Vista - Vista 64 Freezes during gameplay, needs hard reboot

I've been beating this computer up for about a week now, and while I've amassed enormous reference material about solving various problems and inconsistencies within Vista, none have yet actually solved my problem.

The problem is thus:
Moments after starting or loading a game, WoW/Spore/BF2/Etc, the entire system just freezes, and can only be restarted after a hard boot. If I don't load a game, it is basically 100% stable.

My first thought was a video issue, but I purchased a new GeForce 8500GT and installed the guru3d drivers (the problem persisted with stock nvidia drivers) so I've ruled out video drivers, having used 4 sets of video drivers with 2 video cards. I upgraded to a 450W power supply, since for some reason Gateway still uses 300W PSU, but the problem persists. I've updated all drivers from manufacturer's website, and reinstalled the OS. I've run full integrity checks on the HDD and RAM, and I can't find a BIOS update for the foxconn RS780 motherboard.

I've tweaked BIOS settings and reset them to optimal defaults. I've swapped out the RAM and tried using different channels. I've scoured over the event viewer, but since it 'freezes' I don't get a crash report, only the usual error after reboot that 'recovered from an unexpected shutdown'

I guess my question is, does anyone know of a BIOS update/solution for this motherboard, or how can i 'record' the activities of my PC so that I can see exactly what causes the freeze to occur.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.


Computer Model: GT5676
Computer Manufacturer: Gateway
OS Name: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Ultimate |C:\Windows|\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
OS Version: 6.0.6001
System Type: x64-based PC
Total Physical Memory: 4094 MB
Windows Directory: C:\Windows
BIOS Version: Default System BIOS
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) 9600 Quad-Core Processor
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Resolution: 1152 x 864 x 4294967296 colors

If i'm suspectings its a PSU problem, is there a way to test how much it needs before purchasing one?

You can see what errors there are by going to control panel administative tool then event viewer then looking under custom views. If you still have the box for the card it will tell you what psu watts you need.

Well, the problem with using event viewer is that because the PC 'freezes' and does not crash, it does not actually log or report to me what caused the freeze to happen.

I am currently installing an optimized installation of windows vista ultimate-32 bit, and going to see if the problems continue in that environment.

I had problems with Nvidia drivers and a NX7600GS. It would crash and lockup. I could not find drivers to work, I was able to install a ATI 1900 card with no problems, up graded to a Saphire 4850 agp card. no problems. I think there is an issue with Nvdia drivers.

Sorry, the original video drivers that had the problem were the ATI HD series.

A clean install of vista 32 ultimate yielded the exact same issues with freezing the games, since I have no shotgun or similarly destructive resources at the moment, I am going to shrink the primary hdd and create a new partition to install windows XP in a dual-boot configuration, here i go again!

Running away doesn't solve problems.

Is it overheating, this can cause a freeze, or even a crash.

Why not put the original 64 bit Premium back.?
Thats what it was designed with.

Designed with or not, the simple fact is that it coninued crashing, and as such I am determined to find out why. I don't think it is a PCI-E power failure since the same problem happened with the onboard ATI HD video set, which eliminates either a PCI-E culprit, as well as a driver issue for both ATI and NVIDIA.

I split the primary HDD into two partitions, and I installed all of my games to the second HDD. I'm running Vista Ultimate 32 in the primary partion, and XP Pro 64-Bit in the second partition. The games are all configured to be playable from either partition since they are installed to the secondary HDD. OffTopic - This is actually a really nice configuration, other than the instability, which I'm about to test as soon as configuration is complete.

Try this link for power supply calculations.

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5