I'm just looking for simple technical assistance regarding an issue that I've recently been having with my computer. Please note that while I am very familiar with the use of computers and do quite a bit on the software side of the industry, my knowledge of hardware is frightfully limited.
My boyfriend, who possesses more knowledge than I, is also stymied.
I am having problems with my computer having issues. The monitor turns black and displays an error saying that it is not getting a signal, though I can still hear the computer running. It only occurs while gaming (most often Diablo III, but also during APB and most recently World of Warcraft); I can use various other applications on the computer (image editors, word processors, browsers, and even 3D modeling) without fear of having this occur. This leads me to believe that it is most likely due to some issue with my video card, but I lack the experience that would allow me to feel confident in my conclusion.
Turning off and back on the computer will allow me to play games again, but then this occurs again, often in a short period of time. In order to play games, I have to wait for quite a bit before making an attempt. This leads me to conclude that either something is building up that needs to be dissipated (heat, for example) or that some limited resource is being drained and then requires time to re-accumulate.
I have an NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT which I acquired perhaps a year and a half ago. The drivers are up-to-date. I have had no issues with it until within the last month or so. My OS is Windows XP.
I have no recently installed any new hardware. Today my boyfriend and I took apart the computer, cleaned out the dust, and confirmed that my fans are working properly. It is our belief that we have adequate cooling and that heat build-up shouldn't be an issue.
Thank you in advance for any assistance that the community may be able to provide!
Have you used a program to see what your idle and load temperatures are? Like Speccy?
It may be the graphics card is messed up or that the cable that connects to the back of your screen or video card is lose. (It's most likely that the graphics card is screwed up)
The cables are all secured and working, Saetik. Boyfriend and I tinkered around inside the chassis today and everything
appears to be working properly and is fully connected. It
could be that the card is borked; some research that I have done reveals that the card typically has a lifetime of between a year and two years, depending on if the card was overclocked. I am loathe, however, to purchase a new video card without having explored other reasonable possibilities.
Clovis, I recently downloaded the NVIDIA System Monitor, which I will be utilizing to track temperatures. It currently has a baseline temperature of 44° C, though I've yet to see what it has when running a game. I also acquired subsequent NVIDIA programs that allow me to tweak some measure of functionality over the video card, including fan speed. I'm leaving cooling to automatic control for now, but I may choose to apply a rule that increases fan speed dependent upon the temperature at the diode.
Regarding the video card itself, it appears that I have acquired one from BFG that has overclocked factory shipped frequencies. They are:
- Core clock: 675 MHz
- Memory clock: 900 MHz
- Shader clock: 1700 MHz
I am currently looking to find baseline values on non-overclock copies of the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT video card in order to do a comparison. It may be beneficial to lower these values, which would also probably lower the temperature gains during gamplay.
Thanks for your assistance so far, guys! I'll try to keep this thread somewhat updated as I acquire more information in the hopes that we can reach a somewhat definitive answer.
Edit: Quick update! Apparently Blizzard is aware of problems that are happening with some GeForce video cards since they are impacting people's abilities to play Diablo III. Some people are claiming to get black screens like mine and others are saying that they're being tabbed out of the game while getting black screens. Regardless, I'm tracking a tread and hoping to find some answers.
So, another quick update! I'm not sure what happened between this afternoon and this evening, but I was able to play Diablo III for beyond a half hour tonight without having the dreaded black screen. I find this amusing as I was unable to play this afternoon after extensive effort to clean out the chassis, remove dust build up, ensure that all of the fans work properly, and even install another fan just in case.
I'd say that it might be related to the programs that I installed that would have given me further control over the video card and fans, but I didn't touch any of the settings. I was interested in obtaining baseline numbers before doing
any tweaking.
I used the NVIDIA System Monitoring to track the temperature and also created a log that recorded the temperature every minute. I had an initial value of 44° C and a max temperature of 62° C. Average temperature during gamplay was 59/60° C, but I did notice a drop in temperature during the outdoor scenes of Act III (which I found to be surprising; I assumed that all of the fighting going on in the background would tax the video card more than indoor dungeons). This is well within safely operating parameters, so I am pleased.
I will continue to provide feedback should the problem return. If all is well within a week, I'll close out this thread. I figure that a week is a good span of time; prior to this evening, I couldn't play for any period of time much exceeding a half hour without having the black screen appear and then I would have to wait an hour or two before attempting to play again.
For those with interest in tracking the problems associated with various GeForce video cards (which I believe share the same GPU) and Diablo III,
please feel free to read this thread. There were a handful of potential solutions provided (
particularly on page 22) that alleviated the problem for some people.
I always ask Kretlol. He's my personal tech support.
Your temperatures are fine, but riddle me this:
1) Have you attempted restarting just your monitor when this happens?
2) Does sound still play / does it seem like everything is still running?
3) What is the brand of both your motherboard and processor chip?
Spoke too soon. Logged in this morning to get a comparison with yesterday's recorded values and it occurred within five minutes of starting the game. This time I did not play from a cold boot and had not the time to begin tracking temperatures. Furthermore, after the hard restart all of the new NVIDIA programs that had been installed to track my video card's performance just disappeared.
I am frustrated.
Anski, answers!
- It is not the monitor, to my knowledge. I've turned it off/on and even swapped monitors; the problem persists.
- Sound is iffy and intermittent. After the screen turns black, the sound from the immediate prior activity (killing a mob, items dropping, whatever) will come through after about ten or fifteen seconds. However, it is truncated and doesn't persist beyond that point.
- It's been a while and the manufacturer isn't displayed physically on the mobo. Next time I boot, I'll write down the serial number that appears in BIOS and figure it out from there since the major BIOS manufacturers each format serial numbers in different ways. Boyfriend wants to say MSI (and that does ring a bell!), but I can't confirm that at this moment. Regarding the processor, I believe that I have an Intel Core2 Duo Processor E4400.
Perhaps something related to the issues that GeForce users have posted on the official Blizzard forums? The thread has reached 28 pages (and most of them report that it doesn't appear to be temperature related based on their own recorded values) so perhaps it is something with how Diablo III is interacting with the video card. Someone has surmised that it may be related to external communication with the video card (he claims that this is a trait with which NVIDIA cards are well-known) and has provided a potential and very narrow solution that boyfriend and I may attempt this evening.
He also has an antiquated video card that we will also attempt to utilize within the next couple of days. I am uncertain as to the manufacturer and model, but I'd be willing to attempt its use in order to compare results. We have some money currently, so if I exhaust all reasonable options I may just order a new one. Given my research on various sites and forums, it appears that my particular video card has an average lifespan of one to two years (depending on use, whether it has been overclocked, and so forth) and I am fairly certain that we're at that point.
Fortunately, I can do everything else without harm. I've been able to browse forums, code sites, work in Photoshop, and even utilize 3D modeling programs without any issue. Since I'm on a sabbatical from gaming anyway, it's fortunate that this problem has almost coincided with my availability to date.