Hardware problems? - Overclocking or Tremulous?

[Kiwi]

Hi, I've recently been experiencing hardware problems when I play trem.  As some of you might know, my keyboard periodically switches keys or stops working all together.  This only effects typing, never moving around.  Starting yesterday, my mouse started freezing randomly for periods of about 5 sec every 30 sec.  These problems only occur in Tremulous, but I can't think of any tremulous settings that could cause this problem.  These problems started to appear after I overlocked my computer (ram from 667 to around 800 and cpu from around 2.4 to 3.1).  I've never heard of overclocking causing problems like this, and these problems only present themselves when I'm playing trem.  Does anyone have any idea of why this is happening or if it's related to tremulous or overclocking?

Thanks for your help,
Kiwi

Edit: Also, the keys always switch in the same order, for example once my keyboard enters "messed up mode" /quit becomes .auit, forcing me to quit trem via the gui menu.  Restarting trem always fixes this problem temporarily.

[Mustard]

Yeah, i had the mouse problem awhile ago, and it fixed right up by getting a NEW one. >.>

[Qrntz]

Looks somewhat like an SDL input fail to me. I have no real idea though.

[Kiwi]

Yeah, i had the mouse problem awhile ago, and it fixed right up by getting a NEW one. >.>

I haven't had time to try a new mouse yet, however the problem persisted after trying a new keyboard.

Looks somewhat like an SDL input fail to me. I have no real idea though.

I'm not exactly sure what an SDL input is (and is it specifically trem related?), but how would one go about fixing such a thing or at least checking if it's the problem?

Thanks for the help,
Kiwi

[Qrntz]

I'm not exactly sure what an SDL input is (and is it specifically trem related?), but how would one go about fixing such a thing or at least checking if it's the problem?

Trem's heart is, basically, modified ioquake3 which uses OpenGL + SDL to ensure all the rendering stuff. OpenGL is meant for rendering exclusively, so the user input must be handled by SDL. And I actually heard of cases when overclocking made SDL behave naughty in a strange way.
I know I sound like someone who has little idea, but um, it has been time since I last looked in the sources.
Also must be my usual mania to complicate problems, but who cares.
Hmm, just to be sure, can you revert the changes back and then try gaming a bit? Maybe first revert just the RAM overclocking and see if it persists. If it does, revert the CPU overclocking. This way, you at least could know what's causing it, with a later possibility of knowing why it is.

[Kiwi]

Ok thanks, I'll run Tremulous for a while under what my bios calls "fail-safe defaults".  I'll get back to you after a while.

Thanks,
Kiwi

[Si-wins]

occasionally tremulous will freeze my mac up to where i have to reboot. this has ONLY happened it trem lols 

[Tremulant]

I love how macs just work.

[Kiwi]

I love how macs just work.

This doesn't happen on my mac .  I undid my overclock on my windows (*cringe*) desktop computer, and I'm still having the same troubles, but they are less pronounced.  I might further undo my overclock and see if it completely fixes it.

Thanks,
Kiwi

[Tremulant]

I undid my overclock on my windows (*cringe*) desktop computer, and I'm still having the same troubles, but they are less pronounced.  I might further undo my overclock and see if it completely fixes it.

Just how undone is your overclock at the moment if you can still further undo it?

[Cadynum]

You should run some overclocking stability test to see if the overclocking is stable.
But since it only occurs in trem I doubt it's because of your overclock. (Assuming it works fine in other games)

[Kiwi]

Just how undone is your overclock at the moment if you can still further undo it?

I set it back to the default values, which are 8x CPU multiplier and a FSB of 200.  I can future undo my overclock by "reverse overclocking", I suppose it would be called?  By dropping my CUP multiplier to 6x with a FSB of 100 (much worse than the default settings).

You should run some overclocking stability test to see if the overclocking is stable.
But since it only occurs in trem I doubt it's because of your overclock. (Assuming it works fine in other games)

I ran Prime 95 for a day, and I ran memtest86+ for a few hours before that.  I ran into no errors either time, but I can run them longer if you think it would help?

Thanks,
Kiwi

[Cadynum]

I ran Prime 95 for a day, and I ran memtest86+ for a few hours before that.  I ran into no errors either time, but I can run them longer if you think it would help?

Thanks,
Kiwi

That sounds good, but you should preferably stress the gfx card too at the same time to ensure that the PSU can deliver power to everything.

[Anonymoose]

for gpu stressing: http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/#download

good luck, also make sure you have returned voltages (if any were changed) to normal levels, especially the ram: ~1.8-1.9v for DDR2 @667