CPU freezes while playing a game

[Frusterated and on the verge of giving up all hope]

Ok, so I'm running an AMD athlon 1.33 w/ plenty of ram,
gforce 4, soundblaster live etc... And my problem is that
when i'm playing a game such as MOHAA i'll be able to
play for about 15 - 30 min and then it will freeze with
this hidious high pitched RIIIIING comming from my
speakers...I feel like i've tried everything, got a new
video card, didnt help..updated every driver i can think
of..didnt help..and this is my last option..so any help
you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[flippin_waffles]

hi, you can try a couple things. first check your
temperatures. also if you are overclocking you may want
to relax your settings a bit. check that your ram timings
aren't too aggresive

 

[Frusterated.....]

I'm sure the Temp isnt a problem, i have fans up the
Wazzo, and i'm not overclocking...HOw would i go about
cheaking the aggresivness of my RAm?

 

[flippin_waffles]

well if you aren't overclocking, your ram timings
probably aren't an issue. but if you want to check them
they will be in your bios. just hold down the delete key
on boot-up. as per your temps, personally i would still
check them. it is possible that your heatsink isn't quite
set properly. it's a longshot but worth the time to check
it. also have you added any other peripherals lately? i
ask because another cause could be that your power supply
can't cope with the extra demand....

 

[Chris H.]

Accessing the BIOS can vary from one computer manufacturer to another.
Here's a pretty good run-down by Microsoft Windows MVP Michael Stevens of
which key is required at what point:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

 

[flippin_waffles]

wow, that does sound like a stretch for sure. what kind
of vid card? is it the latest generation? do you have to
connect a power molex to it? if so you definitely require
more power as these cards require quite a substantial
amount. if not i would still say that you are borderline
with 320W. i'm not suggesting that this is DEFINITLEY
causing your problems but it's a good posibility. i would
look at something around 450W or higher. it'll give you
more flexibility to add peripherals in the future.

 

[Eric]

Ok, so I'm running an AMD athlon 1.33 w/ plenty of ram,
gforce 4, soundblaster live etc... And my problem is that
when i'm playing a game such as MOHAA i'll be able to
play for about 15 - 30 min and then it will freeze with
this hidious high pitched RIIIIING comming from my
speakers...I feel like i've tried everything, got a new
video card, didnt help..updated every driver i can think
of..didnt help..and this is my last option..so any help
you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Hey,

I had the same exact setup as you... Athlon 1.33, gforce, and a
soundblaster live... I would get the same lockups and the CRRSSSHHRIIINNNG
sound. Only difference is I do primarily PC audio recording (it would crash
when I played games too, though). It seems to crash whenever you do
something very resource intensive... I finally figured out if I took out
the soundblaster I wouldn't get the lockups anymore! I had multiple sound
cards cards in my machine though so it wasn't a big deal to remove it, you
probably don't have that...

Here is the thing, what is the wattage on your powersupply? I used to
have an old 350watt power supply that came stock with my OLD case that I
bought a couple years ago... I recently upgraded to a nice 400w Antec PSU,
and I just reinstalled the soundblaster live! card and I get no more
lockups... !!

I think I had a lot of PCI cards (about 4, plus an addon card for the
live), plus the power hungry Athlon in my computer and not enough wattage
for all of them ... This may be your problem. It seemed to fix it for me.

Eric