display dropping out when starting games

[tangoed_01]

hi,
hope somebody can offer some advice. Ihave a quad core pc(amd phenom9550)motherboard is gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 with 4 gig of ddr 2 mem and a xfx 9600gt 512 meg (pcie express). Everything ran fine till weekend, the pc started locking up when switched on it would get to the desktop then just freez.I formatted the c:drive and did a fresh install, added all updates and now the games will start but after about 30 seconds or so i will loose the monitor display its as if the card just shuts down. There are no events showing in the system logs, when running futuremark everything is fine i also have tried installing the latest graf drivers from nvida, but still the same (THE O/S is windows xp black edition and runs fine on other systems ) could somebody offer any advice have tried everything and have even reseated the graphic card and memory im now starting to assume theres a fault with the card ( the only other thing is the o/s froze once on install but resumed on restart and everyting else works fine please .................HELP

 

[The Dentist]

I would try an original version of windows XP rather than any modified versions.
They contain a lot of bugs i found and some drivers even tend to conflict.
If you want to test it out, just install a virtual machine rather then reformat the full PC if you're into that kind of thing.

What game you trying to run? or is it on all games?

 

[tangoed_01]

thanks for the advice devill ill get a legit copy of xp today its just a bit weird used the exact same o/s before weekend and all worked fine will give it a go and see what happens . tried both copys of command n conq tiberium wars n kanes wrath both worked fine before weekend and both legit copys

cheers ..........

 

[little_pob]

Make sure the power connector for the graphics card is plugged in.

Also unless running XP 64 try running <3Gb of RAM.

 

[tangoed_01]

Im running 32 bit and its two 2 gig strips as i said before everything was fine till sat ive reinstalled the same o/s as before but the monitor blows out as every game i try starts, av tried all the usual stuff reseating everything and nothing shows up in the event logs little bit perplexed as to what the fault is everything works fine untill i load a game thanks again m8 for the advice. ps the psu is a ati typhoon 600 watt and everything is connected

 

[little_pob]

Though it shouldn't cause the problem put the RAM through memtest86+ just to confirm its good. (For what its worth a 32bit OS can only address 4Gb of memory space and in your current setup 512Mb of that will be used for your gfx card. There is the PAE switch that can be added to the boot.ini but it attracts its own problems.)

If it was just C&C3 + Kane's Wrath expansion, I'd say make sure you have the latest patches for the games. As it doesn't appear to be disable any virtual drives (daemon tools, alcohol 120% etc), disconnect from the net and turn off AV and firewall.

Might be worth trying an older set of gfx drivers, e.g. the disc that came with the card.

What power supply (make and wattage) do you have powering all this? Did you check you had the power lead connected - I know you said you've reseated everything but always worth double checking as these connectors are fiddly buggers.

 

[tangoed_01]

hi mate just to let ya know tried the old drivers and run men test everything is fine the psu is a ati typhoon 600or 650 watt all leads connected as i said its only when trying to run a game decoding is fine heavy use of the pc with no adverse affects just games looks like its happening when the game sets its resolution but just guessing at the mo thinking of trying a new o/s as i said only started on sat after the pc started freezing up as it came on to desktop thanks again m8 for the help all ideas worth a go at the mo

 

[little_pob]

It might be worth trying to set the display resolution via the game's shortcut. I know c&c3 supports this, so we'll start there...

Right click the c&c3 desktop shortcut > properties > append the target with a resolution your monitor supports using -xres and -yres (xres = horizontal resolution, and yres = vertical resolution) e.g. ' -xres 1024 -yres 768' but without the quotes, so "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Command & Conquer 3\CNC3.exe" would become "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Command & Conquer 3\CNC3.exe" -xres 1024 -yres 768

With TFT's using the native resolution is recommended

 

[tangoed_01]

cheers little pob will give it a go , think ive sorted the prob a dx dll file is in debug mode d3d9d.dll hope its this will get back tomoz and leave message thanks f the help kind regards fermec 20

 

[little_pob]

Sorted?

If not, have you tried completely reinstalling DirectX 9c?

Unfortunatly work block microsoft's download centre(!), but it should be available via the top result on a google search for 'directx 9c'.

 

[tangoed_01]

yea m8 tried everything now apart from a fresh install again, gonna format it today and try another clean install see if that makes any difference thanks again off to bed now topman for all the help and advice ps tried the card in another system and seemed fine hoping its a couple of miss wrote dll files :Chainsaw: to the bugger if that dont work lol