Help Computer problems while playing games? (Read 594 times)

  • Avatar of AdderallApocalypse
  • Five foot ace of clubs?!?!
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Member
  • Joined: Mar 16, 2007
  • Posts: 1086
Let me explain to you guys a problem that I have been having as of lately. I say lately because it hasn't happened before about a few weeks ago. A few weeks back I was playing Team Fortress 2, and the computer went into sleep mode or something and the monitor had a box on it that said no signal was going to it. I couldn't do anything but shut my computer off and restart it. I didn't feel like playing again until later, but it did it once more. Now today I was playing Half Life 2 and something a little bit different happens; my monitor goes black and shows the same box again, then it comes back. Once it comes back it freezes for a few seconds and the game minimizes and my ATI control center gives me some message about the accelerator reseting because of a problem with the drivers or something. I resume play and it freezes and I can not do anything except restart. I haven't really played many games that are somewhat modern lately besides TF2 and Half Life 2(which is kind of old but not real old). I have never had this happen before until about a month ago as I said, and I have played a lot of games that have worked fine such as F.E.A.R. and Prey, and many others that are semi modern. I play a lot of older games now that work great such as Quake 3, Commander Keen games, and others.

Sometimes when I would play TF2 it would seem to go into sleep mode or whatever, but moving the mouse and pressing the power button quickly were futile. I have 2 GB of ram and a x1900 GT GPU which is kind of old now but the games run great besides the random bouts of abruptly stopping. It might be a problem with my drivers but i'm not very astute with things like this. Help? Thanks!

EDIT: When I think about it, this is the exact reason I am not playing Left4Dead. This same kind of thing happened where the monitor would turn black and the game freezes. You might have even noticed my post in the L4D topic.
Last Edit: November 23, 2008, 09:47:50 pm by Omcifer
  • Avatar of something bizarre and impractical
  • It's The Only Thing.
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Premium Member
  • Joined: May 17, 2004
  • Posts: 2104
I would try a few things.

First: remove your video drivers and reinstall them.
Second: reseat your video card.
Third: Pray and possibly start looking at a new card.
  • Avatar of AdderallApocalypse
  • Five foot ace of clubs?!?!
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Member
  • Joined: Mar 16, 2007
  • Posts: 1086
Ok...I uninstalled my drivers and restarted. Then I download the latest drivers for my card from the ATI website, then I went to play the game. I was actually able to play for a bit longer this time, but then the game freezes. This time it didn't go black, it just FREEZES and the sound skips and after a minute I turn it off. What's funny is that I can run the game at a great FPS until it abruptly STOPS - it's so damn annoying!

I hope I don't need a new GPU, so I am open for more suggestions if possible! Thanks.

Oh, and would opening the PC and blowing it out with dust remover be very effective? I looked at the airholes at the side of my PC and they were covered with dust. Thanks for any answers.
Last Edit: November 23, 2008, 10:56:19 pm by Omcifer
  • Don't make my kitty angry
  • Pip
  • Group: Premium Member
  • Joined: Mar 16, 2006
  • Posts: 146
Ok...I uninstalled my drivers and restarted. Then I download the latest drivers for my card from the ATI website, then I went to play the game. I was actually able to play for a bit longer this time, but then the game freezes. This time it didn't go black, it just FREEZES and the sound skips and after a minute I turn it off. What's funny is that I can run the game at a great FPS until it abruptly STOPS - it's so damn annoying!

I hope I don't need a new GPU, so I am open for more suggestions if possible! Thanks.

Oh, and would opening the PC and blowing it out with dust remover be very effective? I looked at the airholes at the side of my PC and they were covered with dust. Thanks for any answers.

Yes that might help. This could be happening for a few reasons.

1.) It could be a safety measure (shutting down to save it self from over heating)

2.) Could have become unseated somehow.

3.) The card it self could be going out.

I had a similar problem with my ATI 4850, but that was the least of my problems I thought the card was BSODing my system so I sent it back and it stopped doing that after I got the new one so I'm not really sure what the problem is :fogetshrug:​.

Last Edit: November 23, 2008, 11:35:53 pm by George W. Bush
  • Avatar of pburn
  • What, me worry?
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Premium Member
  • Joined: Jan 1, 2004
  • Posts: 1752
Oh, and would opening the PC and blowing it out with dust remover be very effective? I looked at the airholes at the side of my PC and they were covered with dust. Thanks for any answers.

Clean your computer now. I had this problem for a whole year and I couldn't figure it out. Every time I played a game it'd just FREEZE and the sound would loop. Turns out my computer was dusty as fuck, and since I had a 6800 Ultra i had to unscrew the top thing and take out the dust and shit.