System locks up in Games

[Kinesis]

Hope the Guru's here at Anandtech can once again help me. HELP ME PLEASE

Issue: In Games (only, never windows itself) the system will get into a sound loop or video flicker loop and lock up completely. CTRL+ALT+DEL isn't even a possibility, must use reset button. The system just seems to hang/lock up in games like City of Heros, City of Villains, NFS:Most Wanted, Half-Life2.

SYSTEM (initallly)
AMD X2 3800+ CPU (not being overclocked)
EVGA 133-K8-NF41-AX Motherboard
EVGA nvidia 7800 GT PCIe Video Card (Not overclocked)
Creative SBAudigy2 Value Sound Card
10K 74 GB Raptor SATA
80GB WD SATA drive
LG DVD/RW DL Drive

Steps Taken
1.System was running perfectly fine, then after several weeks of not playing NFS I tried to play it, and it wouldn't run period. Ok, something strange happened, I will uninstall and reinstall it. When I tried to reinstal it, the installer kept saying DX 9.0c not installed, but it was. <-- 4 weeks ago

2.Then a new COH/COV game patch came out, installed this and the game began locking up. To the point of 4 to 5 times per 30 mins. Annoying. <--2 weeks ago

3.Tried to play Jedi Academy, and it ran like I was on Amphetamines (Speed), so it was unplayable. <-- 2 weeks ago

** Was running 84.21 Nvidia Drivers

4. Installed the latest nvidia 91.47 drivers. Same issues existed, and were seemingly magnified.

5. Installed latest sound/audio and on-board nForce4 dirvers Same results.

6. Formatted system, and reinstalled Windows XP SP2. Windows and all other programs run flawlessly. Tried COH/COV, Half-life2, NFS, and was able to play about 10 to 15 mins before it locked up. <--- Using EVGA shipped drivers (74.21)

7/ Used Driver Cleaner, and removed old drivers, and installed the latest and greastest for all. Able to play about 15 to 30 mins before I locked up.

8. At this point I was thinking it ws the motherboard. Purchased Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe Board , with all other hardware remaining the same. <--- Used ASUS shipped Drivers Results were the same, but slightly more stable.. NFS now was playable, but had severe screen flicker in menu and load screens. I didn't try the other games, because they take forever to install.

9. Not sure what to try next?
Is it the Video Card, since this only occurs in games??
Is it the SOUND Card, since this only occurs in games and I get a definite sound loop when I lock up??

I was thinking of swapping my Audigy2 Gamer-X sound card from another system into this system and see if it changes things?

Thoughts....anyone?

 

[neutralizer]

I suspect its the Audigy. My roommate and I both have Audigys and it goes into audio loop mode a lot. Creative and their damn buggy drivers. I just deal with it. It only happens like once a week.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: neutralizer
I suspect its the Audigy. My roommate and I both have Audigys and it goes into audio loop mode a lot. Creative and their damn buggy drivers. I just deal with it. It only happens like once a week.

my x-fi has never done that. Could be a buggy game code. Have you updated them all to the latest? Do you have the latest chipset drivers and BIOS as well? That all interacts with the PCI-E for video.

Try swapping in a different video card or sound card and see if it changes. Also make sure you don't have bad memory that locks you up. Run memtest and then run Orthos and see if it runs without errors for a coupld hours.

 

[Kinesis]

I have updated to all the latest drivers.

I didn't do a bios update on the EVGA board, simply because there are no updates. And I also didn't do that on the Asus board I just swapped in. Why not? Simple because the problem has moved over from an older board to an newer board, so I am not thinking this is the issue.

But not counting it out either.

Thanks for ths suggestions, I will try to run the sound card on my other system and see what the result is.

This is something of a new onset as well, this was not happening until about 4 weeks ago.

Sound card going? Received an electrical shock and is about to go? or could it be the video card? (ugg..I am hoping this is not the case).

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Kinesis
I have updated to all the latest drivers.

I didn't do a bios update on the EVGA board, simply because there are no updates. And I also didn't do that on the Asus board I just swapped in. Why not? Simple because the problem has moved over from an older board to an newer board, so I am not thinking this is the issue.

But not counting it out either.

Thanks for ths suggestions, I will try to run the sound card on my other system and see what the result is.

This is something of a new onset as well, this was not happening until about 4 weeks ago.

Sound card going? Received an electrical shock and is about to go? or could it be the video card? (ugg..I am hoping this is not the case).

In these situations I guess and pull parts and swap them into other systems or swap new parts in until it works. Then backtrack until I get problems yet again. GL

 

[potato28]

What Power Supply do you have?

 

[pkme2]

:thumbsup:

That's the first thing I thought too!

 

[dennilfloss]

Have you tried disabling/removing your sound card and using the new mobo onboard sound?

 

[Kinesis]

Update: I tried using the Onboard sound with the new ASUS board, same issues.

Powersupply is an Enermax 565P-VE

Something I did try. Ran 3DMark06 and on this system in question the first two tests were sluggish (at default settings) and the first test had colored speckles like snow on a rabbit ear antenna TV appearing. The second test looked like I was entering Hyperspace in Star Trek. The center of the screen was all messed up, with a starburst (like warpspeed) view coming out of the center of the screen.

I ran the exact same 3DMark settings on my other system, 6800GT card and it ran fine, none of these artifacts appeared, and it was reasonably non-sluggish.

Both systems are running 91.47 nvidia drivers.


Thinking Video card now!!

 

[potato28]

Video card lol. Sux that you replaced the motherboard just to find out that its the video.

 

[Kinesis]

X(*)(*)(*)(&*&*&*&

That is my thought.... no worries there, I can used the old motherboard still... so you would agree? RMA the Video card?

 

[Kinesis]

Hmmm, well I started to go buy a new video card and then someone suggested it could be the powersupply.

Well nutz... how can I tell? I dont have a bunch just laying around... bummer.

One thing I have noticed is that when I go to install or run an application, the system ist laggy or sluggish at running the application. When I get into NFS and I am at the menu screen, the movement between menus and selections is also sluggish...

Also, when I got NFS to run, with periodic lag / lockups, where the system would eventually recover and the game would come back.....the screen was hindered with a kalidescope of colors and triangular shapes.... gotta be video! ??

 

[pkrush]

First of all, remember to install the AMD Dual Core Proccessor Drivers and the Windows XP dualcore hotfix. Also, try enabling temperature logging in the nVidia control panel and playing a game for a few minutes to see how hot your video card is getting. If the temps are over 80C, then you probably have a video card problem, however I'm not sure if it's overheating even though it sounds like it. I had pretty much the same issues, only with one of the early 7900GT's (with the bad RAM).