Computer hangs with OpenGL

Koevoeter · 02-02-2005, 02:24 PM

Hi,

I don't know a lot about hardware and video cards but i'm experiencing a very annoying problem. My computers just hangs sometimes. Can't do anything about it and all unsaved work is lost. When i run applications that require a lot of video resources (3D games, graphical applications,...) i find that the computer hangs much more often. Let me describe what it exactly does:

The computer doesn't respond anymore to any interaction. Screen does not move. If the hard disk drive is indexing, it stops making noise. When the audio is on you hear a very weird sound for about half a second. If there is music playing in the background, it stops. But the screen remains. The only way to solve is a reboot. Sometimes i even have to reset the power supply (on the back of the computer) because it won't boot again (probably something wrong with POST). I found that it happens most of the time after interaction of the mouse: eg (right)click menu's.

Now i was using an architecture design program and it worked quied good. When i found the option to use OpenGL, the program worked faster, but not for long because it hangs much more... When i turn on OpenGL hardware acceleration and have the application just render a 360° rotation of the objects (without mouse interaction) it will probably never stop...

I'm guessing that my video card hangs on one specific operation (that is probably often used by OpenGL) but i don't know for sure...

I'm using Win XP Pro (SP2), ATI Radeon 9100 Series...

If anyone has a clue, or questions, please respond because it's a very annoying problem...

Best regards
Koen

**UncleMacro** · 02-02-2005, 11:29 PM

There are any number of problems which can cause a video board to run fine in 2D mode and then hang up in 3D mode. It can be bad drivers, a weak power supply, overheating of the video board, or just a bad video board. It probably is not specific to OpenGL.

The first thing you should always do is install the latest drivers for your video board because it is the easiest thing to do. You can download the drivers from here. If you're using motherboard video then be sure to download the "IGP driver" rather than the "Graphic Driver". Make sure to uninstall your old graphics driver before installing the new one.

If the latest and greatest driver does not fix your problem then things get difficult. You could download a copies of prime95 and 3DMark . Fire up prime95 and run the torture test and while that is running fire up 3DMark and run it while set up to loop forever. If your computer can run both of those programs at the same time overnight without crashing then you can pretty much rule out hardware.

02-02-2005, 02:24 PM	#1 (permalink)
Koevoeter Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1 OS: Windows XP Pro SP2	Computer hangs with OpenGL Hi, I don't know a lot about hardware and video cards but i'm experiencing a very annoying problem. My computers just hangs sometimes. Can't do anything about it and all unsaved work is lost. When i run applications that require a lot of video resources (3D games, graphical applications,...) i find that the computer hangs much more often. Let me describe what it exactly does: The computer doesn't respond anymore to any interaction. Screen does not move. If the hard disk drive is indexing, it stops making noise. When the audio is on you hear a very weird sound for about half a second. If there is music playing in the background, it stops. But the screen remains. The only way to solve is a reboot. Sometimes i even have to reset the power supply (on the back of the computer) because it won't boot again (probably something wrong with POST). I found that it happens most of the time after interaction of the mouse: eg (right)click menu's. Now i was using an architecture design program and it worked quied good. When i found the option to use OpenGL, the program worked faster, but not for long because it hangs much more... When i turn on OpenGL hardware acceleration and have the application just render a 360° rotation of the objects (without mouse interaction) it will probably never stop... I'm guessing that my video card hangs on one specific operation (that is probably often used by OpenGL) but i don't know for sure... I'm using Win XP Pro (SP2), ATI Radeon 9100 Series... If anyone has a clue, or questions, please respond because it's a very annoying problem... Best regards Koen

02-02-2005, 11:29 PM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	There are any number of problems which can cause a video board to run fine in 2D mode and then hang up in 3D mode. It can be bad drivers, a weak power supply, overheating of the video board, or just a bad video board. It probably is not specific to OpenGL. The first thing you should always do is install the latest drivers for your video board because it is the easiest thing to do. You can download the drivers from here. If you're using motherboard video then be sure to download the "IGP driver" rather than the "Graphic Driver". Make sure to uninstall your old graphics driver before installing the new one. If the latest and greatest driver does not fix your problem then things get difficult. You could download a copies of prime95 and 3DMark . Fire up prime95 and run the torture test and while that is running fire up 3DMark and run it while set up to loop forever. If your computer can run both of those programs at the same time overnight without crashing then you can pretty much rule out hardware.