PCTech Forums

Hey there.

Just recently ive been playing world of warcraft and 5 - 40 mins into the game ill get a hard lockup. Full system lockup.. cant minimise, cant go to xfire, cant move mouse, sound freezes etc. (But cd drive can eject which is queer).

Anyways.. I've tried almost everything..

-Virus scan
-Malware/adware scan etc
-Deleted half my HDD just incase it was memory problems
-Defrag
-Disk cleanup etc
-Reinstalled WoW
-Updated all drivers and windows update
-Made sure nothing is stopping fans from working..

This only started happening about a week ago, and its worked fine up until then. So far its only been WoW that has been locking up. I can play battlefield and crysis etc fine.

Any help? cheers.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Cheers for memtest too, heard its good. And I am quite familiar with burning ISO's =].

I have a program called speedfan. Heres my temps:

Local: 31C
Remote: 28C
HD0: 26C
Core: 49C (goes to 79C when playing WoW).

Im not too sure whats too hot etc so if you could fill me in anyone?

Also, I have just bought a surround sound system for my computer which has 5 speakers + Subwoofer. I'm thinking that this may be causing the lockups by taking too much power from the power supply? Any advice on that? (btw its plugged in at the wall and only connected to my PC through the sound card).

Thanks in advance!

Also, my PSU is only 250w =[.

So thats probably the problem..?

CPU: AMD Athlon 3400+ 2.4GHz
Fans: 1 on cpu and 1 on case near power supply. Not sure which way they are pulling sorry..
GFX: 256mb Radeon 9550
Ram: 1 G
Sound card: C-Media.
PSU: 250w.

are you sure it runs completely from the wall? Because i played last night and turned off the sound at the wall and I didnt lock up once

yes im sure, the sound card sends a low voltage signal out to the speakers but it sends this signal regardless if speakers are connected. It would only be coincidence that it didnt lock with the speakers turned off.

Your probably suffering from both heat and the PSU. 250 watts is really pushing the limit, i would suggest 350-400. Heat is without a doubt your enemy, 1 case fan is no where near enough when gaming. You need at least 1 pulling in and one pulling out plus the cpu fan and video card fan. If your case doesnt have a place to add a fan, theres tons of great working pci exaust fans available to help you release some heat. If your processor jumps from 49C (which is high for just idling) to 79c under a load then you really need to look into a new heatsink/fan combo with artic silver paste. That AMD chip will lock up the temps your running, trust me, thats first hand experience. It shouldnt get to 60c under a load with the right heatsink installed.

Sweet as thnx heaps.

So what exactly am i looking for to buy?

ps: There is a spot in the case where these holes are.. is that where the fan goes?

Also, which is better? Blowing air across the motherboard or sucking air out of the case?

fans slow down, even though they dont appear to. Heatsinks get clogged up, etc. Theres a number of reasons but time factors into them all. All these things need to be checked/cleaned once a month. Dust will completely kill a machine.

wow really? once a month?

I havent checked it this whole year.

Thnx for that info !

oh how do you check if a fan has slowed down?

usually you can see the fans rpm in the bios if it has a hardware monitor option. Even then it can be tough to tell without knowing what ram the fan normally run at as they vary by brand. With case fans, you should be able to put your hand in front of the side that blows out and feel the air moving, if it aint moving it aint cooling. The heatsink on the cpu and video card is what needs to be checked most, both of these gather dust and clog the airflow. I dont care how clean you keep your house, PC's will get dirty in a short period of time.

ok thnx for that.

heatsink for video card is just where it gets plugged into, correct? eg) Mines AGP slot.

no

heres a pic

the heatsink and fan is circled. Older cards may not have a fan but should have some type of heatsink.