Random Reboot in UT2004

[JediNinjaWizards]

Good Evening B1tches and P1mps. I have a little problem, and I figured you could assist me. I love my Shuttle, the machine in my sig, it never crashes. Ever. Never has. But, when I play UT2004, it randomly reboots, usually in the Map CTF-MoonDragon. Why is this happening? The only thing I can think of is the fact that it has a 200W Power Supply, albeit one of the pimp-ass Shuttle ones that are supposed to be beter than a regular PSU of the same rating. Its not my ram, which is Corsair, its not the overclocked Barton, because it happens with it at stock, and it isnt my 9800 pro, that always worked fine, and I haven't altered it or overclocked it at all. Any ideas? I'm not sure what to do other than get the $75 250W Shuttle PSU that you can get online. Its just unnerving that it happens in that one app, but i admit its probably the most taxing app I have, when its running everything is at full bore, the video, AGP bus, sound, Ethernet, hard drive, cpu, etc are all pegged. Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

[Looking for Knowledge]

What are your temps like, both ambient and while you're playing? Do you know? I'm thinking your 9800 is kicking off a lot of heat when running UT2004 and that might be an issue.

On the up side, if you have to get the 250 SilentX PSU, it's quieter than the stock 200w.

[JediNinjaWizards]

my temps are fairly high i believe, but its never been an issue. They are about 110 at idle, and 125-135 at full load. Is that over the limit? I'm too lazy to go to amd.com and look at the tech docs to find out...

The 9800 pro is at stock (actually a few mhz less, $&%@ you, Powercolor!! you cheap bastards!!) but it has a custom copper heatsink, that i have checked twice, and reapplied artic silver to. Yahoolian had said he thought it could be the drivers, which is possible i suppose. Would VPU recover be able to do this? I have it turned off...

[Looking for Knowledge]

Yea, I've had driver conflicts cause a crash or restart before. If heat isn't an issue while playing other graphic intensive games I would imagine that's not the issue here. I just know that it can get HOT in that little case, especially with a GPU working hard.

My recomendation is that Before buying anything new, you should uninstall everything ATI, restart and then re-instal the drivers.

[JediNinjaWizards]

I tried this and with the latest CATALYSTs, it still happens. What do you think guys? New Power supply time? I DID notice something new.....it appears to only happen in scenes with INSANE amounts of polygons, like in Moondragon, when facing the base, the big Pagoda thingy, or in any level with a large polygon count. It also appears to happen less frequently, but still happens, if I turn off AA and AF. It does NOT however, happen in 3dmark2003 run in a loop, with the settings on max. I believe it is the 9800 PRo drawing too much current at times, combined with the fact that the rest of the system is asking too much of the PSU as well. My usual settings for any game are the following:

1280x1024
6X AA
16x AF
Detail level:Maximum allowed by the game.

To date I have not had any stability of performance issues with these rather taxing settings, except in Halo, which doesnt appear to support AA.

What should I do?

[emkubed]

What should I do?

Be glad you have an actual legitimate reason to upgrade and enjoy the new hardware (PSU first).

OTOH, before I would buy, I'd re-download that level, just to be sure there's not some off-the-wall issue with that map on your PC. Did you get it streamed from a server while logging on, or did you download it individually from a site?

[PerfectCr]

UT2K4 used to studder if I overclocked my video card too high. I lowered the OC slightly and the problem went away.

[JediNinjaWizards]

YEah it looks like next paycheck im getting the PC40 250W power supply, and well see if that fixes it.

[PerfectCr]

YEah it looks like next paycheck im getting the PC40 250W power supply, and well see if that fixes it.

I highly doubt that would cause your system to reboot UT2K4 on particular map. You really think one map has a connection to your power supply?

Is it still happening? Does it happen in any other game? Other maps? No? Then the PSU is not your problem.

[JediNinjaWizards]

It does not happen just with that one map, it happens with any map that seems to have a high poly count. It is fairly safe to say that since I had AA and AF turned up all the way, the more polygons in the scene, the more power the card consumes trying to render it. For the time being, i have disabled AA and AF, and this has resolved the problem, temporarily, until i get a better PSU.

[PerfectCr]

It does not happen just with that one map, it happens with any map that seems to have a high poly count. It is fairly safe to say that since I had AA and AF turned up all the way, the more polygons in the scene, the more power the card consumes trying to render it. For the time being, i have disabled AA and AF, and this has resolved the problem, temporarily, until i get a better PSU.

Still do not think the two are related. But we'll see. I doubt turning up AA and AF would cause a system to crash like that. Sounds like a driver conflict.

[JediNinjaWizards]

OK guys, I finally figured this one out. The problem is that my cpu temp is hitting 60 degrees under load, and my BIOS evidently shuts off the comp to avoid cpu damage from occurring. In the Shuttle SN45G, there are NO options in the BIOS to change this which is VERY frustrating. This is obviously due to the Overclock, I'm running a 2500 at 2.2 ghz. Everything is cooled properly with the Heatpipe and Arctic Silver, so It isnt that, its the cpu. Temps are fine at 1.8 ghz, the problem goes away. Also, I think I have damaged the chip, because now it reboots even when not under load, and while surfing, etc. My question is this: If I get a mobile Barton and run it at 2.2 will it be significantly cooler than the regular one? If it is, I'll just do that, otherwise I dunno what to do short of actually buying a 3200., which is a waste of $$ as far as I can see. Any ideas? 3200? Mobile 2500? What to do....

[Looking for Knowledge]

Are you using the stock Sunon fan with your ICE? What's your air flow around and to your case like? What are your ambient temps? F.Y.I. I'm running an overclocked 2500+ @ 2.2ghz with no temp problems at all, but I keep my house fairly cool and replaced the stock fan.

[PerfectCr]

Are you using the stock Sunon fan with your ICE? What's your air flow around and to your case like? What are your ambient temps? F.Y.I. I'm running an overclocked 2500+ @ 2.2ghz with no temp problems at all, but I keep my house fairly cool and replaced the stock fan.

You could always out a Vantec Tornado in there Then again you won't be able to hear again after that

[JediNinjaWizards]

Are you using the stock Sunon fan with your ICE? What's your air flow around and to your case like? What are your ambient temps? F.Y.I. I'm running an overclocked 2500+ @ 2.2ghz with no temp problems at all, but I keep my house fairly cool and replaced the stock fan.

What are your temps generally like? My case is nice and cool at stock, but I can feel hot air coming out the back with the 400 mhz overclock.

[tomjleeds]

Are you running the stock Sunon ICE fan?

I could have sworn the shut-off temperature on the SN45G was about 80*C, not 60*C. Very odd. That's a very high temperature too, particularly with the Sunon - you should be getting less than 52*C under load.

As someone else said, what are your temperatures usually like?

I don't know about the mobile chip, to be honest. You could try upgrading to a 2800+ if you've damaged your CPU I guess...they're good value at the moment

[Looking for Knowledge]

What are your temps generally like? My case is nice and cool at stock, but I can feel hot air coming out the back with the 400 mhz overclock.

Well, it's inside an end-table, in an upstairs bedroom, running folding @ home 24/7, with that OC. My house, downstairs thermostat, is stable at around 71f.

With that in mind, it runs right around 50-51c. for the CPU and 47-48 for the PSU. The case stays around 35c and the HDD right around 20c. This is all under full CPU load.

[JediNinjaWizards]

Hmmm, ok. When I get home tonight I will try measuring again, at stock and overclocked, under load and at idle, and see what I get. I still have to finish installing Windows, and making the computer the way it was before, since I somehow ruined the Master Boot record trying to Boot of a USB Drive. (No, system restore didn't fix it, its useless anyway...)