Weird crashing of my pc from tomb raider

Post by **DRuM** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:14 pm

I just picked up from where I left off in tomb raider AOD, last played in september. After a while, some mild flashing starts all over the screen and within a minute it gets so bad that the pc reboots itself. Happened on my last 4.11 cat drivers and also just now with 5.4. Card is 9800pro. I never had this problem on the game before. Don't know if it would happen on Q3 or Doom3, I haven't tried.

I was thinking it might be my cpu temp which was showing 60 and now down to 57, ( yes, I still haven't bought all the bits I was going to, fan, AS5, etc), then again, it's still not at critical at those temps, and I'm sure my pc has been this high before without any adverse effects. Any ideas? Oh, also, all settings are at the highest on TR, which my card more than handles. Didn't make any difference when I reduced the graphic quality from highest to average. Only other thing I can tell you is that my pc has been on 24/7 for months, with reboots now and then, but basically on for long periods of time. Also, my desktop fan has been blowing onto my cpu and 9800pro with the side of the case off for months as well. 768mb ram installed.

Post by **Foo** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:19 pm

Its way of telling you to play good games?

Seriously, sounds like a card frazzling issue. Could it be loose in the slot, or the heatsink on the card come loose? No easy way to test sadly.

Perhaps get a can of compressed air and thoroughly dust out the inside of the case, put the side back on (if you need some extra case fans, get a few, they're quite cheap) and see if it runs OK after that. Taking the side off can do more harm than good, I've found. You lose the front-to-back flow of air through the case.

Post by **DRuM** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:01 pm

Yeah, could be any of that. I do need to do those things you said.
As it happens, it didn't do it for ages this time, and when I got to the next level, it only started happening again when I was looking at certain graphics, in particular, a large canyon. As soon as I turn away from that direction and look at a different area, ( to walls instead of the canyon) it immediately stops. Look back at the canyon, it starts again. Really odd. As I said , never happened before, but it's as though my card doesn't like some parts of the graphics.

Post by **DRuM** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:03 pm

Also, I've got vpu recover off, but fast write on. Should that be on?

Post by **Foo** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:51 pm

Honestly don't know the ins and outs of the modern ATIs.

If it's happening with some surfaces and not others, it could obviously be a software problem and not a hardware one, but it could also be corruption on the memory modules causing it to spaz out on certain textures?

Not sure, I'm reaching here.

Post by **DRuM** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:06 pm

Yah. I'd like to think it's software related. I can play the game after rebooting ( it just crashed again) for quite some time, and then it starts happening again. Regardless of which surfaces it doesn't like, there's something really wrong that wasn't happening with this game before. It's not like I've been playing any games recently either to wear the card out. And the card isnt that old, I got it last year around the time doom3 came out or just after.

I think I'm gonna get a 6600GT, because I've had problems with this card crashing in q3 as well. I know someone else that had problems with the 9800pro crashing.

Post by **axbaby** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:25 pm

i disable fastwrites "side-banding" right in the bios but the ATI control panel option for that will do.
on MY system fastwrites by ATi is unstable.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:46 am

Same here, my 9800 Pro kept crashing D3 and making crap framerates, so I got a 6800GT and couldn't be happier

Post by **DRuM** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:17 pm

Memphis wrote:
DRuM wrote:
I think I'm gonna get a 6600GT, because I've had problems with this card crashing in q3 as well. I know someone else that had problems with the 9800pro crashing.
Do it.

Getting rid of that fucking card and going back to nvidia is right up there with the best decisions i've ever made

All my radeon did is fuck up. All my 6600GT does is play games perfectly, not one single solitary problem since i bolted it in.

http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3818

Post by **SOAPboy** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:53 pm

Kills On Site wrote:Same here, my 9800 Pro kept crashing D3 and making crap framerates, so I got a 6800GT and couldn't be happier

starting to think im the only one who never really had problems with my 9800pro

tho i like my 6800gt better.. :icon26:

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:17 pm

Errr, my 8500, and 9800 are still kickin it without any problemo's.

Post by **Tormentius** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:13 pm

SOAPboy wrote: starting to think im the only one who never really had problems with my 9800pro

tho i like my 6800gt better.. :icon26:

Mines still running well too

Post by **dzjepp** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:58 pm

Same. Drum. disable fastwrites it's ghey

Post by **DRuM** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:44 pm

dzjepp wrote:Same. Drum. disable fastwrites it's ghey

You get flashing too? Does turning off fast write stop the flashing or just stop it crashing?

edit: I've turned it off now, so we'll see what happens