Constant Freezing in Games

[pcZen]

Ok, so I built a PC back in January:

AMD X2 4800+
MSI Mobo
2GB(2x1GB) G.Skill
500GB HDD WD
EVGA 8800GTS 320MB PCI-e

Recently I started getting a problem with Freezing in a few of games (Warhammer Online and WoW). The games will play fine for about 5-10 seconds then freeze for about 1-5 seconds. It will do this constantly. I don't remember this problem existing a few months ago in WoW, but I didn't play it much either in the last 4 months.

I formatted and installed Vista Ultimate 32bit and this is where I noticed it.
I upgraded the sound card, it didn't fix it.
I went back to XP, and it was still happening.
I removed the video card and used onboard...still happens
I am in the process of running MemTest but after 10 hours, still no errors
I have updated all drivers for CPU, Mobo, video, sound, even Beta Drivers, still a problem
WoW seemed to work better with OpenGL, but I cancelled my account and deleted wow, so I can't test it any more.
I have tweaked the nvidia settings every which way without success, but the fact it happens on my X1250 onboard and my EVGA 8800GTS makes me think its not the video card.

The only other cheap test is to toss my 160GB drive in the machine and try it out, but if I have to replace the CPU or Mobo, I plan on moving to intel, but this is my last resort.

Otherwise the PC runs beautifully, plays 720p files flawlessly, I guess I could test Counter-strike to see if I get the same issue.

Any Ideas on other tests to throw at it? Should I format, install XP up to SP2 and test the game to see if its a recent patch thats causing issues?

Thanks!

jon

 

[mpilchfamily]

You haven't mentioned what PSU you have. Could be a simple problem of the PSU being unable to support the load. Sure its run fine for a while but if you have been straining that PSU pretty hard it may have reached the point where it can't handle the load as well as it once could.

 

[pcZen]

Well its an older 550W Antec, about 3 years old. That might be the problem. I have a newer 500W Thermaltake in my server machine that is about 8 months old, I might toss that in there and see if thats the problem.

You think it might just be the age of the PSU? The 550W should have been more than enough (at its prime). I may swap those out tonight and see what happens, if so might invest in a 600-700W PSU.

 

[pcZen]

Well, installed the newer 500W power supply and its still an issue. I think my total power draw with all my components is under 350W so after putting in the other PSU, I don't think that is the problem... I guess the next step is to try a different HDD?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Well total power draw isn't the issue. The issue is how much of that power if from the 12V rails and if the PSu offers enough on the 12V rails to support that. Try a complete unistall of the video driverts and reinstall them. Be sure to use Drive Cleaner to get all the components of the drivers out.

 

[pcZen]

Yeah, I did that when I uninstalled the Nvidia to use the onboard video card. I also tried multiple versions of the nvidia driver and used Drive Cleaner between the driver changes. no success so far.

After I switched the power supply I was able to play the game for about 4 minutes before it started. Lowering the game settings to the lowest from the highest, doesn't affect the problem at all. RivaTuner, CPU-z, Hardware Monitor, only see slight changes when I play the game.


Going to throw my 160GB HDD in the machine and do a fully updated XP install to see if its the hard drive, this is going to drive me insane

 

[pcZen]

Ok, Installed a new HDD, installed XP, but didn't update beyond SP2. Same exact problem, so its not the HDD or XP patches. My guess is its either the CPU or Mobo at this point, and I have no clue what I can do to verify this without spending money on a new CPU or Mobo.

 

[pcZen]

Well I ran a CPU test, threw my temps up to 42 C so it was pushing it pretty hard...but no errors after 7 hours. At this point I have tested everything I can think of. My PC runs flawlessly when doing anything regular (Eclipse, PhotoShop, Picasa, Open Office, Chrome with 12 windows, FF with 10 tabs, etc).

Its only games does it start to choke, this issue is going to drive me crazy.

Could it possibly be the NIC Card? every game I have tested had some type of online component:

Warhammer Online & WoW both get consistent freezing
Half-Life 2 & Counter-strike - Can't even start a game because it locks up

I have titan quest, maybe I will install it and see if I get the problem, if so maybe if I disable the NIC and try the game to verify if its the NIC? Could a NIC cause this type of issue, it doesn't feel like its actually a network issue.

 

[pcZen]

Disabled my NIC, HL2 and Titan Quest still had issues. HL2 would at least go into the game, but I could actually time the momentary freezing. I guess this leaves it to either the CPU or Mobo. Since I don't want to spend the money guessing, guess I will just start saving for a intel based config. =( really had hoped I could identify the problem and save me around $500.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: pcZen
...The games will play fine for about 5-10 seconds then freeze for about 1-5 seconds. It will do this constantly....

As I read that sentence, you say that the game unfreezes after about 1-5 seconds. If that is the case, it could be a video memory problem for those particular games. Switching from vid card to on board would not help that. How much memory does your vid card have?

Your statement suggests a delay - not a freeze. A freeze does not thaw after 1-5 seconds.

 

[pcZen]

I have a nvidia 8800GTS 320MB PCI-e. I am sorry if I wasn't clear. All games will do the following:

Sometimes they will play fine for a few minutes, and then they will hang (better word than freeze i suppose) for a short period of time (in seconds). They will only hang for few seconds, and then the game plays fine for about 10-30 seconds, then it hangs again for a short period of time. Absolutely no game settings or nvidia control panel settings will change this.

In HL2, I could log into the game, then start playing and I can run around for 10 seconds, then it hangs, and whatever sound was playing will be repeated, after about 5 sec, I will begin running again. Then about 10 seconds later, it will do the same thing, I could actually time and predict when it would happen. It isn't lag, because it doesn't try to catch up, it just continues from where it froze up or hung up.

I removed the nvidia card completely and hooked up to my ATI X1250 onboard video and the problem still continued. If I had a spare PCI-e card I would try that, but I don't.

RivaTuner says the GPU is at 53C which is very cold for that card at idle and even during a low poly game like warhammer.

Freeze, delay, hang, it just stops doing whatever it was doing for about 5 secs and then continues on as if nothing happened and does this constantly. RivaTuner, HW Monitor show almost no spikes or erratic behavior from my hardware. I don't see how this could be the video card if its happening on both the onboard and PCI-e card unless I am missing something.

Something has happened to some piece of hardware in my machine, 4 months ago, these games played flawlessly. I moved in August, so its entirely possible something got banged and damaged, but the PC is always treated with my greatest care when I move and rode with me in the car, not the truck.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: pcZen
... Could it possibly be the NIC Card? every game I have tested had some type of online component:..

That is a huge clue! Sounds like exactly what happens when streaming video gets held up because of Internet queueing, i.e., "business." There may be nothing wrong with your system at all. Could just be the effect of a crowded Internet and bandwidth sharing.

An interesting experiment would be to see if the hang or delay varies at different times of day, like 2:00AM compared to 2:00PM. Also, run some ping tests on your Internet connection. Is it DSL or cable?

 

[pcZen]

That is what I thought, till I disabled the onboard NIC in the BIOS, and tried HL2 in offline mode, and Titan Quest (a single player game) and still had the same issue. I do have a intel PCI NIC ordered to replace the onboard Realtek.

the other hitch, was 3dMark06 ran just fine without the hanging. and 720p files play flawlessly, which lead me to testing the NIC. Its driving me crazy lol

 

[Frankdaatank24]

What other games do you have installed? DRM might be an issue here, sounds totally software, I don't think its hardware at all since you replaced or changed vital components.

 

[Elias824]

Can you check you CPU and memory load in game? When Ive had problems like this in the past it was an overheating CPU or video card, although those have allready been tested is it maybe possible its reporting the wrong temp? Maybe try a bio flash to a newer version

 

[pcZen]

I thought DRM might be an issue, but WoW and Warhammer don't have DRM since they are online only. I am unsure if HL2 has DRM, and I know Titan Quest has DRM, but it suffers the least compared to the other games.

CPU, Memory, Temps are normal during games. I thought overheating might be the problem, but my GPU temp doesn't go over 80C in HL2 and stays below 70C in WoW and Warhammer. CPU temps don't even get that high. They were higher when I ran the CPU Stress test, they peaked at 48C i believe.

I did flash to the latest BIOS when I first noticed the problem, I have been pondering downgrading the BIOS but I don't know if I want to go through that or not.