Game keeps freezing

xirokx · 13 Mar 2006 at 20:36

Hi peeps,

I have a amd 64 3500 newcastle with 1 gig ram, 400 gig hdd and a nvidia geforce 4600 TI graphics card...

Whilst playing games onlines i.e. COD2 to be specific the game keeps freezing, it only used to happen now and then but recently it happens all the time....

I think its because the graphics card is overheating? I'm not an expert though so thought I would come and ask the experts

Sorry for not creating this thread in graphic cards section I'm not totally sure why its happens therefore chose to post the thread in a more generic area...

Thanks in advance for any responses I recieve

Cheers!!

Zefan · 13 Mar 2006 at 20:38

Be more specific. Is it just crashing in game, with the image still displayed and doesn't turn off? Is it rebooting itself? Is it showing no display and you have to manually reboot? Is it just freezing for a second or two and then it's fine?

xirokx · 13 Mar 2006 at 20:59

Whilst playing the game online it freezes for about 10 - 15 secs and then carries on running fine for a few minutes then freezes again....You can still see the picture etc but its frozen and no controls work, its like the game locks up.

The last time I played the game offline it was fine the game did not freeze while I was playing it ....

Hope this helps?

BigDom · 13 Mar 2006 at 21:12

What net connection do you have?

Brizzles · 13 Mar 2006 at 22:31

Freezing for 2-3 secs then carrying on , when online , sounds like connection lag
not hardware.

Quite common in online gaming.

Cheers,

Mark

xirokx · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:21

I have a 1mb connection.......

BigDom · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:25

xirokx said:
I have a 1mb connection.......

What type? Cable, Satellite, ADSL?

xirokx · 14 Mar 2006 at 01:53

Sorry for being a such a n00b....

I have a 1mb adsl connection.....

If it is a connection lag can this be fixed or am do I just have to perserve with it?

Thanks for all your help so far its most appreciated......

Zefan · 14 Mar 2006 at 02:20

It's most likeyl just COD2 wanting 2gb ram. Try setting everything down to minimum. If it still lags you can blame your connection. Also, try offline.

PieEater · 14 Mar 2006 at 07:42

Personally I think your own opinion is correct and GPU overheating is the problem, but it should be easy enough to confirm. Take the card out and give the cooler a good clean getting rid of all the dust, peel the sticker off the centre of the coolers fan and drop a single drop of oil over the bearing, 3-1 oil is good but I've also used vegetable cooking oil in the past (sunflower not olive). spin the fan round with your finger and check whether there is any resistance and if so does it ease off as the oil works in. After a minute of spinning the fan wipe off the excess oil and put the sticker back on and replace the card (as long as the fan is spinning freely). When powering up make sure the fan is spinning well and see if that's made a difference. If it does make a difference with games locking (oiling is a medium term fix at best) or the fan is not spinning freely then you ought to consider a replacement cooler. If this makes no difference then your problem is probably elsewhere.

BigDom · 14 Mar 2006 at 08:38

I'd be VERY surprised if it's overheating. If nothing else because he says "When playing games online", Assumption is offline gaming is fine.

PieEater · 14 Mar 2006 at 12:01

BigDom said:
I'd be VERY surprised if it's overheating. If nothing else because he says "When playing games online", Assumption is offline gaming is fine.

True but it sounds like he plays more online than off so he may not have noticed, the card is old and liable to cooler failure unless the original's been replaced, and checking the graphics cards cooling is easy and free. Additionally no-one has yet to offer any other advice other than a memory upgrade which doesnt help when the problem has recently started and is getting worse.
Perhaps xirokx can clarify ?!?

xirokx · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:08

I played the same game COD2 offline constantly for an hour and the game did not freeze up at any point, it was smooth and normal throughout this time....

Therefore I can confirm the game only freezes whilst online, when it freezes as I said previously it pauses for 10 - 15 seconds during which time I cannot play or control the game thereafter it goes back to normal....

Funnily enough I tried playing it on a diff server last night and found that the game did not freeze....hmmmmm

So am I to assume its just that server that has connection lag issues?

ONESHOTKILL · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:37

I was getting a problem like this and it turned out to be my zonealarm firewall,it was causing high pingsand lag.This was last year and i went out and got a router with firewall ect and its been fine since.I play cod2 a lot online and some servers are very laggy and sumtimes,i have had it when the game freezes then it jumps back into life i am sure this is just lag on the server.

xirokx · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:43

Update:

Have been playing the game offline today and it's started to happen offline as well now....Same occurences....

I am playing the game and it locks up for a 10 - 15 secs then carries on running fine...hmmmmmm

Could it be my graphics card just cannot handle this game?

ONESHOTKILL · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:49

what are your specs?

xirokx · 14 Mar 2006 at 15:58

I have a amd 64 3500 newcastle with 1 gig ram, 400 gig hdd and a nvidia geforce 4600 TI graphics card...

PieEater · 14 Mar 2006 at 16:05

Have you tried my suggestions?

xirokx · 14 Mar 2006 at 17:18

Ermmm.....no........becuz I don't like the idea of oiling the cooler on the gfx card....thanks for your advice but I am some what reluctant to lube up any parts...

Is there anything else I can try

BigDom · 14 Mar 2006 at 17:37

Well you can clean the dust on the HSF on the Graphics and fire up the PC with the case off and check the Fan is rotating ok ( if it's struggling it'll be noticeable).