*All* games freeze under vista 64 !

J

jraff

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Oct 1, 2008
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Hi everyone,

I recently built my first build, and am very happy with it, it runs like a charm! Except, you know, for games.

All the game I've installed so far end up freezing up:

Civ4 : can play for a few hours if I'm lucky, but sooner or later the screen freezes and gets "blocky" (background is superimposed with squares (maybe 10x10 pixels) that just look like they ware taken form another area of the screen) and the sound gets stuck in a short loop, I have to reboot since alt-tab or ctrl-alt-delete doesnt work.

Morrowind and Oblivion: time to freeze is much shorter, haven't reached 15 minutes yet. The freeze will be more of a "take a texture and fill the screen with it" nature. Sound loops too.

Total war medieval 2 : I only tried it once, but the crash was so stupid (character stuck in a loop in the general map, not even in 3d-heavy combat) that I thought I'd wait to fix the issue before I tried again.


It also only happens with games. Even other 3d stuff (like google earth with the buildings on) or the new photoshop that uses 3d accel. run perfectly.


I made sure that all the games were patched and that all my drivers were up to date, including my bios, I've tried running the games in directX 9 (by adding -DX9 to the shortcut), and otehr things too - no solutions that I've found so far has worked.

Here are my computer's details (built two weeks ago, all pieces new, no overclocks):

MB: gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L (f9 bios)
processor: intel core2duo e8400
ram: 4G kingston KVR DDR2 non-ecc 800mhz (2x2g)
video: SAPPHIRE HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E (driver 8.541.0.0)
sound: onboard
PSU : OCZ stealthxstream 600w

OS: vista home premium 64 sp1

Soo... Anyone has an idea about the cause and/or solution for this problem? I'm pretty tech savvy, but not familiar with vista. SO I could probably run any tests you suggest...

Thanks a million!
 
Try the obvious like fan speed??It seems you have a heat issue if you can play for a while..You arent reporting BSODs so it could be something real simple.Only happening in 3d apps points directly to your video card..Do you have a spare card to test??
 
That sounds like classic GPU locking up symptoms.
Check for heat, run the fans more to keep it cooler, and make sure you have a CLEAN latest driver install.
 
kuyaglen said:
Try re-installing DirectX.
Click to expand...

That fails since its Vista x64 which only has DX10 & can't be reinstalled. Doing sfc /scannow would be the best way to repair DirectX IF it was the issue. My guess is that its not, like everyone else is concluding.
 
You can also have DirectX 9.0c installed on Vista as well. However, I think this is either a heat related issue, or a bad GPU memory or system memory issue.
 
Wow, thanks for all the quick answers!

I already tried to update DX10 to the latest version to be sure, before I posted, and it didn't work, obviously. Will check the GPU with more care! Is there a way that I can check the temp *while* I'm playing?
 
You may also want to test your ram with memtest. I had a similar problem with a stick I bought for this build. Turned out half of it was bad but some games didn't hit the sectors somehow.
 
Well for the record I tried lowering my settings (thinking it would probably help with the heating), and I seem to get longer playing time - I tried morrowind and oblivion for half an hour each with no lock ups, hopefully this will work!
 
sounds like a realtek problem to me honestly. try going back a release or two on your drivers for your sound card.
 
Well you know what I've just noticed? I never installed the proper drivers for my integrated sound card! It just says "high definition audio", doesn't mention realtek at all (only my LAN driver, that I got on gigabyte's site, mentions realtek). I'll try installing them, but, following your advice, I'll keep to a slightly older version.

Thanks for the extra info!

Now if I could only find time to actually play those games...
 
have you thought about upgrading to XP?

can you disable onboard sound in the bios and see if the games run then?
 
sparks said:
have you thought about upgrading to XP?

can you disable onboard sound in the bios and see if the games run then?
Click to expand...

How would downgrading to Xp fix an overheating GPU and a nonexistent sound card?? :rolleyes:
 
drew630 said:
How would downgrading to Xp fix an overheating GPU and a nonexistent sound card?? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Because Vista is the devil....didn't you know? If you have cancer and downgrade to XP, your cancer will be cured as well.
 
Well I had the chance to play Oblivion for a few hours yesterday, and while it did crash at some point,, it wasn't the same problem anymore, so it appears that something - probably the soudn drivers- fixed it!
 
Try looking into cooling the memory. Vista itself is a memory hog and playing games on top of that will heat up the memory real quick. I run 4GB of Corsair XMS and Vista 64 Ultimate. I have an OCZ memory coler on the mem and i have no such issues. Also my case is well ventilated for my two 8800GTX OC2 Vid cards running latest drivers. It definately sounds like a bad driver or just an overheating issue.
 
Ok, it's been a few days, and the problem is still there, unfortunately.

All my drivers are up to date, I've got the latest directX, I'm gaming with lowered settings to minimize the heat, I've sped up the fans in my case... Even though I don't think heat is the problem, since I've seen my computer lock up with the video card at only 68 degrees Celsius, which is its idle temp...

I'm convinced it has to do specifically with games and... the way they interact with the system(?) , because I've done some heavy duty, memory intensive photoshop+illustrator, and multitasking, with no problems... Even photoshop cs4, which uses the GPU...

I think that rules out the ram, motherboard and processor as being the problem. In other words, I can throw anything at this computer and it will run fine, but as soon as I play *any* game, it locks up - even something as simple as frets on fire, or the new bejeweled, for f*ck's sake!

see what the lock up looks like here:
brainfreeze.jpg


So... Anyone has any idea, still? Thanks!
 
It's either your video card or your PSU. If you have a more powerful PSU (as in more watts and amps) try it. Also, if you have a spare ATI card, try it as well.
 
I'm leaning towards the video card. Get another PCI-E video card and see if the artifacts show up then. If the new card has no artifacts, then its the video card.
 
kingsleytim said:
Try looking into cooling the memory. Vista itself is a memory hog and playing games on top of that will heat up the memory real quick. I run 4GB of Corsair XMS and Vista 64 Ultimate. I have an OCZ memory coler on the mem and i have no such issues. Also my case is well ventilated for my two 8800GTX OC2 Vid cards running latest drivers. It definately sounds like a bad driver or just an overheating issue.
Click to expand...

First off, Vista isn't a "memory hog." What it does do is use more memory. But it's not like empty memory on your system is doing anything in particular. Theoretically, the most efficient operating system out there would use 100% of your memory. Vista's memory management is leaps beyond XP's.

Also, overheating memory is very unlikely and if that was the case, his computer wouldn't boot. Or would hard crash.
 
if it hard locks, its your GPU.
if it artifacts, its the GPU RAM.

Turn your GPU clock down and try again.
If it works, you have a bad card.
If it doesnt work, you have a bad card.

I see an RMA in your future...
 
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