Dual box crashes

[sleepingbear]

Just wondering if anyone has a similar problem... every time I run 2 windows for WoW on Vista one of the windows crashes after 10-15 minutes and locks up my computer. My specs are Q9450, 4GB RAM, 9800 GX2 so I know it's not a performance issue. I run it in window mode, and I've even tried knocking them both down to 1024 resolution.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Tunga]

Could be heat. Does it happen again quickly if you carry on after it's happened once? Or power, what PSU are you running all that on?

[sleepingbear]

800W power, it's not overheating either. My old computer could dual box WoW and my northbridge fan on that computer was dead... This one has 2x 250mm fans in front and they're still going slow when the computer locks up. (They speed up when it's needed)

[Kalos]

Break out Memtest and Prime, see if they can find any instabilities.

Also, to properly rule out heat you should take proper readings. The speed of the fans may be logical, but if the fan controller isn't responding right then the thing could be cooking itself and the fans still wouldn't be revving up. I expect you're using a P35/P45/X38 type motherboard, which all support user intervention in the fan controls, an accidental tap and the fans would be locked at X speed no matter if it's sub-zero or over 100 Celecius. Fan speed isn't the best way to do this, proper temperature sensors are, perticularly the graphics card sensors. While the motherboard is trained to respond to the CPU heat, it is directly ignorant to the graphics card. The the CPU could be all green and thus fans at low, but the graphics card could be screaming bloody murder for more ventilation. Really, really need those actual sensors being checked.

[sleepingbear]

Front of the box is 20C, rear of the box is 40C

GPU is 65C with both windows up, standing in an area where the draw distance has to kick its ass into gear

GPU ambient is at 52C

Memory usage at 50%

Sooo, none of these temperatures are anywhere near overheating, heh


MemTest as in this? http://www.memtest.org/

[Tunga]

Yup that's memtest.

Anything in System Event Log?

[sleepingbear]

Yup that's memtest.

Anything in System Event Log?

Not that I can find, just a few Diablo 2 errors, haha. Can't get it to run smoothly on Vista

[Artad]

Out of interest what's the board and are you running your ram at an increased voltage?

I have had a couple of boards now that require the voltage on the ram being pushed up (old Striker Extreme needed 2.1v before it was stable, my current DDR3 based board needs the ram at 1.86v). It sounds to be like it's a ram related lock up.

[Kalos]

Out of interest what's the board and are you running your ram at an increased voltage?

I have had a couple of boards now that require the voltage on the ram being pushed up (old Striker Extreme needed 2.1v before it was stable, my current DDR3 based board needs the ram at 1.86v). It sounds to be like it's a ram related lock up.
Yep, it is what I expect. That's why I Memtest all my computers overnight once I build them, it should be standard practice whenever you make ram adjustments as well.

To the OP, let Memtest run as long as you can, a day would be great. If it can make a day without crashing out, it isn't likely to be a ram instability, but if it does crash then we definantly need your specific memory details. Please do not touch the voltages until we complete this order. If we tamper with the voltages now, it could be pointless because that might not be the cause, and without knowing the safe specific voltages we could melt the ram and wreck the PC, which won't be good as it won't come under warranty either.

First thing is to let Memtest have its way with the system, it is a proper low level check to see if it ok or otherwise.

[NavySEALBrian]

You stated you used 4 GB of RAM, but never mentioned the configuration, 4x1GB or 2x2GB. If you have 4 sticks of RAM, you will need to do some serious fiddling in your BIOS. The memory controllers have a real tough time addressing 4 sticks of RAM, and in the case you are using 4 sticks, you would have to: put voltages for the RAM above it's recommended ratings, configure all the timings to what's recommended (NOT Auto), hike up the FSB (up to recommended ratings) along with raising CPU and north bridge voltages. That's pretty much a guaranty when it comes to using all 4 RAM slots unless you get REALLY lucky and Auto settings happen to keep it stable.
If you aren't using 4 sticks of RAM (or bad BIOS settings), it might be faulty RAM, or bad drivers. I use XP Pro x64 and I five box. But I'm constantly getting BSODs or reboots because of a faulty driver or device (so says the report). I do have Vista x64, just have to install it, and the problems should go away since XP Pro x64 is based on Server 2003 which I have a feeling means that you're out of luck when it comes getting stable drivers.

[Artad]

As the man from the Teams mentions, you don't actually say your configuration, you don't even mention what OS you're using.

Please let us know your config so we can help out some more.

[Tunga]

you don't even mention what OS you're using.The OP says Vista (though not whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit).