Intel Duo Core PC's

Atrocities · #1 July 22nd, 2008, 04:15 AM

lock up crashes when playing Far cry and all other games

Atrocities · #2 July 22nd, 2008, 04:19 AM

Assume that I do have the lastest drivers and updates for all the games. I think its a video card issue and not a cpu one.

MisterBenn · #3 July 22nd, 2008, 06:52 AM

I had some teething problems when I started out with this system - I had lockups in all games after a minute or so, usually reported as a video driver error and sometimes restarting my system. I chased around the guru3d.com forums for a long time without luck, until I finally cracked the problem. It was a CPU temperature issue! The stock cooler that came with the CPU was simply not up to the job and was overheating and causing the lockups.

The errors had all been misleading - I bought a large Akasa cooler and my system was immediately fixed for good. Are you the default cooler too? You might want try monitoring your temperatures if you haven't already...

AstralWanderer · #4 July 22nd, 2008, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
Assume that I do have the lastest drivers and updates for all the games. I think its a video card issue and not a cpu one.

I'd agree - I had a similar issue which turned out to be overly aggressive overclocking. If you have overclocked the videocard, try setting it back to default frequencies. If they're at default, try running your system with the sidepanel off and a fan pointing at the card, just to rule out heat buildup.

Atrocities · #5 July 22nd, 2008, 08:26 PM

Thanks guys, I will check into the cooling issue but I have a cool master case with excellent cooling. But the CPU fan, although suppose to be superior, might not be up to the task. That sounds very reasonable.

I haven't over clocked the 8800gt. I am however thinking about buying a second 8800gt and setting up an SLI system.

Also adding Vista as a second OS along with a 1 terrabyte second HD.

Fyron · #6 July 22nd, 2008, 08:31 PM

SLI is a huge waste of money. Don't fall for it.

MisterBenn · #7 July 23rd, 2008, 07:11 PM

I'm reasonably inclined to agree with Fyron. I had a couple of SLI systems in the past - a pair of GeForce 2s years ago, and my last system had a couple of 7800GTs. For starters I didn't really consider the benefit of the second card to be worth it either time.

Secondly, with the 7800s I had a driver issue. At some point in time during the life of the drivers, nVidia added some additional SLI rendering options into the driver, such as options for AFR/AFR2/SFR etc. From that driver onwards, I was never able to use them with my SLI set-up. I would have rampant artifacts and consistent crashing until I either disabled the second card or reverted the driver version once again. I trawled the forums, and tried every service pack, system driver update and driver cleaner going and always had the same results.

I had to stick with the previous driver version, and in the end I was still trying to survive with it when it was 18 months old! The newest games often had quirks and were not well optimised for the old drivers as I'm sure you guys are aware is common with aged unified drivers and current releases. Reading the forums, I was not alone and my system was hardly an obscure one (AMD64 based).

In hindsight, my opinion is that with the unified driver strategy that both ATI and nVidia operate, it is the safest bet to have an extremely common GPU architecture to get the best support. With aging GPUs and "rarer" configurations such as SLI setups, the amount that driver releases cater for your issues dries up quick quickly. When building my last system, I opted for a simple life and just bought a single, fast card - I have become conservative in my old age! I mainly want my system to be reliable so that I know it's going to be ready to go when I sit down to use it...

Atrocities · #8 July 25th, 2008, 04:09 AM

Thanks, SLI is out. At least for the foreseeable future. Thanks guys.