Weird problem. Locking up during games.

[McCartney]

When I play WoW the game will freeze and I can't get out but I can move my mouse around periodically/sporatically and my music in the bakcground will be chopped but also play in spurts sometimes loop in spurts.

I'm wondering what causes ths? I'm running Stable Nvidia and creative drivers on XP SP2 with the latest updates.

Striker Extreme
2 8800 GTXs
2x1gb Corsair Dominator 8500C5D
1TB Hitachi HD
XEON X3220 CPU
X-Fi Fatal1ty
Plextor 716SA

 

[JPB]

Isn't there a well known problem for WoW and the 8800 series cards ? Or am I thinking of something else ?

 

[Markbnj]

Rather than locking up, it sounds like something is taking a ton of CPU time. Next time it happens try to alt-tab out (might take awhile), and see if Task Manager will show you what process is consuming the CPU.

 

[xitshsif]

Heat?

 

[McCartney]

I've tried that Mark and to no avail. WHen this problem initially started happening it would work but I'd need to restart to play wow.
It doesn't affect my CPU since it only happens on 3d intensive games or games in general. I'm wondering what it could be. Has anyone had this problem?

 

[xitshsif]

Heat. That pair of 8800 GTXs will run very hot. GPUs and CPUs either get flaky or throttle back when they get too hot. Gaming is when your system is going to be working hardest and making the most heat.

 

[McCartney]

Only 75 idle and 80ish around load. It has to be much higher than that for heat to be a factor man.
Plsu these cards are new RMAs from VGA with pads and proper cooling

 

[xitshsif]

80ish is a bit hot, maybe not enough to cause problems, but who knows. Is that CPU temp, or where is that being measured?

 

[oynaz]

Have you checked for malware?

 

[MarcVenice]

a gtx idling at 75c ? Wow ... I would get some third party cooling or at least some extra air flow in your case. My 8800gts is idling at sub 60c, no reason your gtx should be much above that. Even if that's not the problem, I would still look into it.

How about harddrive space, the swapfile or whatever? What about reinstalling WoW ?

 

[lamere]

Originally posted by: McCartney
Only 75 idle and 80ish around load. It has to be much higher than that for heat to be a factor man.
Plsu these cards are new RMAs from VGA with pads and proper cooling

"ONLY" 75c at idle??:shocked:

Holy heatwave, I idle 40-43 on both my x1900's with aftermarket cooling and when they get to 58-60c under load, i can really feel the heat.

i'd say its heat related, or possibly PSU related since you didnt post what PSU you have.

 

[Markbnj]

Yeah, but I think that's still within the tolerances of the card. I would say heat next too, but it doesn't sound all that hot, spec-wise.