System Crashing in Game, card problem?

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 04:05

Hi All,

I've been infurated over the past few days..

Playing Eve-online more and more and loving the game, great.

However, my system is randomly freezing when I'm mid Game. I'll be happily listening to music playing my favorate MMO and a kerazy short sound from the speakers and a complete system freeze.

Is it the gfx card? If not, what!?

Agent.

Curio · 18 Sep 2006 at 04:37

Could be, freezes often are. Could also be a driver issue - tried any others? Have you also monitored the temps under load? Getting any graphics corruption?

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 04:59

Curio said:
Could be, freezes often are. Could also be a driver issue - tried any others? Have you also monitored the temps under load? Getting any graphics corruption?

Drivers - I haven't tried any others yet. That will be tonights testing.
Temps - I can monitor CPU, i'll try and add GPU to MBM5.
Graphics Corruption - None that I have seen. Perhaps 3Dmark testing?

Thanks for your help.

Agent.

KizZ · 18 Sep 2006 at 05:03

Do some stress testing like 3Dmark and P95 and keep an eye on the temps.

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 05:27

KizZ said:
Do some stress testing like 3Dmark and P95 and keep an eye on the temps.

Stress tested P95 (with no clocking, so 1.8ghz) and CPU doesn't go above 42C.

Just a side question, is it normal CCC wants Smartgart to determin my optimal graphics processor settings every time I boot up?

It seems to take long and longer every time and now I have my dual monitors back it takes ages for this to happen.

Oh Bollo*, forgot to mention its a HIS Silent-X x1900xt card. Not a 7950GX2...

Agent.

MuSsEr · 18 Sep 2006 at 07:12

no CCC shouldn't do that, it sounds to me like CCC is auto overclocking your card or something, which may be causing it to heat up too much while gaming

if I were you i'd wipe your card drivers (safe mode, driver cleaner etc) and try a fresh install of them (without CCC as well coz its sux)

put ATItool on and monitor your temperatures while looping 3dmark

(as far as im aware you cant add GPU temp to MBM5)

does your game freeze at all when your playing with no cpu overclock? could be you've pushed it a tad too far, what are your temps like running p95 looping with your overclock

let us know

Amidar · 18 Sep 2006 at 08:30

I have the same motherboard but with an 4800 X2 & 7950GX2 & i have the same problem.Temps are not my problem as i'm using a Vapochill LS but a get a high pitched noise through my speakers then everything freezes.

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 08:36

Hi MuSsEr,

Thanks for that dude. I think i'm going to need to remove CCC in safe mode (got to remember how now!)

I wouldn't be suprised if CCC is trying to do some thing funky like that!

Gamefreezing wise - It varys in "crash time" now. Can be a few seconds or cant be 30. I'm super confused. But I do believe it is the card. Also I crashes with no overclock. I've stress tested with no OC + 2.8ghz OC and both times Prime runs perfectly for a reasonable length of time.

And I think with ATitool you can tell it to output the temps to a certain channel and get MBM5 to pick up that channel and that way you can bolt on GPU temps to MBM5. Or some thing like that.

Time for some more invtesigation. Perhaps different games?

Last point. Eve-online sucks up about 75% of my CPU power (on each core!). Should it be doing that?

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 09:24

ok. Update.

I've removed all the old drivers + installed the Omega ones.

I started to play Eve again but it crashed. Took long this time though so its a positive step..?

I'm getting more and more confused by this issue. Could it be some thing else. Like RAM? Mobo overheating? Problem with Ultramon? The fact that PCs and Me don't mix? Oil and water situation..?

Can anyone help?

Agent.

MuSsEr · 18 Sep 2006 at 09:38

did you use driver cleaner in safe mode to completely wipe of any trace of ati before re-installing them

atitool is farely easy (at a work pc so i cant remember exactly how) but temps and core speeds are displayed, so you could try slightly underclocking your core/mem and see if (altho diminishing performance it stops the crashing) atleast then you'll know

also did you remove ccc?

yeah I dont think there is a problem with eve using 75% of each core, seems normal to me

(deffinately sounds like a card problem to me)

AsLan · 18 Sep 2006 at 10:06

I must be missing something here, but shouldn't you be using nvidia drivers with a 7950, not ati.

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 10:35

its a x1900xt. I haven't updated my sig.

MuSsEr · 18 Sep 2006 at 10:37

yeah that was gona be one of my first replies before I read the whole thread...

"i was like...umm it might be broken coz your using ati driver on an nvidia card, lol"

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 13:04

Sig updated.

Going to try and resolve some of the problems tonight.

I might try formatting one of my HDDs and seeing if a fresh install of windows helps any thing *fingers crossed*.

Agent.

Agent WD40 · 18 Sep 2006 at 21:13

Great - Tried 3D mark and on every try its crashed.

Any other suggestions?

Agent.

KizZ · 18 Sep 2006 at 21:34

Unstable overclock, maybe?

Curio · 19 Sep 2006 at 00:36

Are you just getting freezing, or resets and BSOD's etc as well? Faulty RAM would be giving you BSOD or just reseting the system. Graphics overheating would usually give you some warning first like corrupt graphics. It could be a tricky one to narrow down as it sounds like it could either be software or hardware playing up. All you can do is take your time and narrow everything down.

Agent WD40 · 19 Sep 2006 at 09:19

Thanks for your reply Curio.

I was looking into it yesterday and have decided to do the following.

1) Reseat all of the compoents on the mobo.
3) Complete format + reinstall of windows and every thing.
3) Check how well the onboard sound is working

As yet I am only getting freezes + resetting of the computer.

I'm hoping by a new install I can do all the updates I need for XP SP2 and install fresh drivers. Namely the Omega ones. This should narrow it down very quickly.

I've also noticed that when it freezes I get a few off coloured pixels around the pointer on the screen. I'm still confused. :confused:

Hopefully the re-install will produce some answers.

Maybe poor old windows is confused by going from ATi > nVidia > ATi again. And I've never used "driver cleaner" so i'm going to read up on that tonight.

Thanks again all.

Agent.

Agent WD40 · 19 Sep 2006 at 14:52

Amidar said:
I have the same motherboard but with an 4800 X2 & 7950GX2 & i have the same problem.Temps are not my problem as i'm using a Vapochill LS but a get a high pitched noise through my speakers then everything freezes.

Amidar - Do you have a seperate sound card? Or do you use the onboard one?

Agent.

ins0mn1ac · 19 Sep 2006 at 17:03

Agent WD40 said:
Maybe poor old windows is confused by going from ATi > nVidia > ATi again. And I've never used "driver cleaner" so i'm going to read up on that tonight.

Thanks again all.

Agent.

So on the same windows install youve had nvidia drivers aswel as ATI? I think you'd better use driver cleaner yes