Quick question regarding monitor shutting of.f

coopsjc21

coopsjc21

coopsjc21

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Kent
Hi,
Apologies if in wrong section, but as I don't know the cause I don't really know where to post!

Ok, I have just started playing Call of Juarez, however after a short time when I'm playing my screen will suddenly go black and it appears the monitor goes into like a standy mode (green light turns to amber).

I've had this before in Crysis. Crysis is a graphic intense game and I believe Call of Juarez is too. Could it be my graphics card is overheating and shutting down? If so would chucking this in (if I have room??) help cool it and stop the problem?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-004-AN&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=


specs:
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Glaciator+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB)
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Akasa Zen case
 
How hot is your GPU getting during gameplay?

If it was getting really hot i would look at reseating the card's HS with some quality gunk - or even fitting an aftermarket gfx HS/fan.
 
After shutting down, can you power the monitor back on again by simply pressing the power switch on the monitor?

Or do you have to reboot or fiddle with pc?
 
It's a definite possibility, but I'd be surprised if your graphics card was getting to the point of shutting itself off before it showed artifacting or other graphical corruption. My suggestion would be to find a bit of software to monitor your GPU temps to figure out if it's a heat thing. Also check your fan on the graphics card...I had something similar once and it was due to a dead fan.

As far as the fan you suggested goes, that- and indeed any fan- can aid cooling, depending on where and how the fan is placed. The cooling solution on your current card may very well more or less negate the effect of air flow around it- think about the layout of your card, how the cooler works, and whether additional air flow from an external source will actually touch the components.
 
coopsjc21 said:
How do I find this out?
Click to expand...

Download GPU-z and swithc to it after you've been playing your most intensice game for a few minutes.

Or download furmark and stress test the card - probably a better option as this will max your card temps and should replicate the problem if it is your card temps causing the problem.
 
Arterion said:
It's a definite possibility, but I'd be surprised if your graphics card was getting to the point of shutting itself off before it showed artifacting or other graphical corruption
Click to expand...

^^ this

if your gpu was beginning to overheat the point of shutdown i'd have expected to have seen artifacting and other anomalies on-screen.

download hwmonitor, coretemp

have you stressed your cpu?
 
coopsjc21 said:
Have to hot the reset button on the case - no other way.
Click to expand...

Ta. Just ensuring it wasn't a monitor fault.

Next silly question: Do you still get sound? e.g. Is the game still playing but you just can't see it? Is the video cable secure? Have you tried another cable? Have you tried reseating the video card?
 
No, it sounds like the game freezes and starts making wierd noise, like the same sound repeating over snd over but a bit fuzzy too.

All cables are secure. havn't tried reseating the card though, although I will give it a go.

Have downloaded Core Temp so will run that and have a look.
 
Now then, I've just remembered, Years ago, when graphics crashes occurred, a common suggestion was to update audio drivers. Don't ask my why. I don't know what the link is there. I wasn't much interested at the time. But I do remember seeing threads in that vein. I don't see that type of response these days. So perhaps there is no longer such a close linkage between graphics crashes and audio drivers. Perhaps someone else could enlighten me/us there. Just a (wild) thought.

Anyone?
 
Thanks, will look at my audio drivers.

I installed HWMonitor. After running the game for about 5-6 mins, I exited and had a look, HWMonitor recorded the graphics card (Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Glaciator+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express) temperature at around 91-92 celcius. Is this too hot? Could this be the problem?

It crashed again earlier, this time I tried alt-f4 to close the game, but nothing. Just weird game noises, then the computer just reset itself (after about 5 seconds of the black screen).
 
That certainly looks a bit toasty. 5 to 6 minutes to get 92C seems way too much. Looks like you may have been on the right track from the beginning.
 
What speed is your graphics fan running at? I believe a utility called Afterburner offers the option to control graphics fan speed. There may be others or better utilities available.
 
You could use manual fan control in the CCC if you don't mind the noise.

Worth double checking you haven't accidentally clicked that already and set it at a low speed. I have done that before and was suprised at temps until I noticed.
 
Ok, I just opened the CCC up and looked at the Performance tab, where AMD Overdrive settings are. Currently it says AMD Overdrive is enabled. The fan speed is on automatic and is currently set at 60%. As its automatic will it increase the fan speed if the temp goes up? or does it stay at 60% regardless?

Is it worth putting it up to 100%?

CCC Settings screenshot
 
Last edited:
From 60% it should ramp up automatically. But maybe it isn't doing so. I'd set it to 100% (might be a bit noisy). Then compare temps.
 
On automatic it normally idles at 24% and then increases with temps. It isn't that aggressive though as AMD don't want them to be too noisy and it probably wouldn't go much above 50-60% anyway.

Set it on manual to 100% as suggested and see what the temps are. It will be very noisy though and I couldn't handle it while playing games.

Edit: Just checked your screen shot. I don't see why the fan would run that high at that temp automatically, seems a bit much.
 
Ok, I bumped the fan feed to 100% and was playing earlier for about 45 mins. Temp went up to about 83-84 but didnt seem to go higher. No crashes yet. Will try it again tonight and play for longer.
 
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