Computer Hard Locks!! Please help me!!!

[Tumpster1]

I'm going insane here!!!I've been noticing some probs latley with my machine. I was playing Q3 the other day and it froze up on me doing the annoying freeze of the frame and the sound just make'n that annoying buzzing noise when it hangs on whatever note it's on. So I rebooted cause I had no other choice and so I started play Enemy Territory, same thing, but when I play counter-strike I have no problems! Maybe it's the different graphics of em all? I played Doom 3 yesterday though and had no problems. I have the latest drivers from ATI but i'm going to try a reload to see if that fixes it. I'll give u my specs so u know what i'm working with:

AMD XP 2100+ (1.7GHZ)
BIOSTAR "M7NCD PRO"
512MB 2100 RAM
200 GB in hard drives
ATI Radeon 9600 SE
Sound Plaster Live 5.1 Card
Windows XP Pro/SP2

It's always a hard lock, and I have AntiVirus,Trillian,Popup Blocker, and Printer tray, running in the back ground. It does it randomly from time to time. My machine is a custom built machine, and when it locks up, it locks up!Uhh...let me know if u guys need any other info! Oh by the way, I run spybot every other day just about and it sweeps through seeing no problems latley or kills whats on there!
Here's voltage and temp specs
CPU Temp
CPU : 149 F- 152 F

Voltage
CPU Vcore= 1.72-1.76
AGP Vcore= 1.48-1.50
3.3V = 3.29-3.36
+12V = 12.40-12.46
-12V = -12.93 - -13.10
-5V = 5.25

All numbers in volts of course!
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!

 

[NiKEUS]

turn you AV off and anything else you dont need running while playing games for a start...

 

[gibant1]

Your Temperature's far too high. Check that the heatsink/fan is installed the right way (there's usually a cut out were the edge of the socket is). That you took of any plastic cover at the bottom of the heatsink.

The fan is working O.K.

Good idea to get a better Heatsink/fan, the Akasa 825 Carnival is a very good and cheap H/F. And use Artic silver compound if you can.

 

[Tumpster1]

Well I think for now I'm gonna place a normal house fan right near the case to blow cold air at the beast with the cover off of course! I plan on buying this heatsink http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=35-106-046&depa=0 Maxmium PC used it in their new dream pc so I figured I would give it a try. I was also told that using the artic stuff would cause the AMD's warranty to be voided?? Hmm...but thanks for the help! Keep any help coming!!

Stupid question too....I'm looking at my fans and do I want them sucking the air out and blowing into the open air or sucking it from the surrounding of the case and blowing it into the case?? Weird I know it's just been so long since I've messed with the fans! I'm having a brain fart!!!!

 

[moneyman1]

Going in, I think, cause then you have the air moving on to it.

I am no hardcore computer person, but that's what I'd say.

And don't run AIM, cause that takes up a lot of space, usually when I run AIM and play CS I get some major lag.

Right now that's all that I know/can say.

 

[NiKEUS]

With an open case Athlon XP 2200+ runs at 55 C when idle and 66 C when under high stress. AMD says 85 C is max. I guess you'd have to trust them on that...
142*F = 61.1*C

 

[NiKEUS]

Stupid question too....I'm looking at my fans and do I want them sucking the air out and blowing into the open air or sucking it from the surrounding of the case and blowing it into the case?? Weird I know it's just been so long since I've messed with the fans! I'm having a brain fart!!!!

in and out is good for a nice airflow through the case.

 

[gibant1]

With an open case Athlon XP 2200+ runs at 55 C when idle and 66 C when under high stress. AMD says 85 C is max. I guess you'd have to trust them on that...
142*F = 61.1*C

Generally most people like to keep the temp below 55 degrees c on Load, but poor sensor's on differant M/B's make it difficult to judge. Search for you particular M/B and see what people say about it's sensor accuracy.

 

[airiox]

Those dang Creative cards I used to get this crap all the time.

Try updating the drivers. And checking out creatives site.

 

[Tumpster1]

Well I'm being lead to believe it was the AMD overheating!!! I place a cyndrical standing fan about 6 inches from it and played Enemy Territory for like almost 2 hours with no lock ups at all!! Thats never been that long so I'm going to conclude it IS the overheating causing the lock ups, cause I know it happened sporatically, and randomly, and after a lock up it would lock up again not soon after if i played games, seeing as it's cooling down right after a heat up, it is heating up again. So the fan is helping, now the other help i need is to decide what new heatsink to throw into my rig to cool it down. I only have the one that came with it so I'm up for some ideas. If you can imagine this, I ran a temp test and it took about 30 degrees off of the processor while the fan's blowing on it! If that didn't tell me the heat was killing my pc I dunno what else would!!! Please leave some suggestions and let me know of any ideas to add more fans. I have a pretty basic case!!