PC games keep crashing when starting a game

Dodge777

Dodge777

Dodge777

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22 Jun 2004
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Location
Hampshire, UK
Hi all,

Not much of a gamer, but as it's Xmas break and I'm a bit bored, I decided to fire up a few titles which looked interesting. THe problem is that the games keep crashing as I start the gameplay itself. The games starts and everything looks fine and then the picture freezers, the sound begins to loop and the monitor goes into sleep mode and I have to reboot.

I literally just re-installed Windows 7 x64 last week and installed the latest drivers for all of my software. The crash has happened on both games which I've tried - Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Left 4 Dead.

Any clues as to what might be causing this? I assume it's a graphics card issue. I remember trying to run 3DMark earlier in the year and it crashed but I didn't think anything of it. Like I said, I very rarely play games.

Would be grateful for you help please.
 
Sadly no other card to test. Is there some sort of diagnostic tool which can be used to test a graphics card?

Games were Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Left 4 Dead.
 
Thanks guys. Two interesting articles and in fact i received the same error message once or twice in the past (i.e. the graphics driver had to be reset by Windows). So unless I've read incorrectly, I just have to suck it up and wait for ATI to sort the issue out with Microsoft?? Note that I'm running Windows 7.
 
The problem isn't specific to ATI or NVidia, timeout detection and recovery happens on both cards.

The possible reasons more than likely are:

1) Unstable Overclock.
2) Faulty Graphics Card.
3) Faulty Memory
4) Insufficient PSU
5) Bad Driver Installation.

You'll have to fault find all of the above to detect what is causing it. Run your chip at stock and see if it still happens. If nothing in your machine is overclocked and it still happens, then its more than likely faulty hardware, GPU in most cases.
 
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RIght, so I took out the graphics card and used onboard graphics to play Left 4 Dead and it worked. I played for 2 hours and no crashes, so there's every indication that it's the graphics card.

However I'm concerned that it could be the PSU. It's got plenty of power (600W) so I don't think that's an issue, but could it be faulty? I don't want to spend on another graphics card if that's not the problem. Is there anyway to test the PSU?
 
Me personally, I don't know of any software out there that checks PSU, but I'm sure there is one. It's more a case of the PSU not supplying enough current on the 12V rail, more than the PSU being faulty which can cause a TDR. I think OCCT tests PSU, but I've heard it can knacker it so if it was my machine, I personally wouldn't touch it.

However, in any overclocked machine, PSU should always be a top quality brand. My mate had a cheapo in his and it went pop a couple of weeks ago, taking the majority of components with it.

The only way to make sure is to try your card out in a mates machine. Failing that, take it into any number of highstreet one man band computer shops and get them to test it on one of the Unigine Benchmarks for half hour or so.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, if your card is overclocked, run it at stock when fault finding.
 
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