Starcraft II - Drop outs, freezes etc

blitzwing85

blitzwing85

blitzwing85

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Joined
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Reykjavik, Iceland
Started playing Starcraft II last night with a couple of friends and the game kept freezing up, then my monitor would go blank and come back on and the game would resume.

Today, it's did it a few more times but on 2 occasions it just froze fully and had to reset PC.

Any ideas?
I'm suspecting my network, but I don't have problems with Minecraft, nor do I with Xbox 360 or PS3.

PC - Wired Connection
Xbox - Wired Connection
PS3 - Wireless Connection

Speedtest.net revealed my speed to be 2.8. Ping 45.
Funny thing is, the speed is EXACTLY the same using Wireless. Which suggests even the slower Wireless maxes out my internet.
Shocking!

But, is this likely the issue?
It was doing it against AI too but since I stopped downloads on Laptop i managed to play a full game, finally.
However, played online and 3 minutes it it froze comletely.

EDIT:
It's not he PC spec.

My spec is:
Intel i5 3.3 ghz quad
4gb RAM
6870 graphics card
windows 7 ultimate
 
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why would you suspect network issues when your PC hardlocks and the screen goes blank?

a) What PSU do you have?
b) run memtest
 
Because it only does it online. But then, it only does it with that game. Only seems to be this game, and a quick google reveals loads of people have issues.
Hopefully I can find a way around it!

PSU is 600w
 
Is there anyway to fix it? I've read online that other people point to the RAM being the issue.
I have 4GB of RAM which is far more than the game requires, so it's a bit annoying if it is that.

Whatever causes it to happen, it's still due to a bug in the game because like everyone else, this only happens with Starcraft II.

It never happened on my Laptop, but the graphics card was hopeless on that so the game only ran in low settings and still kept going in slow motion.
But at least it didn't drop out. I upgrade to a decent mid range gaming PC and end up with a worse problem...
 
I'm having similar problems. Memtest passes, as does windows memory diagnostic tool and I'm having no issues in any other games or programs. I even had a bsod in one game giving a "memory management" error. Unfortunately because my computer wouldn't reset under its own accord it didn't create the minidump.

The only thing I can think of is that I didn't install my sc2 install fresh, I copied it from another computer with different specs. Could this be causing problems? I really don't fancy a reinstall though with the huge number of patches...
 
I tried lowering settings and it didn't make any difference.

It occurs randomly. Sometimes when nothing is happening on screen, just sitting in my base doing nothing.

I've set it to only use 2 processors and it seemed to happen less, but as it seems to be random this could just be co-incidence.

My temps are really low so no overheating issues. With game running after 1 hour temp is only 25C.

I'll try resolution, see if that helps. It is se to the correct resolution as per my monitor.
 
If the screen goes black and the system resumes it is not ram related. If it was, the system would black/blue screen and simply not recover.

From what you stated initially it sounds like a display recovery, which is 100% down to your video card. Commonly it is a driver issue but less commonly it's caused by instability/lack of power to the card. Overheating on the video card is also a possibility but since it recovers, it's unlikely to be the issue.

If it is ONLY Starcraft that does this then you may want to:

a - Delete any Starcraft config files so on next start it's running at default everything.
b - Repair your Starcraft install.
c - Look into using some different video drivers.
d - Try a friend's video card as a test
 
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I've decided to start everything from scratch.
I've read a lot of things aout people suddenly getting it after upgrading to Vista of Windows 7.

You're right, it's the driver for video card failing then restarting because if i quickly press the windows button on keyboard after it happens then it comes up with that message in the bottom right.

Also, it does it sometimes on single player, more so against the Ai on skirmish and jsut constantly in a multiplayer match. Not sure why that would be.
It also never does it during menu's, cut sceens etc.

What i'm doing, is downloading Windows XP. This is the reason I didn't buy 7 and just downloaded it as i wanted to make sure everything ran smoothly first.
I'll Install XP, re-install Starcraft and all my drivers etc.

I've tried various drivers for card and it didn't help, also tried changing the TDR and that did nothing. Running temp is only 25C so no problems there. Power should be sufficient, cards recommended PSU is 500w and mine is 600w.


If changing to XP helps then i don't mind staying on that OS. For what I do, i'm not fussed what OS is on.
 
that's akin to downgrading from a BMW to a Micra simply because the radio needs retuning :/
 
Restart steam. Oh wait its not Left 4 Dead 2.

Check your firewall priviledges, make sure its enabled for both private and public networks.

Not sure what else to suggest...
 
uv said:
that's akin to downgrading from a BMW to a Micra simply because the radio needs retuning :/
Click to expand...

Depends what BMW, most of them are terrible. lol


I totally disabled firewalls but didn't help.
This whole thing just doesn't seem to have any one reason for it happening. Fixes that work for some don't work for others. How random!

XP is the last thing i'm trying, when I can be bothered. If not, then no game is worth all this anyway, plenty other things to play!!


Anyone think not installing the monitors drivers would cause this???
I've just realised I forgot. I was doing so much when i first set everything up that i missed this one.I noticed the disk when i cleared things away before work today and if it is this then i'm going to kick myself...so so hard.

Not sure if it could cause that, but from mylimited knowledge of computers then i'd say there is every chance it could. It's the video card kicking out and the monitor is plugged directly into the graphics card so it would seem logical that it could cause issues such as this.
 
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You say the temps were 25C after gaming for an hour but what temp is that for as unless you have some very aggressive cooling that does not seem likely.

Try running something like MSI Kombustor to stress test the GPU and see what temps are like and if runs it okay.
 
stooeh said:
You say the temps were 25C after gaming for an hour but what temp is that for as unless you have some very aggressive cooling that does not seem likely.

Try running something like MSI Kombustor to stress test the GPU and see what temps are like and if runs it okay.
Click to expand...

I'm going off the temp displayed on on the front of the tower. I placed the thermocouple between the GPU and CPU.

The cooling in place is pretty aggressive to the point where I was actually getting cold sitting next to the damn thing. It came with 4 fans in the tower and then it has the GPU fan and CPU fan.

Didn't think to try an actual program to test for the temp. My Laptop temps using speedfan were typicall around 70-80C under general interenet usage so I was wondering just how accurate a reading the thermocouple was given and how relevant the placement of it was.
I had the fans turned down as low as possible and after a few hours it still only reached 26C.

I'll run that tonight. I'll have to re-install OS and SCII though as i formatted the drive due to messing around with too many settings in regedit etc.
Start again from the beginning.

- Install latest monitor drivers this time
- Run program to test temp and function of GPU


I read that Windows 7 uses TDR and askes your GPU to send a signal back within 2 seconds and if it doesn't it crashes it and restarts it. But I went into regedit and added in a new line for this and set it to 0 and it didn't help.
If the above doesn't work, i'll get some advice to make sure i'm setting the TDR up properly as I may not have done it right.

The main puzzling thing is that I can programs which require more power, RAM, GPU and everything and they run as smooth as can be. Typically, the only game I want to play for the next 2-3 weeks is SCII and it's the only damn thing not running.
I'm giving it 1 more evening on and off while playing Dead Island on PS3 then i'm washing my hands with it and will simply sell the game on with my account for it.
 
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