in all my games randomly the game freezes, the sound loops then stutters for some seconds then it returns to normal. card is a - goes like hell nvidia geforce 6800 gs drivers from nvidia site and in gta san an sometimes it totally crashes screen goes blurry/fuzzy u cant see the graphics and u need to restart can anyone help? very annoying cheers
Hey. I had a similar problem with my ATi Radeon X800XT PE, i found that it was overheating, and i changed my pc case, and the problem stopped, i noticed that the fan on the graphics card always went to 100%, which it doesent anymore. If possible, could you please check the temperatures when in game? And do you also get Artifacts when playing some games? (wierd symbols appearing on the screen, sometimes like black triangle things that quickly appear and flicker all the time. Also, check that the extra power connector is connected on the graphics card.
From the problem described, i doubt it will be the drivers, it is possible though, but does sound like overheating. I should also have said, check to see if the heatsink on the Graphics card is on properly too.
Assuming the rest of your system is adequate I'll have to agree with Willz, overheating/not enough power/not enough air flow could really lead to that. What sort of power supply are we talking about here (a leading cause of freeze ups and crashes)? I don't know about you but when I right click on the desktop I get a "nVidia Control panel" option two spaces above "properties", from there you should be able to see a tab named temperature settings or something similar. You don't want to be much above 70 idle. 70's fairly warm for even a video card (which run hotter than cpus) and under heavy load, especially with inadequate power you'd definately have problems.
colorsit switching ps atx12v p4 the graphics card power bit has a cable that has 2 adapters coming out of it. u sort of piggyback it with another connector. i connected it through the cd drive. should i connect both connectors coming out of the graphics card to power sources? (i have only connected 1 to the cd drive) winxp sp2 p4 3ghz 1gb ram geforce 6800 gs
Does the 2 connectors have female molex connection or male? if there both male then I think both will need connecting. I think only 1 connection will be needed, is there 2 molex connectors on the card?, if there is only 1, then 1 molex connection will only be required.
I remember the AGP 6800's did have 2 molex connectors, and both must be plugged in. I've not heard of ColorsIT before, but looking up their products, they seem awfully cheap. I don't know what wattage you have, but the 480W unit I ran across didn't inspire confidence in it's output.
dont know if they are male or female but i connected them both. why would the psu cause the graphics to overheat whiles playing games? it is a 350w psu. what does this mean? i built the computer myself just thought any psu would do..
I would have thought you would need at least a 450W power supply from a decent brand name for your system. I've always used Antec and they haven't let me down yet.
Good. As a general rule, if it's got a power connection, it should be plugged in. The only exception I can think of is with some SATA drives that have both a SATA and Molex connector, and in that case only, you use one or the other. Male and female connectors: male goes in, and female accepts. If you have an understanding of the birds and the bees, just apply the male and female application there to your computer power connections. Your computer parts require a certain amount of power. If they don't get that, it makes them work harder to stay afloat. If they get too little power, they'll just stop working until they get enough juice. Straining will build up heat as well. The wattage is a sum of the +3.3V, +5V, +12V lines---referred to as rails. Sometimes the -3.3, -5, and -12V rails are included, but those are typically unimportant and add very little to the total wattage. Different components draw off the rails for power. Nope, not these days. Power requirements have become a major factor, as well as a quality PSU to handle the equipment. The rails I mentioned are important, as that's a big thing to look at. The +12V is the most important as the CPU, SATA hard drives, and PCIe video cards draw off that. Additionally, if a video card has a power connector on it, it draws off the +12V rail. Fans that run directly off the power supply also use the +12V. You'll notice that the CPU and video card are the biggest power eaters in the system. A little bit more in-depth write-up is had in The Power Supply Sticky.
when i first built the computer the games ran fine. i completed gta san an to 97% which is a good 50 hour job. no problems. but now, and it seems increasingly, the games will freeze or crash. even now just a few minutes into the game. some games like far cry or manhunt the game will freeze up, stutter then become playable again but it only a mater ot time till it happens again. but it happens too frequent now and its basicaly unplayable or at least to enjoy. and some games give a blue screen and u need to restart. if it is the psu that is the problem why wasnt it a problem at the beginning? and now seems to have gotten worse over time? im pretty sure i have reinstalled xp since the game crashes with no effect.. [also this may or may not be related but in winamp if u double click (play) a few tunes in quick succession i get a blue screen also and need a restart]
It could be overheating check tempreture and ensure adiquite airflow and make shure the gpu has thermal compound between it and the heatsink if it is aftermarket and you put it on yourself mayb re aply it
Like anything, computer components will age. Like most things, the better built they are, the longer they will last. A bad power supply may very well not show it at first, but if it's built with few capacitors and other power regulation and provision, it's going to go down. While it's not 100% reliable, a heavy PSU is a good indicator that the unit is well stocked in the department. Another thing to do is use a multimeter to check the voltages. There's a link in the PSU sticky I linked in my last post on how to do this. As long as the voltages are within 5% in either direction, it's fine. Now, I'm not saying it is the PSU for certain, but given the info provided, it's that or the card is overheating. As far as the Winamp BSOD, is it the same blue screen or different ones? Does it list a file as being a culprit (filename.dll, name.sys, something along those lines)?
usualy on games it isnt the blue screen but last time on UT it was. how do u find the log file from the blue screens? its in some temp folder somewhere? also where can i find the temperature thanks
You can check your Event Log: Start/Settings/Control Panel/Admin. Tools/Computer Management (or swap that for Event Viewer). There's several different logs but there will be an Event Log. Look at anything with an X in a red circle. Another help is disabling automatic restarts. Right-click on 'My Computer'. Go to Properties/Advanced tab. Now, click on the button in the 'Start Up and Recovery' section. In the System Failure area, uncheck the Automatically Restart option. What I've found in regards to blue screens is that getting different ones is more likely a hardware issue, but if it's just one, then it's a file issue. To check the GPU temps on nVidia cards: Right-click on the desktop/Properties/Settings/Advanced/"name of GPU" (in your case 6800 Ultra). The box that will pop out to the left will list different things, but one of them will be for Temperatures. Video cards can get much hotter than CPU's, so start worrying if you see 100*C temps. Also, you might want to run this little bootable program Memtest86 overnight to see if your RAM has errors. If it does, that would be the proverbial wrench-in-the-works. Grab the appropriate Floppy or CD .ISO file and put it on disc, and then boot off of it. Just let it go. If you have multiple sticks and are getting errors, you'll have to start yanking some to find the culprit(s).
