Troubleshooting Dead...

possible mobo / memory issue

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Join Date: Jan 2008

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Levirules

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possible mobo / memory issue

Jan 13th, 2008

Ok, let me set up the background:
My computer kind of died. Right now, though, I'm trying to fix up my bro's PC. We do use our PC's for gaming, but were never the types to buy high end machines. Basically, I rebuilt his machine to near-identical stats as my pc, only his has a better video card. The problem is, it runs like garbage compared to my pc (when it was working obviously).

Quick stats of my bro's pc:
P4 2.8ghz northwood 800fsb
PCChips M916 mobo, supports 800fsb and pc3200 ddr
2x512 pc3200 ddr
geforce 7800 gs oc 256mb AGP8x

My stats:
P4 2.8ghz prescott 800fsb
ECS 848P-A mobo, supports 800fsb and pc3200 ddr
2x512 pc3200 ddr
radeon 9600 pro

Now, the issues we are having with his PC seem to be memory related, but I pulled those sticks from my pc to use in his. If the memory was the issue, I would think it would cause his cmoputer to reboot all the time like mine was doing. Instead, the computer runs fine half of the time, and other other half it just chugs like crazy. It can't keep up.

For example, we'd be playing a game, and it would run fairly smoothly at 30-50fps, then 5 minutes into the game, it would start chugging and run about 2-5fps. I know it's not the game or the server, and I also know that the stats of this PC are more than enough to run this particular game.

The last bit of info that makes me believe it is memory related is that once in a while, when the game starts chugging, it will kick us out and give us a buffer overflow error.

I've tried 2 different video cards and 2 different processors. I really believe my memory is O.K., so my question is this - Could these problems be motherboard related? Could his motherboard not be handling the memory correctly? Is it more likely that the motherboard is faulty or just low quality? It is a PCChips m916, just for reference, and my old motherboard was an ECS 848P-A. Thanks in advance for the possible help!