The PC (Personal Computer) is a highly configurable and upgradable gaming platform that, among home systems, sports the widest variety of control methods, largest library of games, and cutting edge graphics and sound capabilities.
So I just built a new rig, and for some reason it freezes while im playing games, I thought it was my cooler, but that doesnt seem to be it, when it freezes the screen has a bunch of thick lines running down it, thanks to anyone who can help me out.
This and make sure the OS is up to date too. Check and make sure all the components are firmly seated in the mobo and that your psu can handle everything you have plugged in it.
Sounds like the videocard. Maybe there is something wrong with it if it's a new build. You might need to rma it, or turn up the fan. Let me guess, your using ati.
You can download a program called riva tuner and turn up the fan that way, google it.
It kind of sounds like a crossfire, or SLI problem. (Thick Lines) Maybe one of the cards isn't working right. I'm not positive, but I wouldn't rule it out.
@SwirlinDervish: Before any of us can give a "real" suggestions it would help to know ALL of your computer specs along with any other info that you or WE may find helpful in troubleshooting.
1)Comp Specs 2) OS? Version? 3) Main Software (Anti-Virus...etc) 4) A DETAILED description of what exactly happens.
A computer freezing during a computer game could mean it's the graphics card, ram...any number of things.
@mrhankey: My comp specs 1) Motherboard - Asus P6T LG1366 2) Graphics - ATI Radeon 5850 XFX 1GB mem. 3) RAM - 6GB (3x2GB) OCZ Gold 4) Proccessor - Intel i7 930 2.8ghz 5) OS - Windows 7 Home premium 64bit 6) Norton Anti-Virus 2010 Am i missing anything?
Heres what happens. I was playing Fallout 3 GOTY, and after about 20 minutes to an hour of playing the game with freeze up and show vertical lines down the screen, I think the color of the lines is based on the most dominant texture on screen at that moment, because when I was in Vault 101 it would be dark grey-black lines, and out in the wasteland it was tan lines. And the picture locks up about 5-10 seconds before the sound.
This and make sure the OS is up to date too. Check and make sure all the components are firmly seated in the mobo and that your psu can handle everything you have plugged in it.
I knew it was an ati card, that's the same card I was thinking about buying, now i'm sure glad and will pay the extra for a fermi because of your thread. Way to go ati, that sounds like artifacts, your shaders are overclocked by the factory way too high, I remember those lines, that's what it is.
I you don't turn up the fan, your eventually going to have that permanently like that. I know xfx doesn't use the default reference design for that card, you can't even overvolt it either.
My other suggestion is to RMA that card, a fraction of the ppl has the same problems, i've seen it on newegg.com for the reviews. Maybe refund it and get a fermi or another ati brand.
Your power supply might be a little low for the wattage, and it could be overheating that way... I dunno, haven't worked on my computer for a while now.
Fallout 3 is kind of buggy, at least it was when I played through it a long time ago. Can you reproduce the same problem in any other games?
Have you kept the hamster wheel inside the case well oiled and do you feed the hamster daily? I forgot to feed mine for a week one time and I had to reinstall windows
Ok ignoring people's biases towards various companies... A lot of people are suggesting the video card and I would go ahead and look at that...see if you can monitor the Temps of your graphics cards and tell us what it is.
Now then...as others have mentioned....make sure your drivers are updated...makes sure Fallout 3 is updated fully. Contact XFX customer support.
@some1: fan speed when not running a game is 21% and temp is 35 Celcius, when i run run fallout the temp goes up to about 40 C, but fan speed doesnt move, how can i manually increase the fan speed?
" this problem has happend on other games too, and how do i manually turn up my video card fan speed, and my power supply is 620W "
You can turn up the fan in the Catalyst Control Center's ATI Overdrive. 620W should be fine, depending on how much other stuff you have. I Crossfire 2 5770s in a 600W PSU (Though it has a 720W max).
Does your screen turn gray when it freezes or does your monitor restart, followed by a pop-up in the corner saying that the display driver had to recover? There's been a small problem with older batches of 5XXX Series cards apparently having some setting in the BIOS being set too low and causing the card to restart. Some people claim flashing the card's bios and updating it will help but I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what your doing as bad things can happen if it goes wrong. The card companies usually just say to RMA the cards if they keep gray screening/resetting. I had one like that but I immediately replaced it and now everything's peachy keen.
If you do get it replaced I would stick with ATI unless you want to be able to scramble eggs on your card while playing Crysis with a 480. If you want Nvidia wait until more Fermi cards come out. Hopefully they won't run as hot because I can't imagine running at the temperatures the current Fermi cards run at can be good for them in the long run.
Fermi cards can handle the temperture, unlike that ati card. I still say rma that card, you have 30 days usually for a store if there are no manufacturing defects. Honestly if you read the reviews on newegg, alot of xfx cards are like that for your card, it's like russian roulette. Ati does have problems, however the fermi does run very hot. You get cuda, physX, good driver and reliability, not to mention a better heatsink than what ati uses. Nvidia said the card will not have a shorten lifespan, it can handle those tempertures. It will help and it's even better if you have a good case. My point is return and exchange that card, you have options, you don't have to keep a defective card, it won't get any better. I'm sure your next ati exchange should work, if not get a fermi.
Well there is your first problem... I don't care what the reviews say, every computer that I work one with any version of Norton's running is always running slowly and has infections that it just never does anything about, the day I work on a customers computer that is running that and isn't running like complete shit I will change my opinion but if you read user reviews you notice a little trend. Norton Review CNET . See how they rate it a 5 and yet the cumulative user review is 2 1/2 stars, go to the bottom and read the user reviews. Norton's is bad news uninstall that bloatware and get AVG, Spybot, and Malwarebytes you will be a much happier person and they are all Free!
" @mrhankey: My comp specs 1) Motherboard - Asus P6T LG1366 2) Graphics - ATI Radeon 5850 XFX 1GB mem. 3) RAM - 6GB (3x2GB) OCZ Gold 4) Proccessor - Intel i7 930 2.8ghz 5) OS - Windows 7 Home premium 64bit 6) Norton Anti-Virus 2010 Am i missing anything? Heres what happens. I was playing Fallout 3 GOTY, and after about 20 minutes to an hour of playing the game with freeze up and show vertical lines down the screen, I think the color of the lines is based on the most dominant texture on screen at that moment, because when I was in Vault 101 it would be dark grey-black lines, and out in the wasteland it was tan lines. And the picture locks up about 5-10 seconds before the sound. "
PSU would help. Also case too as that might point to bad airflow issues.
Fallout 3 freezes and it crashes, but this sounds like a video card problem. Or what ppl. have said about GPU overheating, or bad card. Possible lacking power supply..
I've seen similar stuff on our the PCs in class, quite a lot of them, that were using ATI cards. Think they're all fixed now, but they would just crash after a while and weird screen stuff would happen. Not sure what the problem was though.
Sounds like something to do with overheating if it usually happens after a certain amount of time and not just straight away.
Fermi cards can handle the temperture, unlike that ati card. I still say rma that card, you have 30 days usually for a store if there are no manufacturing defects. Honestly if you read the reviews on newegg, alot of xfx cards are like that for your card, it's like russian roulette. Ati does have problems, however the fermi does run very hot. You get cuda, physX, good driver and reliability, not to mention a better heatsink than what ati uses. Nvidia said the card will not have a shorten lifespan, it can handle those tempertures. It will help and it's even better if you have a good case. My point is return and exchange that card, you have options, you don't have to keep a defective card, it won't get any better. I'm sure your next ati exchange should work, if not get a fermi.
"
Yep. Exchanging will be the safest route.
Also, Fermi cards logically need better heatsinks because they run hotter. Why have a more powerful heatsink than you need? Having your system running cooler than room temperature while idling seems unnecessary. My 5770s run ~30 degrees Celcius idling and around 45 degrees under load with stock cooling in my HAF case. Even my old dust-clogged X1950 Pro ran around 40 degrees idling (That thing's still kicking after almost 3 or 4 years. The motherboard on the computer it was in was designed so the card would have the fan facing up, thus it would collect dust in the fan. A horrible design for the motherboard yet that card still hums along like the day I got it. For its age, it's still a fantastic card.)
Hey OP, what version of the ATI driver do you have? The newest complete package is 10.4 which has done wonders for me for BC2. Try that.
Sounds like it's a problem with your videocard. Does it get really hot after a certain amount of time? Your fan might not be adjusting to compensate for the load. I have an ATI HD 4870 and if I change my settings on the catalyst control center for games the fan speed will go up.
When I'm doing basic things like text on here I put my settings down low. With catalyst control center you can tune your fan speed and save the profile for future use.
It's under the ATI Overdrive panel. There you can see everything. For basic things I move all the sliders (GPU clock and Memory Clock) to the left. Then I adjust the 3d settings to bare minimum. This is only for when I am doing word processing like now.
For games I adjust the settings a little higher and leave the GPU and Memory clock at factory defaults. I never ever overclock my equipment because I want it to last as long as possible.
I just noticed there's even a tab for manual fan control. Research some info. Update your drivers and you should be good to go. If not then it could just be a bad video card.
Also be very careful when moving the manual fan tab up and down. Do so bit by bit and see. Don't be alarmed if the fan turns on high and re adjustes that's normal. However don't turn it high all of a sudden.
"Your power supply might be a little low for the wattage, and it could be overheating that way... I dunno, haven't worked on my computer for a while now. "
Most likely this is the issue, in many years of building pcs. You neglected to mention your power supply. How many watts and what brand is it? Do not play any more games till you resolve your issue because your video card might be over heating if it's not receiving enough power.
Really the question you need to ask yourself is does my power supply have 4 +12volt rails at 20 amps each. This is important so all your system components do not overload. I lost a 380 dollar video card because I skimped on the power supply. Do not let that happen to you.
Return the crappy PSU if you have one that does not have AT LEAST FOUR TWELVE VOLT RAILS @20 amps EACH. Output: +3.3V@30A,+5V@30A,+12V1@20A,+12V2@20A, +12V3@20A,+12V4@20A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2.5A
Look under specifications and find an affordable power supply with at least those specs. That will most likely solve your problem. If not then it's probably your motherboard not synching up correctly with your video card.
However since this happens when you play games and video cards gulp power from the PSU when under load, odds are it's your power supply.
I noticed you said it was your anti virus let us know how it goes. If it happens again you need to let us know of your power supply. You need a strong power supply. Do not make the mistake I did and lose an expensive hardware like I did. 380$ on a video card down the drain.
Keep an eye on your computer. Output +3.3V@24A,+5V@24A,+12V@48A,-12V@0.8A,+5VSB@2.5A
Only 1 +12v rail could spelll trouble. Good thing it's at 48 amps. How long have you had your computer? Symptoms usually arise within a 6 month period so pay close attention once 6 months are up. If you start freezing at desktop or games crashing you need a new power supply with 2 +12v rails at 20 amps each.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment