Games crash

[jedinat]

I've tried playing a few pc games recently and in all three of them the screen goes black after a few minutes, with the sound repeating.

I've got all my latest drivers (recently formatted my hard drive)

The games:
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Sam and Max Culture Shock
Chronicles of Riddick

In need for speed the game freezes after 5 seconds or so while racing, the the screen loses signal after after a bit with the engine sound repeating annoyingly... sam and max just died and the computer restarted after playing for like 10 minutes. In riddick the game dies after a minute or so in the menu (didnt even try playing) ...and the last time i tried it died after 3 seconds in the menu, the monitor losing the signal and the music still playing in the background.

My computer sucks but the games aren't too demanding:
athlonxp 2800+
512 ram
radeon 9500pro
sound blaster live

[Potatochobit]

did u reinstall the games when you formatted your harddrive? also did you install your graphic card correctly? you are not having conflict with an onboard graphics chip?

[jedinat]

I installed the games today. I don't have an onboard graphics chip.

I was playing Half Life 2 and its sequel fine a couple months ago. Nothing hardware has changed at all, just the format and reinstall of all my software (which hasn't changed, excepting a different copy of XP) I've never played any of these games before, but I'd doubt the problem is specific to them... I mean that would be quite a coincidence.

~edit~
Oh great... my freaking gpu fan has stopped running, so I've just been overheating I guess.
*sigh... I soo can't afford a new video card right now...

~edit~
Well the fan is running again... but I think it's not running as fast as it's supposed to (I can easily stop it with a finger). It crashed again after playing Riddick for a while...

[Zero Shinohara]

I installed the games today. I don't have an onboard graphics chip.

I was playing Half Life 2 and its sequel fine a couple months ago. Nothing hardware has changed at all, just the format and reinstall of all my software (which hasn't changed, excepting a different copy of XP) I've never played any of these games before, but I'd doubt the problem is specific to them... I mean that would be quite a coincidence.

~edit~
Oh great... my freaking gpu fan has stopped running, so I've just been overheating I guess.
*sigh... I soo can't afford a new video card right now...

~edit~
Well the fan is running again... but I think it's not running as fast as it's supposed to (I can easily stop it with a finger). It crashed again after playing Riddick for a while...

I'm afraid you should start thinking about getting a new video card, buddy. I got the SAME problem three months ago with my old Radeon 9250 128MB AGP, which worked fine for about a year, but then started hanging, closing and restarting my computer quite a lot. The fan was covered in dust and it even got inside, which ended up frying it a while later. It's impossible to use it now.

What you could try doing is getting another fan and putting it on to see if your problems go away. But depending on the video card you have, it's not very price-wise, since one of those fans might cost you 15 to 30 bucks, whereas you could get a brand new 256 AGP card for 40 bucks on Newegg.

[Ending]

I had a similar problem with my first computer. Took me ages to solve the problem, so before you blame the hardware, check out the drivers. In my case, a faulty SCSI driver was crashing the comp at random intervals. You might have chosen a wrong driver for one of your devices.

[RaistlinMajere]

What the hell are you guys talking about? Fan died, get a new GPU? Only if you know yours suffered permanent damage. You can get aftermarket fans from brands like Arctic Cooling.

[Zero Shinohara]

What the hell are you guys talking about? Fan died, get a new GPU? Only if you know yours suffered permanent damage. You can get aftermarket fans from brands like Arctic Cooling.

Quoting myself:

What you could try doing is getting another fan and putting it on to see if your problems go away. But depending on the video card you have, it's not very price-wise, since one of those fans might cost you 15 to 30 bucks, whereas you could get a brand new 256 AGP card for 40 bucks on Newegg.

Besides, some video cards have very limited support when it comes to aftermarket fans, you know. The fan I thought about buying was almost twice the size of the video card, and it was meant for 9500 models and up.

I had a similar problem with my first computer. Took me ages to solve the problem, so before you blame the hardware, check out the drivers. In my case, a faulty SCSI driver was crashing the comp at random intervals. You might have chosen a wrong driver for one of your devices.

Well, that's true, he did say he got the latest drivers. What happens is that some older video cards aren't being supported by the newer software that's coming out, especially from Radeon. My old 9250 wasn't supported by Catalyt 6.8 and 6.9, so I had to get the 6.5 version. Maybe you should first try downgrading your drivers to an older version.

Although I'd seriously doubt that it's gonna solve your problem. But I'm not a hardware expert, so I may be wrong.

[jedinat]

Since I have no money right now, I've decided to pretend there isn't a problem, and not play any pc games.

Thanks for your help though guys

[Zero Shinohara]

Since I have no money right now, I've decided to pretend there isn't a problem, and not play any pc games.

Thanks for your help though guys

Rofl, nice way of coping with it. And you know what, sometimes it's better not to even touch those. I mean, I have lots of stuff to do, but since I can play my games, I normally choose the latter.