Computers & Tablets

[Whirlwind]

Hey, thanks for taking the time to read my problem out, means a lot.

Ok, I have this really odd problem with my computer, randomly when I am playing certain games the monitor will stop recieving signal from my computer, and my computer will freeze. The monitor will tell me that I have no signal, and the computer has to be rebooted.

Now the confusing part, it's picky as to what games it does it with. It's happened while I've played Team Fortress 2, which is hardly a graphics-demanding game. It's also happened while I've played Half-Life 2 single player, but it's never happened while I've played Portal which runs off the same engine as Half Life 2. Odder yet, it's never happened while I've played Call of Duty 4, which I play on fairly high graphics settings and I run it at 125 FPS, making it the most graphically demanding game I play.

This is really difficult for me to figure out, and I'm wondering if anyone might have advice.

Here's my specs if they're needed, thanks much:

Video Card: nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E8200 @ 2.66 GHz core voltage is 1.328V

Monitor: Sceptre x^9 with 12ms

Motherboard: p35-ds3l by Gigabyte

RAM: 2 sticks of 1 gig DDR2

Just ask if you need any other info.

[Whirlwind]

Bump, would really appreciate some ideas.

[NoNoBadDog]

What temps are the GPU getting?  THe 8800 is a hot card to begin with.

[Visa]

well it sounds like your overheating.

the human eye can only distinguish 25 fps, so as a quick fix i dont recomend upping the framespersecond to the max, its not going to make a noticible diffrence, and it will just overheat the unit again.

Visa

[Whirlwind]

That's exactly why I'm confused, because I run a high graphics game on 125 FPS, and it's never crashed once, but these lesser games are.

I think it might have to do with the fact that it tends to happen on large maps. One game that it happens with can be put into window mode, so I'm going to view a temp. checker while I play, and see what my temps are when it crashes. I'll add in what happens soon.

[milwiron]

I agree 100 % with the over-heat suggestion. Try more cooling.

Make sure your existing fans and power supply vents are clean and working properly.

[Whirlwind]

Well, as far as my stasis viewer goes, it's not showing big temps on my video card. I got the windowed game to crash my computer in the way I said it does, and the card was running around 48 C when it happened. I don't think it could have jumped enough between when I last eyeballed it and when it actually happened (a grand total of about 10 seconds).

Another thing: Most recently I tried turning all the graphics settings to their absolute lowest in Half-Life 2, yet it still happened. What I was able to notice is that it seems to happen when multiple things are going on, i.e. I'm flying through the map in an air boat with a bunch of enemies trying to gun me down, when I run over one. When I ran over the guy the computer crashed as described in the first post.

Any other suggestions? I guess it could still be overheating, any ideas how to check that better than the way I did?