Hardware:
Core2duo E6300@1.86ghz
Asus P5B
Asus GeForce 8800gtx
Cooler Master Real Power 520watt
Kingston 3x1gb pc6400 800mhz
SATA300 - 16MB 320gb Western Digital
Sound Blaster Audigy SE
LG DVD Drive + LG DVD+RW


Since about 5 days whenever I open a game, any game I tried (Team Fortress 2, Warcraft III TFT, Age of Conan, World of Warcraft) my pc just crashes before even making it to the first actual loading screen in game. At first I thought it might have been my videocard, so I put my old Sapphire radeon X1950 pro in, but that didnt change anything.
After that I heard from a friend of mine it might be a memory problem, so I ran a memtest for a couple of hours which gave some errors, so I replaced my old memory chips with a couple of brand new ones. This still didnt make any difference.
The dodgy thing also is, whenever I start up my pc and start up a game as quick as possible, it works occasionally, but it still crashes when alt tabbing. When I start up the game when windows has started up properly, it just reboots whenever my computer tries to switch to the game. So I kindly ask some advice on this very annoying issue.

- Foomar

Foomar have you tried doing a system restore from about 6 day back.

Try PSU

Yes I have tried, even tried restoring it to like 2months ago, but it says that it cant be restored because nothing has been changed.

And about the PSU, I didnt think that would be the problem cause I tried it aswell when I booted up with my old X1950 vid card, unplugged my DVD drives and booted up on only 1gig of ram, and it still gave the same problem.

Foomar vista or xp

Using XP atm

Foomar if you don't go into games and try surfing internet does pc work correctly.or listen to music video etc.

Yep, everything seems to work fine, apart from when I open any game ive tried, the pc just reboots without anything showing.

Foomar when you said you tried old video card to x1950 did you clean out old nvidia drivers and load ati drivers,also do you have latest nvidia driver 177?

No I did actually not remove my old nvidia drivers, but just updated my ATI drivers, and I do have the latest nvidia drivers installed.
Whats the quickest way to remove all the nvidia drivers?

I would look into a RAM, PSU, or HD issue. Run a RAM test with MemTest86 and a HD test with DFT before looking into your PSU. Both programs should be easy to find online. My first instinct is that the RAM is bad, but it can be a number of things until we can isolate the good components from the bad.

Right-click on "My computer" in your desktop, Properties, Advanced, Startup and recovery settings, uncheck "Automatically restart". Next time you get a crash it will stay at the blue screen (until you reboot manually). That should give you more info. For example if the blue screen talks about nv4_disp.dll run Driver Cleaner and install the latest WHQL-certified nVidia drivers, or maybe the November version (that works fine for my 8800GTX on XP, unlike earlier versions).

Foomar I always use driver cleaner google it,I run driver cleaner in windows,then I reboot in safe mode and do driver cleaner in safe mode,reboot back to xp and run driver cleaner one last time ,then reload lastest drivers.try that.

I've had this happen when the PSU is going bad. The vid card draws more power in 3D mode (gaming) and the PSU can't properly supply the required power. If you have a spare PSU lying around, try swapping it out.

I think the most likely culprits are the memory or the PSU. An underpowered PSU can definitely cause a reboot when gaming starts or shortly into it.

BTW, did you memtest the new memory too?

I did this a few days back, but its not blue screens now, it just reboots without showing any message whatsoever.

I tried this, still got the same problem atm

I just bought this PSU like 2months ago, the only option could be that its actually not sufficient wattage for my computer.
I am gonna run my memtest again on the new memory modules I put in, and if it still gives error im guessing its my motherboard being broken

Foomar on the side of the power supply it should tell you what the 12 volt amps are,how many 12 volt lines are there,the 8800 gtx I think needs 28 amps on it to operate correctly.had a friend where I work bring in a pc that had antec 350,he also had a 7950gt which had to have 22 amp on the 12 volts the antec only had 16 amps on it.this worked for several month ok until the day he bring it in for me to look at.

the underpowered video blew 2 caps cause the fan had sieged up after several months of under powering it,probably cause it was trying to draw to much amps over a long peroid of time,if you get your hand on a another power supply maybe a 700 or 800 mite try that.the ocz I have has 4- 12 volt rails @ 18 amps each.I have had it for over 2 years with no problem.I know you can fix this problem and the help will be there.

Im at work at the moment, but ill check how many 12 volt lines the PSU has when I get back. Im actually starting to hope this is the problem since this pc is getting on my nerves now

- Foomar

Even if the rated amps are OK on the PSU, it does not mean that it's functioning properly.

If there is no blue screen it's quite possible that the PSU is restarting. Of course, this could be caused by your video card drawing too much power as well.

Also I note that Cooler Master's lower rated 550 only has 16A on two rails.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817171016

Depending on which source you believe, that either means:

a. both rails are being used to power your 26A card, leaving nothing else for your system, or

(far more likely)

b. They are lying about the "dual rail" and it's in reality one rail supplying 32A to your entire system.

Still, if your case is hot or the room is hot your inexpensive power supply is probably incapable of supplying sufficient power.

So what PSU would you guys recommend getting so ill be more then okay in the future. Im not too fussed about the price, just want it all to work properly again.
Also, this is quite a random other question tho, Im thinking of getting a new E8500 processor, but I have no clue what motherboard to get for it. Any ideas on that?