Quake3World

First thing, here is my system specs:

ASUS A7V333
1.7GHZ Athlon XP 2100+
1024MB PC 2700 RAM
Geforce 4 ti 4400
Windows 2000

Alright, I'll start from the beginning.

Back when Quake 4 came out I installed it on my pc and was able to play it decently with 20-30 fps online. The next day after I installed it, I was playing with my friend on his private server. Here's when things started to mess up.

My system began locking up for increasing periods of time periodically at about 3-5 seconds intervals. So it went something like this:

*Lock up for 3 seconds*

*Unlocked for about 5 seconds*

*Lock up for 5 seconds*

*Unlocked for about 5 seconds*

*Lockup for 10 seconds*

*Unlocked for about 5 seconds*

*Lockup for 15+ seconds*

*PC permenently hard locks up and I'm forced to reboot*


After trying to play it a few times again and having the same problem repeat itself I eventually was given a checkerboard image and my card was essentially fried.

Now, here's where the problem continues. I replaced the card with a Geforce 4 ti 4200 8X AGP and I experience the same EXACT locking up when I play ONLY directx games. I tossed in a Geforce 3 and experienced the same problem with that card as well.

I can play ANY opengl game, such as Quake 3, just fine without any problems.

The problem ONLY happens with games that use DirectX like Unreal Tournament and Guild Wars.

Keep in mind that everything was fine and ran perfectly up until that incident.

Here are some things I've tried:

-I've uninstalled and reinstalled new video drivers.

-Installed and updated new BIOS

-Installed new chipset drivers and other drivers for my mobo

-Used DirectX Eradicator and eradicated directx and reinstalled the newest version.

After doing that and still experiencing the same problems I'm completely stumped. Has anyone ran into any of these similar problems? ANY help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

sounds like heat problem.

ensure all fans are spinning and that vid card fans and cpu etc are free from dust and grime

i had a mouse inexplicably do the same thing your computer is doing.
i would not have thought that a mouse could cause so much heartache and sadness but i borrowed a mouse and the problem corrected itself.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I opened up my pc and vacuumed out all of the dust. I also took out the video card and heatsink and sucked out all the dust out of that as well. There was a TON of dust inside of the heatsink.

I replaced everything and now I can't get past the bios. It keeps taking me back into the bios setup with an error message saying:

"During the last boot-up, your system hung for an improper CPU Speed setting. Your system is now working in safe mode. To optimize the system performance and reliability, make sure the CPU speed conforms to the specifications of your CPU."

After I exit out of the bios it never reboots fully and my monitor LED just blinks as if my computer is turned off. It isn't though, the fans are still spinning etc.

So I have to either turn off my power supply or hold in the power button to shut it off and then boot it up again. Then when it reaches the BIOS it enters BIOS setup again with the same error message.

I'm not quit sure if my CPU is running too hot or something. According to the BIOS setup, my CPU temperature is running at about 75 degrees Celsius. Not sure if that's hot or not for a cpu (google didn't help).

The only thing I can think of is reapplying thermal paste to the heat sink. The old thermal paste on there is pretty old and crusty. I hope it's not rebooting after the bios properly because I updated it to the newest beta. I tried entering the AFlash utility at the bios screen by pressing Alt+F2 in hopes of reflashing to my old bios or an earlier version but it just ignores it throws me into the bios setup.

Ugh, this sucks.

Great, now my cpu fan is running extremely slow and doesn't show up in my bios setup anymore. :icon23:

*Sigh* Getting paid once a month does indeed suck.

ya it does sound like your heatsynx isn't seated properly and also may need to be replaced.try to free up the fan .
heatsyncfan are $12 for a cheap working HSF

75 celcius is too hot .. i think you should be in the low 50's with a cheap heatsync.