Computer geeks, your advice.

[Goat]

What I assume is my fan has been making more noise then usual for the last couple months. I through in an nvidea 6600, maybe a 6800, i forget, about 6 months ago. When i'm playing video games, 20 minutes or so will go by and my game will freeze up. I'll do a hard restart and it'll work again for another 20 minutes. Sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little less.

Driver detective says everything is up to date. (nvidia and realtek drivers have been a bitch on vista, it seems like im updating every 3-4 days) I read somewhere that it could be my power source or it could be my graphic card.
I'm a bit at a loss what to do right now. How can I troubleshoot which it could be, am I even on the right track? Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated

[AtotheK]

does your screen flicker before it crashes? maybe black screen for a few sec?

[Drazkers]

I had something similar years ago, your system may be overheating, try to lower the clock speed on your cpu/video card(could be either) or invest in a better cooling system. To trouble shoot, trying lowering the settings in the game and you cpu clock speed multiplier(in bios). Try the game settings first, see what happens, maybe try a game that isn't as taxing on the system, see if the problem happens again. Then if that fails start mucking around with the system settings.

[jenai]

undervoltage and overheating is leading to freeze ups.

replace PSU with a model with a higher wattage.

a video card with that much demand would need a PSU upgrade to meet the new demands, and that's a no-brainer.

[Phrenetic]

get a bigger power supply.

if its only crashing with games (data/processing intensive applications) then its due to overheating. if you did turn some knobs under the hood then that could be the problem.

Still not fixed get a new PC case. ect

[Phrenetic]

PS post Pics of your rig!

[thebobman]

$20 says its the fan on your video card. Get an aftermarket cooler ASAP, cause when the fan finally gives up the ghost it'll take all the capacitors on the video card when it goes, I've seen that happen half a dozen times on nVidia-based cards.

Also, you're running Vista. Vista != nVidia. 30% of all recorded crashes in Vista are due to nVidia drivers. More than all the crashes caused by ATi, Intel AND Microsoft. Time to downgrade to XP dude.

[project.one]

Bobman might be right. Your fan over your VC might be junked up and overheating.
Or your CPU could be overheating, which is also pretty bad.
If this is the case, you need to go buy a can of compressed air and take your comp outside and give it a good whorish blowjob! Dont hold back on the sloppyness!
This should clean up the fans and the coolers (< I dunno what the actual term is sry), and should make your computer run better and quieter. Maybe even faster.
If it doesnt work, you may need to get a new VC, or maybe even just might be time for new fans.

If that's not the case, you might have deleted a core file in your OS. This will cause your comp to crack out everytime that file is to be accessed, so to speak.
As for as I know the only way to fix that would be to reinstall your OS.

However, Im not a tech. Best bet is to get someone to look at it. And remember, every kid who owns a computer thinks they know everything and thinks they can repair a computer. Get a pro. to look at it. If some kid who thinks he's 1337 tries to fix your computer and fucks it up, then your just fucked. As least you've got insurance if a pro is looking at it, if they fuck it up worse then they should replace it or fix it for sure.

[Goat]

Thanks for all the help. I have a 300watt power source, and it's only rocking the one fan. I Popped the side cover off the case, i noticed it was only happening on hotter days, and havn't had a problem since.

I"ll get some air and give her a propper blowjob later. If she's still being noisy, i'll start adding/replacing fans as needed.

Bobman: I've had a couple issues with nvidea and realtek drivers, but a little fucking around and the once in a blue moon system restore have been pretty easy to power through. I'm pretty happy with vista .


Thanks for all the help everyone.