Games hang and monitor says no signal

Discussion in 'Computer and Technology Discussion' started by Assassin, Jan 19, 2009.

  1. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    I can't seem to find out why UT2004 doesn't work properly for me. At random times, the music hangs and my screen goves me the message No signal, and I have to reset my computer, because alt+tab, ctrl+alt+del, etc doesn't work. I had this yesterday while playing online in de Digiex server, when I just killed someone in a tank, and this morning when I tried playing Single player and the intro video started playing. I also had this with Project Snowblind and Guild Wars. I never had this problem untill recently, when I had to format my HD, because it broke. After reinstalling windows I got this problem, I don't think I had it before. I updated my videocard drivers to the latest version, so that's not it. Could it be related to the breaking of my HD (which is still in my computer)? Help?
     
  2. InsaneNutter

    InsaneNutter Resident Nutter Staff Member

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    Do you have this problem with all games or just the ones listed?

    Your graphics card could be overheating, something to try is installing a program like Everest which will display the temperatures of various components in your pc.
     
  3. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    Well I have no idea what the max temperaturs of those devices are supposed to be.

    Mainboard: 79
    CPU: 41
    CPU Core 1: 49
    CPU Core 2: 51
    CPU Core 3: 45
    CPU Core 4: 45
    HDD1: 38
    HDD2: 41
    Videocard: 50

    Are any of them too high?
     
  4. CurlySteve

    CurlySteve Elite Member

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    is that in ºC of ºF ? if ºC your mainboard is very very hot and i suggest turning your computer off now as everything is going to break with shorting an things blowing from the heat.it is very dangerous if it is in ºC and could be why your hard drive failed. mine is running at 40ºC and i consider that rather warm.
     
  5. techguyone

    techguyone Elite Member

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    It might also explain why your HD broke, can you get extra ventilation/fans in your pc to help ?
     
  6. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    I just opened up my PC to see if it was hot. It was kind of hot, but the mainboard/heatsinks/videocard all had about the same temperature and I think it's weird my GPU temperature when tested was so low when it feel just the same. I powered on my computer now still opened up so it could get ventilated a little and had it off for a while, but it still says 79 degrees (ºC btw). After running another program I noticed it was the Auxiliary temperature that's so high, the the board itself apparently, but I have no idea what this is. Can anyone help me please?

    [​IMG]
     
  7. CurlySteve

    CurlySteve Elite Member

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    the Aux temperature is a default value of a probe so basically the 79c so there isnt any problem because the probe doesn't exist .
     
  8. InsaneNutter

    InsaneNutter Resident Nutter Staff Member

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    I was getting worried for a min then when you listed your motherboard temp.

    Are the temps you listed when the pc is idle or right after you have been playing a game?

    With Everest open and Si Sandra if you want to monitor your motherboard temp load UT 2004 up and play it in a window (alt + enter will switch it to window mode) now as you play keep an eye on the temps and see if anything starts to overheat.

    If your pc crashes and the temps haven’t really changed we can rule that out.

    (I created a separate thread out of this Assassin as the UT thread was going a bit off topic, if you can think of a better title go for it :))
     
  9. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    Well I had to format my C drive and reinstall everything again yesterday night, since I had a virus. I'll see if UT2004 works now a little later. Thanks for seperating btw, I was thinking of doing that myself. ;)
     
  10. Trebor

    Trebor Dolphin Fan

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    I was going to suggest what resolutions your monitor could handle and what resolution you had in game but seeing as you were able to play a few games and then it'd suddenly turn off I'd imagine it could be a fault with your graphics card. Can't really see how a faulty HDD could cause such a fault as this but let us know if you need help still.
     
  11. Nimrod

    Nimrod Exotic Vendor

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    I had a similar problem with an ATi Radeon x1900 or something like that. Either way it was caused by my graphics card overheating. The Aux temp could be something like Gfx Card CPU (GPU) heat or something else.

    Either way check the fan is still spinning and not stuck with dust.
     
  12. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    Ok, after reinstalling everything last night and having used the computer today, it's now running slow again. Windows takes incredibly long to load (it loads fine at a decent speed untill the Windows logo shows), when trying to watch a movie it pauses from time to time as if it was loading...

    Could it be my hard drive is really broken and I need to replace it? I'm really starting to wonder what's wrong here. Also why my HD broke the first time. Looking at the temperatures, they're not overheating (39 and 37 degrees). I don't want to buy a new HD and have that break because my computer is overheating or whatever. I'm running a SMART test on my C drive now. I tried the short test which should take about 2 minutes, but it's been over 10 minutes already. Suggestions on what I can do to see what's the problem?
     
  13. InsaneNutter

    InsaneNutter Resident Nutter Staff Member

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    What did the results of the smart test tell you?

    I wouldn’t say your computer is overheating from the temps you posted up, its running slightly warmer than mine but I wouldn’t really say any of your temps are cause for concern.

    Do you have an old hard drive? Even if it’s only like 10gigs that’s enough to install XP on it and see how it works then. If the smart test didn’t say anything it’s the easiest way to rule the hard drive out.

    You probably have a warranty on your hard drive with the manufacturer anyway if it turns out to be that so you could get a free replacement.

    Edit – what were your temps when playing a game in a window for a while and keeping an eye on them?
     
  14. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    The SMART test never finished. I tried running it on the other drive and that did finish in 2 minutes so I knew enough by then. This morning I went and bought a new 500GB HDD and installed it, and also took out my videocard, opened it up and cleared that of any dust and also cleared the rest of my computer from dust. Everything seems to be working fine again now. I tried running UT2004 and played for a bit and no crashes yet. Let's hope the problem is solved now..
     
  15. InsaneNutter

    InsaneNutter Resident Nutter Staff Member

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    Glad everything is looking ok, hope to see you in the UT Server sometime :)
     
  16. Assassin

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    Good news everyone! The problem is still here!

    A few days ago I decided to install Guild Wars, and after installing I was just walking around for a few seconds (while I had a video playing in the background which kept running for some reason) and again it happened. Also just now, I was playing Team Fortress 2 with my own music in the background and it happened again, but the music kept playing.. I can't alt+tab back to windows or anything, I have to press the reset button... This is very frustrating, because I can't really play any game online like this because I'm afraid this will happen. Especially in Guild Wars, I'd just abandon my party like that and I can't finish any missions or whatever.. So, here we are again... Any suggestions? :P

    Edit: I read somewhere on the big interwerbs it might be my PSU. It's a 420 watt powering 2 500GB SATA HDs, the mainboard, a DVD drive and my GeForce 9600GT. Could it all be too much for it?
     
  17. Trebor

    Trebor Dolphin Fan

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    I think my Dads Geforce 9600 GT said it required a minimum of 350w to run it but I got him a 550w PSU just in case. Usually I find that having a below minimum spec PSU causes some devices to stop working (they don't show up in device manager as not enough power is going to them to actually be used). If it's not your graphics card or your monitor and you have access to a better PSU try it. Otherwise I'm stumped :(
     
  18. Assassin

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    I'm not sure if it's not my graphics card or monitor actually, but my gfx card's temperature is fine, I opened it up and cleared the dust from everywhere... And I don't see how my monitor could be the problem since it works fine, it just randomely shuts down when I play some games.. It's obviously hardware related, since formatting and even getting a new HD didn't work.. The weird thing is I didn't always have this problem, it just started at some point.. On the internet everyone seems to blame something different as well when someone has this problem.. Some blame high temperatures, others blame the PSU, others blame the AGP.. It's obviously not something that shows up in any testing or diagnostics program.. Anyway, I'll see if I can find another PSU for now. ;)
     
  19. InsaneNutter

    InsaneNutter Resident Nutter Staff Member

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    I know you idle temps are fine, but what about playing UT 2004 (or something more demanding like UT3) in a Window with Everest or some other program that can monitor temps running.

    If something is overheating when under load it could be shutting its self off to stop any damage to your hardware been done.

    Also to give you a rough idea of how much power your hardware will need checkout this Power Supply Calculator:

    I used it when choosing parts for out media centre pc, I would say it’s quite accurate.
     
  20. Assassin

    Assassin Addict

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    Well, I managed to shoot a video of what happens.. I started UT2004's Single Player mode, created a character and then this happened:

    https://users.digiex.net/assassin/SNC00038.mp4

    I got lucky pretty quickly there.. :P
    Anyway, I'll see what else I can do..
     

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