Display problem or is it overheating?

Link09

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Jun 7, 2009
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18,510
Alright so i made a new PC in June:

AMD Athlon 64X2 6000+
Asus M3A78-CM
XFX 4850 XXX
Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)

And so when i play games such as, Mass Effect, Borderlands, and rarely Left 4 Dead, the video would cut out and either


a) vertical stripes would appear and audio would still be going, i can't move or interact or anything but the sound still goes. Restart is needed.
b) it blacks out with stuttering audio then hangs forever until i restart it.

Now i was thinking my computer is overheating and that i'd see if a house fan pointed at the everything would help. And it did, in games like Mass Effect i would be able to play for long amounts of time without a single problem, same thing with Borderlands, and it has never come back with L4D.

But now they're back even if i'm blasting cool air at everything, and the weird part is that they seem to occur in certain places.

For example in Mass Effect near the end (not really a spoiler) where you need to activate a turret so that it can slowly shoot a dropship down, it crashes anywhere from 2-10 seconds after the dropship is shot down.

And now in Borderlands, (again, not really a spoiler) i'm driving around the rust commons looking for Patricia Tannis's tapes and as i get the second one, the above image is what i get.

So please if you guys could shed any light on this it'd be great. (i've updated my video drivers aswell, as of today 9.10)
 

Link09

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Jun 7, 2009
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18,510
I have an OCZ 600W StealthXStream Power Supply - 600 Watts, 120mm Fan, ATX,

Um the most i've seen my card (alt tabbing while in game) is about 50 at max, and i do believe the power supply is enough to power my system.

Is there anything else? Oh i forgot to mention but i can play Team Fortress 2 on max settings forever, not a problem ever.

I tried Modern Warefare 2 today and it does it aswell.
 
^ Oh...ya like you said that PSU would suffice and the temps are fine...
And seeing that you are able to play other games well, I feel there is a problem with the drivers...Check whether you get any patches/ bug fixes for the games that you play...Most probably the drivers are the reason...
 

Link09

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Jun 7, 2009
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18,510
Ok so i re-installed my drivers. I'll go through it step by step just to ensure i did it the right way etc

1. Control Panel > Add or remove programs > ATI software uninstall utility
2. Restart and go into safe mode.
3. Run Driver Cleaner Pro and clear all ATI related stuff
4. Boot into normal mode and install driver (9.10 as of today)
5. Restart

I tried playing Modern Warfare 2 and it happened after about 20 mins.
I'd like to mention that sometimes after the above picture happens, the monitor goes into "analog power saving mode" and acts like it's in stand by but i can't get it out of stand by or anything, i must restart or turn off the computer.

So please i hope you guys have some more suggestions cause i'm running out of theories
 

Link09

Distinguished
Jun 7, 2009
8
0
18,510
hm i don't know how you guys respond to bumps but i would really like some more suggestions

I've recently tried to run my games with a different monitor, and it still occurs, so i can scratch monitor off the list.