Games crashing / hanging

[Dave]

Hi all

I've had this problem with my PC since I built it, can't figure out why it's happening. When I play games after a while the screen and audio hangs, and then I get a "no input signal" on my monitor, and I have to hard-restart the PC to get it going again. So far it's happened in CoD4, C&C3 and Civ 4. (not GTA SA or Max Payne 2) In fact it's just happened on Google Earth as well!

My GPU is not overheating and all the power plugs possible are plugged in. Does anyone have any ideas what could fix it? I'm on the latest catalyst drivers at the moment, and everything is at stock speeds.

I had the same problem on my old Athlon 64 machine as well except that after a few minutes it'd start again with an alt+tab back to windows - only shared component between the two is the graphics card so I'm thinking that's the problem? (A64 machine worked perfectly with the old 6600GT in, hanging only came around when I put in the 3850)

Specs:
Core 2 Duo E6550
Abit IP35 motherboard
GeIL PC2-6400C4 4-4-4-12 2x1gb kit
HIS 3850 Pro Turbo X 512mb
Enermax Liberty 500W PSU

Cheers

 

[ExRayTed]

I think you've answered your own question matey.If the graphics card is the only shared component between the 2 pcs and the symptoms are the same,clearly the graphics card is at fault.

You could try ram sinks as although you state the gpu isnt overheating,the memory might be.Can't say I'm awfully confident of it fixing the problem however...games usually show signs of corruption before crashing if the ram is at fault.

 

[Dave]

The cooler on the HIS card is massive though, and I assume it touches the RAM. Is it worth maybe getting a third party one? I don't want to have to replace my GPU.

Strangely enough I looped 3DMark06 for 2 hours last night with no problems at all, GPU temperature sat at 71 degrees when under full load. I'm confused now - I'd have imagined that 3DMark06 would've stressed the card to full?