Games freezing...

[neko_ceko]

PC freezing when playing games..

Hello again,

God or some other higher power doesn't want me to play games. And I think that sucks.

I just bought a new PC 3 days ago. Before that, on my old PC, I had some issues. I posted them on this forum too (can't find the thread now). I posted it here a week or two ago, just because I was buying a new PC, and I wanted to know what the problem was with it. Anyway, because of the problem with my old PC, I couldn't game for almost a year, and I couldn't fix it because I had other things to do. Now, I get money to buy a new PC. And off course, I do. Finally, I'm like "YEAH! I CAN PLAY GAMES NOW! WOO!". Then, I install the game I mainly bought my PC for - Grand Theft Auto IV. Play it for a day or more without any problems. Then, it freezes. It happens randomly, sometimes first 5 minutes of playing, sometimes in an hour. My screen gets these white dots or something, and sound starts repeating one sequence. Like, if someone in the game says "**** you", it gets stuck on, example, fUck you, on the one sound, so then I hear like fu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u, and that keeps reapeating. I can't alt+f4, ctrl+alt+del, or anything, so I need to manualy restart the PC. First I thought it's a game issue, so I googled it and saw that lots of people get the freezing problem when they play GTA IV. So I asked on GTAForums, Yahoo! Answers etc. for help, and off course I got none. I mailed Rockstar Games, and I decided to install another game to play while I was waiting for their reply (which may take a while). First 2 minutes, and I got the same problem. I rebooted my PC.. Now I came here to whine.

Sorry for my whining, but it sucks when you wait for some game for 2 years, then your PC breaks apart and you can't play almost anything for a year, then get money to buy a new PC, spend 1000$ on it, and find out that you still can't game. Good thing it's inscured, because if it wasn't, I would have to kill someone.

My PC specs:
QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2,83 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (1024 MB)
RAM: 3,25 GB
OS: Windows XP SP 3

 

[Guttzu]

It might be a heat issue... I would suggest blowing all the dust out of the case and check all the fans as well... I've heard GTA IV is pretty demanding so maybe turning your settings down might help... I'm not really familiar with the 9800's, what settings are you trying to play on? I'm sure someone will be on to answer more in depth but for now I would check for dust/fan stuff....

 

[tommy2006]

I would make sure I upgrade to the latest Video Driver, Chipset driver, and sound. Then I would do custom windows upgrade patches that involves any Directx, .net, or video issues.

If it still freezes, then it might be either a heating problem or a bug in the game based on your research. Update patches for the game as well.

good Luck

 

[leftcoasttech]

I agree with what Tommy said. Also, what do you have the graphics settings set to. 9800 is ok and should be able to run GTA IV with no problem at the right settings. This is most likely a graphics issue btw.

 

[neko_ceko]

Fans work, and I couldn't even find any dust.. And I don't think it's a game issue, because it happens on almost all games. I already upgareded most of the stuff, now I'm gonna do the rest. Found on some site that it can be a registry issue.. So does anybody know a good but free registry cleaner?

EDIT: Found a cleaner, fixed the registry stuff, also updated drivers.. I'm gonna go and test does it work now.

EDIT 2: Nope.. I think it's even worse now. Now when I run it, in GTA IV for example I get texture **** up or something.. It doesn't freeze like before, but it freezes. Now it's like, I got textures splattered all over my screen. I can't explain it... It's like when you make textures or something..

Like this http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/5739/ex3qt4.jpg , but just there is lot's of textures all over the screen.

Then, on other games, it freezes almost like before, but now I don't see where it froze, like it's all black, and on the top I still see white dots...

EDIT 3: Just did some research, and saw that many people got this too.. And lots of them with new PCs also.. Almost everyone got a different solution for the problem, which only works for them.. Like upgrading to Vista, buying a better fan, playing with your case cover off.. etc...
I might upgrade to Windows 7, dunno yet.. Also, I upgraded all drivers etc...

Now I tried running the other game again, but the same problem happened again, but this time after the freeze, a blue screen or something appeared on my PC screen, with something written on it, but I couldn't read it because it stood there for about a second. Then my PC rebooted by it self. I'm gonna try running the same game without the case cover now.. See what happens.

(Sorry for the double post, but I really want to fix this as soon as possible.)

EDIT: Just tried it without the cover, and now, with this other game (World in Conflict), I didn't get the usual freezing, BUT, little later then I usually get the freezing, like 1 minute after, I get the texture thing.. So I guess they aren't caused by the same thing. Also, in GTA IV texture crap happens first, while the freezing happens second. So that's why I don't get freezing in GTA IV, but the texture thing. I hope you get what I'm saying. The freezing is caused by heating I guess... But what is the texture **** now..

Great, just great. Now I have 2 problems.

 

[leftcoasttech]

Would have been helpful to know that this was happening on more than one game.

A number of things can cause freezing and "texture crap".

If removing the cover changes the symptoms, heat is most likely an issue. If this is a new computer and you haven't tried overclocking or anything like that, you should probably contact the manufacturer. Overheating shouldn't happen with a new machine that hasn't been messed with and they will most likely fix/replace it under warranty.

also, what driver version do you have for your nvidia card?

 

[neko_ceko]

Sorry, I thought I already said that it happens on more games. I already called the company from where I bought it an hour ago, and they said that they are gonna call me tommorow. I didn't overclocked it and messed with it :/

I'm using the 190.62 driver.

 

[leftcoasttech]

might check rockstar support too. I believe there was a patched driver for nvidia specifically for GTA IV

 

[neko_ceko]

I emailed them too. Waiting for reply.. Also, I saw that driver, but I didn't install it because the install process says that it's older then the driver I currently have, so I didn't knew should I isntall it or what.

 

[leftcoasttech]

nvidea has a bad habit of releasing bad drivers. try the older one and see if it makes a difference (worst case, you reinstall the newer driver)