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

[kee-lo_]

Yeah
I noticed Sony have moved to a Geforce in the RA series and moved away from Windows Media Center Edition (RA204)

[seb21__]

There was Media Center Edition on the RA204? My sister has a MediaCenterPC, I think it's OK. Maybe the people havn't used the SonySoftware.:smileytongue:

[kee-lo_]

Yeah some media centres are very nice Seb

[seb21__]

Pentium with 3,4GHz 1GB RAM digital TV card totally Wireless and some other cool stuff + 17inch TFT. And that below than 1000 ¿. Only Aldi can make prices like these. LOL

I've forgot the PCIE graphicscard and the 250GB HDD(or was it 300?)

[kee-lo_]

Yeah Aldi are getting some good deals.

[ZakG]

it has happened a few times, however the next time it happens i will ge the event number for you.

Off the subject, i was gonna buy a 104 however sony centre could not get hold of one (as you know a seperate franchise), then the 204 came out, they could not get hold of that. Then the 304 came out and i thought stuff it and went and brought it from micro anvika the same week it came out, they had it all in stock.
Also bought the HS95P screen, love it , 19inch x-black.

I am also confident that the 204 did not have media centre edition, the american version of this pc came with media centre. I have to say that i love the sony software and when i have worked with acer's, dell's i find them not as good.

Anyway does anyone have a solution to my problem? After all, a lot of money has been spent on this pc, the least it could do is work properly with EVERYTHING!

As i have said previously though, i have always been very happy with sony, everything has always worked and never failed me.

A last comment to this essay i have ended up writing, i was a bit dissapointed when i bought my laptop, sony's first centrino that it only came with a 16mb ATI graphics card, this meant that after only half a year i could no longer play new games. You would expect sony to give you the best for the price they charge.

Overall very happy but looking to resolve my current problems.

[ZakG]

sorry guys about the length of text

[seb21__]

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 think exectly that's your problem. Some games have really problems with PCIE graphicscard. Do you have the problem with other games too? No? Then the game is you problem and not the RA304.

[ZakG]

I have not tryed with other games as i haveno new ones at the moment. Although i downloaded roller coaster tycoon 3 demo and had no problem, but only played for a short while.

I do believe it is the game but i wanted to find a solution that will enable me to play with no problems if there is one. This is because my brother plays fifa 2005 on his vaio laptops and no problems. Is it the configurations i have on the components installed.

But also this happened to me once when i was recording something from vaio zone. Do you believe there is a faulty set up with my pc.


Anyone with the whole PCI-EXPRESS, RAID thing on their pc's, does it make a sort of crunch/click when the pc boots, shuts down.

As described in this other persons description, below;

The Problem: Pc reboots randomly after long periods of time. The hard drive makes a 'click' sound before rebooting (same sound it makes when I boot it up for the 1st time) The pc then restarts. This happens after pc has been on for 1hr+. However when playing games, it can happen after 5-10 mins. I am guessing it is related to the temperature of the CPU because when it has happened I go to this Bios and find that the cpu temperature is 50 degrees+ .
Once back into windows, I get an error report. The technical information of the error is as follows:

[kee-lo_]

You'd think this new card would handle anything your threw at it.

You're right, it was the US edition which had the MC.

Wish they'd make an RA304 with XP Pro.