Computer crashes during gaming ( new PC, drivers up to date, both XP and Vista)

[theduke]

Hi there,

So I recently got a new and pretty strong PC.(with a crappy SLI mainboard...) :

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GH
8 GB DDR2 Ram
Geforce 8800 GTS with 6xx MB Ram
Asus P5N-E SLI
2 HDD

The problem is that the system keeps crashing while GAMING.
It happend once or twice while video playblack too. Points to GFX maybe?
 
The screen just freezes and a "drrrdrrrdrrrdrrr" sound keeps looping.

This occurs with different games after a random amount of time.
The problem even shows up in both Windows XP (sp2 and sp3) and Vista (SP1).
All drivers are up to date, OS obviously as well. Even the bios is the newest version.

I have looked at the temperatures, and while not all that pretty, they are not that bad.
MB: 50 ° C under heavy load
GFX: max 65 ° under heavy load

I really can't figure out what this is all about.
It ocurring in both Vista (x64) and XP(x84), with new drivers makes me think this is a hardware problem.


REALLY REALLY annoying.

Any advise would be appreciated.

[patio]

The sound may be the hard drive.
DLoad the FREE diagnostics from the drive manuf. site and use them to create a bootable CD to see.
Run the long test....preferably right before bed as it may take some time.

The next suspect would be a fan...either the CPU fan but more likely the fan on the vid card.

[quaxo]

The screen just freezes and a "drrrdrrrdrrrdrrr" sound keeps looping.

Is this sound coming from the computer itself or a sound from the speakers?

Test the hard drive, as Patio suggested, and also test the memory with MemTest86.