Video hardware problems

[dahwan]

The last month Heroes of Newerth has frozen randomly for up to 5 seconds each time. This means that skype, any and all background music and the game completely freezes up for 2-3 seconds, followed by the monitor going black for another 2-3 seconds. Windows 7 gives me a message bubble saying "Your screencard driver has crashed, but has recovered ---" or something like that.

Anyways, the problem is today (at a lan) the PC crashed BAD. Meaning that the screen got tons of "artifacts" all over while it was frozen midgame, and my headset virtually exploded with white noise so i had to tear it of not to hurt my ears.

After this incident, granted it happened like an hour ago, my PC showed artifacts at the bootscreen. It has stopped doing that now. The problem is that my PC freezes permanently and has to be restarted when i try to start Heroes of Newerth.

So my general wonder-ing-ment to the forum is as follows: What kinda problem does this sound like? Driver problem? GPU problem? Motherboard problems?

Are there any kind of (safe) diagnostic tests i can run for more information?

Thanks!

[Mickey]

you could try the memory test in windows 7
when it boots up press f1 (i think) this brings up a menu and you can select memory diagnostics.

Do you have an I7 core cpu?

[dahwan]

I have an intel q6600 cpu. Additionally i got 4GB of cheap RAM and nVidia 9800GTX GPU. I completely removed all trace of GPU drivers and installed fresh ones, which seems to have fixed the problem. However it wont surprise me if Heroes of Newerth still freezes and screencard driver crashes. I'll report back if they do.

[Mystical_2K]

faulty graphics card or drivers i would say mate, look for an update for them and for the game (might have incompatibility with your card for example)

[dahwan]

I often help friends and family with their computers, and generally when things start going to hell, i like to check the heat sensors with SpeedFan. I just did this with my PC, and while generally all temperatures are cool (shown with the blue down arrow) the labels "GPU" and "Temp" (I'm guessing those are the same sensors) are both at a scorching 63C, shown with a picture of a flame.



I am going to start Heroes of Newerth with speedfan on my second monitor and time the crash with the temperatures. Here goes nothing!

EDIT: Temperature jumped to 64C as i was writing

[dahwan]

I dont feel like formulating anything, so I'll give it to you step by step, starting from the point i hit "Submit reply" on my last post.

• I dragged SpeedFan to monitor #2
• I clicked the pretty Heroes of Newerth icon
• The window of Heroes of Newerth popped up
• In a matter of fractions of seconds both "GPU" and "Temp" skipped several degrees up
• The PC froze. Jep.
• I hit alt+Tab, and the screens went black - i think that was a coincidence.
• I held the power button until the PC went dead
• I clicked the power button. Oh yes.
• I'm greeted by the usual load screen text saying lots of stuff, but in addition to this the screen is dotted with white artifacts.
• Windows loads without the screen card driver. Ergo, all aero is gone, and my second monitor is black. It seems i have to reinstall the screencard driver again, just like last time.
• I load SpeedFan. I notice that the "GPU" label is gone, but the "Temp" label that held the exact same temperature as "GPU" is raging at aprox 75 degrees.
  
  
  Dont let the image fool you. By the time i hit send on this post, it's flipping between 79/80 degrees.

So what the hell is going on here. Some kind of supernatural damage befell my screencard when i was at a LAN this weekend? Because it all happened merely hours after that LAN party was concluded. I'm thinking perhaps something is stuck in the fan or something. (I'll check)

Any ideas?

[Mystical_2K]

sounds like it just broke mate, it tends to happen like that, seems ok 1 minute then screwed, can you try a different card in it?

[rIKmAN]

Yeah sounds like a faulty / overheating gfx card mate, try a different card if you can.

Had this happen with an old Radeon, started freezing/artifacts, just got worse and worse, had to get a new card and been sweet ever since.

[dahwan]

I was worried that this problem was with the motherboard, seeing as lots of stuff crashed at once - including the audio.

But I'm happy to announce that by downloading RivaTuner and turning the screencard's fan to 100%, the temperatures now look relatively stable. I'll be saving up for a new GPU from now on, but for now I guess I'll have to live with the noise.

Thanks for helping out!

[dahwan]

I'll have to retract my statement regarding the stability of my system. I've gone as far as completely removing the driver to the screencard, and I'm now working with only 1 screen and no aero. Also there can be no gaming on my system now :<

Cheers.

Can anyone gief me a 100% yes that buying an expensive new screencard will completely fix my problem? In any case, how can i make 100% sure? I was thinking about getting me one of these lovely toys.

[dahwan]

bump