Morning, I recently bought a new PC which had a decent graphics card for playing games (Nvidia 260).
The PC runs fine under every condition except for playing games, they run fine at high settings but tend to crash the PC after some time or if a lot is happening on screen at once.
The most obvious example is Mass Effect which is perfectly playable for 20 to 30 minutes before crashing my PC and causing it to reset automatically.
I’m reluctant to send if back to the company I bought it from as it’ll be quite expensive to do so.
Whats causing the problem? I’ve been told it may be heat-build up due to poor circulation? I’ve upgraded to the latest graphics drivers for the card but that hasn’t helped.
There’s a quick-and-dirty way to check the heat issue: remove the side of your case, point a large fan at your computer, and play some games. If you don’t get the crashes, it’s probably a heat issue.
There may also be a tool for checking system temperatures and adjust fan settings on the driver CD from the manufacturer, which might be helpful in case you need to ascertain which component is overheating.
If your graphics card is overheating, you should be able to see “artifacts” or graphical glitches appear. When my *Radeon 9800 * on my old computer started overheating (fan was malfunctioning), I saw dozens of small red spots randomly appear and disappear on my screen.
Note that this is bad. I eventually cooked a fanless 7600 in a low-profile box after ignoring stuff like that for a while.
Make sure the back of the card is clear, and that the fan is actually running. (You should be able to hear it spin down if you exit a game).
If you install all the NVIDIA drivers and tools, you should be able to adjust the cooling. For me, it’s under NVIDIA Control Panel → Device Settings → GPU. Try cranking the cooling up a notch. And… I guess also make sure that everything is (at least initially) set to “Factory Default” for clockspeeds. My card is factory overclocked, but I can crank it even more myself if I want, at the expense of possible crashes under load.
Are you using Vista? And do you have the newest drivers for your card?
If you are using Vista make sure you have the latest service pack. There was a driver issue with Nvidia’s 200 series cards and Vista SP1 that caused crashes. It was supposed to be fixed in service pack 2. And make sure you have the newest drivers.
I have the same card as you and had random reboots that sound very similar(though much rarer) to yours while gaming with Vista SP1. They went away completely when I upgraded to Windows 7. Though, of course, there’s too many variables to say that the upgrade to Windows 7 was what fixed it.
I bought it from Eclipse Systems, a UK firm that had excellent ratings in a recent PC hardware review which is why I bought it from them. Apart from this problem playing games I’ve had no other issues with it.
The company is based in England and I’m in Northern Ireland which is why I’m reluctant to have to package the PC up and return it to the supplier to be checked out.
Thanks again!
btw I’m using Vista with Service Pack 2 and the latest video card drivers
Did you also check for updates for your sound card and network card? I find updating video, sound, and network helps with a lot of mystery issues. Although this sounds like a heat issue, I would try this anyway.
As far as your side panel goes, I doubt you’ll be voiding anything. Have you verified this is the case?
If you a reluctant to open it, you can still diagnose heat issues by testing the card with an overclocking program. Nvidia’s ntune is free. You can use it to see if the card locks up during testing. No need to actually overclock it.
Overheating of the graphics card sounds like a probable cause to me. Second would be bad drivers. If you can’t open the case because of warranty, well… that’s what you’ve got a warranty for - send the whole thing back.
Yes, if the new video drivers don’t help then check your CPU and video temperature 1/ before you start playing then 2/ after playing for, say, 20 minutes. If either temp is over about 60c after the 20 minutes, there’s your problem. If you have no software to report temperatures, Google for and install SPEEDFAN.
If the temp is elevated, take it back under warranty. Either the video card is bad (or at least is now), a fan is bad, or some other issue like improper use of heatsink paste. Even if it turns out to be a bad fan or heatsink, insist on a brand new video card, the overheating may have damaged it.