MA74GMT-S2 AM3 MATX freezing only during games

[Pedders]

I bought a new barebones system using this motherboard. I've added a case fan and an NVIDIA Geforce 7300GT graphics card. Running Win XP SP3.

Everything is running great apart from one major problem. Any graphically demanding game I run (i.e. Call of Duty 2) it will load no problem, show the intro and menus but completely freeze when I start playing, requiring a reboot. It has happened with all 4 games I've tried.

I have trawled the internet for weeks and tried:

Updating drivers for all hardware
Updating bios
RAM testing
Defragmenting
Re-installing games
Rolling back to SP2
Disabling onboard graphics in BIOS

Nothing has resolved this issue but I have encountered two other things which might be relevant:

1) When I play a DVD it will play but without sound (Music CDs play no problem)
2) SpeedFan tells me temp3 is 62C when idle

I thought for a long time it might be a heat issue but, GPU temp never goes above 45C, Core temp never goes above 40C and when I check the core temp in BIOS it says usually 22C. I don't know what this temp3 is and all other temperatures are fine. If it wasn't for the freezing issue I would dismiss it.

Is this freezing a problem that anyone else with this motherboard has come across? Can anyone on this forum shed some light on this?

I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

Peter

[absic]

Hi there,

the TMPIN3 figure can sometimes refer to the Northbridge Temperature though this isn't always the case, just to make things confusing!

The best advice I can offer would be to remove the heatsinks on the motherboard and replace the thermal grease before remounting them to see if that helps. Another option would be to try and add a small fan to blow air onto the Northbridge as it may be getting too hot.