Blank screen issue when playing games

[kdhaines0625]

Hey,

Whenever I am playing a game now (and only games) every once in a while my screen will suddenly turn black and repeat the last tenth of a second or so of audio over and over. It responds to nothing. The only way out is to hit the power button.

I am using a gateway laptop with an nvidia 9800, 1 gig, video card. Knowing this, I thought it could be an overheating issue. I have had overheating issues in the past and even downloaded a couple cpu and gpu thermometers.

In the past I have had sudden dips of very low FPS while playing games and eventually figured out it was overheating, and then learned how to orient my laptop to avoid it. My comp will now freeze even if its well ventilated.

I just had my cpu and gpu thermometers running with a game on windowed mode at the same time. The screen froze with the cpu at 62 celsius and the gpu at about 85. Before, I wouldnt get FPS dips until about 100+ celsius... it gets rather hot hehe.

The past issues i had with overheating never caused the computer to completely freeze like I'm describing either, just low FPS.

^^Long story short, I don't think it's overheating. I suppose it's possible though.

I updated my video driver. IDK what to do :S.

Game examples: Sacred 2, Rift, Oblivion, World of Warcraft.

It's not just the video... the sound repeats and the comp is non-responsive. Any ideas?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Sounds like a hard lock up. Try the normal checks, chkdsk /r and memtest, also make SURE your GPU isn't overheating. I personally enjoy HWMonitor from cpuid.com

Also, 100c could have damaged your computer, that is beyond what most parts can tolerate. Even 85c is border line IMO for any GPU.

 

[kdhaines0625]

The first time I had problems with it overheating was when I got Aliens versus Predator. My screen would get shaky and I finally thought to get a thermometer and the first time i measured it, it was 110 degrees celsius. It's never got that high since.

It would make sense that that caused damage but it worked great for a year or so afterwards.

Maybe the thermometer wasn't working correctly?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

When you say thermometer, what are you refering to? software that checks internal sensors, or one that sits outside the machine?

 

[Oreo]

Open up your computer and clean dust, re-seat the fans, check they aren't been obstructed by loose wires and stuff like that. Excessive dust build up on heat sinks can insulate them, causing real temperature issues.

Black screens don't usually occur from over heating GPUs anyway, you normally get funky colors and pixels everywhere.

Have you got a spare graphics card lying around ? if so slot that in and see what happens.

 

[kdhaines0625]

By thermometer i mean software.

 

[kdhaines0625]

I cleaned out some dust and then booted my computer and then tested my gpu's temp and it was at 42 celsius, then i opened oblivion and was in the game for literally less than 4 seconds and it froze. That isn't even enough time to overheat is it?