Windows 7 - Games Crashing

jimmymac

jimmymac

VIP Member
Having my first bit of a problem with Windows 7!

Been trying to play a game called Jade Empire which I picked up via Steam, through playing the game it been crashing at random all the way through. Basically the graphics go a bit off, sound starts looping and nothing is responding and so needs a reset. It can sometimes happen after about 20-30 minutes of play, sometimes near enough instantly!

I thought at first it might be a game bug, a bit of googling did find a variety of people having crashing errors with it so I just put it down to that. Recently started playing another game, CSI, and its doing exactly the same thing!


My first thoughts were that the CPU or GPU were overheating so i've been running temp checkers and logging them. MY CPU has been sitting at around 40 C and the GPU around 70 C. Not exactly cool but well within the parameters. Going back and checking them after a crash shows very little change at all in those temps so it suggests thats not the issue.

Graphics drivers are the latest available from ATI so they are all up to date, anyone got any ideas of what could be causing it or any known issues withing Windows 7 and gaming?
 
ok so tried resintalling windows, originally I had accidentaly installed it to an older IDE driver so figured maybe a HDD problem, however its the same issue on a newer SATA drive.

This time around I also allowed Windows to configure the graphics itself rather than using the ATI drivers so suggests to me a driver problem is out too.

Right now i seem to have excluded temps, HDD, drivers etc as issue, any idea what else could be causing these games to all crash in the same way?
 
Well if I had to guess your dealing with either a overheating on the GPU or Driver issues.

Make sure to disable Windows 7 "auto driver" and select it to manual (this is to prevent it installing more)


Downloaded the newest drivers then reboot and in SAFE MODE use Driver Sweeper can get it here.
http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/


Other thought is does your fan go up/down when your gaming? 70c is HORRIBLE....my GTX 260 idles at 40c with 30% fan....my old mans 4870 idles at 50c at 30%.


Here is a good GPU program it will stress your GPU and if I am not mistaken will crash your PC if I am right.

rthdribl_1_2
http://files.aoaforums.com/I2227-rthdribl_1_2.zip.html

Make sure to boot up to versions and max out AA and resolution to provide a real result.


It really sounds to me like your fan isn't working the way it should be. If its true then download Rivatuner and set a fan profile I do 30%-40% all the way to 100% for all my GPUs jumping 2-3c per 10%.
 
after reading around i am suspecting the fan isnt doing enough on the GPU to be honest, although some have suggested 70 working just fine its still a bit high for me. Trying a few different fan controllers to see if it does the job, will let you know if thats the case :)
 
Well this has me stumped now!

Used EXPERTool to ramp up the fan on the GPU so that it was constantly running at 70%, brought the temp down to 45C with that and started the games again, same thing happens, get about 20 mins max and it crashes.

There is looping sound when it crashes so I wondered if there was a possible issue with the soundcard, disabled that and tried again and still it crashes.

Any other ideas at all as to whats causing this as its driving me nuts!
 
will look at the drivers over weekend, the thing that makes me think that is ok is that I tried using the built in ones with windows 7 first before even installing the ATI ones and still got the same thing.

Its looking more and more like a windows 7 teething problem to me! perhaps I should sue MS :D
 
I have had no problems playing games. New ones and older ones. Ones that don't even list vista as a compatible OS, let alone 7. Good luck though, but the problems may be elsewhere....

I have a copy of jade empire around if I think of it I will install it and see if I get any issues, good game btw.
 
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