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Solve : Games crash?

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Hello all,

When I play certain games (Civilization IV, Need For Speed: Carbon) after around 15 minutes the game will crash, taking the entire computer with it. The sound will still be working, but the monitors will be in standby, and a few seconds later, the whole thing locks up.

I am using an HIS ATi Radeon X1950Pro (256mb PCI-E) graphics card with the latest Omega drivers. Tried reinstalling them, didn't help. Temperatures are fine, hardly get above 55.

Other games (Half-Life 2, America's Army) do not suffer from crashes.

The crashes are random but happen after SIMILAR periods of time. There is no warning before they happen, the game just dies.

Here are more entire specs:

AMD Opteron 175
2gb RAM (assorted BRANDS)
430w PSU (SLI-certified)

So what is wrong? What should I do?Try ATI's official Catalyst drivers instead of using third PARTY drivers. Omega drivers aren't exactly PERFECT and don't always work for everyone.

Anyway, trying ATI's Catalyst drivers should tell you if it's a driver problem.I tried the Cats. Same problem.what are you using to determine the GPU temperature? is 55 the max idle temp or load temp?Load temp. I have it tracked with ATi Tray Tools.Man I gotta say this is the most complete question I've ever read on this forum. Everything is mentioned starting from specs. to games and temperature, I wish all posts were like this. Good job. Do you play America's Army on full video settings with that video card?It's possible that something is running in the background that's causing your grief.

1. Click Start, Run and type: msconfig and press enter.
2. In the System Configuration Utility click the Startup tab.
3. Uncheck all startup programs. Once done click ok and restart the computer. After the computer boots back into Windows you will receive a prompt about Windows being in a selective startup. Check the box to not receive the prompt and click ok.

Try playing the games again.
Quote

2gb RAM (assorted brands)

I just noticed this....it may be the issue.
You might also want to get a 2nd reading of the temps...DLoad and run SpeedFan.Quote from: ultimatum on January 05, 2008, 12:11:30 PM
Man I gotta say this is the most complete question I've ever read on this forum. Everything is mentioned starting from specs. to games and temperature, I wish all posts were like this. Good job. Do you play America's Army on full video settings with that video card?

Thanks,
Yes I run it on full specs. Sometimes the card has troubles, but it never breaks like other games.

Quote
It's possible that something is running in the background that's causing your grief.

1. Click Start, Run and type: msconfig and press enter.
2. In the System Configuration Utility click the Startup tab.
3. Uncheck all startup programs. Once done click ok and restart the computer. After the computer boots back into Windows you will receive a prompt about Windows being in a selective startup. Check the box to not receive the prompt and click ok.

Try playing the games again.
I tried that. It did not help.

Quote from: patio on January 05, 2008, 12:24:53 PM
Quote
2gb RAM (assorted brands)

I just noticed this....it may be the issue.
You might also want to get a 2nd reading of the temps...DLoad and run SpeedFan.
I'm absolutely positive that the GPU temperature is not a problem. Other games load it up just as much (Half-Life 2) and do not crash. The cooler on it is an IceQ 3. Last time I was playing around with the crash right before the monitors turned off the VPU temperature was 57. (I also checked the CPU temp: 58)

I'm getting fairly certain that this is a PSU issue - I ordered a new one (I need one anyways)

I ran Memtest86+ the other night and there were no errors.

Also, the games no longer crash. The monitors turn off (which means the video card is not working) but everything works fine (I can hear the in game sounds) and I can even minimize and get Windows to make warning noises by stabbing buttons. So it's definitely something related to the video card, and I think it's power consumption.Good thinking. After your additional comment and observations mentioned above I'd also agree that a PSU could be a likely culprit. While inside the computer you may also want reseat the video card to make sure it's not a bad connection between the video card and motherboard. Additionally ALTHOUGH you indicated that the temperature is ok, may also want to verify GPU fan is ok and spinning.The exhaust port on the second slot of the video card has air moving out of it, so the fan is working.

I just had the error when I was not playing the game. Windows was logging in my account, and then the monitors turned off.

I should check if the fan is spinning when the monitors turn off. That would immediately tell me the problem.


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