Greets,
9800 Pro Here, AMD64 3200 etc.
I have recently experienced screen going to black and game crashing
with some of the new resource hungry games... ie Unreal 2004,
Battlefield Vietnam, Far Cry...etc.
I was using Chaintech Via Envy Onboard sound with max HW sound
settings... for example in Unreal 2004... HW+EAX3D. The Hardware
acceleration seems to be the problem.
Changing sound to Audigy 2 helped. Changing sound setting in game
to no HW acceleration resolved the problem. If you are using onboard
sound, it has been my finding that a lot of games dont like onboard
sound. You might want to consider an Audigy 2 or Audigy 2 ZS... ZS is
probably a much better choice... about $15 more.
You might want to check sound settings in Unreal 2004 and set them
to direct 3D.
If this doesnt work try:
Run -> dxdiag
Click Sound Tab
Reduce slider bar one notch, click save.
I believe the Dell 8250 has Soundblaster. You might want to go
to the Creative Site and install the latest drivers, of course
you want to go to the ATI site and install the latest ATI drivers,
today that would be ATI 4.3