[scott100]

Hello

My specs are:

Athlon 64 3.4
K8 Upgrade VM800 1.0
1250 Mb 400 DDR RAM
1 DVD
1 Cd Rom
80 gig HDD
Floppy
ATI Radeon X850 Vid. card
Broadband Internet connection

I've got an ongoing intermittent fault that will lead me to buy a new system if I can't sort it out soon. I've just changed my video card from a 9800 XT but the problem's still there.

Basically my computer freezes or screen goes black and I have to manually reset when I play most games. I sometimes get a VPU warning about device driver failure when I reboot but I don't think drivers are the problem. The game I'm currently using as a test is Rome Total War. Also my computer freezes during the screensaver, the one which is a cube that turns into a ball, etc.

I've tried loads of graphics drivers, I've changed my chipset drivers, I've swapped RAM chips around, I've reformatted my hard drive, I've upgraded to an X850 still the problems linger.

My last hope is the problem rests with my crowded Icute case and power supply. I was a little hasty when I bought it as I didn't realise the motherboard was micro ATX and I just wanted it up and running. However I have noticed recently that the intergrated PSU is only main 250 watts and max 300 and I am hoping that this is the cause of the problem and not an ATI/VIA compatibility issue.

Would a PSU problem cause screensaver to freeze though?

Please can I have your suggestions?

Many thanks

Scott

P.S By the way I've found that less RAM makes the system slightly more stable and will run battles in Rome Total War as long as I leave it unattented in the background, but if I start playing the battles with the mouse it will freeze again. Again I hope this sheds more light.

System temp and CPU temp are OK.

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. It COULD be the power supply, but it could also be heat, memory or driver issues. As for power supply issues, the best source of information that I have found is at
http://www.hardforum...isplay.php?f=93
Check the sticky posts at the top of the forum. The first one and the fourth one should be of particular interest to you. The fourth one has a power supply calculator, where you can put in details of your system components and determine how much power (watts) is required.

[Doby]

Hi,

This could be multible problems but a Amd64 system simply is not going to run right with a 200w psu.

Get a name brand at least 400w with amps on the +12v in the mid 20's
I recomend the antec 430w true power.
You must start with a good power supply and then move on from there and it could just fix all your problems.

Rick