messed up comp

i purchased a custom built computer a year ago and have had many problems with it. whenever i play any game, it shuts down halfway through. the comp also restarts itself 4 or 5 times a day and recently, when i rebooted the comp a blue message came up. every time i reboot it the message comes up and i cant access winows. i had it checked out by a technichian who said he can fix it without taking out any hardware by reformatting. i am just wondering if it would be best to replace the vid card as i am almost certain that it is the video card. does anyone have any suggestions for a cheap replacement

my comp specs are:
mobo: asus k8v-x
processer: amd athalon 64+ 3000@ 1802mhz
ram:512 mb
hdd: 120 gb maxtor hd
graphics card: nvidia geforce fx 5200

 

Hi
Have you checked what your tremperatures are? It could a heat issue with the shutdowns occuring when playing games. Get speedfan and let it run when playing the game and keep an eye on your temperatures and let us know what they are
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

 

right now im on my other comp waiting for the other one to be fixed. ill let you know the results when i get it back. thanx for the sggestion

 

the temp i got was 34 C. that isnt that bad so do you have any other suggestions?

 

Can you post the actual message you get on the BSOD.
It could just be the video drivers causing the problem, so there shouldn't be a need to replace the card.
Try to update the video card drivers to the latest release from the chipset manufacturers website. i.e. ATI / NVIDIA.
If I could see the message then it would help point to the actual part of the system having the problem.
There are various things you can do to update and health-check the PC.
Update BIOS, update mobo chipset drivers, and update component drivers.
Running a disk scanning tool on HDD, run memtest86 to check memory.
Run registry cleaner to make sure it is cleaned out and optimised.
Running anti-virus, spyware etc...

 

sukhvail,

I would have recommended running anti-virus, and spyware first thing, and yes it could be the video card, perhaps you could install it on another computer to see if has the same symptoms as yours.

BigDK,

That is some system you have there, boy am I envious.....great going.

Rich

 

the comp is no longer bringing up the blue message but the games are still shutting down and the comp shuts down randomly at least 5 times a day. im pretty sure there is no virus on it because the drive was formatted then teh data got put back on it from another comp. the first day i got it back it continued to do so.

this is the raeding i got from speedfan

 

Hi
The reading at 64c is your cpu, if you click on the info tab in speed fan then the get config button you will be abe to get the speedfan settings for your mobo, you will need to register first but its free. I have the same processor as you and with the fan at full speed as yours is it never goes over 44c on full load. I deffinately think your problem is a heat issue. Is it possible that the heatsink isnt installed properly? could one of the catches be loose or broken? Was the heatsink installed with thermal paste? Is the fan on the heatsink working, turn on your comp with the side of and have a look.
Do the voltages look right to everyone????? because they are away of compared to mine

 

how do i obtain the ticket? i registered and confirmed but i do not know how to obtain a ticket

 

Hi
On the speed fan home opage log in and then look for the user configuration link follow it through for your mobo then wneh you get to the end of the selection you will get a ticket number then in the info tab click get config and enter your ticket number and resart speed fan. With the temperature of your cpu the right config isnt going to make a difference your cpu temerature is way to high for being idle, you need to make the checks in the last post, if it is still under waranty take it back and tell them what the temps are, with temperatures that high the cpu isnt going to last long.

 

well after the last restart i got a dif windows error message and it told me to decrease the hardware acceleration so i did so and it stopped restarting. the only annoying thing is if i want to do anything fullscreen i have to turn on hardware acceleration

 

it stopped restarting for two days, then continued to. now i have an even worse prob- it wont even turn on!! i broke my cpu when i tried to take it out (bent the pins)to see what the prob was, so i bought an amd athlon 2800+ as a replacement. it still doesn't turn on. i got another comp for free that doesn't work (for parts) and i took the vid card and swapped them and nothing happened. both vid cards could be f'ed but i don't think they are. it's not the ram, i replaced that with anohter stick of ram that works. i think the hard drive is corrupted as well because it made clicking sounds every now and then. is my computer done, or is there a chance i can salvage it?

 

Hi
When you say wont turn on, is there no power at all? do any of the fans spin? or any lights on the front? If there is no life at all check the connections on the mobo, then check them again. Does the fan in your psu spin? Have you checked the fuse in it?

 

Your speedfan voltages (for + and - 12 volts) are way off. The problem could be the power supply. Now you say it will not turn on, IMHO, the power supply!

 

Dolphin2 is right, these are my voltage readings, completely different than yours

 

the fan does spin but there is no picture coming up on hte screen.

 

Hi
Can you boot into your BIOS usually by pressing delete. If you can did you make a recovery disc and try to boot from it?