Comp Crashes During Intense 3D - FIXED (I think)

rwalterk

Member
Nov 16, 2000
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During heavy 3D play (like Call of Duty) my comp will crash. After a few minutes of play I get a screen that is just pure static and jumbled colors (no discernable images). Doesn't happen unless I am playing intense 3D games; some games work no problem (Homeworld 2, Counter-Strike). Some background about the problem:

1. Happened maybe 3 times in the last year but started happening daily when I got Call of Duty (lol).
2. Happened with my last video card as well.
3. Lately it takes about 10 tries to get my comp to boot (it turns on, but no post, no video signal).

Starting to think my power supply is going or something. Anyone else seen this? The fact that it used to happen with my old video card makes me think this, especially because I have the same power supply that I was using then. Oh yeah, I don't overclock anything - all running at stock settings.

Athlon XP 2100 (Thoroughbred)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
512MB DDR Corsair XMS 2700
Gainward Geforce 4 4200 Ti (53.03 drivers)
Audigy 2
Antec 300W Power Supply (came with my Antec KS282 case)

Here's a pic of what the crash screen looks like.

Thanks in advance.

-Ray
 

GunDog

Senior member
Oct 17, 2001
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Check the cable for the monitor. That is a video issue. With it happening on 2 different video cards, leads me to think you have a bad connection on the cable.
I dont rule out a PS issue either. Do you have a surge protector?
 

rwalterk

Member
Nov 16, 2000
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Scratch my power supply theory, I just tried it with a better one and still the same exact issues. Gundog, I think a bad monitor cable would just give me a bad picture signal - shouldn't crash the whole thing. I'm starting to think the video card itself is going bad. I double checked the fan on the video card and it's working okay, but maybe the whole card is shot? Ugh.
 

GunDog

Senior member
Oct 17, 2001
497
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True, that would not cause a crash. DOH! (brainfart)
I looked at the pic and it popped in the ole head.

Do you have a surge protector tho?
 

rwalterk

Member
Nov 16, 2000
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Yeah I have a surge protector. And now I can't even get the damn PC to boot. It won't even give me the POST beep.
 

egale

Senior member
Jun 5, 2002
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If it happens with 2 different video cards, then it is not video. Either your memory or cpu is failing. Are you overclocking? If so try it with no overclocking.

If you have 2 sticks of ram, try 1 at a time. Also try running memtest to see if it is memory that is failing.
 

rwalterk

Member
Nov 16, 2000
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Egale, I'm not overclocking anything, and I only have one stick of RAM. It's kinda weird though, I can play 2D games all night (like Age of Empires II for hours last night) and many other 3D games no problem. Where do I find memtest?
 

rwalterk

Member
Nov 16, 2000
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FYI if anyone else has had a similar situation, it ended up being the video card. I'm leaving about a 2% chance that it's the AGP slot on my motherboard. Anyway I tried an old TNT 64 card I had lying around and POOF! My computer booted up on the first try. I was gonna buy a new monitor but now I have to blow that dough on a video card :( oh well. Thanks for the suggestions, people.

-Ray
 

DefDC

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2003
1,858
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Bummer that you can't boot... I have an almost identical setup as you. OpenGL games would work fine for me, but DirectX games would wig out. After DAYS of researching I found that I could underclock my card slightly with RivaTuner and everything was fine. If you can nurse your system back to health long enough to try this, you might be able to save the cost of the card.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=32&threadid=1215579&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

I was in the same boat, about ready to buy another vid card, but I really didn't want to at this point. I don't know about you, but my GF4TI is hanging in there quite well... I'm going to stick it out for another generation of cards, or until Doom3 or HL2 REALLY presses me to upgrade... :)