Can Someone Tell Me Why My Games Freeze on My PC?

T

ToastyUnderoos

New Member
Hi all,

I’ve been playing on my computer for a while and have noticed that whenever I play my games, my computer will freeze and hang up after about a couple minutes of playing into the game. The screen will freeze and whatever sound was playing will loop in the background. I cannot ctrl alt del out of the game and my computer requires a hard restart whenever this happens. I have been looking on some forums about this problem with games freezing and supposedly the fix was swapping the different RAM modules. I tried doing that but it still keeps freezing after playing for a bit. I then used Riva Tuner to turn up the fan on my graphics card to 100% but that did not help either. I have the latest drivers for Vista x64 too. I also tried playing the games in Windows XP (I am running both Vista and XP on my system) but the same thing happens. I then started to think if the 500W power supply was too low so we got a new 650W PSU, but haven’t put it in yet. Any suggestions?

Here are my specs:

Vista Ultimate 64-bit and Windows XP w/ SP3
Motherboard: ECS GF7050VT-M
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9450 @ 2.66GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM Corsair Dominator
Video Card: XFX NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
Hard Drive: 500 GB Western Digital With Green Technology

Games I play that freeze: COD4, CODWaW, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, Far Cry 2, Mass Effect, Brothers in Arms: HH

Please Help!! Thanks!!:D
 

My Computer

System One

How are all the fans and heatsinks looking? Clean and free of dust and any blockage? Are they all running? That 9800GTX+ gets HOT HOT HOT and would likely cause a freeze like that if overheated. A simple blasting with canned air may solve your problems. If not, possibly the PSU, but start simple and work your way up.

Let us know what ya find.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
    Memory
    4GB Corsair XMS2 @ 800MHz 5-5-5-12T
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCI-e
    Monitor(s) Displays
    20.1" Westinghouse on DVI (left) and 19" Sansung on DVI (right)
    Screen Resolution
    1400x1050 (left) and 1280x1024 (right)
    Hard Drives
    Internal: 320gb Western Digital Caviar on SATA II w/ 16mb buffer. External: 500gb WD MyBook on firewire and 160gb WD usb2.0
    PSU
    500 watt Ultra
    Case
    Antec 900
    Cooling
    CPU: Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64
    Mouse
    Logitech MX4000 lazer
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 rev.2
    Other Info
    SAPPHIRE Radeon Theatrix 650 PRO TV Tuner, Samsung 20X DVD±R DVD Burner on SATA, Belkin battery backup,
Yeah, the computer is very new; been running on it for about a month now. No dust clogging up the fans or anything. Right now the side panel is open after having switching the memory modules, but the freezing still persists!
 

My Computer

System One

Is it a hard freeze or a long delay and then resume? Games video override windows screen prompts. There could be something running in the background which is interfering. If a task wants internet access and the firewall blocks it with a prompt for user action, game screen may prevent firewall request screen from showing, but firewall still waiting for input. In mean time, task wanting internet access tries repeatedly to gain access. This can appear as a freeze. Most tasks will eventually quit releasing the freeze though some poorly written programs continue indefinitely. Alternative: Games often complex and sloppy code. Try deactivating Data Execution prevention for program. If this is truly a program freeze, this sometimes helps(encountered this on Dungeon Siege)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    T9400
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Geforce 9800M GT
CAn you go to your bios and pump the fans at 100% to see if that helps with the heat issues? it may not be as quiet as before but when you are playing those games, you need all the cooling you can handle.

Also, since you have Riva Tuner, have you tried setting a temp gauge for your GPU & CPU on your taskbar to check your temps?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Q9650 w/CM V8 Cooler...
    Motherboard
    EVGA 780i SLI FTW... Latest Bios & Drivers
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 8GB (4 x 2GB) PC2-8500C5D
    Graphics card(s)
    EVGA GTX260
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Def Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22" LCD Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Velociraptor 160GB Samsung Sata 750GB Maxtor External 160GB
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling 750w Silencer
    Case
    Thermaltake Speedo Advance
    Cooling
    Air Cooled... See CPU
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
    Internet Speed
    Comcast 6MB Broadband
    Other Info
    Linksys WRT54G router
Update: I was told by a friend to check if my CPU Fan was correctly installed and certainly enough one of the plugs wasn't correctly fastened to the motherboard leaving room for a gap between the heatsink and the cpu. I fixed it and started to play. Things seemed to be running a lot smoother and I was able to play for almost half an hour and then my computer froze again resulting in the same screen lock and sound loop problem which requires a hard restart. I also tried another thing reccomended to me to try and isolate the problem since I have onboard graphics. I took out my video card and used the onboard VGA 7-series graphics. Surely enough the games still freeze indicating that there is no problem with the graphics card.

@zver1
It is a hard freeze. When I play the games the computer freezes and there is a sound loop for whatever sound effect was played last in the game. I have granted CODWaW and all the other games that connect to the internet access to the internet when prompted.

@AstaLaVista
I am sure the fan of the CPU is running at 100% and also the side panel of my computer case is left open. The graphics card fan is set to 100% as well. Games still freeze :mad:
 

My Computer

System One

If the heatsink was off of the CPU, is it likely that the thermal paste has dried up and lost it's effectiveness. Take the cooler off and clean the heatsink and CPU with rubbing alcohol (JUST enough to take it off and leave no residue! you don't want it all over the motherboard). Get some good quality thermal compound and put a small rice-grain sized glob in the center of the CPU and put the heatsink back on. The pressure of the heatsink will spread the paste out.

This should solve your overheating issue and stop the freezing.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
    Memory
    4GB Corsair XMS2 @ 800MHz 5-5-5-12T
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCI-e
    Monitor(s) Displays
    20.1" Westinghouse on DVI (left) and 19" Sansung on DVI (right)
    Screen Resolution
    1400x1050 (left) and 1280x1024 (right)
    Hard Drives
    Internal: 320gb Western Digital Caviar on SATA II w/ 16mb buffer. External: 500gb WD MyBook on firewire and 160gb WD usb2.0
    PSU
    500 watt Ultra
    Case
    Antec 900
    Cooling
    CPU: Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64
    Mouse
    Logitech MX4000 lazer
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 rev.2
    Other Info
    SAPPHIRE Radeon Theatrix 650 PRO TV Tuner, Samsung 20X DVD±R DVD Burner on SATA, Belkin battery backup,
ToastyUnderoos said:
I also tried another thing reccomended to me to try and isolate the problem since I have onboard graphics. I took out my video card and used the onboard VGA 7-series graphics. Surely enough the games still freeze indicating that there is no problem with the graphics card.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, ok, were you playing with both cards enabled or was one disable on your Bios and you turned it off to check the other one? What I am trying to say is that if both card have been enable, your problem might be a conflict within the different drivers for both cards. One must be disable in the Bios to avoid the conflict.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Built
    CPU
    Intel Q9650 w/CM V8 Cooler...
    Motherboard
    EVGA 780i SLI FTW... Latest Bios & Drivers
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 8GB (4 x 2GB) PC2-8500C5D
    Graphics card(s)
    EVGA GTX260
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Def Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 22" LCD Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Velociraptor 160GB Samsung Sata 750GB Maxtor External 160GB
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling 750w Silencer
    Case
    Thermaltake Speedo Advance
    Cooling
    Air Cooled... See CPU
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
    Internet Speed
    Comcast 6MB Broadband
    Other Info
    Linksys WRT54G router
No, I physically took out my 9800gtx+ and used the 7-series on board graphics by plugging in the monitor plug to the vga connector on my mobo. you dont need to do anything with the bios. this was the first time i tried my onboard graphics btw
 

My Computer

System One

The fact that you were able to prolong to play time after making the adjustment to the CPU fans suggests to me the problem lies somewhere within that area. Such as some kind of overheating still occuring, or like someone suggested lack of thermal compound. Or the very dreadful bc of the fact it was not mounted right permanent CPU damage >< Probably not the latter tho....hopefully
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD AM2 64 6000+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-E SLI
    Memory
    4 Gigs DDR2 800
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia 8800GTS OC2 320MB
    Sound Card
    Creative X-Fi Titanium 5.1 Dolby Digital
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 2216W 22Inch
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi SATA 380GB Windows XP Professional SP 2 Western Digital 300GB Windows Vista Ultimate SP 1
    PSU
    650 Watt
    Case
    Thermaltake III Full Tower
    Mouse
    Logitech MX310
    Keyboard
    Saitek Illuminated Desktop Keyboard
    Internet Speed
    12Mbs
    Other Info
    Built this desktop myself about a year ago so that I could enjoy Crysis. May not be able to max out crysis more than 1440x900 Very High/Enthusiast (which still looks better than any other game :-X) but this desktop has yet to have any other game give it a hard time. Everything else I run in 1680x1050 16xAF 4xAA with Vsync. I love my PC :D
Well we've isolated the CPU problem because instead of using a quad proc we replaced it with a p4 proc and the games still freeze. This leads me to believe that the problem which is causing the freezing is either the mobo or the PSU. any other suggestions?
 

My Computer

System One

ToastyUnderoos said:
Well we've isolated the CPU problem because instead of using a quad proc we replaced it with a p4 proc and the games still freeze. This leads me to believe that the problem which is causing the freezing is either the mobo or the PSU. any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

What are you using for thermal paste? How many programs do you have open when you play games?
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
    Memory
    4GB Corsair XMS2 @ 800MHz 5-5-5-12T
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCI-e
    Monitor(s) Displays
    20.1" Westinghouse on DVI (left) and 19" Sansung on DVI (right)
    Screen Resolution
    1400x1050 (left) and 1280x1024 (right)
    Hard Drives
    Internal: 320gb Western Digital Caviar on SATA II w/ 16mb buffer. External: 500gb WD MyBook on firewire and 160gb WD usb2.0
    PSU
    500 watt Ultra
    Case
    Antec 900
    Cooling
    CPU: Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64
    Mouse
    Logitech MX4000 lazer
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 rev.2
    Other Info
    SAPPHIRE Radeon Theatrix 650 PRO TV Tuner, Samsung 20X DVD±R DVD Burner on SATA, Belkin battery backup,
@ roundhat

I've tried playing my games on XP since I am running both vista and xp. The game still freezes so I think it is a hardware related issure

@amd64x2

I took off the stock paste that came with the cpu fan and used arctic silver thermal paste. Still get hangups. No extra programs are running when I play. Just the game and windows live one care.
 

My Computer

System One

OK from here, try removing sticks of memory and see if it still freezes. do one at a time. also remove any un-necessary add-in cards. Try playing the game.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
    Memory
    4GB Corsair XMS2 @ 800MHz 5-5-5-12T
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCI-e
    Monitor(s) Displays
    20.1" Westinghouse on DVI (left) and 19" Sansung on DVI (right)
    Screen Resolution
    1400x1050 (left) and 1280x1024 (right)
    Hard Drives
    Internal: 320gb Western Digital Caviar on SATA II w/ 16mb buffer. External: 500gb WD MyBook on firewire and 160gb WD usb2.0
    PSU
    500 watt Ultra
    Case
    Antec 900
    Cooling
    CPU: Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64
    Mouse
    Logitech MX4000 lazer
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 rev.2
    Other Info
    SAPPHIRE Radeon Theatrix 650 PRO TV Tuner, Samsung 20X DVD±R DVD Burner on SATA, Belkin battery backup,
Have you tried the new PSU yet? If its still locking up with the new PSU, my bet is on the board.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ @ 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
    Memory
    4GB Corsair XMS2 @ 800MHz 5-5-5-12T
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCI-e
    Monitor(s) Displays
    20.1" Westinghouse on DVI (left) and 19" Sansung on DVI (right)
    Screen Resolution
    1400x1050 (left) and 1280x1024 (right)
    Hard Drives
    Internal: 320gb Western Digital Caviar on SATA II w/ 16mb buffer. External: 500gb WD MyBook on firewire and 160gb WD usb2.0
    PSU
    500 watt Ultra
    Case
    Antec 900
    Cooling
    CPU: Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64
    Mouse
    Logitech MX4000 lazer
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 rev.2
    Other Info
    SAPPHIRE Radeon Theatrix 650 PRO TV Tuner, Samsung 20X DVD±R DVD Burner on SATA, Belkin battery backup,
check your cpu temp. in bios your system might be new but the heatsink might no be properly installed, also make sure no other programs are running in the background( anti-virus and others) scan your system for spyware too. analyze your hd for possible defragmentation...lastly you can perform a memory test with Memtest86+.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    costume
    CPU
    intel core 2 Quad q9550 2.8 ghz
    Motherboard
    EVGA NFORCE 790i ULTRA SLI
    Memory
    4 GB ocz
    Graphics card(s)
    nvidia 8800 gts 640 MB
    Sound Card
    xfi xtreme gamers
    Monitor(s) Displays
    sceptre x24
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    seagate 1000 GB
    PSU
    pc power & cooling
    Case
    HAF
    Internet Speed
    2.5 mbit
Don't know if my problems is all related to what's going on in this forum. I just purchased a Gateway FX6800, with ATI 4850 graphics card, 3 gb ddr3 ram. CODWaw plays good for a short while then freezes and quits. Am running Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit system. Are other players having the same problem?
 

My Computer

System One

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