please help me....

[theRealness0820]

hello everyone,

I never had a problem playing games on PC before this. My brother recently gave me his old AlienWare gaming PC (about 4 years old). He said it was having problems so he thought maybe I could fix it. It seemed to be freezing all the time on youtube or games or whatever. Anyway I took the system restore DVDs and formatted and put a fresh copy of windows like it came from AlienWare. I then downloaded the latest drivers for the Radeon 9550 video card and got the latest Direct X.

Now to my problem.... the game keeps freezing for almost all of my games after 5 or so minutes of playing.... I am not trying to play high end games that will max my hardware and graphics card.... it freezes playing Max Payne 1 which doesn't require much of anything in terms of hardware :mad: .... I love PC games so much and can't stand console gaming really.... I want to play all my old favorites like Baldurs Gate and Max Payne 1 and 2 but keeps freezing on me.... I mean it is an Alienware so I hardly think they would have put in a power supply that can't supply all the components you know what I mean??

So I have the PC in the state it came in when it came from the company all fresh and all.. I downloaded the latest drivers.. and DirectX.. what is the next step?? do I have to test components and single out which piece of hardware is faulty????

I don't think anything is faulty because this PC has never frozen or restarted on me when I do anything other than Gaming since the system format and fresh Windows install.. please help me!!!!

please.. I want to hear that haunting narrative in Max Payne again....

what is the next step for me???? :( and Im broke so I dont feel like paying someone 200 to not fix it and just bill me :mad:

[theRealness0820]

i mean i can play even Doom 3 on medium detail setting smoothly and then it freezes.. does the same with company of heroes..

does the same with old school games too that dont require much beefy specs so i am losing my mind trying to come up with a plan to fix this....

oh to play:

- max payne 1 2
- fallout 1 2
- baldurs gate 2
- counter-strike

my system specs:

Processor 1
Name: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+

Caption: x86 Family 15 Model 15 Stepping 0

Version: Model 15, Stepping 0

Current Clock Speed: 1004MHz

Address Width: 32Bits

Data Width: 32Bits

Socket Designation: Socket 939

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I have more detailed info concerning every physical component of my pC so please help???? :D

[classicsoftware]

Does it freeze performing non-gaming activities?
Does it give any error messages?
Are there any problems in event viewer?
Is there a fan on the video card and is it still spinning?
Are all of the case fans working?
Are all of the air vents open and free of dust?


Let's start with these....

[theRealness0820]

thanks for the reply.. umm im gonna open my case and run Max Payne.. when it freezes ill check the graphics card to see if the little fan is still spinning and make sure the case fan (i thought there was only one??) is going to.. doesnt the cpu have a fan too?? anyway ill take a look at how its going before and after freeze and get back to you.. thanks for your response..

it only freezes for games.. i download movies and music and run P2P software and stream video and music with NO problem.. never froze on me until Gaming.. runs perfect besides games.... thanks again so much.... happy thanksgiving.... anyway i need to figure this out because i cant afford to buy some high end Falcon NW PC so in a year or so I might have to build a new PC to play the new games.... oh i hate console gaming.. just trying to play FPS with a controller makes me crazy.... :(

[theRealness0820]

1. Does it freeze performing non-gaming activities?

No..

2. Does it give any error messages?

No.. just freezes and occasionally restarts.. this inconsistency is worrying..

3. Are there any problems in event viewer?

I did a search about event viewer but am having trouble finding where I can find that.. please help....

4. Is there a fan on the video card and is it still spinning?

No fan on the ATI Radeon 9550..

5. Are all of the case fans working?

Yes when it freezes they remain spinning..

6. Are all of the air vents open and free of dust?

Just sucked it all up today..
--------------------------------
So I guess the next step is where is event viewer located and then after that what's the next step in this troubleshooting..... :(

[theRealness0820]

ahhh i find out under control panel and administrative tools is event viewer.. ok I see a red Error under the System part.. Im doing google search for what that error is.... thanks.... please keep checking back on thread as I doubt I can do this myself..... :eek:

[theRealness0820]

ahhhhh ok I see my error is actually common and quite vague.. so here are the details:

System Error, Category 102, Event ID: 1003,

Error code 1000007f, parameter1 0000000d, parameter2 00000000, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 00000000.
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What do I do now????

[theRealness0820]

ok.. I have noticed that when it restarts it gives me the event log system error but when it freezes nothing is logged about the error and can't find anything in the event log for system freezes.....
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someone please help.. i know im sad noob...... :D

[saphalline]

Test the RAM.