[Solved] Gaming Issue

[jay yardley]

Windows XP SP2 (recently removed SP3)

Pentium 4 3.01GHz H/T (Recently Re-applied thermal paste because temperatures were reaching 100D CELSIUS)

3GB RAM (Recently Added 1GB May be faulty RAM, Any RAM testing application suggestions?)

80GB IDE (Quite old, Speedfan says it's in good shape)

Nvidia 128MB gfx (This may be the source of the issue)

Mobo, Drivers up to date - no issues there.

 

 

[Minecraft concern info: JDK 7; JRE 7]

Recently games such as Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies and Morrowind have been crashing abruptly and without warning.

No error dump file will be generated in any of the game folders which is odd, and the process has disappeared in the task manager.

 

I am thinking it may be a Java issue, the problem is I am sure many games I play do not use Java such as 'Morrowind'.

 

So I decided to rule that out. I had heating issues with the CPU not too long ago so I replaced the thermal paste and elevated the speed of the CPU fan and out-take fans.

The CPU is happily sitting away at around 50 degrees Celsius when in use.

 

So I decided to rule the CPU out (Hopefully a good move)

 

I added a 1GB stick of RAM which does not conform to the other 2 sticks of RAM. I have not yet tested to see if the issue still occurs after removing the stick. Are there any memory diagnostic tools you guys/girls could recommend?

 

I kept the RAM a fair participant in the issue.

 

So this left me with either somehow a PSU issue (unlikely)

Or a GFX card issue.

 

No matter how I tweak the gfx card, (even under-clocking it), the error still seems to occur.

I'm thinking either bad drivers or bad card.| It has the latest drivers it can support.

 

 

 

Hard drive is not corrupt, basically fresh installation, registry is tip-top shape.

 

Any suggestions?

And anything else I should diagnose?

 

Thanks for any help!

[Armageddon]

Windows XP SP2 (recently removed SP3)

Pentium 4 3.01GHz H/T (Recently Re-applied thermal paste because temperatures were reaching 100D CELSIUS)

3GB RAM (Recently Added 1GB May be faulty RAM, Any RAM testing application suggestions?)

80GB IDE (Quite old, Speedfan says it's in good shape)

Nvidia 128MB gfx (This may be the source of the issue)

Mobo, Drivers up to date - no issues there.

 

 

[Minecraft concern info: JDK 7; JRE 7]

Recently games such as Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies and Morrowind have been crashing abruptly and without warning.

No error dump file will be generated in any of the game folders which is odd, and the process has disappeared in the task manager.

 

I am thinking it may be a Java issue, the problem is I am sure many games I play do not use Java such as 'Morrowind'.

 

So I decided to rule that out. I had heating issues with the CPU not too long ago so I replaced the thermal paste and elevated the speed of the CPU fan and out-take fans.

The CPU is happily sitting away at around 50 degrees Celsius when in use.

 

So I decided to rule the CPU out (Hopefully a good move)

 

I added a 1GB stick of RAM which does not conform to the other 2 sticks of RAM. I have not yet tested to see if the issue still occurs after removing the stick. Are there any memory diagnostic tools you guys/girls could recommend?

 

I kept the RAM a fair participant in the issue.

 

So this left me with either somehow a PSU issue (unlikely)

Or a GFX card issue.

 

No matter how I tweak the gfx card, (even under-clocking it), the error still seems to occur.

I'm thinking either bad drivers or bad card.| It has the latest drivers it can support.

 

 

 

Hard drive is not corrupt, basically fresh installation, registry is tip-top shape.

 

Any suggestions?

And anything else I should diagnose?

 

Thanks for any help!

 

Hi Jay and welcome to freepchelp only thing I could suggest is you downgrade Java to Java 6 update 30 , as I see your running Java 7 even though Java 7 has reached update 2 it's still in development stages , give that a whirl and see how you get on

[Plastic Nev]

If not as Armageddon suggests and changing the Java back to previous version doesn't do the trick, which is actually a good idea to try first though.

 

I am like you in favour of that extra stick of RAM, you say it doesn't conform, in which way does it not conform?

 

If not the same speed, slower for example, it will drag the rest of the RAM down to that speed, other mismatches could be the reason for crashing too.

 

Try the system without the new stick in first, it might slow the system down a little but if no crashing, will prove the point.

 

Not perhaps a part of the problem, but must ask, why did you remove SP3? without that installed you have no support from Microsoft, not to mention security risks as well.

 

Nev.

[jay yardley]

Hi there, thank you for the responses.

 

By not conform, I meant mismatch, the speeds were identical.

 

It seems the issue was the odd RAM stick.

Everything is running smoothly now.

Just missing out on 1GB though :(

 

Will purchase a conforming stick sooner or later, thanks for the help!