pc crashing to standby

[jocky68]

hope someone has an answer to this problem because its doing my head in. my computer runs ok when doing most tasks but when ever i play a game after about 10 minutes it freezes, making a clicking sound and then the screen goes black and says entering power save mode. the screen goes into standby but the computer is still running. pressing anything doent help, so i have to switch the computer off and start again. what could this be. i have a hp m380 pentium 4, 3g, 512rm running on a 9800 pro with the latest 5.4 ati drivers for xp. anyone got a clue????

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Might want to check to see if your memory has any errors, and test out your psu see if its good, might be bad, or could be it can't handle that 9800 pro, because HP power supplies are usually low wattage.

 

[jocky68]

whats the psu? have had the card running fine for a long time. how do i check memory? dont know that much about the ins and outs.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

PSU=Power Supply Unit. If its been working fine for a long time, it might be dying I dunno, my last antec psu took a little bit to die, then finally died after beating it too death with video games.

Check memory with this:

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[jocky68]

will do a memory test, thanks for the link. as for the power i dont know about that. computer is only a year old, worst comes to the worst ill take it back to shop, its insured for 5 years. i wonder would the computer take a more powerful graphics card?

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Your best bet to see if your PSU is running right is to use one of these:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=299262&pfp=SEARCH

Other than that, thats the only thing I can think of right now that would cause the issues. ALSO check to see if your overheating your cpu or gpu.

 

[clairelovestlc]

i had the same problem with my old system a few weeks ago ( whc.i had to get replaced) the problem was it was gettingtoo hot when playing games, and therefor crashed to standbuy, i only managed to conferm this in the end by removing the side pannel of the tower and testing the game like that, with the more ventelation it didnt get too hot, and never crashed ( i then complained to my compouter manafactuer and got a new one sent out with 3 extra fans) i dunno if its the same problem at all, but try seeing if it crashes with more ventilation, and if it dosent, u might need to fit an extra fan in your pc, or just check its getting enuff ventilation