Strange graphics error and comp freeze eating HDD

[Ulfisch]

I'm requesting some help after a problem I have been posting about in the past ( http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18322005 )
has eaten now up the second HDD in two months.

(Also posted on the Overclockers HDD forum)


The problem is described in detail in the other thread, but a short summary: when playing graphic intense games like Deus Ex or Witcher2, but also with an lower graphics game like Aika Online, the computer freezes randomly and a strange graphics error is to be seen, example here (not a screenshot, but taken with my camera) :

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee424/Ulfisch/Pictureexamplefreeze.jpg

The only thing I can do is to press the reset button on the comp, I can't Alt-Tab my way out of it or anything else.

Now, 2 months ago after having done the reset my RAID1 setup was degraded, and I bought 3 TB Western Digital HDD from Overclockers, one to reestablish the RAID1 drive and two more to establish a second RAID1 setup in order to store all my music, video and picture files.

Yesterday, when playing Witcher2 the same graphics error and freeze happened again, and after doing a reset my main RAID1 drive is showing as "degraded" and the 2 months old WD 1TB HDD is showing as "Error Occurred (0)".

This is starting to seriously get to me now, as its the second HDD in two months that's being damaged by a fault I still haven't been able to find.

It would be great if I could get some help on the following issues:

- Is there something I can do to repair the 1TB HDD which shows as "Error Occurred (0)"
- If not, would this drive still be under warranty or not?
- Are there any other ideas what could be at the root of this graphics error that forces me to reset comp.
- Is the likely reason for the damage to the HDD's the fact that I am resetting the comp, or is it likely a process which has to do with the graphics error in the first place?
- If its was Hardware related, should I buy a new graphics card (present one is a 3 year old Radeon 4870) or if its software related reinstall Windows7-64 ?

Many Thanks for your help

 

[Genome_UK]

I have an almost identical problem with e 4870.

I get that same freeze but after a few seconds it then changes to a solid colour of some sort. All i can do is reset the PC.

I have only one game it ALWAYS happens on and that is BFBC2. Apart from that it has happened on the odd occasion on other games but only a few times.

I recently started playing deus ex human revolution and it started happening on that. After a while i turned off post processing, depth of field and another setting (AASC or something) and i played for about an hour without it happeneing.... i think its solved but i could be wrong.

My card runs a little hot (idles at about 70 degrees and got up to about 85-90 when gaming but that shouldnt be to much for it to handle. My motherboard is a little hot (50-55 degrees depending on load). rest seems to stay cool enough. I dont think its my card over heating as it slapped the fan speed up to 80% so that it didnt even go over 70 degrees when playing and it still did the crash.

I honestly dont know the exact cause of the problem but sometimes changing a few settings does seem to help. Maybe some settings cause the card to error or something. Im no expert so I dont actually know.

I can run dead island without it ever crashing and thats way more graphically impressive than deux ex.

I have a 500W PSU, 4 gig of ram, a E8400 CPU and i game at 1680 x 1050.

Anyone else able to shed some light on this issue would be great.

Untill i played BFBC2 i never had this issue.