MackyMack
asked on
Computer freezing in games
Problem description:
This began to happen about a month ago. My computer would freeze regularly after I've been playing certain games for about half an hour to an hour (counter-strike 1.5 and 1.6, SimCity 4), but would never happen when I'm playing other games (Diablo 2 for example), or when I'm not playing games. I suspected this was because my video card was failing under intensive 3-D situations, so I replaced my GF2 MX 200 with a FX 5200, unfortunately that did not solve the problem at all. When my computer freezes, the screen will freeze, the sound will freeze (looping what was playing right before it froze over and over again), and my hard drive activity light would go off. My computer won't response to any keyboard/mouse input until I do a hard reset.
Computer Specs:
AMD XP1600+
256MB RAM
40G Maxtor HD
GF2 MX 200 64MB (before) / FX 5200 128MB (now), both using detonator 45.23 driver
Windows XP Pro + SP1 + all major patches and updates
This has become quite annoying to me, so any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I will check for responses frequently.
This began to happen about a month ago. My computer would freeze regularly after I've been playing certain games for about half an hour to an hour (counter-strike 1.5 and 1.6, SimCity 4), but would never happen when I'm playing other games (Diablo 2 for example), or when I'm not playing games. I suspected this was because my video card was failing under intensive 3-D situations, so I replaced my GF2 MX 200 with a FX 5200, unfortunately that did not solve the problem at all. When my computer freezes, the screen will freeze, the sound will freeze (looping what was playing right before it froze over and over again), and my hard drive activity light would go off. My computer won't response to any keyboard/mouse input until I do a hard reset.
Computer Specs:
AMD XP1600+
256MB RAM
40G Maxtor HD
GF2 MX 200 64MB (before) / FX 5200 128MB (now), both using detonator 45.23 driver
Windows XP Pro + SP1 + all major patches and updates
This has become quite annoying to me, so any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I will check for responses frequently.
SOLUTION
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hi:
if still no luck,
slave ur HD to another pc and,
try using the free diagnostic utility from the vendor of your disk to check for problems with the disk
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic
Samsung
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html
Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/
www.westerndigital.com
IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
q
if still no luck,
slave ur HD to another pc and,
try using the free diagnostic utility from the vendor of your disk to check for problems with the disk
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/products/index.htm
fujitsu
http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com/download/hard-drives/#diagnostic
Samsung
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/utilities/utilities_index.html
Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/
www.westerndigital.com
IBM and Hitachi
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
q
SOLUTION
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change your "power management properties" setting
system standby "never"
trun off moniter "never"
trun off hard disks "never"
2. if it's doesn't work then increast your ram capacity, i mean 256mb.
3. check your processor heat sink and fan.
system standby "never"
trun off moniter "never"
trun off hard disks "never"
2. if it's doesn't work then increast your ram capacity, i mean 256mb.
3. check your processor heat sink and fan.
ASKER
First of all, thanks to everyone that replied. I have yet to try a lot of the suggestions but here's what I've already done:
probinchamling:
All my power management settings were already set to "never" before I've had this problem. I will look into getting more RAM if all else fails.
philby11:
According to AIDA32, my CPU temperature is 51 degrees Celsius, and motherboard temperature is 33 degrees Celsius (this is when the CPU is mostly idle, NOT after a crash). Is that higher than normal or still acceptable?
qfren:
I have tried installing the games that I crash in on another hard drive before (80G 7200RPM Western Digital), and the problem was still the same. So I figured I could rule out the hard drive factor.
I will try memtest86 and detonator deleter, and see how that goes.
BTW, my motherboard is PC-Chips M830LR.
probinchamling:
All my power management settings were already set to "never" before I've had this problem. I will look into getting more RAM if all else fails.
philby11:
According to AIDA32, my CPU temperature is 51 degrees Celsius, and motherboard temperature is 33 degrees Celsius (this is when the CPU is mostly idle, NOT after a crash). Is that higher than normal or still acceptable?
qfren:
I have tried installing the games that I crash in on another hard drive before (80G 7200RPM Western Digital), and the problem was still the same. So I figured I could rule out the hard drive factor.
I will try memtest86 and detonator deleter, and see how that goes.
BTW, my motherboard is PC-Chips M830LR.
Don't forget the motherboard AGP drivers dude ;>)
and no, the temp is not too high
and no, the temp is not too high
ASKER
I just ran memtest86, and passed all the tests.
I also reinstalled the AGP drivers and updated to DirectX 9.0b (newest).
I'll run the games once I have a chance and see if they still freeze.
I also reinstalled the AGP drivers and updated to DirectX 9.0b (newest).
I'll run the games once I have a chance and see if they still freeze.
I advise running memtest86 for at least 4 or 5 hours for the result to be considered accurate. anyway, even though memtest doesn't find any problems, that doesn't mean it's 100% ok , but it's a much smaller chance for a memory failure to be the cause of your problems.
It's possible your video card is getting too hot while playing 3D intensive games. Try it with your case cover off and a fan blowing air in. If that does the trick, you need a video card heatsink and fan.
You know, I had a very similar problem about a year ago. I tested my ram with some free diagnostic tools (including memtest), and it passed all the tests...
However, the ram actually WAS bad. It was failing under the demands of my most resource intensive games, but not under regular applications and other games. At anyrate, I got some new ram, stuck it in there, everything worked fine.
Try swapping out your ram with a friend's ram and see if that helps at all.
And not to beat you over the head with the obvious stuff, but it never hurts to:
Double check that all your drivers are updated, you have the latest DirectX, your system temps are acceptable, do a good virus scan, scandisk, get the latest patches for your game (and see if there are any know video issues with your game), Windows Update, make sure you haven't installed any new hardware or software recently (besides your new vid card) that might be causing problems, check for IRQ conflicts, and make sure your power supply is buff enough to handle all your power needs.
Whew! Hope some of that helps :)
However, the ram actually WAS bad. It was failing under the demands of my most resource intensive games, but not under regular applications and other games. At anyrate, I got some new ram, stuck it in there, everything worked fine.
Try swapping out your ram with a friend's ram and see if that helps at all.
And not to beat you over the head with the obvious stuff, but it never hurts to:
Double check that all your drivers are updated, you have the latest DirectX, your system temps are acceptable, do a good virus scan, scandisk, get the latest patches for your game (and see if there are any know video issues with your game), Windows Update, make sure you haven't installed any new hardware or software recently (besides your new vid card) that might be causing problems, check for IRQ conflicts, and make sure your power supply is buff enough to handle all your power needs.
Whew! Hope some of that helps :)
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
It's been several days and my comp hasn't frozen up yet. Therefore I consider this problem solved and will split up the points. Again, thanks for everyone that has responded.
Download detonator deleter from
http://www.pchardware.ro/Download/index.php?catid=8 or
http://www.voodoofiles.com/4342
then reinstall the graphics card, you may have corrupted drivers causing this problem.
Also make sure you have the latest direct X
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx
cheers