ATI X700 Pro dying whilst playing The Sims 2

Slim Vision · 11-27-2005, 02:33 PM

Hey ho everyone. I'm having a spot of trouble figuring out exactly why my graphics card is beginning to malfunction.

Basically, it all started when I started playing The Sims 2. The game ran fine for hours on end. It is the first graphically intensive game (compared to some 2D games I've been playing that is), that I have played for a long period of time (I got hooked on it and was playing 3 hours + at a time, sometimes longer).

It started off as an odd total crash of the entire system. I would be doing something in particular in the game, and if I was in the same area for a long period of time, I noticed the game would freeze. The sound then died, and then the screen turned into a huge mass of multicoloured garbled lines. I could not free the system of this crash, at all, and had to reset it. This did not happen again until I was in the same area doing the same thing, when it happened again.

I assumed it was a bug in the game, but something really bad happened that made me change my mind. I wa splaying ina different area of the game when the screen just suddenly went blank, I lost sound, and the monitor's native 'No Signal' error came up. This happened twice in short succession. I tried to get help on the net but have been lead to the conclusion that the graphics card has overheated and shut down.

Unfortunetly I can't check the temperature of the card because it doesn't appear to have a temperature monitor chip onboard (ATITool says it can't detect one ad from what i can tell, in Catalyst there's supposed to be a section called Overdrive in Catalyst that tells you th temperature, but it's nonexistant in my installed copy of the control panel). I did take the side of the case off and check the card shortly after the blackouts though and it all seemed to be working fine. The fan was spinning alright, but the card felt kind of hot to the touch.

What I'm really wondering here is if the card has been burnt out due to overheating. There are several other things that I've ruled out; I have upto date drivers (I thought I did at first, but it turned out I didn't, so I updated and tried to play again and the same thing happened). My powersupply is only about a month old (the whole computer is at max 3 months old, including the graphics card; I bought it all and stuck it together in August and have had no trouble like this until now). The PSU is also powerful enough to cope; it's an Antec dual 12v rail PSU. It's not the actual monitor either. If it was I wouldn't have lost sound when the crashes occured, but I did lose sound, indicating again it's the graphics card taken the computer with it in a massive crash.

The mobo and CPu are fine; they never operate at temperaturs above 72oC (the case arflow is actually pretty damn efficient apart from the PCI area).

So, can anyone give me some suggestions? Are these symptoms of a burnt out card or is something less serious?

Slim Vision · 11-28-2005, 08:52 AM

Here's a new twist to the story I'd like some advice on;

I've now done a complete reinstall of windows. I've installed the latest drivers for ati by downloading them, installed the sims 2 and started to play. Got a good few hours of play out of it when it froze again, with the dodgey multicoloured lines, however, no sooner had they come up on screen the screen went blank. I could still hear sound too. Anyway, then the screen came back to normal.

Well it was a loading screen or something, but then the computer went to the desktop and I got an ATI error message saying VPU recover had rreset the GPU because it'd stopped responding to driver commands. I clicked okay, I clicked the sims 2 tab and it came back up where it had stopped and play continued.

... I mean, what the hell? I had VPU recover active on the old drivers. Does this mean the graphics card wasn't overheating at all, and that the game really was causing the crashes, it's just vpu recover on the old drivers wasn't working correctly?

**UncleMacro** · 11-28-2005, 06:59 PM

VPU recover can kick in if the video card stops responding to commands. This is normally caused by hardware problems only and can't be caused by game bugs. It's almost always a hardware problem with the video card although on occasion it can be a hardware problem with the motherboard or something else. I'm not sure that VPU recover is 100% effective at recovering so it may be that the newer drivers are successfully doing a VPU recover whereas the previous drivers were having a problem during the attempt. When a video card runs fine for a while and then cracks up, it's usually due to overheating. If it takes a few hours then normally it's because the inside of the machine is slowly heating up. I'd try running your machine with the side of the case removed and aim a desk fan at the video card. That will cool it down a lot. If it stops crashing then you know for sure you've got an overheating problem.

Slim Vision · 11-29-2005, 05:34 AM

Thank you for the reply. From what you say it certainly does sound like the card has overheated. I've got a feeling it's been damaged because of this as well. After I reinstalled the entire system, I noticed whilst playing that the game has had a noticable drop in frame rate since before the problems occured. I don't know for sure if this is caused by heat damage of course, it might be a fluke, but it seems a bit odd that after a complete reinstall the game would run worse than it did before hand.

Anyway, I thought it might be an idea to test the graphics card with 3DMark05 (v1.2.0), just to get see if it produces the same results by stressing out the card for a long period of time.

Slim Vision · 11-29-2005, 09:48 AM

Okay this is really annoying me. I tried 3Dmark for hours and it won't give the same results. I tried with normal graphics settings (slight antialiasing, optimal filtering etc), I got bad frame rates ins ome insatnces, good in others, but on all occasions, no matter what tests I ran or how much I'd cranked up the settings, the graphics card didn't crash or anything.

The only thing it did do was apparently shade the screen a nice colour of purple after about half an hour, but a restart got rid of that and it only came back again very slightly. I wish I had another game that was on par with the sims graphics to try that, but I don't. Suppose I could download the FEAR demo and just run arouns in circles for an hour or two. But I've a bad feeling it still won't produce the same results.

11-27-2005, 02:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
Slim Vision Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: The Universe Posts: 15 OS: Several	ATI X700 Pro dying whilst playing The Sims 2 Hey ho everyone. I'm having a spot of trouble figuring out exactly why my graphics card is beginning to malfunction. Basically, it all started when I started playing The Sims 2. The game ran fine for hours on end. It is the first graphically intensive game (compared to some 2D games I've been playing that is), that I have played for a long period of time (I got hooked on it and was playing 3 hours + at a time, sometimes longer). It started off as an odd total crash of the entire system. I would be doing something in particular in the game, and if I was in the same area for a long period of time, I noticed the game would freeze. The sound then died, and then the screen turned into a huge mass of multicoloured garbled lines. I could not free the system of this crash, at all, and had to reset it. This did not happen again until I was in the same area doing the same thing, when it happened again. I assumed it was a bug in the game, but something really bad happened that made me change my mind. I wa splaying ina different area of the game when the screen just suddenly went blank, I lost sound, and the monitor's native 'No Signal' error came up. This happened twice in short succession. I tried to get help on the net but have been lead to the conclusion that the graphics card has overheated and shut down. Unfortunetly I can't check the temperature of the card because it doesn't appear to have a temperature monitor chip onboard (ATITool says it can't detect one ad from what i can tell, in Catalyst there's supposed to be a section called Overdrive in Catalyst that tells you th temperature, but it's nonexistant in my installed copy of the control panel). I did take the side of the case off and check the card shortly after the blackouts though and it all seemed to be working fine. The fan was spinning alright, but the card felt kind of hot to the touch. What I'm really wondering here is if the card has been burnt out due to overheating. There are several other things that I've ruled out; I have upto date drivers (I thought I did at first, but it turned out I didn't, so I updated and tried to play again and the same thing happened). My powersupply is only about a month old (the whole computer is at max 3 months old, including the graphics card; I bought it all and stuck it together in August and have had no trouble like this until now). The PSU is also powerful enough to cope; it's an Antec dual 12v rail PSU. It's not the actual monitor either. If it was I wouldn't have lost sound when the crashes occured, but I did lose sound, indicating again it's the graphics card taken the computer with it in a massive crash. The mobo and CPu are fine; they never operate at temperaturs above 72oC (the case arflow is actually pretty damn efficient apart from the PCI area). So, can anyone give me some suggestions? Are these symptoms of a burnt out card or is something less serious? __________________ Slim Vision

11-28-2005, 08:52 AM	#2 (permalink)
Slim Vision Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: The Universe Posts: 15 OS: Several	Here's a new twist to the story I'd like some advice on; I've now done a complete reinstall of windows. I've installed the latest drivers for ati by downloading them, installed the sims 2 and started to play. Got a good few hours of play out of it when it froze again, with the dodgey multicoloured lines, however, no sooner had they come up on screen the screen went blank. I could still hear sound too. Anyway, then the screen came back to normal. Well it was a loading screen or something, but then the computer went to the desktop and I got an ATI error message saying VPU recover had rreset the GPU because it'd stopped responding to driver commands. I clicked okay, I clicked the sims 2 tab and it came back up where it had stopped and play continued. ... I mean, what the hell? I had VPU recover active on the old drivers. Does this mean the graphics card wasn't overheating at all, and that the game really was causing the crashes, it's just vpu recover on the old drivers wasn't working correctly? __________________ Slim Vision

11-29-2005, 05:34 AM	#4 (permalink)
Slim Vision Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: The Universe Posts: 15 OS: Several	Thank you for the reply. From what you say it certainly does sound like the card has overheated. I've got a feeling it's been damaged because of this as well. After I reinstalled the entire system, I noticed whilst playing that the game has had a noticable drop in frame rate since before the problems occured. I don't know for sure if this is caused by heat damage of course, it might be a fluke, but it seems a bit odd that after a complete reinstall the game would run worse than it did before hand. Anyway, I thought it might be an idea to test the graphics card with 3DMark05 (v1.2.0), just to get see if it produces the same results by stressing out the card for a long period of time. __________________ Slim Vision

11-29-2005, 09:48 AM	#5 (permalink)
Slim Vision Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: The Universe Posts: 15 OS: Several	Okay this is really annoying me. I tried 3Dmark for hours and it won't give the same results. I tried with normal graphics settings (slight antialiasing, optimal filtering etc), I got bad frame rates ins ome insatnces, good in others, but on all occasions, no matter what tests I ran or how much I'd cranked up the settings, the graphics card didn't crash or anything. The only thing it did do was apparently shade the screen a nice colour of purple after about half an hour, but a restart got rid of that and it only came back again very slightly. I wish I had another game that was on par with the sims graphics to try that, but I don't. Suppose I could download the FEAR demo and just run arouns in circles for an hour or two. But I've a bad feeling it still won't produce the same results. __________________ Slim Vision

11-28-2005, 06:59 PM	#3 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	VPU recover can kick in if the video card stops responding to commands. This is normally caused by hardware problems only and can't be caused by game bugs. It's almost always a hardware problem with the video card although on occasion it can be a hardware problem with the motherboard or something else. I'm not sure that VPU recover is 100% effective at recovering so it may be that the newer drivers are successfully doing a VPU recover whereas the previous drivers were having a problem during the attempt. When a video card runs fine for a while and then cracks up, it's usually due to overheating. If it takes a few hours then normally it's because the inside of the machine is slowly heating up. I'd try running your machine with the side of the case removed and aim a desk fan at the video card. That will cool it down a lot. If it stops crashing then you know for sure you've got an overheating problem.