18 replies to this topic

[CombOver Carl]

Hi All,

Every once in a while when I play Bad Company 2 the game freezes and I get a screen full of white squares (almost like a checker board pattern). The game locks up and I cannot restart or exit without turning off my pc. Other times when it freezes up, I get a screen full of odd looking crosses in a similar pattern across the screen but the crosses are a bit different in that they have color and the color changes in a sweeping pattern across the screen. Again the pc locks up and I have to hard boot to exit. It's very strange.
I have a brand new pc and my viseo card is a Nvidia GeForce GTX460.
Anyone else have this issue?

Comb

[blancrou]

Hey Comb!

I had a problem similar this summer. The game was freezing, and like you, the only way to get it back was to force a computer restart. When the game was freezing, there were a strange sound in loop...
I though it was a heat problem, so I bought a new fan and the problem did not appeared that much after.

So my thought for your problem is that it is maybe a heat problem. In that case, just check your heat while playing (especially the heat of your video card since you have some graphic issue when the game crash)

Also, more information on your PC can be helpful!

Hope we will get this sort out!

[Scoop1967 - Dan]

Card Overheating: Kick your Graphic card fan speed up to 70% while playing.

[Warrior124]

I have several fans in my room.

[CombOver Carl]

Hey Comb!

I had a problem similar this summer. The game was freezing, and like you, the only way to get it back was to force a computer restart. When the game was freezing, there were a strange sound in loop...
I though it was a heat problem, so I bought a new fan and the problem did not appeared that much after.

So my thought for your problem is that it is maybe a heat problem. In that case, just check your heat while playing (especially the heat of your video card since you have some graphic issue when the game crash)

Also, more information on your PC can be helpful!

Hope we will get this sort out!

My case has three huge fans and the graphics card has one also. How do I check the temp and increase the fan speed?

[blancrou]

In that case, it is certainly not the heat. Your PC is also new like you said, so it is probably not some dust that is stuck somewhere.
If it is quite new, it is maybe a problem of driver. So check out the drivers of your video card (http://www.nvidia.co...gtx-460-us.html)

[Alvin Tostig]

You can try this to keep an eye on your temp and adjust the fan sped: http://www.evga.com/precision/

[CombOver Carl]

Carl, you never really told me how your comp was running after you got everything put together. As Dan said, I believe it to be your video card overheating. Make sure you're keeping a close eye on your temperatures with whatever program came with your CPU, as it is a good way to keep your PC in a healthy state. Also, make sure you have the latest video drivers for your Nvidia GTX 460. Use the program that comes with it to set your fan speed temps. up to 70%-ish. How often does this happen and is it after an extended period of gaming?

Cream, everything was great for the first couple of months then this started happening. I don't think it's the heat because of all the fans in the case. Plus my house is about 63 degrees right now and I just turned my pc on and started to play BFBC2 and within 5 minutes, I got the checkerboard pattern. I put my hand near the fan to see if the air coming out of the pc was hot and it's not hot at all. Oh and sometimes if it happens early, I'll restart and try again and I can play as long as I want without it happening again.

I just installed the newest driver which was released after I purchased the pc. I'll go and test it and see if it happens again.

Edited by CombOver Carl, 30 November 2010 - 12:00 AM.

[CombOver Carl]

O.k. so I went and installed the newest patch after my last post and since then I haven't seen the issue present itself...until tonight.
I went to play a game and within 2 minutes I got the checkerboard pattern again.
I restarted and tried again and it happened again within two minutes. That is the fastest it's crashed back to back so I am kind of concerned.

[blancrou]

You should check out if there is a big "piece" of dust stuck in one of your fan or inside the GPU (Happened to me, and it was overheating really easily)

[CombOver Carl]

Did you install the Nvidia control panel and set your GFX card fan speed to 70%? It seems to me your artifacting is a result of your overheating videocard, however, that is strange it's happening so quickly. Did you ever adjust the fan speed earlier on? You may have burnt out your card as a result of of low temps...but that's unlikely. Report back, please.

I haven't installed anything except this game and one other GTA IV (that also doesn't work). Where do I get the nvidia control panel?

[CombOver Carl]

I went looking for everest and felt like I was in over my head technically so I didn't download it.
I checked to make sure all the fans were working at that no dust had gathered and all was o.k.
I contacted Nvidia and they asked me if I updated my vc drivers (I did) and then they asked me if my motherboard version was up to date (it is) and finally they gave me a video card test to run on my video card which I am going to run.

[CombOver Carl]

I ran the video card stability test the Nvidia tech sent me and nothing negative came up. I have no idea what it's supposed to do since there weren't any instructions. All it did was show a 3d image of the earth spinning. I let it run for 27 minutes and all it said was "27 minutes tested freestone group"
This may sound like a stupid question but do you think it could be the color scheme in Windows 7? When I ran the benchmark portion of the test that was another option on the video card stability test, it changed the settings of the color scheme to Windows 7 basic. Again nothing happened at the end of the test except that a result of 1048 was displayed.

I went looking for everest and felt like I was in over my head technically so I didn't download it.
I checked to make sure all the fans were working at that no dust had gathered and all was o.k.
I contacted Nvidia and they asked me if I updated my vc drivers (I did) and then they asked me if my motherboard version was up to date (it is) and finally they gave me a video card test to run on my video card which I am going to run.

[CombOver Carl]

This is getting a little strange. I'm the only one posting on my thread. lol

Anyway, I got a temp monitor and ran both the game and the video card stability test while monitoring the temp.
In the game the temp reached 165 degrees before I exited and during the stability test, the temp leveled off @ a max of 177 degrees with a fan speed of 2490 rpm and a fan PWM = 61%.
Do these numbers sound high to anyone?

I ran the video card stability test the Nvidia tech sent me and nothing negative came up. I have no idea what it's supposed to do since there weren't any instructions. All it did was show a 3d image of the earth spinning. I let it run for 27 minutes and all it said was "27 minutes tested freestone group"
This may sound like a stupid question but do you think it could be the color scheme in Windows 7? When I ran the benchmark portion of the test that was another option on the video card stability test, it changed the settings of the color scheme to Windows 7 basic. Again nothing happened at the end of the test except that a result of 1048 was displayed.

I went looking for everest and felt like I was in over my head technically so I didn't download it.
I checked to make sure all the fans were working at that no dust had gathered and all was o.k.
I contacted Nvidia and they asked me if I updated my vc drivers (I did) and then they asked me if my motherboard version was up to date (it is) and finally they gave me a video card test to run on my video card which I am going to run.

[blancrou]

I hope it is in Fahrenheit !! I reached max 110-115 degree Celsius and when I remove the dust in the card, I drop to 60-75 degree Celsius.
Just a question here. do you play with the sound of your speaker, or from a headset ?

[CombOver Carl]

yes that is in fahrenheit. I play with both. Sometimes I use the speakers other times I use the headset.

I hope it is in Fahrenheit !! I reached max 110-115 degree Celsius and when I remove the dust in the card, I drop to 60-75 degree Celsius.
Just a question here. do you play with the sound of your speaker, or from a headset ?

[blancrou]

OK, I found out that my game was crashing, not because of the temp, or anything else, but because I used the speakers.. I don't see any link, but when I play with the speakers, my PC crash after a while. Instead, I'm playin with a headseat and it is working great. Try this, maybe it can work for you !

[CombOver Carl]

Is 177 degrees a high tepm for a graphics card to reach?
If not, what would be considered high?

OK, I found out that my game was crashing, not because of the temp, or anything else, but because I used the speakers.. I don't see any link, but when I play with the speakers, my PC crash after a while. Instead, I'm playin with a headseat and it is working great. Try this, maybe it can work for you !

[blancrou]

In farenheit, I don't know, sorry. Someone else will probably gonna be more helpful with this. Also, the card max heat change from a card to another, and I don't really know the Nvidia one.