Graphic problems with Call of Duty 4

[Suggy]

Hey everyone

Im having a bit of a problem while playing Call of Duty 4. During multiplayer and singleplayer mode, my fps is fine and i have high resolution. No lag whatsoever. Now you might think "eh.. whats his problem?". My problem is that after playing 10 mins or something i get a strange screen with lines of colors (mostly black and green/purple).

Im running with ATI mobility radeon X1600 and is up to date with drivers. My other hardware specs shouldnt be problem.

Howcome i am so sure that its my graphic card?
After each death-screen i get a notification from my graphic card driver, called VPU recover, which tells that it has recovered from a fatal error or something.

I hope anyone out there knows what is wrong, because I really cant figure out myself.

Thanks

 

[fender22]

Since you seem to have problems after a certain amount of time, you could be overheating and then getting artifacts. If this a custom built computer? Or store bought? What is the cooling on this x1600? is it the compact version? Passively cooled? What kind of fans do you have in the case? Good circulation?

Maybe try it with the side of the case off, with some kind of fan blowing into it, and if that helps, then it very well could be because of heat...

As for a solution, if you are comfortable, you could smack a new fan on the card and/or some in the case. But in that case, you might just wanna upgrade or something

If this is a store bought computer, I don't really know what to tell you, it probably wasn't really meant for gaming then... Your best bet would be to somehow get some more air circulation, and that could means leaving the side off when you play or something. Give us a little more detail on the system...

 

[wigginender]

I agree with the above poster's comments in the case of a desktop PC but this is a laptop, right? The "mobility" in ATI mobility radeon X1600 would suggest so. If yes, you will be limited on the cooling options, but you could try one of those laptop coolers ($$$) or just try playing this game on a desktop with a supported video card.

 

[Suggy]

Fender 22 wrote: Since you seem to have problems after a certain amount of time, you could be overheating and then getting artifacts. If this a custom built computer? Or store bought? What is the cooling on this x1600? is it the compact version? Passively cooled? What kind of fans do you have in the case? Good circulation?

My laptop tend to get very warm while gaming. So this could might be the problem. Concerning the cooling, i have no idea whatsoever. But the circulation doesnt seem very effective at all

Fender22 wrote: If this is a store bought computer, I don't really know what to tell you, it probably wasn't really meant for gaming then... Your best bet would be to somehow get some more air circulation, and that could means leaving the side off when you play or something. Give us a little more detail on the system..

This is a custom made laptop bought on a trusted website. I have read a testsof my computer in danish about its gaming possiblilites even with 1 gb ram (i got 2 gb), and it passed the test with good comments. However, the games tested was BF2 and CS: Source, which doesnt require the same hardware specifications as CoD4.

Wigginender wrote:
I agree with the above poster's comments in the case of a desktop PC but this is a laptop, right? The "mobility" in ATI mobility radeon X1600 would suggest so. If yes, you will be limited on the cooling options, but you could try one of those laptop coolers ($$$) or just try playing this game on a desktop with a supported video card.

As mentioned before, it is a laptop.
Can you tell me about some cooling options in range of my limits? Never experienced a overheating problem before.

Maybe my detailed hardware specifications will help you:
Intel Dual Core2 @ 1,83 Ghz
2 GB DDR2 RAM, 987 MHz
Harddisc 120 GB SATA- 5400RPM
OS: Windows XP (up to date)

 

[Kenelm]

You could download Everest to monitor the temperature, and see if that's the problem. It's only a trial, but it will work for 30 days, and that's more than enough

Try to run the game in a window or something, so you can look at the temperature at the same time.

 

[Suggy]

Thx man, i will try that.

 

[Suggy]

And so I did. I did some logging while playing the game since it wouldnt run in windowed mode.
On the picture below you will see that my CPU and HDD remained unchanged, while both of my two cores (refered as 1. CPU 1. kerne and 1. CPU 2. kerne) have increased to somewhere between 73-75 degrees from the start value of 50 degrees on both cores
[img=http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9186/wtfloldk6.th.png]

So, it confirms that i have a heating problem. Not only with my graphics card, but also with my two cores. But on the other hand, it also shows a high drop of temperature after exiting the game (the red bar).

What options does this leave me?

 

[Kenelm]

75°C can be considered as a normal temperature for a Dual Core2 when it's used, but still, it's high. With a better cooling system, you can get ~50°C when it's fully used. My own laptop actually has the same problem, with a Dual Core2 aswell. When playing, it goes up to 85°C, and then it shuts down to protect itself from overheat. So 85°C is for sure the temperature you shouldn't reach, but when it's 80°C, it works fine.

As for the options to get a better cooling... You can get an external one, but it's not very effective. The best thing to do would be to change the cooling fan for a better one. But it doesn't seem like this is the source of your problem, it sure looks like a graphic card problem.

And what about the temperature of you graphic card ?

 

[Suggy]

Thats kind of good news.
About the temperature of my graphic card, i couldnt find any way to log the temperature nor to show it anywhere. If you know how to, please let me know

 

[Kenelm]

In Everest, the GPU temperature shows near the clock. If it doesn't show, you can choose to display it in the settings. And if you log the temperatures, GPU is in the list.

 

[Suggy]

I have logged every temperature available to check. Maybe its because of the trial version?

 

[Kenelm]

Maybe... Sometimes there's a software bundled with graphic cards to measure temperature. Also, the BIOS can sometimes display it.

 

[vochtige]

i didn't read the whole topic, but i had such a problem with my pc
i have an 8600GT and then i only had a 400w no name psu
(silkroad)
i upgraded the psu and the lines were disepeared!

you can test when you have artifacts with the atitool and search for artifacts, it is creapy!