Graphics cards in relation to running audio apps

I've been having a problem with my pc for some time now that is really starting to hold me back.

My machine is less than a year old and i had it custom build with the following basic spec;

* p4 3 gig chip

* 2gb ram

* 200 gb HDD

* 2mb cache

dvd drive and usual shit

anyway

The damn thing keeps restarting itself and its mostly when i'm running audio applications like logic or reaktor and plugins and stuff.

It happens sometimes with other stuff too but mostly its with audio apps.

I can be tweaking a plugin or just loading an instrument or something and the screen will freeze and then the machine instantly restarts itself as though i had just pressed the reset button.

I sent the error code to microsoft and that comes back telling me that its a graphics card problem.

it suggests updating the driver or turning off hardware acceleration but none of those stop the problem.

When i bought this pc i was just concerned with the ram and processor chip really and since i dont do any gaming or graphics editing i decided that it wasnt necessary to go for a great graphics card so what i got was just basic graphics built into the motherboard.

I soon realised when i got the machine that the card was sharing my ram to operate and lagging audio when i played an mp3 or something.

So i put the graphics card from my old machine in and the lagg went away but that was before the forced restarts began.

This graphics card is prety fucking old. its a very basic gforce card and it isnt even one of them ones with a fan on it or anything. its gotta be 5 or 6 years old. maybe more.

My question really is how likely is it that a weak graphics card can be causing me problems when i run audio applications?

i mean how do they even relate?

it could be that doing something resource intensive is causing your system to overheat. most motherboards have a built-in mechanism for restarting the computer when a certain temperature is reached.

maybe try adding a fan, and go inside and carefully do a little cable management as well (bundling and getting better airflow).

if you have a small oscillating or box fan, try removing the side of the case and pointing the fan into your case and see if you can run whatever app longer without restarts. i used to have to do this when i played world of warcraft because it would overheat my machine.

Another possibility is that the hardware is bad. Windows XP will by default reboot your machine if a blue screen is occuring. You can change this behavior by right clicking on My Computer, going to Properties, going to the Advanced tab, and unchecking Automatically restart.

I would recomend doing a web search to find some PC stress testing and benchmarking software, that will stress components inidividually (as well as monitor temps during the test). This could help narrow down what is causing the issue. Also note that while you might have a super duper PC cooler, PWM temperatures (the one on your power supply) can shoot up dramatically with different usage patterns, as different features of a piece of hardware can demand more power.

they've said everything I can say, except, if the problem is overheating:

as a temporary fix, if you have on of those big window fans, open up your case and set it beside it facing in, and see if it still happens.

have you tried removing your graf card, and reseating it, maybe even in a different pci socket?

just a thought.

Sounds like overheating or bad hardware which could be your RAM.

  loganfive said:

have you tried removing your graf card, and reseating it, maybe even in a different pci socket?

 

just a thought.

good idea.

also, have there been any unusual sounds coming from inside it?

my old video card had a fan that started making this wierd scraping/groaning noise when it crapped out.

it would do this wierd start-stop thing.

Yea, try the fan advice for sure.. sounds like a heat problem. Next time it automatically turns off/restarts, open your BIOS and check how hot things are running in general. PC probe and other monitoring software is an equally good idea, esp if you have poor temp gauges. . . AGP or PCI?