pyremoo

Hi guys,

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to put this, but hey, im new, i can make one mistake.. right? :D

First of all, the issue that i am having is that when i load up certain games (so far, HL2, Mech 4 Merc), after a random period of time playing (seems to last long if they are the first games i have loaded up after a reboot), the computer will lock up, and first i will get a "No signal detected" message on my screen, then the computer will cease to respond. If it helps, i can run these games without a problem in the world: World of Warcraft, Oblivion, Dawn of War: Soulstorm, Simcity 4, Sins of a Solar Empire, Medieval: Total War II, and of course.. Space Cadet Pinball :D

There are times when sound can still be heard, and it is looping over and over.

I have tested Direct X, no problems there from the diagnostic, check my PC temperature, and it is running at a cool 30c, moving to around 50c when under a heavy load. The monitor has also been tested with another PC, and it works fine there (running the same games). Ive also put in an Antec 650w psu, so that *should* be more then enough power to go. I've also run memtest (although only 1 pass), and my RAM has come up all clear. I have the latest drivers (169.9 or something) from nVidia. I've also run scandisks and defragged all drives over the weekend.

Here's the specs:

Dual Core E6600 @ 3.16ghz
4GB of Ram
Gigabyte 8800 GT (the one with the weird multi-finned heatsink on top)
Three different HDDs: 500Gb SATA drive, 120GB and 40 GB IDE's

Running under Windows XP with SP2. Only programs that i have going in background besides Window's stuff are:
- Spybot S&D
- Antivir
- Realtek onboard sound manager
- Connection programs for my broadband


So would appreciate any help, or any other requests for more information. (at work atm, so will provide/implement fixes when i get home today :) )

Thanks in advance

johnhook

pyremoo,

You're NOT alone - many users of this video hardware are having the same lockup issues are you. There are a variety of solutions - better PSU, enhanced cooling for the card, "underclocking" and in some cases - replacing the video card.

It's difficult to say what's causing the lockups in your case. Have you always had this issue or is it new? Are you overclocking your GPU or CPU/Motherboard? If so, disable overclocking and see if the system becomes stable again.

Try removing the side cover of your PC to allow more airflow - see if this helps.

Check out:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...ups-fixes-help

Hope this helps.

- John

dai

what power supply
brand
wattage

pyremoo

@dai: in original post: Antec 650w psu (its one where you can interchange the cables that come out)

@johnhook: Ive had the pc for about 2 months now, and to be honest, ive only discovered the problem recently (never tried to install those games before then). Once i did, i bought that new PSU as i thought it was a power issue, but im pretty sure that 650w should be enough for my comp.

I dont o/c anything, since im not knowledgeable enough about it to actually overclock anything properly.

Tried removing the side of the case last night, still getting those errors.

Judging by the link you gave me.. i have to return the damn product.. ahh well, shoul dbe still under warranty..if not.. there will be hell to pay :)

still open to suggestions!

johnhook

pyremoo,

If it's still under warantee and you can return it without questions - this is a GOOD thing. We've done all the obvious things to fix this problem - addressed your PSU, drivers, incorrect BIOS settings, ruled out overclocking, malware infections, etc.

I'm seeing a LOT of posts like yours - people with high-end video hardware that works fine - then starts flaking out. This generally manifests itself with gamers as those games tend to test the limits of this type of hardware. Unfortunately, in too many cases - I'm discovering that these video cards are simply failing due to hardware issues.

Check out:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/897347.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...A+&btnG=Search

Your card has a very good heatsink and coolling fan - still I'm seeing other owners of this card downloading tweak utilities to UP the fan speed to better cool this card. See:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

Check out this entire thread as well:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...9-8800-cooling


Again, I would RMA your card as it's still under warantee.

Hope this info helps.

- John

pyremoo

Hi Johnhook,

thanks heaps for the help.

Yeah, ive been doing *alot* of reading at work, and it seems other people are finding issues aswell.

Wish me luck for the return aye? Last thing i need is to argue with the shopowner about a card *sigh*

pyremoo

Went back today:
They exchanged it happily, so all is well, i have the 8800GT type B, with the great big golden heatsink on top... Seems like its a better choice then the type A, thank goodness!

johnhook

pyremoo,

That's great news! I've been answering so many of this video card posts and after LOTS of troubleshooting, I'm finding that these cards are simply failing. Obviously something was wrong with the rev 'A' design of that card if they had to release a 'B' version with better cooling hardware.

Hopefully this one will hold up better than the last one. This will help me advising others having similar issues with this card.

- John