Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

I have seen other posts from persons with similar problems but never any
thoughts on the possible causes.
Counter-Strike was working just fine till I upgraded the CPU from an Athlon
XP 2100+ to a 3000+.This included the newest BIOS upgrade, a change in FSB
from 266 to 333 and a different CPU multiplier. Now CS crashes to the
desktop with in a few seconds of starting a game every time. The crash can
be described as a sudden freeze in action with a rapid looping of the sound
for one to two seconds before the screen goes blank and goes back to the
desktop. This happens every time at the beginning of a round of CS. (Once ot
twice I played for 4 to 5 minutes.) I am able to play Half-Life or Team
Fortress for ten minutes before a sudden re-boot. I replaced the SOYO 4 in 1
motherboard drivers, ATI video drivers and reinstalled Steam without any
effect. I had upgraded to the CPU in preparation of installing Half-Life 2
but now I not so sure I can if it is going to crash all of the time. Should
I go to a PCI sound card instead of the on-board sound?

-Soyo Dragon SY-KT400 motherboard with VIA chipset, on-board sound/LAN
-AThlon 3000+ / 333 Barton
-512 MB Kingston DDR333
-ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
-Windows XP Professional SP2
-Enermax 350w power supply
-One unused PCI Leadtek TV tuner

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Sounds like you have something over-heating and then causing the pc to lock
up. Try with the case open and a house fan blowing onto the motherboard and
video card. Test your memory with Memtest86. Downclock the fsb to 266 and
test. Maybe the PSU is over-stressed. Try with a better, higher wattage
unit.

DaveL


"Andrew K" <ajknb@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:LoSdnSViE_gT94rfRVn-pA@adelphia.com...
>I have seen other posts from persons with similar problems but never any
> thoughts on the possible causes.
> Counter-Strike was working just fine till I upgraded the CPU from an
> Athlon
> XP 2100+ to a 3000+.This included the newest BIOS upgrade, a change in FSB
> from 266 to 333 and a different CPU multiplier. Now CS crashes to the
> desktop with in a few seconds of starting a game every time. The crash
> can be described as a sudden freeze in action with a rapid looping of the
> sound for one to two seconds before the screen goes blank and goes back to
> the desktop. This happens every time at the beginning of a round of CS.
> (Once ot twice I played for 4 to 5 minutes.) I am able to play Half-Life
> or Team Fortress for ten minutes before a sudden re-boot. I replaced the
> SOYO 4 in 1 motherboard drivers, ATI video drivers and reinstalled Steam
> without any effect. I had upgraded to the CPU in preparation of installing
> Half-Life 2 but now I not so sure I can if it is going to crash all of the
> time. Should I go to a PCI sound card instead of the on-board sound?
>
> -Soyo Dragon SY-KT400 motherboard with VIA chipset, on-board sound/LAN
> -AThlon 3000+ / 333 Barton
> -512 MB Kingston DDR333
> -ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
> -Windows XP Professional SP2
> -Enermax 350w power supply
> -One unused PCI Leadtek TV tuner
>
>
>
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Getting this problem also. Suspect leaky capacitors though, because a
reformat didn't fix anything and my setup isn't that unusual....

Civilian_Target

Andrew K wrote:
> I have seen other posts from persons with similar problems but never any
> thoughts on the possible causes.
> Counter-Strike was working just fine till I upgraded the CPU from an Athlon
> XP 2100+ to a 3000+.This included the newest BIOS upgrade, a change in FSB
> from 266 to 333 and a different CPU multiplier. Now CS crashes to the
> desktop with in a few seconds of starting a game every time. The crash can
> be described as a sudden freeze in action with a rapid looping of the sound
> for one to two seconds before the screen goes blank and goes back to the
> desktop. This happens every time at the beginning of a round of CS. (Once ot
> twice I played for 4 to 5 minutes.) I am able to play Half-Life or Team
> Fortress for ten minutes before a sudden re-boot. I replaced the SOYO 4 in 1
> motherboard drivers, ATI video drivers and reinstalled Steam without any
> effect. I had upgraded to the CPU in preparation of installing Half-Life 2
> but now I not so sure I can if it is going to crash all of the time. Should
> I go to a PCI sound card instead of the on-board sound?
>
> -Soyo Dragon SY-KT400 motherboard with VIA chipset, on-board sound/LAN
> -AThlon 3000+ / 333 Barton
> -512 MB Kingston DDR333
> -ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
> -Windows XP Professional SP2
> -Enermax 350w power supply
> -One unused PCI Leadtek TV tuner
>
>
>
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Thanks, you probably saved me a re-format...ASUS here I come. (That's if the
Sound Blaster card won't help. Steam's site mentions occasional problems
related to on-board sound.)

"Civilian_Target" <tadhgp@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:386behF5mo25iU4@individual.net...
> Getting this problem also. Suspect leaky capacitors though, because a
> reformat didn't fix anything and my setup isn't that unusual....
>
> Civilian_Target
>
> Andrew K wrote:
>> I have seen other posts from persons with similar problems but never any
>> thoughts on the possible causes.
>> Counter-Strike was working just fine till I upgraded the CPU from an
>> Athlon
>> XP 2100+ to a 3000+.This included the newest BIOS upgrade, a change in
>> FSB
>> from 266 to 333 and a different CPU multiplier. Now CS crashes to the
>> desktop with in a few seconds of starting a game every time. The crash
>> can be described as a sudden freeze in action with a rapid looping of the
>> sound for one to two seconds before the screen goes blank and goes back
>> to the desktop. This happens every time at the beginning of a round of
>> CS. (Once ot twice I played for 4 to 5 minutes.) I am able to play
>> Half-Life or Team Fortress for ten minutes before a sudden re-boot. I
>> replaced the SOYO 4 in 1 motherboard drivers, ATI video drivers and
>> reinstalled Steam without any effect. I had upgraded to the CPU in
>> preparation of installing Half-Life 2 but now I not so sure I can if it
>> is going to crash all of the time. Should I go to a PCI sound card
>> instead of the on-board sound?
>>
>> -Soyo Dragon SY-KT400 motherboard with VIA chipset, on-board sound/LAN
>> -AThlon 3000+ / 333 Barton
>> -512 MB Kingston DDR333
>> -ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
>> -Windows XP Professional SP2
>> -Enermax 350w power supply
>> -One unused PCI Leadtek TV tuner
>>
>>
>>
>>

Half life 2 crashes are software based. I have a Radeon 9600 XT card and when i updated the drivers (sept 2008 version), the game started crashing. It was related to the resolution and details. With high resolution, i wasn't able to even start the game, my computer did a shutdown each time. In low resolutions (800X600), I was able to play for a few minutes with low details, but there was often a shutdown after a while. I uninstalled the new drivers, and reinstalled the drivers supplied with my install disc (2004 drivers!) and the game now runs fine at low or high resolutions, high or low details. I never had the crash since I installed the old drivers. I suspected the hardware, but in my case, it was 100% software based. NOTE: The old drivers only allow the directx 8.1 mode, which is fine anyway for my old hardware.

My name is Grim, and I have come to take you, gariepyf to your grave!