My RA304 keeps Crashing!!!!!!!!!!!

[ZakG]

Ok, before i contact vaio-link because i have heard they are extremely poor at customer support i thought i would try this forum as you guys seem to know what you are talking about.

Ok, so i have just bought a new Sony RA304, i love it , i only have sony desktops and laptops, they are all connected using vaio media, love that program and ive got the network media reciever working after some time (norton antivirus was blocking a connection). However i have just loaded FIFA 2005 and my logitech rumblepad 2 controller.

A fair number of times my RA304 just keeps cutting out and restarting, the program does not even freeze. This is either when starting the game or exiting the game. Sometimes when loading a new match. However, this has also happened midway through a recording using vaio media once.

The specs are very good as i think you know, 3.6 ghz, 1gb ram 500gb hard drive, and also an nVidia Geforce 6600 with 256 mb ddr sdram.
When the computer restarts it gives me the error reporting stuff from microsoft and has created a minidump.

I have read up that this could be something to do with the graphics card or something being too new or powerful for the game or something like that. There being an error or something.

I have also heard that it could be due to overheating but i do not believe this to be the case as it has this supposed 'liquid cooling system' which is supposed to keep it cool and to be honest it does not feel overheated or anything.

Can anyone suggest why my system keeps crashing/cutting out like this?

Could it be to do with the hyper threading, or the RAID configuration or i think it has PCI-express or something? i am new to this technology.

One last point, anyone with this pc or this new technology (RAID, PCI-EXPRESS,HT) , is it normal for there to be a cruch sort of noise when the pc boots or shuts down? For example when you can hear a new hard drive making a normal ticking over noise this is sort of a short sudden crunch noise.

If anyone has information on how to stop this crashing, i would be most grateful. Is this crunching noise i am experiencing normal?

thanks

[seb21__]

I would check the temperature if it the CPU under stress.

I use MobileMeter for this. 73degrees are a maximum stable temperature for you CPU.

[ZakG]

you say you would like it with xp pro, ive only ever used pro before. now i got xp home edition

what are the differences exactly?

[seb21__]

there are not much differents.For example XP Pro has a better folder security, because you can protect folders and files. With XP Home you need a optional software for this. The most differents are in Network and Folder security. But if you use your PC only at Home with a small network. Then I think it's uninteresting whether you use Home or Pro. Because, have ever used all features of XP Pro?

To playing DVDs or Games or similar things, is XP Home more as enough.

[ZakG]

that program cannot read the cpu temperature or anyother temperatures.

It says the hard drives are not connected to the on board IDE controller and that ACPI is not used on my pc.

are there any others that may work?

[ZakG]

no i have never used all the features. ur right it probably does not matter to me that much.

[seb21__]

that ACPI is not used on my pc.

What? That cannot be.
Kee-Lo, you have a similar system, do you have the same problem?

It says the hard drives are not connected to the on board IDE controller

I think the RAID system is the problem.

[ZakG]

yeh probably, the grphics card i am using apparently is designed for pci-express and with this RAID configuration stuff, i dunno.

Its supposed to be new technology for speed and performance yet it looks like compatibility with this technology is not there yet.

[ZakG]

kee-lo

you have an ra104 don't you?

this whole liquid cooling system which is supposed to be very near silent

its not silent at all, it is nearer the normal noise made than silent if anything?

you must feel extremly annoyed about the whole 104, then 204 then only 2 months later 304.

thats technology for you, at least ur not suffering from the same problems i am experiencing

[seb21__]

The graphicscard has nothing to do with a RAID system. The PCIExpress technology is the problem. The most software is programmed for AGP cards. And that screams for problems.

[ZakG]

seb21 u seem to know a bit about this pci-express.

is pci-express slowing taking over from pci and agp, yeah?

so in months and maybe years to come everything will change to pci-express?

furthermore i noticed that pci-express can hold two graphics card which is what i believe that i have, 2 x 128mb nVIDIA geforce.

could this be the problem, the game does not support having 2 graphics cards?