Yay computer problems!

[The 9th Sage]

Ok, so for those who don't remember, which is probably all of you, I've had this problem for a while now where my CPU and GPU evidently lose communications with each other (on the desktop this means I get a VPU recovery error, with Windows telling me in different words that the GPU had a problem and has recovered). This means that games have a tendency to freeze, often seemingly at random.

Now, I've stress tested my CPU, Memtested my RAM, sent out my motherboard to get it checked, and sent out my power supply to get it checked, and they all seem to check out (though I don't actually have the power supply back yet, I confirmed this over the phone).

I've also tried two different graphics cards and both work, and both the GPU and CPU don't seem to be running overly hot (I mean, hell, I Prime95'd this QuadCore for like 48 hours straight). I'm pretty much out of ideas at this point, and am looking for some assistance.

It almost always happens only when I'm playing a game, though once in a great while it will when I'm doing something else (on the desktop or whatever). Since the power supply itself works, my only other thought right now is to try different RAM (my RAM checks out, but I wanted to get more RAM anyway, so why not?), or that possibly my PC is drawing a little bit too much current, not enough to trip up the PSU but enough to cause problems. I think this is unlikely, but at this point I can't rule anything out (oh, also I don't believe it's windows as it did this on both XP and Windows 7 x64). I guess I need to find a way to check this under load before I spend the cash to get a new power supply. I was thinking about unplugging one of the hard drives to see if that helped. I don't think it overly uses power, but perhaps it would be enough to help if it really is using too much power overall.

Anyway, suggestions are hoped for.

*edit*
Specs

Intel Core2Quad Q6600
2x1 GB sticks of DDR2 RAM at 800 mhz (will try it with my new 2x2 GB DDR2 @ 1066 mhz pair, doesn't use any more voltage at least)
Radeon HD 5750
two WD Caviar drives a 320 GB and 640 GB one as I recall (exact specs other than this I don't recall right now)
power supply is a 610 watt PC Power and Cooling one (model number 610EPS I believe)
motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro

 

[shawn]

I'm pretty sure you have enough power at 610 watts. That was a good guess though about the PSU.

My guess would be the motherboard. Not the hardware but the drivers. Maybe you have a small corruption in a driver for your motherboard. I'm not sure if your card is AGP or PCI or anything else but it sounds like it's either a glitch in the motherboard video drivers or else your Radeon drivers or some other graphics addon is causing a conflict.

If you've overclocked your CPU or graphics card from it's default clock speed this would definitely be something that could cause problems.

 

[The 9th Sage]

I can safely say it's not the motherboard hardware itself. That's been checked out. Also, no overclocking at the moment (though when I did for a brief while it didn't appear to make much difference).

I guess driver issues are possible, but I guess I either use the drivers or don't. I can try reinstalling the drivers when I get the PSU back (and looking for updates) but this problem has followed me through two different OSes, so I'm not sure about it being drivers.

Hmm...pretty sure Vista and Windows 7 use different driver models than XP, but perhaps there is some common thread there with the drivers. Like I said, I'm at my wit's end (I've tried just about everything I can think of) so I can't rule anything out. I could start with some of the less essential ones (the audio and LAN)...unfortunately many of them are essential, so I might have some trouble testing them.

It's a really obnoxious problem because sometimes...well, one day I played for like four hours almost straight with no problems, and one day I could barely even play ten minutes with no problems. m

 

[The 9th Sage]

RAM did not help, but on the plus side, my system rocks even more now (4 GB of 1066 mhz capable RAM). Anyway, I've tried something else, and so far it seems promising.

Since it isn't hardware, it must be software, and one common thread between both my XP and Windows 7 install is this ASUS program that can do overclocking and also introduces the AI Nap power saving mode (which I like, though I don't use the overclocking portion of it). The thing I wondered is if this was doing something that wasn't jiving with my system (I mean, it can control the clockspeed of the CPU and affects power management among other things)....

I uninstalled it since I'm pretty sure it's the same program no matter the OS. So far it seems to be doing ok, but we'll give it a few days to mess up on me and see.

 

[The 9th Sage]

It's tested for around 15 hours, and it's been working fine. Never been able to do that before (using the Audiosurf music visualizer to test while I'm away from the PC...I know it's probably not the best, but I needed something automated that worked the GPU).

So I may finally have it this time. After at least half a year of dealing with it!

 

[Reaper man]

heheh audiosurf is win

 

[The 9th Sage]

heheh audiosurf is win

I know, right? Not only is it fun to play, it also helps you fix your computer!

*edit*
Also...I should have checked to see what that app might have been doing first...I hadn't thought it was doing anything, but since I uninstalled it this computer has run like silk. Now I'm curious as to exactly what it was set to do since I thought I'd disabled it.