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Hard graphics lock-up

P

PreachTru

Senior member
Computer Specs:
AMD A64 3200+
WinXP - DirectX 9.0c
1GB Geil PC3500
Abit KV8 Pro motherboard
ATi 9800XT Video Card (using 5.5 Catalyst drivers)


PROBLEM:
I am experiencing random hard graphics locking during game play. Sometimes it happens within minutes of playing, sometimes it takes an hour or more. The system will lock up and display some severe graphics artifacting along with a loud screeching noise from the speakers, or the screen will go completely black along with the loud screeching noise. I have no choice but to hard boot the system to resolve this lock-up. I restart games, and the same thing will happen again.

Very rarely I will be able to alt+tab out of this graphics lock up, only to receive a message saying the "VPU has recovered from a graphics lock up but is now in software rendering mode. Please restart to enable hardware rendering". The error message isn't exactly that, but it is pretty darn close. I haven't been able to alt+tab to get that message in quite a while.

This started happening within the last few weeks, everything was working fine with the EXACT same components. I have tried uninstalling the video card drivers and installing different ones, same problem happens. I have gone back to substantially older drivers which I never had the problem with previously, and the same lock ups happen.


QUESTIONS:

** The video card is running at 76 degrees celsius (while idle) according to Windows, that seems a pretty high to me. System temp never goes above 40 celsius though.

** I set the graphics card to 4x AGP in Windows and it seems to have resolved the lock-up issue. Why would setting it to 4x AGP fix the problem?

** Could this be the video card going bad, bad system power supply, or what?


Thanks
 
Your card shoulden't go over aboat 40c-45 Idle. Do you have ati tool to test the Temp?
is the heatsink fan on the card working?
You shoulden't have to set it to 4xAPG Thats weird .
Test the Psu with a dmm.
 
ATI Tool reports the temp of the GPU at 79-80 celsius during load. That just seems really freakin high to me... and yes, the fan on the card is functioning.
 
I Think that that is within the thermal tolerance (just). Modern Cards run very Hot, If it worrys you, you could get a beter heatsink fan Like the Zalman VF700cu. Which droped the temp of my X850XT from 84c to 60c
Load🙂
 
Originally posted by: montag451
mmmm - the 4x setting would send a different amount of power to the card than an 8x
Click to expand...

It also reduces the clock frequency from around 412Mhz to 275Mhz. That would reduce the amount of heat it produces. But if it continues to run at a high temperature then my guess would be that the fan on the card is malfunctioning. "VPU Recover" which is programmed into the driver then kicks in to prevent a crash. That would seem to be backed up by the screeching sound you're hearing when the fan jams (although you seem to be under the impression it's coming from the speakers rather than the case).

I'd remove the card and take a closer look at it if I were you. Perhaps something has come loose (a screw from the case perhaps) and has become jammed in the blades.
 
The screeching sound is coming from the speakers, I know this for a fact. If I am using headphones while playing a game, and the system hard locks, the terrible sound comes through the headphones as well and scares the crap out of me. 🙁
 
Originally posted by: PreachTru
World of Warcraft
Click to expand...

OK, there are a few issues that affect WoW using the 5.5. Catalyst drivers, but none of them relate to the problem you're experiencing. Release notes here.

WoW also documents the problem on their tech support site and suggests running the game in OpenGL mode, details here

 
I already tried running in OpenGL as well... it still locks up. The ONLY thing that has worked so far is forcing the video card into 4x AGP.
 
Originally posted by: PreachTru
I already tried running in OpenGL as well... it still locks up. The ONLY thing that has worked so far is forcing the video card into 4x AGP.
Click to expand...

Pity.

Perhaps you should try and eliminate WoW as the cause of the problem. You could d/l a demo from avault if you haven't go any other games that are likely to tax your system.

By the way, have you got a flat panel or a CRT montior? If it's the latter, what refresh rate are you running it at?
 
Originally posted by: PreachTru
CRT monitor at 75hz. Viewsonic G90FB
Click to expand...

OK, that would be the correct refresh rate if you're running at 1600x1200. But by reducing the resolution to say 1280x1024, you could enable it to run at 100Mhz. That's also a lot less taxing on your graphics card.
You could also try setting DirectX to run at a 75Mhz if you want to stick to 1600x1200. Easiest way is via Start --> Run, type dxdiag --> More Info (tab) --> Override (button).

 
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