Video card issue....I think??

[Den]

Hey,

I have a GeForce 6800GTOC 256mb video card and from time to time whenever I'm playing one of today's latest games like Black & White 2, Serious Sam 2 and Day of Defeat: Source, I lose the picture on my screen and simply get a black screen. Basically, I'm playing in whatever game mentioned above, then I'll get the "off mode in 5 seconds" message from my monitor and then a black screen. I don't hear the game anymore, but my system is still running. My monitor shows as being on, but sort of in "hibernation" mode. I have no choice but to do a hard shut down to get out of it. This happened once in 2 games mentioned above, and happened twice in another. In all games, I have my resolution no higher than 1280x960 and usually all graphics on High. Not sure if that has something to do with it.

Here are my specs:

Intel P4 2.8Ghz - Prescott
Asus P4P800S Motherboard
1024mb of DDR PC3200 RAM
GeForce 6800GTOC 256mb Video Card
Currently using onboard sound.
430W Antec PSU

Any help would be appreciated on this.

Thank you,

Den

 

[GameGURU]

The power supply MIGHT be an issue. I am not sure how much of a hog Intel CPU's are on the PSU...

Have you tried running anti virus and anti spyware software? Those are usually the first things I do if I have a computer problem.

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE...045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

^Spyware get ridder thing.

Update all drivers, motherboard, sound, and graphics. Get the latest patches for the games as well.

Check the temperature on the graphics card...

 

[Den]

Actually I should've posted that everything that can be updated has been done. My video card temperature shows as being 69C just idling, so I doubt that it would reach 120C which is the threshold when playing a game.

Oh, and I'm totally free of spyware or any other pests. I use PestPatrol and Ad-AWare on a daily basis, along with AVG AntiVirus and Zone Alarm for a firewall. I'm also running WinXP Pro as my OS.

 

[GameGURU]

I have seen this problem before many times...unfortunatley I don't know the remedy. I think someone esle will come along as check it out.

 

[Ste]

It is most likly cooling. Temps for that Card get pretty high.

You can try lowering the settings and seeing if it doesn't do this on low or medium settings in games if it still does only after a longer period of time then its overheating.

 

[Den]

I lowered the settings in Black and White 2 to medium, but it still happens. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BlazingWolf]

I had the same problem with BF2, it ended up that the fan on my card had died and it overheated after 5 minutes of anything that used Direct X/OpenGL.

You can buy a $10 slot fan and put it under the video card just to make sure thats is not the problem, and if it isn't your only out 10 bucks and you have better airflow.

 

[Den]

I checked the fans on my card and both are running.