Comp freezes Screen turns solid green or purple

ski_messiah

Distinguished
Feb 15, 2010
3
0
18,510
Hi,
I have always run games at 1920*1080 resolution with very high graphics settings, but recently while playing Borderlands and then Dragons Age: origins at high settings in 1080p
my computer has begun turning the screen solid purple or green, freezing, and making random scary noises kinda like a dial-up modem...... If I turn the graphics down I stop having this problem
My comp is this

750 W corsair PS
4*1gb sticks of corsair memory 4-4-4-12 @ 800Mhz
AMD2 6000+ 3Ghz*2 w/ ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm
Asus M2-N32 SLI Deluxe Mobo w Nvidia 590i chipset
2*500Gb seagate barracuda w/ 32mb cache in RAID 0
8800 gts OC 640MB
Antec 900 gaming case
42" visio in 1080p

Nothing is OC'd the 8800gts is stock OC
I think that the problem is my video card overheating but it could also be my CPU.... The CPU run hot around 45 C idle and easily can get past 60 C while not gaming and both these games run both cores of my cpu at 95-100% the entire time I also have Asus Smart Probe set with 73 C as my CPU threshold.
My GPU's diode idles at about 68 C... is there a way to check what error or which component is causing my computer to do this?

Also I am wondering if people think that it would be a good decision to keep my mobo and get a new GPU like "http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161317"
and perhaps a phenom processor or
if it would be better to wait awhile and just upgrade my whole Mobo/ram/processor/gpu all at once

I am a very poor college kid so money is an issue... This is a high priority though so what has to happen, has to happen
 

trnddwn33

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Mar 19, 2009
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18,660
The 8800 idles at 68c? That seems like your problem, unless you meant that temperature for under load.

Try manually increasing fan speed on your GPU up to about 70% before you start gaming. If no crash, it was the gpu overheating. Then you can either get a different one that runs cooler or just manually control the fan.
 

ski_messiah

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Feb 15, 2010
3
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18,510
The 8800 idles at about 53 C its just the gpu diode that idles that high.... I have downloaded a host of Temp measuring utilities ( Riva Tuner, NVIDIA system monitor, Everest, PC probe II, Asus smart doctor, and CPUID hardware monitor) I'm having a little trouble with compatibility for win 7 x64 but I'll get back to you on what the stats look like while Gaming..... Thanks a bunch for your time
P.S This might take awhile cause im a double E.E and physics major in college
 

ski_messiah

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Feb 15, 2010
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18,510
The problem continued to happen and began to happen at an accelerated rate, and then it started happening when I wasn't playing games and right after system boot, I called BFG and they said that it was a memory error, they issued me an RMA and I got the e-mail the next morning. So i guess it wasn't a heat thing... Thanx for you're help and mad props to BFG and their technical support I called them at 2 AM and the whole process only took 10 minutes.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Hi,

I have the exact same problem you did, however I'm not as good with computers or the computer lingo, so I have some questions; who's BFG and what's this RMA they e-mailed you? I realize these may be foolish questions for most of you, but try to bear with me :p

Anyway, as yours, my screen turns either solid green or purple and I get this weird noise, which scares the *** out of me everytime, that I can't describe everytime I play one of my newer computer games. I.e. Napoleon: Total War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 etc.

Nothing is OC'd and although I only have boxed fan and no cooling system I don't think it overheats. It's never been above 80-85c (it's usually at 60-70c), which as far as I know is acceptable?

So if you could dumb down your solution I'd be eternally grateful.

Computer specs.:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
Intel Core™ i7 920 Quad Processor 8MB, Boxed
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 6GB (3x2GB)
XFX GeForce GTX 285 690M 1GB PhysX CUDA
Corsair TX 750W PSU