3D games lockup

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smith94672

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
153
I have a 5 yr old system, a Pentium 4 2.8C with an i865PE chipset, 1 gb DDR, and an ATI Radeon 9800Pro with 128 mb. I've played many 3D games on it until late last year.

Recently, I started loading up games again, namely NFSU2 and GTA:SA. Civilization 4 always gave me problems but they're getting worse now. Within <5-10 min of gameplay, the system locks up. I tried various graphics settings. I even tried the latest ATI drivers and then reverted back to the older ones.

Is this a sign of a failing video card? What should I do?
 
Sounds like it could be a heat issue to me, assuming you rule out software issues by check disking and updating your driver to a freshly downloaded/installed version.

Try using a can of air on the inside of your system (fan fins)
 
CleanSlate said:
Sounds like it could be a heat issue to me, assuming you rule out software issues by check disking and updating your driver to a freshly downloaded/installed version.

Try using a can of air on the inside of your system (fan fins)
Click to expand...

Where exactly is the possible heat issue? Is it related to my CPU or video card?
 
dust is your enemy, check to see none of your fans are clogged up, also your PSU might be on it's way out. Clean you video card, cpu fan and system fans, try using Speedfan to check for any high temps.
 
as suggested .. if you haven't in awhile .. get some canned air, a phillips screw driver and disassemble your computer and clean it up .. maybe pop your heat sinks off your cpu and gpu and re-apply some t.i.m. to both and reseat your heatsinks .. pull the psu out and give it a good dusting with your canned air and check all your fans to make sure they are indeed spinning

You can check your system event log in control panel,admin tools,event viewer and see if any errors are popping up ..

re-install chipset drivers and what not might help .. or maybe it's just time for a fresh re-install of your OS if your setup seems to be running slower than normal .. as that might be easier than doing a "tune-up" .. defrag,clean up registry a-la ccleaner regscrubXP and the like .. run a couple different spyware programs to check for 'stuff' (spybot s&d, super-antispyware..etc) ..run virus scan .. blah,blah ..

just throwing stuff out :)

maybe do some stress tests on your hdd,memory,cpu,gpu to see if they are indeed failing after you clean everything up :confused:
 
My guess is videocard as well. Namely the fan. I've had two 9700pros and on both of them the fans seized. The fact that its in-game only is a giveaway.
 
ThreeDee said:
as suggested .. if you haven't in awhile .. get some canned air, a phillips screw driver and disassemble your computer and clean it up .. maybe pop your heat sinks off your cpu and gpu and re-apply some t.i.m. to both and reseat your heatsinks .. pull the psu out and give it a good dusting with your canned air and check all your fans to make sure they are indeed spinning
Click to expand...

I have an Intel retail fan for my cpu. I think the fan came with a white thermal pad or grease that sticks onto the cpu, or something along those lines. It's been five years since I installed it so I'm not too sure of the details. In any case, I don't want to interfere with whatever thermal glue or whatnot is between the cpu and fan.

I don't know about my video card but I'm sure there could also be some similar thermal pad or grease between the gpu and its fan. I won't be having this computer for very long and I don't want to purchase any new thermal grease or fan for my cpu or video card. Also, I don't have instructions on how to remove the fan from my video card.

Is it enough to open up my computer and spray canned air WITHOUT removing heatsinks from my cpu and video card?
 
Yes that would help alot. Be sure to take it outside to blow the dust bunnies out. :D

Blow the PSU=power supply unit out also since it's fan pulls heated air as an exhaust.
 
smith94672 said:
Is it enough to open up my computer and spray canned air WITHOUT removing heatsinks from my cpu and video card?
Click to expand...

Give it shot, you got nothing to loose.

When I clean out my PC I actually strip out all components and wipe them down with a damp towel. Let them dry overnight, then put everything back together. I prefer this method 'cause then the dust will not be blown into other things that I can't reach, like inside the power supply.
 
if yer not comfortable totally disassembling your computer ..then , as stated ..yeah , just take it outside and give it a good "dusting" with some canned air ... and again , make sure all your fans are spinning ..give them a twirl with the unit off to make sure they all spin freely ..and then look at them when the unit is up and running to make sure they are spinning on their own.
 
I use a full blown air compressor! Works much better than those cans of compressed air!
 
CruisD64 said:
I use a full blown air compressor! Works much better than those cans of compressed air!
Click to expand...

I use an air tank personally myself ..but with some of those you have to watch for condensation is all ..

water+electronics=bad joojoo :p
 
Its a heating issue or either your power supply most likley.The right thing to do is fully blow out your pc and if that does not do it.Rerun windows first,after that.Start checking the hardware one by one.I would start with the power supply first.As it seems to crap out on you during games,when the power supply is stressed the most.Then all other things next.Ram,videocard,board,cpu.

Good luck.
 
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