   Need help with computer mystery
  I have some problem with my computer freezing when playing certain games. This has been the case for quite some time now, and I'm starting to get tired of it, so I thought I'd see if any of you geniuses here at gamedev can solve it. The deal is that the computer freezes only when playing certain games, and by freeze I mean that the sound cuts of, the game freezes, the mouse doesn't move, and the keyboard doesn't work. The really weird thing is what games I can run. Oblivion, NWN2 and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic are some of the games I can run fine, but HoMM5, Dungeon Siege 2 and Heroes of Annihilated Empires all freeze after between 5 minutes to and hour. So it seems like whether a game causes my computer to freeze or not doesn't have anything to do with how requiring they are. After the computer has frozen it usually have some trouble booting, either not doing anything at all, or complaining about "overclocking failed". Rebooting again fixes this though. The computer isn't overclocked though, the error message seems to be a common problem with my MB. I have of course run Memtest86+, and it showed no error with  the memory.Now to the really weird part. I use Linux for almost everything, and only use WinXP for some games that I can't emulate. I can however play HoMM5 under cedega with the same settings as under Windows. The only difference is that the computer freezes after at most an hour under Windows, while under Linux it runs fine. I have also played UT2004 with no problems under Linux, and emulated lots of other games without the computer freezing.This should indicate that there is something wrong with my drivers under Windows, but I've been unable to find any clues to that. I've reinstalled Windows and updated the drivers for BIOS, graphic card and sound card a couple of times since I built the computer, and I'm now using the latest drivers. I've also tried disabling the sound card, but that didn't change anything (except that I got no sound of course). Another thing to note is that I can hear a faint sound that I can't really describe from the computer the moment it freezes. It's not a sharp sound, it sound more like the computer gives up a last sigh before freezing. No fans stops though.Here's some specs:MB: Asus A8S-X, Socket 939, integrated NIC, integrated SPU (I've disabled it though)CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+Memory: 2x256 MB OEM, 512 MB Kingmax, totally 1GBGPU: Gainward GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, Ultra/1960PCX Golden SampleSPU: Creative SB Audigy SEHD: Western Digital Caviar 160GB IDE and Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATAPSU: Atrix PSCI-500 500WI'm a bit worried about my PSU actually, since it cost less than 30$ (300 swedish kr). It's suspiciously cheap, but I checked it with a voltmeter and the values were only 2-3% off when the computer was under full load. I don't know much about PSU:s, but I think that's quite acceptable. Since I also use two computer screens I tried to run some diagnostic programs on the other screen while playing, measuring temperatures, voltages and such. This showed that it's not overheating or any sudden changes in voltages that caused the computer to freeze. The CPU's temperature is around 40 deg/C when under full load, and the GPU around 55 deg/C.Anyway, sorry for this long post. I hope someone has some clues as to what can be wrong since this has been irritating me for over a year now.    
  On what HD are located these games? And what was written in the diagnostic log under system warnings?   ;  How long have you run tests in memtest? I've seen machines before where they only failed after 2-3 hours of running memtest. After that, I'd probably take a look at one or more of the Sandra stress tests, to see which part of your machine is failing during the lockups.Also try swapping out your power supply, or removing a drive and testing to see if it crashes. Try disabling ACPI and some of the other power settings in Windows.Are you on a surge protector? I've seen "dirty power" in some European countries that can cause failures.   ;  Raghar, the HD doesn't matter. I've tried both of them. The system logs show nothing, and I've found no evidence that Windows even notice that it's frozen.Ravuya, thanks for the tip. I'll take a look at the Sandra tests. I'll report back later, it's getting late here in Sweden now [smile]. Also, I let memtest run several hours, so that shouldn't be a problem.   ;  I've now run the Sandra stresstest for a couple of hours without the computer locking up. Google told me that the amp output on my PSU might be a bit on the low side though, hence why it was so cheap. That still doesn't solve the mystery why it only freeze on certain games. I've ordered a new PSU (Hiper 530W) anyway, if only to ease my mind about the PSU failing and horribly mutilating my computer. If the problem still persists after I get the new PSU I will at least have a decent PSU.   ;  Well you have some work cutout for you since your system is not %100 stable.Stable systems do not spontaneous reboot since at most they will just drop you out to desktop. It's been years since I've seen a game able to make windows xp reboot since it limits direct access to hardware. And if it is happening on your system and your hardware is 100% fine it's a driver issue since that is the only thing that has direct access under windows.That would explain why under linux your games do not crash machine since I don't believe they have 100% direct access to hardware since your are running through emulation layer no?As a side effect it would make your games under linux a bit slower too.Anytime any of my computers had symptoms you describe it was either bad hardware which I identified and got rid of or bad bad drivers!For example I had a hp laptop that crashed everytime I tried to play certain games like starcraft,etc and it would always happen at exactly same time so I tried updating drivers,etc and it still happened so I gave up.About a month later or so HP finally released some updated videodrivers and what do you know the same games never crashed!That's why alot of games just flat out say they don't support laptops since they have crappy builtin graphics in firstplace.On my main desktop computer which has a nforce 570 chipset if I use a soundblaster audigy card it will crash the computer if I try to use the firewire port or play a certain game flight simulator in my case.There is no fix for it other than getting rid of soundcard and using onboard sound which is 100% stable now.;  Thanks for the advice daviangel. I can't do much about the drivers unfortunately, since I've tried many different versions without any change. But I'll try removing parts of the computer if the new PSU won't solve the problem.   ;  Have you updated drivers for chipset, or installed them at all?   ;  I had some very similar problems about six months ago where I'd get random freezes necessitating a reboot. Well, my cheapo PSU fried, and I got a new one, and it hasn't happened since. I'd definitely get a new PSU. It's not only voltage that matters, amperage matters too.Also, update your video drivers for stability and performance.   