Screen Lock Ups

Discussion in 'Hardware Building/Buying/Usage Advice' started by Fred Bear, Feb 17, 2011.

  1. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Hi there

    I have had Rfactor version 1.255 only for a few months and have been having lock up issues with my system only after a few minuets of starting the game.

    Have been looking all over for a fix, some say to use an ATI card in place of the nvida card any thoughts.

    Fred
     
  2. mikeward

    mikeward Registered

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    sounds like a temp issue. what sort of cooling do you have in your system ?
     
  3. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Nothing special std CPU fan video card has no fan but has cooling pipes fitted and the additional case fan.

    Rgds

    Fred
     
  4. mikeward

    mikeward Registered

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    well if the graphics card has no fans i would say it quite low powered so might be worth try running with lower display settings to see if it being pushed too hard.
     
  5. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Hi Mike

    Thanks for the thoughts the card is a Genuine Gigbyte 6600 with what they call slient pipe cooling. I am not sure what you mean by low power though.

    All other games I play do not have the same issue.

    Rgds

    Fred
     
  6. mikeward

    mikeward Registered

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    what i meant was the 6600 is a little bit old now so cant run at max settings. As for not happening in other games doesnt always mean much as it all depends on how they work the card to what sort of heat it produces.

    When it locks up does the game ever kick back in or is that it and you need to reboot/kill game ?
     
  7. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Yeah, when it locks up I have to force a reboot, I understand that the 6600 is old now but if it takes a new video card to solve that is understandable.

    However I have looked in may forums where problems ie lockups are common with nvidia cards, one fix suggested is to use an ATI card, what is your opinion on this? I have no issues buying a new card but i do not wish to buy a new card if that is not the fix.
     
  8. Bee

    Bee Former ISI Staff

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    I have a nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX and have no issues at all, so I'm not sure what you are referring to with respect to rfactor and nVidia lockups, unless you are referring to something driver related, or with specific hardware combinations.
     
  9. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    Vista and Win7 have a feature called TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) where windows can detect if the video card stops responding and it will sort of reboot the card and the game will recover about 10 secs latter. But the screen goes black for several second before it recovers. In XP the whole machine would hang. When Vista first came out a ton of people complained about getting TDRs all the time. But this was with Nvidia and ATI. With driver improvements the whole TDR problem when away. I had problems with my old 8800GT getting TDRs frequently but this ended up being a bad PSU. After replacing the PSU my TDRs when away. I now have an HD5770 and haven't had a single TDR with it ether. I think you will find that most of the time games crash due to heat or bad or weak PSUs. Maybe try updating your drivers and run with your case opened and see if it runs longer. I could see your passively cooled card overheating easily. If it still locks up try replacing the PSU. Don't get anything nuts like 700watts or anything like that. 500 will do.
     
  10. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Thanks Noel and Bee

    I have an Antec Sonata 2 case from memory I think the psu 350watt, Maybe I should look at updating the video card though I suspect AGP cards are limited these days.

    Rgds

    Fred
     
  11. Bee

    Bee Former ISI Staff

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  12. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Thanks for the info Bee

    I have a preference for Nvida cards and as your 8800 is working ok I may well consider this as an option.

    Noel PSU is 400watt is that ok?

    Rgds

    Fred
     
  13. Bee

    Bee Former ISI Staff

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    Sorry, I thought you said you had an AGP port only. The 8800 is not AGP, and at the time I posted that I wasn't thinking about AGP.
     
  14. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Hi Bee
    I did not know that the 8800 was only PCI express mine is as stated AGP, the board being Gigbyte P4 Titan Series GA-8IPE775.
     
  15. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Update

    Have installed SpeedFan 4.42.

    At the desktop GPU temp is 89C, fired up the game and it jumped to 94 in the monitor area look like at heat issue as suggested.

    Looking at getting a new fan cooled gpu.

    Thanks for your help

    Fred
     
  16. Blaktop

    Blaktop Registered

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    Getting an ATI card will not necessarily fix your problem. I have been running rFActor for nearly 5 years starting out on an old AMD64 3200/ATI X800 Pro, through an Intel E6850/Nvidia 8800GTS, E8400/Nvidia 9800GTX+ and currently on a Q9550/ATI 4890. I have had lockup with every and all combinations.....the worst were my two Nvidia cards but I have had them with both my ATI cards. My current system has occasional lockups with runtime errors......I have not been able to solve the problem. It is definitely not heat related, I have top quality aftermarket coolers on both CPU and GPU and neither gets over 55 deg. I am assuming that it is actually a problem within rFactor itself as I can play other, more demanding (system wise) racing sims with no lockups at all.

    I'm patiently waiting for rF2 hoping that will solve my probs.
     
  17. Bee

    Bee Former ISI Staff

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    If it were purely rfactor related, then everyone with an ATI and nVidia card would be experiencing the same issue. It's more likely a driver, power, or hardware combination issue. Just because other games work fine, doesn't mean there is no underlying system issue. Different games use different resources and/or the same resources differently, and in a valid manner. Therefore, one game may expose system issues where another game may not (and resource demand isn't necessarily always the cause).
     
  18. Marek Lesniak

    Marek Lesniak Car Team Staff Member

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    ...and I can confirm, that rF is sensitive, especially to CPU stability.

    Regardless is it 6600, 8800, 4890 or brand new GTX 580. rFactor should work 100% stable for days.

    I suggest to check if your CPU/motherboard/memory are stable (use Lynx and MemTest86).

    I assume your GPU is not overclocked but if it is, bring it back to stock.


    If you can recreate the moment when it hangs, then create a fresh installation of rFactor and check if that still happens on one of the default cars/tracks (just to be sure, it is not mod/track related).
     
  19. Bee

    Bee Former ISI Staff

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    Just to clarify... Any program that relies on precise and accurate timing may be sensitive to CPU stability. The more it relies on accurate timing, the more sensitive it will likely be. Relying on accurate timing shouldn't necessarily be interpreted as a design flaw.
     
  20. Fred Bear

    Fred Bear Registered

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    Thanks for the help guys.

    No nothing on my system is over clocked have tested on original install cars but lock up still happens.
     

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