X3 Reunion crashes a high-spec PC

[alejandroPCM]

What is the reason of having a 3,000 Euro machine if it cant play a game!!!!

My system specs are as follows:

OS: Win XP Pro SP2

UPS: MGE Nova 600 AVR
PSU: Enermax Liberty 500W

CPU: Athlon64 X2 +4400
MoBo: Asus A8N32-Sli Deluxe
VGA: Asus 7800GT 256mb
RAM: 4x512 (2gb total) OCZ Platinum 3200 Rev2.
Sound: Creative X-fi

HDD: 2 Seagates SATA at RAID0 total of 240Gb connected at SATA1 and SATA2 mb slots (NCQ enabled)
--The Seagates are nested in Cooldrive6 and Cooldrive Lite HDD coolers---
HDD: External WD SATA 250Gb connected at SATA3 mb slot

OD: Plextor PX-712SA also SATA connected at SATA4 mb slot


Heatsink: Thermalright SI-120
HFan: Thermaltake 120mm at 35-95CFM

Intake fan (front); Cooldrive6 and Cooldrive Lite intake fans
Intake fan (front): Papst 120mm at 44CFM
Exhaust fan (back): Papst 120mm at 44CFM
Exhaust fan (top): Coolermaster 120mm at 7CFM
Exhaust fan (top): UPs has a 120mm exhaust fan on top of CPU

External: Hauppauge External WinTV USB card
Internet: Dial-up ISDN through USB modem

MY CPU starts at 34C and soon rises to a stable 42C idle - 45C under load
and the mb temps never go above 40C.
This information was given to me the BIOS hardware monitor and PC Probe 2.

So now I am trying to play X3 Reunion...

i am noting here that the game crashes both patched (v1.4) AND unpatched (v1.0). Also tried launching the game with and without EAX sound, with and without AA and also tweaked other grafix settings but to no avail...the maximum i can play is 10mins before it crashes.

Initially i thought it was me playing around with the registry too much and overtweaking the pc or even badtweaking it.
So i decided to format and reinstall everything.

The sequence of installation went as follows:

1.WinXp Pro Sp1
2.WinXP Pro SP2
3.Mobo Drivers (cd drivers and apps, then web update of NForce Chipset drivers)
----- I HAVE NOT UPDATED THE BIOS------ although there is a newer update.
4.VGA Drivers (latest nVidia forceware)
5.Sound Card Drivers (cd drivers, then web update)
6.PlexTools

7.Diskeeper and PerfectDisk
8.------run offline defrag and then smart defrag-------
9.All my other sofware + WinTv card drivers
10.Games (Star Wars Empires at War, X3 Reunion+, GUN )

STILL IT CRASHES

Any suggestions?

[spartan015]

well you have a really nice rig. have you overclocked anything?

[David M]

The crashing or system instability may have nothing at all to do with your software. The first place I would check is your power supply. Especially check the voltage at your graphics card. Don't assume your PSU is adequate because it says 500 watts. Your PSU is powering a lot of stuff including a high end graphics card which needs its own PCI-E 6 pin connector that can handle close to 100 watts. You are also powering 5, 120mm fans. Even the best PSU's can go bad or your's may be inadequate in the first place. Check your three different voltages when your computer is under a load such as when running 3DMark06 and Super Pi. Don't necessarily trust the voltage readings that are being generated by the BIOS....get an actual digital multimeter and check your voltages at your spare molex connectors and check the voltage where your 6 pin PCI-E connector attaches to your graphics card. This means checking the voltage at the load, where it counts, and not wherever the BIOS measures the voltage. If you get a greater than 4%-5% voltage drop below spec, then there is your problem. Many computer components are very voltage sensitive, especially graphics cards.

Get some compressed air and blow out everything especially the inside of your graphics card. A little dust can really heat things up.

I would also do a check on your RAM...start with one stick of RAM and see if the instability goes away. Use software to test your RAM as well.

Like spartan asked....don't overclock anything until you have figured out the problem.

[alejandroPCM]

well....there is no dust inside the pc i just checked and cleaned the fan filter.

As for the voltages, PC Probe 2 may be getting its readings from the BIOS but the actual number is of no great importance. The range of alteration however is...and what it shows me is that the percentage of voltage drop is really low and never goes below the +5,+3,+12 and 1.39 Vcore thresholds.

I invested in a really good PSU (150euro) with an 80% efficiency, thats 400W.
I would expect to need more than that (eg a 600W PSU) if i was using 2 cards in SLI but i m not. Do you think my fans and cooldrives are sucking so much? and how can i check the voltage of a rail by meter if the actual connection is used by a plug?

[spartan015]

see it may not be the fact that psu isn't adequate... but the fact that the one you have is faulty. and you try one stick of ram, test it all out. I had the same problem and i found out that it was one of my sticks of ram, i thought it was fine until it froze up and stuff and i removed it and put another and everyhitng was fine.

[David M]

Originally Posted by alejandroPCM and how can i check the voltage of a rail by meter if the actual connection is used by a plug?

You can get the probes into the wires where they terminate at the Molex connector is you have the long pointy probes with the sharp ends...for lack of a better description. I'm not suggesting piercing the insulation.

[alejandroPCM]

Someone suggested on a different forum that i should juice up my RAM voltage just a little bit as this method has helped him run X3 without problems.....

[webbcm01]

nevermind i see you ran disc keeper

[spartan015]

Originally Posted by alejandroPCM Someone suggested on a different forum that i should juice up my RAM voltage just a little bit as this method has helped him run X3 without problems.....

the only problem is.. its like OCing anything... it might run certain programs surberbly but then you load something else... and bam! burnout...

I think you should test each ram first, like try 2 and see what happens. once could be damaged.