Freezing issues with DirectX/Games :(

[Krystar2005]

Hello. Recently for the past 2 months or so I have been having problems with my computer randomly freezing during DirectX games. Mostly with Guild Wars.

At first I thought the issue was overheating, and rememberd I had no thermal paste connecting my CPU to my heatsink. So I went out and bought some paste and got that setup and notcied a small CPU temperature dip. However the freezing problem still exists. Through trying to fix this i've bought a new video card (Radeon 9600 XT 256mb) a PCI fan right under the video card. Yet still even with the case off I have having what seems to be heat issues. Im not positive but I can't imagine what else it is.

When my game freezes I check BIOS and it says usually 55-60* C. Which is fairly hot but nothing major. My only last guess to fix the problem is purchasing a new heatsink/fan for the CPU and reformatting though I doubt that will do much.


Has anyone else had a similar problem or might know of any other suggestions? I've ran RAM diaglnostics in the past but they came out fine.



System Specs:
1.9ghz Intel P4
GA-8IRA Gigabyte MB
512mb DDRAM
ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256mb

My harddrive and motherboard are fairly new as well.
Also the freezing only occurs in heavy CPU load, it never freezes when im on desktop or idle, and lowering my graphics settings makes no difference.

[markblair]

Hey Krystar2005, welcome to HostHideout! :)

First I'd make sure I was running the most up-to-date version of the video drivers. Also make sure DirectX (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx) is up-to-date. You should be on version 9.0c. This may indeed also be a problem with the Windows install especially since it sounds like you experienced this issue with two different video cards. Try the drivers first though and then you might want to look into hardware issues or problems with Windows itself. Good luck!

[x-trememodz]

When you say it's freezing do you mean locking up and requireing a forced shut down? or just freezing for a second or two and then continuing?

If it's just freezing for a moment it sounds like a driver or spftware issue. If it's locking up your computer it could be heat or hardware.

For driver issues make sure and REMOVE you old drivers first. ATI has an uninstall tool in add remove programs. After you remove them reboot. When the computer reboots hit cancel when Windows auto detects the card and trys to install drivers. If you already had the latest drivers, install some older ones (when it comes to drivers newer doesnt always = better) Reboot after install and try your games again. You can also try Omega drivers for aTI cards http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Also check to make sure there are no errors in direct x
Try clicking on Start Menu,Run then type "dxdiag" without the quotes.
1) Make sure the dxdiag shows that you are running DirectX 9.0c.
2) Make sure that "Check for WHQL digital signatures" is checked.
3) Click on the DirectX Files tab. Make sure No problems found is listed under notes.
4) Click on the Display tab. Do you see "No problems found", "WHQL Logo'd: yes", all directx features "Enabled". You might also try running both the DirectDraw and Direct3D tests under this tab.
5) Check the sound settings to see if you see any obvious problems there.

If its heat or hardware the first thing I would try and rule out is hardware. Try removing things you dont need in order to play one at a time. If you have a modem installed remove it, reboot and fire up your game. Do the same thing for each piece of hardware you can remove like modem, NIC, soound card etc. If its still locking up after you get it down to just video card, RAM, CPU and motherboard. If you have multiple sticks of RAM remove all but one and try again, if it still locks up remove the ram and try one of the other sticks, try them in different slots etc.

If you dont find the cause by then it could be heat.