Having some odd issues

J

Jawbrkr

n00b
Joined
Jul 2, 2008
Messages
37
I have given up... I usually am able to fix my own computer problems w/o any help but this time its got me.

Ok... so here is the problem.

When I am playing only certain games, my computer monitor will go black screen, the background sound of the game loops constantly, and my computer sits... and sits... if I leave it alone for a few minutes, finally my secondary monitor will flash and then switch to a strange color on the background, everything turns green almost; it's kind of hard to explain. Once this happens, I have mouse function but only on my secondary monitor and I cannot access windows task-bar nor task manager. I then am stuck with either alt+f4 shutdown or just a cold reboot.

The games that this has happened on so far:
CS:S - right after joining a server, with about 30 sec of play.
Insurgency - again, right after joining a server.
COD 5 - used to happen, until I adjusted my settings a little better then it cleared up.
Battlefield 2 - used to happen alot, until I adjusted my settings.

So far, those four have given me the most trouble. I am able to play any other game on my PC just fine including:
ETW
COH: OF
IL-2 Sturmovik
Several others that I do not have time to mention.

Now, in the games that I fixed it seems as though changing my resolution from my monitors native resolution 1680x1050 down to a smaller widescreen 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc...

I am still trying to determine if this is the issue or not. I don't believe so however as I play several of the games that work in my monitors native resolution.

I have taken my computer apart and re-seated all my components just to be sure something wasn't dislodged, everything seems good. I have monitored my pc temps during these rare occasions and they stay in the normal range for my computer (30C - 40C).

My system setup:
I run two monitors, off of one video card.
Vid Card: Gefoorce 8800 GT 512 MB
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00 GHz
MB: ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX
4 Gigs of ram (forgot the brand)


if anyone has any suggestions, then please help out!
 
Out of curiosity, have you checked the video card temps? When I had a similar problem it was because the video card was over heating. Lowering the resolution will put less stress on it so it makes sense.
 
I thought of that... and it was as I suspected, normal temps during game-play. Hard gameplay temps stay normal.

The resolution thing I do not think is the problem, as I mentioned I play many games in my monitors native resolution with no problems.
 
Also try to Monitor PC voltages if you can and have that saved to a log file so you can go back and look at it hopefully.
 
I have this program called PCprobe; it monitors voltage of my CPU, MOBO, RAM, and video. It also measures temps of CPU and MOBO. Thus far, there has been no spikes in either temperature or voltage on either of my major components.

Could this possibly be a hard drive read error? Since it only happens with certain games, it makes me think its HDD related... but then again why would changing settings in said game fix the problem?

That is why I am so baffled.... :S
 
I use uniblue driver scanner to keep my system up to date; the only thing that was out of date was an intel SMBus controller driver update. It has been updated. Everything else is up to date and good to go.
 
After updating the SMBus driver, I started CS:S to see if it was fixed; I also turned down my resolution to 1280x1024. The game works now... I don't know if its the resolution that makes it work or the driver update, will check more later.

CS:S I could really care less about, its just the game that crashes the most, which is odd because I'm able to play other HL2 mods just fine.
 
Ok, I just played a few rounds of CS:S with my monitors native resolution with no problems at all. Was that driver really that important? I have more testing to do on more games and will post back later.
 
For a while I had to use older NVidia drivers because my card was not compatible with the newer drivers they put out... eventually they fixed whatever the problem was and I could use the latest drivers. So my line of thinking was for you to try and roll back to earlier drivers to see if that fixes the issue.
 
I tried that a few months ago and still had the same problem. Actually when I was having this issue with COD 5 I decided to mess with my drivers, because I really wanted to play the game. I rolled back, upgraded and such and the problem remained.
 
Try higher res now.
If that fails...

It sounds like something on the gfx card is overheating, maybe the voltage regulators.
The reason it works better at lower res is probably because the CPU cant push the gfx card hard enough and therefore it is using less power and producing less heat.
ie you have become CPU limited rather than GPU limited at lower res.

Blow an 80mm fan at the gfx card and see if it improves.
 
This happened to me yet again; this time playing TF2 - never happened in the game before. I was playing a match and mid-match it locked up this way. I again had to restart my machine. At the time of the freeze Graphics card temps were normal range as well as voltages according to my program.

I have a extra cooling fan sitting underneath my video card which blows onto the card for extra air flow.
 
After several hours of problems I finally got an error:
The NV4_disp display driver has stopped working normally.

I have never received this error before. Any insight?
 
When I see an error like that I would assume it has to do with temperatures, especially if stuff just craps out on you in the middle of gaming.

What is your power supply? It might not be dealing out sufficient power. Also if you can, switch your GPU with another one to see if the problem persists.
 
I get that error if I overclock my GPU too far.
This can be from not enough power or overheating so Kayk is on the right track.
Make sure the heatsink is free of dust.
 
Agreed. Mine is idling at 45 right now using gpu-z. That's probably what your problem is.
 
after double checking temps I was wrong. Speed fan lists two separate temps, Core - 70 c and Ambient 49 c. Each pertains to the video card.

When I look at GPU-Z it reads, GPU Temp - 70 c, GPU Temp - 62.

So I've got two programs giving me completely different temps... which one out of each set matters?

I have had no video card graphics glitches or artifacts in any of my games... which usually is the primary sign of overheating.

More help needed, as I do not believe my video card is broken.
 
Another quick question, in GPU-Z there is fan speed at the bottom of the sensors tab. What fan is this pertaining to? Because it's currently reading only at 30%.
 
I have done some research on the 8800 GT graphics card; so far lots of people have been saying that the video card fan running @ 30% has caused overheat and system lockup issues. I now believe this is my problem, the card overheats when in a game under stress which then causes the computer to freeze visually, although the system may be running in the background which causes a reboot.

I have since then increased the fan speed to 50%. This has brought my idle temps down to 60c and 54c. Under load, the card goes to around 70-75c. I may increase the fan speed a bit more for when it is under load to help it stay cooler.

Has anyone used the program called rivatuner before?
 
Yeah, Rivatuner is excellent, especially for monitoring, a bit cumbersome for changing overclocks.

I didnt encounter your issue with the 8800GT because I fitted an Accelero S1 cooler which is truly amazing btw.
However my current card (GTX260 with standard cooler) has a god awful fan profile like your 8800, and it seems all the GT200 series power cards have as well from others reports.

So when gaming I manually set my fan to between 55% and 70% depending on which overclock level I am using and always use 55% at stock speeds.
When not gaming I set the fan speed to default.
Use EVGA Precision if you want to do this quick and easy, it provides the core features of Rivatuner in an easy to use package.
It has one button click profiles to save your different overclock/fan settings.
 
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