Switch Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 This would start to happen so close to Oblivion's release wouldn't it? Basically, apart from a couple of games, my PC crashes after about 10 minutes of play at certain graphical levels. This has happened with about half a dozen demos I've tried as of late, and Morrowind. If I turn the graphics down on the demos they seem to run without crashing. I haven't tried that with Morrowind yet. However, with Star Wars: Galaxies running on pretty good graphics, and X3: Reunion on good graphics as well, I haven't had the problem. Which is odd, as their graphics are higher than those of the demos I've been trying, and in X3: Reunion's case, even Morrowind. The crashes themselves are sort of multicoloured pixelated distortion across the screen for a second, and then the monitor switches to standby mode and won't come back on. I can reboot, but then as soon as Windows loads it can happen again. Turning the PC off completely, then turning it back on seems to remedy the problem until I try playing the games again. I was just wondering what people think the most likely candidate for this problem might be. I fear it's the graphics card (GeForce 6800 GT) and before anyone asks, yes I have tried updating the drivers. I would not be amused if it's choked on me after just under a year having paid £266 for it. I don't know if the monitor could cause this sort of problem, but just for the record it's a rather outdated-looking Belnea CRT monitor that I got cheaply off a friend since my proper one died. (Although she got it off someone brand new about 6 months ago). I've checked the temperature via the BIOS after the glitch has happened, and the System and CPU temperatures are never over 35 degrees... so it doesn't seem to be an overheating issue. Any help is appreciated! *Prays it's not the card* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batesmotel34 Posted February 8, 2006 Share Posted February 8, 2006 You really need to check the video card temp, not cpu and motherboard. I had a lot of problems with an AGP 6600GT that ran hot although I wasn't able to prove that was the issue. If your video card doesn't have the temperature reporting on the card enabled you can do so with any of the NVidia overclocking/tweaking utilities like NVTweak. What type of motherboard and chipset do you have? Assuming your card is AGP, there are problems that seem to occur fairly freequently judging form reporting in forums for certain chipsets. An updated BIOS or chipset drivers mightt help as well. This would start to happen so close to Oblivion's release wouldn't it? Basically, apart from a couple of games, my PC crashes after about 10 minutes of play at certain graphical levels. This has happened with about half a dozen demos I've tried as of late, and Morrowind. If I turn the graphics down on the demos they seem to run without crashing. I haven't tried that with Morrowind yet. However, with Star Wars: Galaxies running on pretty good graphics, and X3: Reunion on good graphics as well, I haven't had the problem. Which is odd, as their graphics are higher than those of the demos I've been trying, and in X3: Reunion's case, even Morrowind. The crashes themselves are sort of multicoloured pixelated distortion across the screen for a second, and then the monitor switches to standby mode and won't come back on. I can reboot, but then as soon as Windows loads it can happen again. Turning the PC off completely, then turning it back on seems to remedy the problem until I try playing the games again. I was just wondering what people think the most likely candidate for this problem might be. I fear it's the graphics card (GeForce 6800 GT) and before anyone asks, yes I have tried updating the drivers. I would not be amused if it's choked on me after just under a year having paid £266 for it. I don't know if the monitor could cause this sort of problem, but just for the record it's a rather outdated-looking Belnea CRT monitor that I got cheaply off a friend since my proper one died. (Although she got it off someone brand new about 6 months ago). I've checked the temperature via the BIOS after the glitch has happened, and the System and CPU temperatures are never over 35 degrees... so it doesn't seem to be an overheating issue. Any help is appreciated! *Prays it's not the card* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switch Posted February 9, 2006 Author Share Posted February 9, 2006 Well, logically, if it was overheating it would die whilst playing SWG or X3: Reunion too. I'll see if I can get that program regardless. If temperature reporting was turned on, where would I find it? I'm useless at remembering motherboard types. I think it's a Socket 754. Definitely AGP 8x. Is there any reliable way to check the precise motherboard type? I'm pretty sure it's a NF3250K8AA-ERS. I wouldn't know where to get chipset or BIOS drivers. EDIT: I took a look at the card fan, it looks like it's going at full pelt (so fast I can't even tell that it's moving, just blurred). It doesn't feel hot near it either. I took a look at that program you mentioned and can't figure out how to get it to display the temp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batesmotel34 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Well, logically, if it was overheating it would die whilst playing SWG or X3: Reunion too. I'll see if I can get that program regardless. If temperature reporting was turned on, where would I find it? I'm useless at remembering motherboard types. I think it's a Socket 754. Definitely AGP 8x. Is there any reliable way to check the precise motherboard type? I'm pretty sure it's a NF3250K8AA-ERS. I wouldn't know where to get chipset or BIOS drivers. EDIT: I took a look at the card fan, it looks like it's going at full pelt (so fast I can't even tell that it's moving, just blurred). It doesn't feel hot near it either. I took a look at that program you mentioned and can't figure out how to get it to display the temp. I PM'ed you with more stuff to try since I was having problems finding this thread. Let me know if you don't find the temperature management entry under your NVidia settings and I'll find the instructions I had for enabling it. I was wrong that NVTweak will do it. Assuming that you have the right part number for your motherboard, here's a url for the specs for it: http://computing.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ps_14312876/111101.html It uses the NVIDIA NForce 3 chipset so you should check the NVIDIA support site for updated drivers. You might also check to see if Foxconn has a support site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Switch Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 Thanks for all the suggestions - managed to catch it in the act though. I remembered the point in 3DMark 05 where it crashes, and minimised to temp readings about 1 minute before it did. I caught it at 110 degrees C! (This is after cleaning great wads of dust from the fan). Crazy. Going to try and get my money back as I've only had it for 10 months. That's about the fourth GeForce card in a row that's screwed me over... Last. NVidia. Card. Ever. *Walks off to the ATi camp* Ooo hey, on the bright side, 5000th post! Wee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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