Full Screen Application Freezing

Duffman656

Duffman656

New Member
When I launch a full screen program (game, etc), I can use it for about 5-10 minutes and then my computer freezes. My mouse and keyboard stop working and no shortcut like Ctrl-Alt-Delete and Crtl-Shift-Escape works, I am forced to restart or force shut down. I was thinking it may be my video card's fault, but my PC has worked fine for 4 months. I scanned for viruses, spyware, etc. with my various programs and found my computer virus-free. (at least, It seems to be)

My Processor is a 3.0 GHz Dual Core AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, my video card is a Radeon X1600, and my motherboard is an Asus M2N32 WS Professional. I have 2 GB RAM, two 250 GB Hard Drives, and an DVD-R/W drive. I also have a 22" Widescreen monitor hooked into my video card.

Do any of you know what is causing this freeze only on full-screen apps? If you have any suggestions or solutions I'd be really grateful. Thanks.
 
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Most of the games out see 1280x1024 as the highest resolution in the options>video section. People try running them higher while that is merely their desktop settings not the game's itself. Your most likely problem there however would be driver related seeing games and apps locking right up in XP. Which Catalyst version are you running presently? Avoid the 7.9 completely.
 
Drivers

My drivers are pretty much outdated, I'm running Catalyst 1.2. However, i have only recently run into the freezing problem, never before did it bother my computer. I was just playing F.E.A.R. and about 3/4 the way through the game it just decided to lock up, and it's done it ever since. Do you recommend I download the Catalyst 7.8 and the drivers for 7.8?
 
The latest version is the 7.10 and far better since it fixes problems seen with gaming and other problems with the earlier releases. The 1.2 version is long gone! No wonder Fear was locking up. If you install any Steam/Valve games you would have been required to install a much newer update just run one. The Steam engine will prompt you stating a newer version of the catalyst is available.

On the new build here I just went plenty of wonders with the 7.9 and 7.8 for a DX10 compatible card now in use. Blue Screen at booting as well as at the desktop and when running "ANY" game or app mind you. I fought to manually remove the drivers from the software cd as well as the 7.9 drivers only and then back and forth until the 7.10 cleaned everything up.
 
Ok, I installed all of the proper drivers, and fired up F.E.A.R. yet again. It worked, I played it for about 2 hours. The next day I started it up again, and it froze within the usual 5 minutes, and is doing it again and again...any ideas for any solutions on this?? It freezes on ALL of my games.
 
A quick review so far of the 22" monitor would bring up the question of what screen resolution are you trying to run the games in? The video settings in the games themselves see a max of 1280x1024 for Fear in Vista and 1280x960 in XP when I try to get that up the 1280x1024 seen in Vista.

Besides video what are you using for sound? onboard or a pci model? Sound drivers are also notorious at times for gaming problems. On the new build here I ran into a bit of haedaches with Creative's support site downloading Vista drivers when selecting XP as well as the software's auto updater during installation. :rolleyes: One day or night I could run any game for several hours and the next see crash after crash within minutes!
 
I'm running the games on my Windows XP machine at 1024x768. My sound is onboard, it can support up to Dolby 7.1 Surround, but I only have 2 channel audio running currently. The sound seems to continue to work fine after the freeze.
 
Sometimes using onboard for gaming will see problems explaining why that was asked as well as sound drivers being an annoyance at times. Another thought would be exiting the Catalyst control center when going to run a game since that is known for problems. Or you may have to go with an older catalyst version to see this cleared up.

On the last build here I ran upto the Catalyst 7.2 without problems with the MSI X1300 Pro model there. I suspect you are seeing the exact same problems I have been running into with the newer drivers ATI has out causing the same exact thing. But with the older model there you can go back to the Cat. 6.x driver sets or simply install the drivers without the catalyst like some already do.
 
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