Games Crash with Distorted Pixels and Repeating Sound

[RussellBishop]

Randomly, in some games I play (mainly Counter Strike Source), the PC will suddenly crash.

It looks like this;





And sounds like this;

P1020943.mp3 - 0.33MB (The difference in sound is just me molving the camera and turning the sound up/down, the actual sound was constant.)

I have an ATI Radeon HD4870 with the latest ATi Drivers (8.12) and CCC. If you need any additional info, ask :)

[koala]

Hi, welcome to TSF

Your imageshack links aren't working (for me anyway), but from what I can make out in the thumbnails, those evenly spaced blocks and coloured lines point towards bad video RAM on the graphics card.

You usually see these kind of artifacts when the graphics card is overheating, or the PSU is not strong enough on the +12V line.

It could also be a driver problem. Your MP3 recording sounds like a small segment that's caught in a loop, but it's difficult to say what the cause is just from listening to it. Could be the sound driver or graphics driver. If the graphics card or PSU are having trouble, then the knock-on effect could lead to the looped sound.

Please post your PSU details (make/model, total watts, amps for +12V). You can find these details on the PSU label.

How many case fans do you have, and how are they positioned?

Are all fans (case, CPU and graphics) spinning, free of dust and unobstructed?

Have you tried an earlier graphics driver?

[RussellBishop]

Hi koala,

Thanks for your detailed reply. The ImageShack links are working for me, perhaps you can try again now?

PSU: (FAIRLY NEW) Corsair TX750w info:http://www.corsair.com/products/tx/default.aspx

My case has one built in 12" in-take (12" is a guess, but it's very big) and one small outtake fan. Positioning;



All fans are not obstructed and seem to be flowing fine.

I have had problems with crashing games since about drivers 8.8, and on each upgrade since up til my current, 8.12

EDIT: Not all games seem to crash. UT3 crashes sometimes, CS Source does, COD4 doesn't seem to, nor Cod:Waw, Crysis hasn't yet (played it a tiny bit), BioShock hasn't (played a little).

[koala]

How long after starting a fullscreen game does it take for the artifacts to appear?

Do you see any vertical lines or random characters during POST? (startup screen when you first switch on, white text on black screen). If not, then the damage to the VRAM might not be too bad at the moment, if that's what the problem is.

Your PSU is easily strong enough for your computer. To make sure there are no problems with it, make a note of the system temperatures and PSU voltages in BIOS, then check again while playing CSS using SensorsView for the system temps and voltages, and the graphics card control panel or RivaTuner to monitor the graphics card temperature. Post back with both sets of figures so we can see how your system copes under stress.

Reinstall your chipset drivers, graphics driver, sound driver and DirectX, rebooting after each one.

When you upgraded the graphics driver, did you uninstall, reboot to VGA mode and disable antivirus before installing the new driver? Following the correct procedure is important to prevent conflicts that could leave the driver not working properly.

Have you tried reverting to an earlier graphics driver that previously worked?

You could do with another 120mm fan low down at the front of the case to pull cool air in. The large side fan will help keep temperatures down, but having one at the front is recommended to create the correct airflow path over the motherboard and components.

[Zealex]

hmmm this was my problem, Use the offical driver, my laptop didn't use the offical drivers for some while but now im useing the offical driver and i never get distoreded screens while in game or bsod...