Several problems with new pc...

[Saisuke]

Hi guys this has been my first time attempting to build my own pc (with heavy heavy advice and input from my friend since ive been fairly clueless)
After browsing these forums I've immediately realised I may have made a few errors in my buying choice, such as a special edition graphics card heh, oh well I'll have to deal with what I got which is:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT Pci-Express Motherboard
Gainward BLISS Geforce 7900 GT "Golden Sample" 512mb GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache
Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 Aero Flower CPU cooler
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3500ll TwinX
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Coolermaster Cavalier 3 Silver Case

Ok, now for the problems..
My friend and I built this computer with various issues along the way and have ironed some of them out although some major problems remain...

I have Windows XP installed and running and have an internet connection etc however this pc will lockup and freeze randomly, sometimes within a few minutes of turning on or after half an hour and I have no idea what the cause is? I;m guessing it might be a problem with drivers? or maybe I've made an error during building and not enough power is getting through? Initially me and my friend thought it was a power problem since the dfi has an 8 pin power power and originally only a 4 pin lead was plugged into it, I've now installed a 8 pin adapter although that hasn't solved the problem.

Another problem is well the really annoying issue is I can't play games, I've only tested it with a few so far (such as Battlefield 2) but providing the computer doesn't freeze during the install the computer will crash whenever i try to load up a game, it will however let me reach the initial menu screens. Again I'm guessing it's a driver problem? Any ideas?

Another wierd issue is that the pc will power on after switching the psu on from the back, yet if i shut down the computer i can press the power button it will turn on for a few seconds, everything whirrs up then it stops...and will only turn on fully when i switch the psu off at the back and turn it back on again, which definately makes me think there has been some sort of error during building or some screwed up power flow.

But yeah this is my first custom built pc and I'm really at a loss of what to do lol. Do you guys have any ideas? I've installed new driver for the graphics card, but the sound card driver wont extract properly and gives me an error =/

O and recently , though this has only happened once i got a stop error caused by 'unknown device driver' which stated "***STOP:0X0000008E(0XC000005,0X00000000,0XBAA77C2C,0X00000000) I don't know if that means anything????

Any help will be greatly appreciated as right now I can only use this system which I've spent alot of money on for simple tasks, which is one of the most demoralising experiences I've ever had lol, and it sucks since im new to building pc's i have no idea what to do about it heheh
Cheers
Chris

[scrandman]

Random freeze ups are often caused by bad or incompatible RAM (or using the wrong timings).

I suggest you verify using memtest:

http://www.memtest.org/

[jayoungf9]

Hi Saisuke,

Congratulations on building your first PC. Nice Spec. too.

Try taking out the sound card to see if it lessens the locking up.

I agree though with scrandman. Likely to be faulty memory as part of the problem. Did you remember to properly earth yourselves when you were putting the hardware together. RAM is very sensitive to static electricity. Also worthwhile checking the settings in the BIOS I would go with failsafe options as opposed to optimised options

Again, I would make sure you're properly earthed and that the case is too, then run it with one dimm (I'm going to assume it's 2x1GB as a 2GB DIMM would usually be prohibitively expensive) at a time, see if locks more on one dimm than the other.

If you're trying to install the Creative, is there onboard sound on the mobo? Worth disabling it in the BIOS if there is. Also do you have the creative CD or are you downloading the driver from Creatives' site?

Regards,

James

[maverick77_uk]

Hi there,

Sounds to me like a dodgy PSU. Try voltage testing it, or maybe borrow one from a mate and see if the other components behave with that.

Crashing when running a game (ie when the graphics card starts demanding juice), crashing when installing software (ie when the optical drive starts demanding juice) - seeing a trend? >)

[Ramedge]

Well your first mistake was letting me build it for you, muhahaha

I think its PSU tbh, Onboard sound card is disabled, every thing looked all good from the bios, so i will try it with my psu - it maybe because the Hiper modular psu only has a 4pin 12vault socket when the mobo needs a 8pin, I know Saisuke has now got a convertor that plugs into a molex socket but would you trust this in being sufficiant?