Computer freezes in games - I've tried everthing, Help!

[inoam]

Hi,
My computer freezes everytime play a game and it drops to desktop when I run 3dmark2001, I was wondering if you can help me.
I have the latest nvidia drives and the via 4 in 1 drivers for my KT133A motherboard.
- I'm running windows xp.
- Nothing is overclocked.
- I tried lowering the refreash rate and switching between geforce2 and geforce4, no help it still freezes.
I was thinking it might be EMS, because all the problems started when I installed the geforce4, but I don't know. I also installed new detonator drivers, that might have caused problems, I'm not sure. Please help me!


Thank you,
Itai

 

[chizow]

Sounds like a driver issue.

Reinstall the GF4. Uninstall your detonators. Go to hardware/device manager and remove the GF4. Select Standard VGA adapter.

Reboot.

Reinstall latest detonators.

Chiz

 

[Wolfsraider]

are you running anything in the background like norton? that too can cause stuttering so just a heads up.

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: inoam
Hi,
My computer freezes everytime play a game and it drops to desktop when I run 3dmark2001, I was wondering if you can help me.
I have the latest nvidia drives and the via 4 in 1 drivers for my KT133A motherboard.
- I'm running windows xp.
- Nothing is overclocked.
- I tried lowering the refreash rate and switching between geforce2 and geforce4, no help it still freezes.
I was thinking it might be EMS, because all the problems started when I installed the geforce4, but I don't know. I also installed new detonator drivers, that might have caused problems, I'm not sure. Please help me!


Thank you,
Itai

If you have not done this recently, get canned air and blow out inside of your case, motherboard and cpu heatsink.

 

[inoam]

Thanks for the replys.
I installed and uninstalled the latest drivers like chizow recommended, but it still drops to the desktop.
What does blowing solve? Should I just target the fans and heatsinks, or the whole case. I'm thinking my problem isn't overheating because my case is open right now, but I'm open to any sugestions.

EDIT: Ohh and I don't run norton in the background.

 

[Don66]

What power supply do you have?

 

[inoam]

300W.

 

[OulOat]

Check to make sure your voltages are okay when stressing your comp. Also, you should try the standard procedure discussed in so many other threads. Other than that, try playing games with the standard WinXP driver.

 

[Mem]

Go to System Info which is in Accessories then system tools folder and then tools tab ,select DirectX diagnostic tools,go to display tab and run both the "test directdraw and Direct3D options,it should give you info if anything is wrong there.

I agree with chizow,it sounds like corrupted drivers,last option would be reformat and clean install of OS & drivers.Also some gaming BIOS tweaks won`t do any harm so disable all video shadowing,disable system bios cacheable,disable video ram cacheable.If the Nvidia drivers were the last thing installed try reinstalling the VIA AGP driver.

 

[inoam]

hmmm... standard procedure? I couldn't find any threads about it. what is it exactly?

 

[inoam]

Just dropped by to say thanks to the people who offered my an advice.
It was a driver problem. I formated the hard drive and installed the drivers and now it works (EDIT: not really) .
Thanks!

 

[Bovinicus]

Excess heat and lack of power are the two most common reasons for a computer freezing or randomly restarting. Make sure your temps and voltages are where they shoul d be. Bad memory is probably next in line for the possible culprit. If you have two sticks of memory, try using only one. Reverting to old drivers again is also worth a shot if it happened around the time you updated your drivers.

 

[inoam]

So my problems are not solved after all. It crashes when playing a game.
- I tried switching the memory and video card with diffrent units, no help.
- When I play Mafia I get this weird thing where it seems each 3rd of the screen is refreshed maybe at slightly different times - it's still playable but pretty annoying
help?

 

[Mem]

Did you install NVRefreshTool from here ,

NVRefreshTool is a utility used to fix the problem in Windows 2000/XP that sets your refresh rate to 60Hz when you play ANY game. This problem occurs whether or not you have a higher refresh rate set in your Display Properties of Windows.

NVRefreshTool is simple and easy to use. Just load up the NVRefreshTool program and it will automatically detect the maximum refresh rate at each resolution that your monitor supports. If you're an advanced user, you can customize each refresh rate at each resolution.

From the author:
Quite a few new features in this version--Most importantly 41.xx driver support, the addition of Horizontal and Vertical spanning support(there are some limitations to this), updated the installer, packed the nvrt.exe to use a smaller size, updated the help file with some new information(such as Battlefield 1942 refresh rate problems), a few coding updates, and a number of slight UI changes that just seemed as eyesores to us now.

 

[inoam]

Yep.
Ohh and I also get poly. tearing in Mafia. what can cause that?

 

[Mem]

Ohh and I also get poly. tearing in Mafia. what can cause that?

Do you`ve V-Sync enabled?It will normally stop tearing and artifacts onscreen.

 

[Steven the Leech]

Did you try changing your pci devices?

 

[inoam]

I have V-sync enabled and the only pci device connected is my sound card.
Please help me, I'm so frustrated!

 

[DanFungus]

have you looked at your CPU temps?

download motherboard monitor, and install it from the help files that come with it (otherwise, it's a little tricky to figure out)
Check to see that yuor heatsink is completely covering your processor core (if you put thermal grease on, the heatsink will have a mark from the core where the grease comes off, if you used the pink pad, then it would have melted on so if you take off the heatsink, you'd have to take that off, then put thermal grease (like arctic silver) on it.

good luck!

 

[Jiayu]

I have a similar problem when running any 3D games, http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=930646&highlight_key=y
Basically, whenever I run any 3D related games/application, e.g. 3Dmark2001, the pc will freeze within 10sec - 3 mins. Specifically, it will freeze in 3Dmark2100 "dragothic high detail".
I have a Epox7k8A with 1.2G thunderbird, Leadtek Winfast LE 250 Ti4200. The freeze disappears if I replace Ti4200 with another Videocard (Radeon 7500) or test the Ti4200 on another motherboard (Fd11). I borrowed another Ti4200 (Winfast TD 280) from a friend and it can't run 3Dmark2100 on my pc either.
Updates of various BIOS, drivers can't solve this problem, neither can pulling out my sound card. Format/reinstall WinXp doesn't solve it either.
If I reduce the AGP to 1-2x, it still freezes but seems can last a little longer.
It might be a PSU probleml. However, since my Ti4200 runs fine on Fd11 with 250w PSU, I tend to think the 300w Enlight I have should be enough.

This leads to me to believe there is something wrong with my Epox7k8A, or it has some compability problem with my Ti4200.

I would suggest you try your video card on another machine, or try another video card on this PC. If it's possible, try a different PSU as well. If all fails, I would suggest it's the fault of your motherboard.

By the way, when you run 3dmark2001. Does it CTD at the same place/demo, or it CTD at the first demo (car chase)?

 

[XCLAN]

with Amd often times heat causes the crashing. just last week i added a new cpu to my computer. it was only 200 mhz faster than my old cpu...but my games kept crashing. went back to replace the cpu with my older cpu...and the entire case was HOT. old cpu = no crashes.

try fresh format?
IRQ conflict?
any issues with yer mobo and soundcard? some amd mobos and creative labs sound cards caused crashing. also move yer sound card to a lower PCI slot?
could be 1000 reasons...just wanted to toss up a few.

 

[Davegod]

did the crashing only start after installing the latest via 4in1's? If so try going back to older ones.

Ive started getting some crashed on rtcw, after installing the 4.45 4in1's, and making memory timings more aggressive in BIOS. Probably one or the other causing me problems, havent bothered to find out which yet though.