big graphics issue(beer in it for whoever can help)

shadowcreaper

shadowcreaper

shadowcreaper

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29 Jul 2008
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692
I got a pretty big graphic issue and theres a beer in it for whoever can help me fix it.

Bassically it started when i was playing a game:company of heroes/tales of valor.

i crash/blackscreen/boxyscreen/bluescreen, when i join a game then while i waiting for game to begin or people to join it happends and i have to manualy reboot.

i have no idea why this is, but i think it graphics card issue.

hopefully somone can help.
or give advise which could help me figue wtf going on as this happends nearly every time i try play.

specs are:

e8400 3.0(no overclocking)watercooled
4gb RAM ddr2
sapphire 4870
vista 64
500 sAMSUNG

i cant post my dxlog or warning log as there a limit on characters for some reson--.--
 
i cant see any need to do so as what will that achieve. as the normal/orginal version worked fine..i would like to find the cause before i do anything or i not going to be fixing anything.
 
shadowcreaper said:
i cant see any need to do so as what will that achieve. as the normal/orginal version worked fine..i would like to find the cause before i do anything or i not going to be fixing anything.
Click to expand...

reinstalling things sometimes works wonders,
you cant simply rule that out because "you dont think that will acheive anything" or your going to be forever fixing something,

trial and error spring to mind
 
do you recon i can just uninstall tales of valor then and leave company of heroes alone?

or do i need to uninstall EVERYTHING......

i say this as the game does have a shiiiiii load of patchs and thus takes agges to patch upto date.

any info on what i should do then if i was going to uninstall would be helpfull
 
Do what KingZeddy said. Try another game. If it's fine with another game, you're going to have to reinstall it (probably the whole game). If not, then it's a GPU issue, not the install.
 
does this happen with just this game or with any game that you play
it suggests to me that possibly your PSU is unable to supply enough power to the system
when you start to tax the GPU. ive had this issue before where i had plenty of Watts (600 ) on the PSU but when running graphics intensive progs id blue screen etc due tio there not being enough AMPs ( 24 ) available on the +12v rail/rails.
 
i dout it power i got 620 and running other games seem fine.

still not sure why it doing this, maybe files didnt install properly or something looks like a full uninstall reinstall needed.

but to make sure this doesnt happen again can you give some advise:

when i uninstall this game is uninstalling it from "add/remove" enough to clear it out?

or do i need to uninstalll in a special way for company of heroes /tales of valor, sinse i dont want to do a bad uninstall then find when i reinstall i have same issue as before.
 
ok whenever you say "I dout it..." you fail
bluescreens can be ANYTHING.
check other games, if it crashes then its not the game
check your voltages (speedfan etc) if they are ok it's the card
check your drivers (uninstall/reinstall with ones that card came with)
if all else fails, check your cards not full of fluff then RMA it.
 
Sounds to me like you need to do a bit more fault diagnosis before deciding on a course of action to correct it.

Many years ago I had a problem with screen artifacts, instability and so on. I messes around with it for ages, eventually replacing Mobo, processor and video card. The one thing I did not look at was the power supply bcause it was a 2 year old top quality high power enermax jobbie. Guess what the problem eventually turned out to be :)

So my advice is to try to narrow down when the fault occurs, and when it DOESN'T. Ask yourself what has changed lately. Check the error logs on the system. Take the advice of other people on this thread about dust, fluff etc. See if any fans have stopped working or are jammed. Ask yourself if you have moved the system lately - something may have come loose. Record error messages in some detail and google them in the hope of getting a pointer to the problem. Do a decent good quality memory check. Check all connections. Check for viruses etc. Check there are no known problems between you game and internet security software you are using. Double check anything you have added or patched lately. Any bad areas on your hard disk. Overclocked? Did it ever work properly. When did it stop. What changed?

Don't just start uninstalling and reinstalling anything in the vague hope it may do some good unless you have a good reason. Having said that as a last resort you may have to do it.
 
i had a similar problem but happend more like every so often and in the end it was faulty memory.

Its passed Memtest but after about a month the PC would refuse to boot. Now Royal Mail have lost them in the post when being RMA :o

Just try playing with memory modules etc. If youv'e got OCZ memory there forums are very helpful.
 
well the uninstall didnt work but i pretty much relised tht.

i still got this problem and it really bugging me out.

here the exact details maybe you can help:

Problem

When i play company of heroes tales of valor, when i join a game(not the game lobby) and then as i wait for people to join/game to start i then get a blank screen/black screen and the music/sound goes loop,

i then have to manually reboot pc.

i get this now every time i try join a game and are waiting for it to begin.( though sometimes when i first play/start pc i can manage to play 1 game then it all starts)

this ISNT DURING THE ACTUALLY PLAYING OF GAME.


Any ideas then what can i do?

What i know

it ISNT THE TEMP, i checked the CPU+GPU and both are fine.

drivers: i recently updated them to 9.4 from 9.4 and have uninstalled and cleaned them so i dout it them.



so guys.... wtf do i do now i really having a hard time trying to work this out as i get 0 error message or any sign of problems.

what can i do?
 
VeNT said:
ok whenever you say "I dout it..." you fail
bluescreens can be ANYTHING.
check other games, if it crashes then its not the game
check your voltages (speedfan etc) if they are ok it's the card
check your drivers (uninstall/reinstall with ones that card came with)
if all else fails, check your cards not full of fluff then RMA it.
Click to expand...

As above, try something like Crysis or COD4 (ensure no max fps). If they are fine, i would suggest reinstalling COH and if that doesn't work format your computer, it will probably be quicker than diagosnosing a potential driver conflict or what ever is causing your graphics card to fail.

As above, try Memtest and failing all that look for signs of a leak.

You may also want to try another graphics card - perhaps you could borrow one from a friend or visit your local computer store?
 
Last edited:
OK, had similar problems with my sapphire 4870 where it would lose output and go blank. This was generally at menu screens (crysis) or during less intensive sections of not very demanding games (tomb raider anniversary).

My symptoms seem to match yours.

I found that with some Sapphire 4870s they had dodgy bios which would cause them to downclock to really odd clock speeds and crash.

Cards with this serial number are known to have the issue.
PN: 188-01E85-001SA // SKU#:11133-00-XXR

If your card is one of these then simply flash to the latest bios from the sapphire support page.


Fingers crossed for my free beer and your working card.
 
well it 100% just this game i been on crysis and bf2, project reality empire total war and all fine.

it just seems to be this lobby page which issue with.

I found that with some Sapphire 4870s they had dodgy bios which would cause them to downclock to really odd clock speeds and crash.

Cards with this serial number are known to have the issue.
PN: 188-01E85-001SA // SKU#:11133-00-XXR
Click to expand...

stupid question how do i find out my serial number then....
 
I don't play the game but the lobby page is not connected to gamespy somehow?

If so reinstall that.
 
you could try flashing the bios anyway, check what version you have through CCC, the info tab, if its not
BIOS Version 011.010.000.002
Then update using ATIflash
 
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