My PC is a HP m9455sc (yes I know HP is shit etc. but my dad's company has some deal with them and gets computers from them cheap so he kinda forced it on me) The specs are: GeForce 9800 GT w/1 GB GDDR3 memory
Motherboard: Asus IPIBL-LB
Core 2 Quad Q6600 (K) 2.4 GHz (95W) Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Media Center (64-bit) with Vista Service Pack 1
Tell me if there's more you need to know, I wasn't really sure what info I'd need to give up.
Here's what it looks like, the game freezes up and then weird flickers like the ones in this picture are visible on top of the game. The audio also starts stuttering until I turn the PC off via the power button.
4 gigs of RAM
At first this only happened in MW2, then in Mass Effect, and then in World of Warcraft and finally everytime I started the PC(I could still boot it in safe mode) so I sent it in for repairs. I got the PC back and they said they'd replaced the processor and graphics card(I waited 6 bloody weeks for that shit) and guess what, same fucking problem again. Started in MW2, and now today WoW. It annoys the fuck out of me because I can't even play a complete match in MW2. It has only happened once in WoW yet but I guess that number will increase. The times I've spoken with HP support on live chat they first told me I had too little RAM memory(Bullshit, I have 4 gigs and have never occupied it all) then they told me to reset the graphic drivers to factory standard, and still the same problem (but there was some difference, all colors became slightly more gray (less "saturated"? not really the brightest english speaker)) and now I'm speaking with some dumb shit who thinks I should send in the computer again and waste another 6 weeks to get the same results.
Because this has happened with both cards, I believe it's either: a) not caused by the graphics card b) HP trolling me by sending me a defect card c) a shitty-ass computer made to break everything inside it and it's owner.
I really have no clue as to what to do with this. I got the computer 2 years ago by christmas and I really don't feel like replacing stuff that should be perfectly fine.
The fact that the audio is affected as well makes me think it may not be the graphics card, but it sounds like your computer might be overheating. I don't know what kind of ventilation your computer has, but is it out in the open?
Well I just cleaned it from dust, temps when idle are around 60 degrees celsius for the GPU and 30 for the CPU. It used to be 80 and 50 respectively before I cleaned it. And I wouldn't call the space "open" but it has about 10 centimeters of free space around it in each direction.
Can you see what your cpu useage is like while this is happening? :o Might be worth reinstalling the shit out of DirectX, if that went wrong it would account for both the graphical and audio screw-ups but it would have to be going wrong in a fairly interesting way. Still, easy to do and worth a try I think.
@Jack268: Oh ok, so the computer locks up? Sorry to be nit-picky but the screenshot threw me off, so once this happens, the computer stops responding to mouse/keyboard input?
@Borodin: Yes. The picture is from before I sent the computer in for repairs, where it would freeze on startup, rendering the computer pretty much useless.
HP support is telling me to get another replacement card. Fuck them :(
@Jack268: Hmm I agree with you and the chances of two different cards having the same problem are pretty slim *but* the chances of one of your PCI slots being damaged is a little cleaner (still pretty unlikely mind you) - if you're confident with playing around with components you could try moving the graphics card to a spare slot and seeing if that helps at all.
Having said that, has it *ever* done this while in safe-mode?
When it happened on startup I could still go into safe mode and uninstall the graphic card drivers(which didn't fix anything) and that's the only time I really used safe mode.
O.K. I was asking because my first reaction when I saw the screenshot was that it was a hardware fault, dead graphics card etc. but seeing as HP replaced your graphics card (although as an aside I have no idea why they would replace your cpu AND graphics card) I started thinking about possible software causes for that kind of stuff - and safe-mode is a good test because so little software is running when you're in safe mode that if you don't have a problem, the chances are the problem is being caused by software and likewise if you *do* have a problem, it's more likely to be hardware.
So hmmmmmm, try reinstalling DirectX just in case, and if that doesn't work try swapping the PCI slot the graphics card is inserted in - but I have to say both of those are kind of Hail Mary options :(
@Jack268: I've had a similar experience to yours, which was definitely caused by the graphics card. A piece of metal touching the graphics board shorted it out periodically, causing the entire system to lock up and display similar results to the images you posted of your screen. Also, I've seen it happen with failing motherboards in a couple of laptops. The lock-ups became more and more frequent until the machines wouldn't even boot.
Since your graphics card was replaced, my guess is that the motherboard is bad. That, or you did get sent a second bad GPU. Either way, I'm sure it's a hardware problem. Has it been locking up more and more frequently over time?
The specs are:
GeForce 9800 GT w/1 GB GDDR3 memory
Motherboard: Asus IPIBL-LB Core 2 Quad Q6600 (K) 2.4 GHz (95W)
Tell me if there's more you need to know, I wasn't really sure what info I'd need to give up.Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Media Center (64-bit) with Vista Service Pack 1
Here's what it looks like, the game freezes up and then weird flickers like the ones in this picture are visible on top of the game. The audio also starts stuttering until I turn the PC off via the power button.
4 gigs of RAM
At first this only happened in MW2, then in Mass Effect, and then in World of Warcraft and finally everytime I started the PC(I could still boot it in safe mode) so I sent it in for repairs. I got the PC back and they said they'd replaced the processor and graphics card(I waited 6 bloody weeks for that shit) and guess what, same fucking problem again. Started in MW2, and now today WoW. It annoys the fuck out of me because I can't even play a complete match in MW2. It has only happened once in WoW yet but I guess that number will increase. The times I've spoken with HP support on live chat they first told me I had too little RAM memory(Bullshit, I have 4 gigs and have never occupied it all) then they told me to reset the graphic drivers to factory standard, and still the same problem (but there was some difference, all colors became slightly more gray (less "saturated"? not really the brightest english speaker)) and now I'm speaking with some dumb shit who thinks I should send in the computer again and waste another 6 weeks to get the same results.Because this has happened with both cards, I believe it's either:
a) not caused by the graphics card
b) HP trolling me by sending me a defect card
c) a shitty-ass computer made to break everything inside it and it's owner.
I really have no clue as to what to do with this. I got the computer 2 years ago by christmas and I really don't feel like replacing stuff that should be perfectly fine.
EDIT: also, those idle temps are fine?
@Borodin: When the flickering shows, it's game over, no way to do anything on the computer at all except powering it off.
HP support is telling me to get another replacement card. Fuck them :(
Having said that, has it *ever* done this while in safe-mode?
So hmmmmmm, try reinstalling DirectX just in case, and if that doesn't work try swapping the PCI slot the graphics card is inserted in - but I have to say both of those are kind of Hail Mary options :(
I've had a similar experience to yours, which was definitely caused by the graphics card. A piece of metal touching the graphics board shorted it out periodically, causing the entire system to lock up and display similar results to the images you posted of your screen. Also, I've seen it happen with failing motherboards in a couple of laptops. The lock-ups became more and more frequent until the machines wouldn't even boot.
Since your graphics card was replaced, my guess is that the motherboard is bad. That, or you did get sent a second bad GPU. Either way, I'm sure it's a hardware problem. Has it been locking up more and more frequently over time?