Gaming platform issue

[mattm337]

Hi everyone,

I am having a major problem with my gaming platform, have been experiencing it for quite a while now and haven't been able to find ANY way to fix it. Have tried everything i can think of but to no avail, hope someone can help....

Basically everything was fine until just under a year ago when COD MW2 started freezing half way through a game, the sound would keep repeating in the background and eventually the graphics would revert to simple blocks, most of the walls would disappear and then the game would just sit there, and if i left it wouldn't never do anything, not even properly drop out of the game. At first it was tolerable because it would only happen once in a while, then it started getting worse and then i went travelling. Since i have got back, i now cant play for more than 10 minutes before everything goes to hell. I moved the RAM sticks, left one in, then tried the other, but the only effect it had was to slow everything down. Sent the graphics card back to be repaired but nothing was wrong with it (Nice waste of a couple of weeks). Got a more powerful PSU, installed more fans (even though the CPU temp never gets above 55 anyway). I even tried rebooting the entire system a while back (before i got the new PSU) and that didn't work either (thinking of doing it again now that i have taken apart and rebuilt the entire thing). Sometimes if i have left the computer for a while and come back to it in a couple of days i can get a bit more out if it, but even then its no more than 20 mins. I've been to hundreds of forums and tried all the solutions i thought even remotely corresponded to the problem but nothing is coming of it. Is there anyone out there who has ANY idea what the HELL might be going on!?!?!?!?!? its getting soooooo freaking frustrating!

I can play mass effect 2 maxed to its most extreem settings and it wont happen, i will be trying crysis tomorrow as i havent played it in a loooong time but i know it taxes the system a fair bit so might be interesting to see what happens.

This is my rig....

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
2046 MB RAM
GeForce 8800 GT (516MB)
HIGH POWER 650W PSU
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI motherboard
Samsung Syncmaster 223bw monitor (i doubt this has anything to do with it but i thought id put it there anyway)

The sound is intergrated into the motherboard and i have read that this MIGHT be an issue, if there is someone who can shed some light on this i would love anything they had to say, even if its bad news its better knowing what the F*&% is going on!!!!

If there are any suggestions, seriously ANYTHING!! i would really appreciate it, its starting to get to the point where im not bothering to play or buy anything new, out of the fear that its not going to work and then just piss me off, which isn't really the point of building one of these things and spending all the money to get there!!

Thanks

MM

 

[randomhero1090]

Does the computer eventually freeze?

Is your only issue when you play games?

 

[suteck]

If it only locks up during that particular game have you tried uninstalling in completely, including removing all the saved game files and reinstalling? If it only happens during that game's play then it sounds like that game is having software issues. If you have recently updated some drivers then that could be your issue also.

 

[randomhero1090]

BTW... My old rig.... 6000+, 8800GT.... I could never get COD MW multiplayer to work and I had issues with COD MW2 as well.

 

[mattm337]

BTW... My old rig.... 6000+, 8800GT.... I could never get COD MW multiplayer to work and I had issues with COD MW2 as well.

Thanks for the replies.

It occasionally does it elsewhere but thats VERY rarely.

*UPDATE*

I was told elsewhere to download the ATItool to try and find out what the problem was, and on running tests the computer either BSOD'd so fast i didnt see what it actually said on the screen, something about a memory dump but its there for a second before rebooting, or it pixelates and a notification comes up saying "the nv4-disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot"

Any ideas!?!?!?

 

[randomhero1090]

What nvidia driver are you using?

 

[mattm337]

What nvidia driver are you using?

This is the driver version that i found in the device manager. I also heard that it might have had something to do with the on board video card i have on my m2a-vm motherboard, but i have gone through the bios and made sure that everything is switched over to the card and have scoured my hardware to see if any left over drivers are there and i cant find any of them. I'm really starting to get annoyed about this now, it wont stop happening!!

thanks for the help!!

 

[mattm337]

What nvidia driver are you using?

just realised i never posted the driver number, its 6.14.11.8122

thanks

 

[randomhero1090]

That driver was released 1/14/2009. No matter what OS you have, you should be using 260.99, the newest release. The 260.99 is for XP, XP 64bit, Vista, Vista 64bit, 7 and 7 64bit.

Download that driver and install. See if it helps.

 

[mattm337]

That driver was released 1/14/2009. No matter what OS you have, you should be using 260.99, the newest release. The 260.99 is for XP, XP 64bit, Vista, Vista 64bit, 7 and 7 64bit.

Download that driver and install. See if it helps.

I'll give it a go but i dson't know if it will work as i had the newest one installed a while back and the same thing was happening so i rolled back to an older version and it seemed to give me a little more stability.... not for much longer though! Will give this one a go and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again

 

[randomhero1090]

Drivers tend to fix bugs and compatibility issues. If they didn't, they wouldn't release new ones.

Also, and hate to say this.... If its just this ONE game, i'd move on. Again, I couldn't get COD:MW to work on my old system. But with the new Black Ops patch, i'm loving life

 

[mattm337]

I haven't tried the others yet, but its on my list once if cleaned up the system. The thing thats making me think that it isn't just the game is that i tried the ATI tool and it did the same thing during the test. After i clean up the system and get the new drivers it might be different story and as i say i'll play around on a few other games to see if it makes a difference. Will let you know.

Thanks again

 

[suteck]

Isn't the atitool more suited for ati/amd cards? Try running the OCCT HERE and see if the same thing happens when you run the GPU test. I believe if your card is pixelating so bad that it locks up or aborts the test that it's time for a new card no matter what the repair techs told you. But don't forget to try the latest driver that you can GET HERE as randomhero10 suggested. The memory spec for COD MW2 is 1 GB of ram. I noticed that your system has 2 GB's of ram installed. What OS are you using? Sorry if I missed it while rechecking through the posts. But if you're running vista or Win 7 they will usually use between 1 to 1.5 gigs just to run the OS. If you have the ALL CPU sidebar meter running look to see how much free memory you have. If it's less than one gig that might be causing you some problems.
Don't worry about the memory dump that you saw/see when it bsod on you. That is just the software trying to save the information that is on your ram at the time of the comp crash. It saves it to a .dmp folder for later.

 

[mattm337]

Isn't the atitool more suited for ati/amd cards? Try running the OCCT HERE and see if the same thing happens when you run the GPU test. I believe if your card is pixelating so bad that it locks up or aborts the test that it's time for a new card no matter what the repair techs told you. But don't forget to try the latest driver that you can GET HERE as randomhero10 suggested. The memory spec for COD MW2 is 1 GB of ram. I noticed that your system has 2 GB's of ram installed. What OS are you using? Sorry if I missed it while rechecking through the posts. But if you're running vista or Win 7 they will usually use between 1 to 1.5 gigs just to run the OS. If you have the ALL CPU sidebar meter running look to see how much free memory you have. If it's less than one gig that might be causing you some problems.
Don't worry about the memory dump that you saw/see when it bsod on you. That is just the software trying to save the information that is on your ram at the time of the comp crash. It saves it to a .dmp folder for later.

Thanks for the help

I'm running XP 32 bit, ill try the other tool and see what happens, but in the description of the ATI tool it says that you can use it for nvidia cards aswel. I'll run this one today though and let you know the outcome.

Thanks again

 

[randomhero1090]

Any luck with the new driver?


You can use ATI Tool with nvidia cards. I used ATI Tool with my last nvidia card to overclock.

 

[mattm337]

Well after much deliberation, taking the entire rig apart, cleaning, rebooting, wiping and reloading, the new driver seams to be working, have played for over an hour with no issues whatsoever!! Half way through a reboot my second hard drive failed completely, i dont know for sure but i think that might have been part of the issue. Thanks for help everyone, for now it would seem that the problem has been solved!! amazing!!