help critical problem

[AMIgaBot]

well i used to play homeworld 2 for very very long time mostly with mods. today something happened weird..

i run fx 1.85 or somethng , i started as progenitor. game started run normally , like 30 - 40minutes later suddenly disappear sound in game, i checked speaker connection, it was working, tried another speakers - no effect, checked system settings they were set to 50% . i continued to play with no sound, when i won skirmish battle i got message about winning but game HANGS!. no error log no minidump , game just crashed. i hit ctrl alt delete killed homeworld process, and restarted. game is running but there is no starting movie thing, i hit escape button aand i get main menu, i start mission , this happens again to skip movie i had to get esc. sound is not working both in windows and in game, other games crash same type. when video/sound is trying to play it hangs .

i rebooted computer and sound come back, but after equal timeplay again sound disappears!

i wanted to see what cause this, i changed preset to hangar and rebooted. when played game again i got echo effect (i wanted to get it for test case) when sound disappears there is no echo. as when i hit pause i hear fading sound get lower lower, but this "extinct" is instant.

i thought it was virus , i formatted hard drive and installed latest drivers for my computer grapchics/sound card/chipset

i have motherboard gigabyte grapchic card ati radeon 4670 hd 512mb 2gb ram hdd 2x 80gb seagate , integrated sound card realtek hd audio (azalia chip) im on windows xp.. i had ever windows vista ultimate, windows vista , thing is happening on evry system,

i checked also temperature for both motherboard and cpu was about 32c for grapchic card 39 when playing homeworld2 it went up to 48c cpu temp to 40c power supply thing failure? i dont think, my computer is almost new warranty has ended month ago (computer has one year)

[Andrew]

well i used to play homeworld 2 for very very long time mostly with mods. today something happened weird..

Awesome game. Havn't tried mods. any you recommend?

fx 1.85 is that version number of game/patches applied? Make sure you have game patched to whatever is newest version.

You're problem sounds serious. So a crash in game kills sound in OS and you have to reboot to get it back?

Maybe when playing the game disable sounds in it (not sure if possible) and see if it still crashes and causes problem in windows.

[AMIgaBot]

the 1.85 is  version of game modification. its latest one

sound disappear random time when playing winamp when playing youtube windows media player, any game.  when i try to play after  sound death video in game does not play it hangs and i have to hit esc to close it.  dune2k crash is same, when i accomplish game i get mission complete text and no result screen it freezez. same for homeworld.  i have oth windows vista and windows xp orginal.  homeworld2 is also orginal , .  disabling azalia chip in bios result in device manager sound card disappear.    i tried that. i dont have another.

when i run dxdiag  sound tab and try sound tests  i hear notthing but soundtest is succeful howewer still no sound..  after i reboot computer i have sound back but not for long,  i have looked ever into power management but theres notthing for searched thing.

motherboard model is ga-g31m-es2l . i have installed latest drivers,  used also older from cd. no result.

[Andrew]

Hmm, ok so not HW2 that is causing problems.

I would try memtest see if your ram is going bad.

Maybe run linux operating system and see if same problems (if so then definitely hardware problem and not software/drivers)

[AMIgaBot]

i dont have any nessecary  storage ,  err no usb pack or floppy,   dvd is working when "want" work. i need memtest for windows that not need to be burned on cd or into flash device

[athanasios]

Definitely check memory, HDD for bad sectors.

Also open case and see motherboard, if any capacitor is damaged (leaking or swollen). When I bought my second hand PC a couple of capacitors were swollen and I had issues with sound. I use sound blaster and it is OK. I didn't replace the capacitors because under them pass 5 wires each. I will damage them if I try to replace. Also check power supply on another PC or simply open it and check the 2 big capacitors. Smell it! Mine were leaking because fan stopped and they overheated. I replaced them as well as the fan.

[AMIgaBot]

i checked all capacitors  they are all in good condition,  power supply capacitor is okay.  but i found that  this huge chipset radiator is extremely hot.. its chipset between processor and grapchic card.. i used thermometer  and it gave result of 59c while cpu and grapchic card temperature is deep diffferent  could chipset died?

i checked my power supply twice both on other computers, its not giving problems.  failsafe were used to see any result - none.

sound/voice is back only after restart computer  when sound disappears many games that use soundcard are hangin when videoscene is played.. when sound is on- this not happens

[gryphon]

Can you attach a DX-diag file so we can pot any faults in your drivers?

[athanasios]

That radiator can be detached like CPU cooler to add paste or is permanent? Does it have a fan? Can you replace the fan with a better one?

[gryphon]

but i found that  this huge chipset radiator is extremely hot.. its chipset between processor and grapchic card.. i used thermometer  and it gave result of 59c while cpu and grapchic card temperature is deep diffferent  could chipset died?

By definition that would be the Northbridge.

That radiator can be detached like CPU cooler to add paste or is permanent?

I doubt you can remove it.

[athanasios]

I suspect so. But still you can change the fan.

[AMIgaBot]

i got new power supply   and things dont change..    today i pick up microphone and tried it. it worked, after  general sound disappear it worked still.   i could not  play music but microphone did work, i could hear my voice in speakers but why not  mp3's

problems with network card are not gone, it disconnect me random times, i have unchecked   tick for  power saving mode for network card, but this did not help.   formatting hard drive no work, ever low level format ..

in service they did not find anything malfunctioning

================

adding additional fan did not help  northbridge temperature is growing.

[athanasios]

Sorry can't think of anything more to help. You may soon need to buy a new motherboard. But first check all other parts (HDD, graphics card, memory...) on another PC.