Hey folksI've had trouble running FS these last couple of weeks. It freezes between 5 and 30 minutes, most times just a freeze, sometimes a true blue screen of death.I installed the new 4-in-1-drivers from VIA and the newest ATI drivers (dated 21/12/05) and the newest soundcard drivers. No help.Furthermore I changed the cooler on my Radeon 9600 to a massive size. While I can't monitor card temps I believe it should be cool. In the BIOS my mobo temp is 26 and CPU temp is 51. Now, the gfx card is two years old and has seen heavy use. I saw some artifacts in Far Cry and I've seen a couple in FS, yet not the last couple of times I flew, just freezes with no warning. My comp is a P4 2,4 with 512 DDR.Is my graphics card failing, or what is going on?HELP!-Dasher7

Maybe I'm low on volts?From BIOS:Vcore 1.31+3.30 3.26V+5.00 4.75 - 4.78V+12.00 12.16 - 12.28VNot much of an electrician, but these numbers:+5.00 4.75 - 4.78V sound a bit bad?Any help will be appreciated...Thanks,Dasher7

Anyone...?Still crashing.-dasher7

Just passing thru and reading your issue, I would say off the top of my head it is a heating issue. A few questions to think about:1. Is your CPU a Prescott or a Northwood? 51c is high if you are running FS and way too high if it is in idle mode. If it is a Prescott (which run hotter than Northwoods), that still is a bit high for my liking. I have just went through a round of cooling myself and from what I have read in the overlockers' forums is you should stay below 50c.2. Are you overclocking? If so, go back to standard settings a note your temps. Then slowing work your way back up watching and making notes of rising temps to find a good balance.3. If you are not OC, I would take a look at your cooling situation again. I added a Thermalright 90mm where the heatsink has heat pipes. They drop the temps of my hot little Prescott 4.3 by 10 degrees. So I running in the mid 40's at full FS throttle.Hope the suggestions help...

First thing would be to check your event log to see if there's anything there to point to the problem, possibly a conflict somewhere.50 degrees is not hot for a P4, Northwoods are rated upto around 75 critical I think, Prescotts even more so. Although, if that's an idle temperature then you may have an issue and might want to reseat the heatsink.If there's nothing obvious in the event log and you're sure your GPU/CPU cooling is okay then check your drive(s) - read errors could be causing I/O delays (although this should be reported in the event log).Could be though, as you suspect, certain 'parts' of the GPU failing - do you have another card you could try in there?

Thanks both of you for your suggestions!Yeah my motherboard is prescott 800, not overclocked. Here's my mobo:http://www.asrock.com/product/P4VT8+.htmOk, in idle it is 50-51 degrees. I have motherboard monitor 5 and Speedfan and just running windows gives me readings CPU1 29 (mobo I think) CPU2 72 degrees! That 72, can that be right? If so, it is likely that it becomes too hot during 3D ops? Maybe I should run FS windowed and see if there's a specific temp that freezes.How much did you pay for that Thermalrite Clutch? Looks hefty, and all passive even, imagine its silent. "Could be though, as you suspect, certain 'parts' of the GPU failing - do you have another card you could try in there?"Well, I can see if I can find my old gfx card. What are the normal signs that a gfx card is failing?Thanks for your help!-dasher7

OK, using hwdoctor (from the company that makes the temp sensors) get various warnings that looks power-realated, true?Low cpu fan speed-12 / -5 volts are lowYet, these are not the volts are not displayed in BIOS (only those + volts), see my first post. -dasher7