couple of days but my problem still remains. I've tried reinstalling video drivers and my games. My computer is not overclocked by the way.

Today and yesterday though something happened that changed my mind about the cause of the freezes. It's not just the games HL2 and CS:S that freeze my computer. Last night me and some friends did some intense video editing for a digital video class on my computer using adobe premiere pro 1.5. After about 5 hours of editing and capturing, we took a break and went into the kitchen. When we came back the computer had frozen. We werent even working on anything we just left everything we had been doing to go in the kitchen real quick.

Then I was going to do a loop of 3DMARK03 over night of the nature test and after the second test my computer locked up and froze.

Then earlier today my friends and I finished editing and compiling our projects which probably took about 3-4 hours. During editing and rendering my computer worked fine and speedy, then when we finished I was going to browse the internet with the time left until class, and right when I opened IE it half loaded and then my comp froze again.

I booted my computer back up and checked the readings on my rails and the ATX 12V was at 11.71 which is what it's still at, but there was an intance where it went to 11.64. Is this dangerously low? Other than that reading, the others were pretty much the same as in my previous ss's. NV 1.5V however did rise from 1.52 to 1.6something at one point.

I can't find the source of my problem. I really just want to take it in somewhere and have them try to fix it but places rip you off so much for what they do it's rediculous. I just swapped my old corsair xms pc2700 2x256 ram back in and took out my friends mushkin enhanced 2x512 to see if it will fix my problem. If it freezes again I'll report back, but other than that I can't think of anything else.

[Celeron_Phreak]

I just finished Half-Life 2 for the second time and it did this to me a few times to. I just waited it out and the game came back after a minute or so. Wait it out and see if it returns like it did to me.

[musawi]

I had the same problem but I then re installed my chipset drivers and it worked. Try it!

[coin]

have you checked the temps on your graphics card?

[Scant7]

so i changed the ram back to my old ram and my comp hasnt frozen yet. when i play hl2 at times it stutters really bad and the audio starts to loop and you can tell it wants to freeze but it doesnt at all, the stuttering always just lasts for a little bit in certain parts.

when you said you reinstalled your chipset drivers what exactly does that include? I went to dfi's website and motherboard drivers and they have a bit of a selection.

i hadn't checked the gpu temps no.

also, does anyone use Intel Application Accelerator? Would it speed anything of mine up?

[Ad Rock]

I was having the same problems with my system and running HL2/CS:S and I was running Zone Alarm Pro Firewall/Anti-virus on my system. I found when I disabled Zone Alarm the problem disapeared.

I dont know if this can help you but I can say I feel for you man, I know how frustrating having a problem like that can be.

[Scant7]

bump

[Scant7]

bump

[Pro*Banshee]

Not enough ram perhaps?
the power supply sounds like the component to look at, What is it/who makes it?

[DrkLrdsSlv]

Yeah, I have this same exact problem and its REALLY frustrating. I noticed it after I installed NVIDIA's latest vid drivers. I havn't tried any older ones yet though.