Odd behavior - computer locks up momentarily when starting ANY game

[RP]

I can't figure this one out. Every time *without fail*, when I start up
ANY game,. everything will be fine until about two minutes into the
game when suddenly my mouse will freeze and I'll hear the sound for a
few seconds, and then the sound will stop also, and the whole machine
appears to be locked up. Things stay like this for about 10-20 seconds,
and then suddenly it all frees up and I'm good to go. Then, shortly
after this, the whole series repeats itself. After these two sequences,
everything works fine and it doesn't happen again and I can play all
night without incident. However, if I quit the game and restart it, the
same thing will happen again shortly and I'll have to go through the
two sequences again before things settle down.

This is happening on a fresh system after nuking and reinstalling XP
Pro. Latest nVidia drivers for my 6800 Ultra and XiFi, 3.2ghz P4 with
3GB and plenty of storage. Networked with a few other machines on a
small home LAN. Very clean system and LAN, but something is obviously
wrong. I suspect it's either a firewall issue or some kind of bad
interaction with DirectX (since it's only games that appear to be
affected).

It's a Windows Server 2003 domain with Active Directory and an Exchange
2003 server on the LAN.

Any ideas? This is driving me NUTS. It used to happen before I nuked
and reformatted, and I thought this would get rid of the issue. But
apparently not.

 

[Guest]

Is that work or private business?,why you don't tell the Admin about.
HTH
Regards
nass

 

[Manny Borges]

LOL, he said it was a home network.

He is the admin.

....I'm sorry, I guess my comment was as pointless as yours.

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi RP,

Hardware issues can cause freezing, black screens and other
errors. Also, your drivers should always be kept up to date.

Try the following steps one at a time to try and resolve the issue.
I hope this helps. Please post back if you have any questions!

1. Update DirectX and your Chipset, Sound, &Video Drivers:
For all Video / DirectX / Game and Hardware Issues, I have a
Checklist of Solutions at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk

2. Dust your fans, vents and components using a 1/4" paintbrush
and a hose vacuum. Use compressed air for hard to reach places.
Set a housefan to blow cold air into your case to expose an over-
heating issue.. If it works add more fans or replace defective ones.
Use this Motherboard Monitor Utility: http://mbm.livewiredev.com

3. A faulty power supply can cause STOP errors, random reboots,
and black screen lockups. One way to test for that is to check the
wattage sticker on your power supply and then calculate your need
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/ (Min. 350 for gaming)

4. Test your RAM using: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

--
Cheers, Windows_XP_MVP_Shell/User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Visit my MSN Zone.com and Gaming Help Site: http://mvps.org/nibblesnbits
MS Games Help and Support Center: http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=gms
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

RP Wrote:
=================
| I can't figure this one out. Every time *without fail*, when I start up
| ANY game,. everything will be fine until about two minutes into the
| game when suddenly my mouse will freeze and I'll hear the sound for a
| few seconds, and then the sound will stop also, and the whole machine
| appears to be locked up. Things stay like this for about 10-20 seconds,
| and then suddenly it all frees up and I'm good to go. Then, shortly
| after this, the whole series repeats itself. After these two sequences,
| everything works fine and it doesn't happen again and I can play all
| night without incident. However, if I quit the game and restart it, the
| same thing will happen again shortly and I'll have to go through the
| two sequences again before things settle down.
|
| This is happening on a fresh system after nuking and reinstalling XP
| Pro. Latest nVidia drivers for my 6800 Ultra and XiFi, 3.2ghz P4 with
| 3GB and plenty of storage. Networked with a few other machines on a
| small home LAN. Very clean system and LAN, but something is obviously
| wrong. I suspect it's either a firewall issue or some kind of bad
| interaction with DirectX (since it's only games that appear to be
| affected).
|
| It's a Windows Server 2003 domain with Active Directory and an Exchange
| 2003 server on the LAN.
|
| Any ideas? This is driving me NUTS. It used to happen before I nuked
| and reformatted, and I thought this would get rid of the issue. But
| apparently not.

 

[Paul Smith]

A general stab in the dark points me at chipset drivers. What motherboard
have you got?

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove 'nospam.' to reply by e-mail*

 

[RP]

A general stab in the dark points me at chipset drivers. What motherboard
have you got?

ASUS P4C800. I recently reinstalled everything after a full nuke, so
I'm pretty certain that I installed chipset drivers as part of that
process. What I can't say for sure is whether I used the original ASUS
CD or checked first for new chipset drivers on the ASUS site. I'll go
take a look now and try that. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm open to
all ideas!

RP

 

[RP]

ASUS P4C800. I recently reinstalled everything after a full nuke, so
I'm pretty certain that I installed chipset drivers as part of that
process. What I can't say for sure is whether I used the original ASUS
CD or checked first for new chipset drivers on the ASUS site. I'll go
take a look now and try that. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm open to
all ideas!

RP

I used Drive Clearner Pro to remove all old video and audio drivers,
and then reinstalled everything from the chipset drivers, to a new
DirectX, new XiFi driver, new PC Bios. Launched my favorite game and it
looked good for quite a while. But about 5 minutes into the game, the
lockup occurred in the same manner it usually does: first, the mouse
freezes on screen but you can still hear the sound playing. Then the
sound disappears and the whole machine appears to be locked up for a
good 20-30 seconds. Then, everything pops back into normal operation
and all is well. For a few minutes, anyway, because the whole cycle
repeats and it locks up a second time. This time, after everything
returns to normal it stops happening.

Unless I leave the game and start over. Tonight I noticed something
else about the problem. When I alt-tabbed out to the desktop from
within a game and then returned to the game, I again had to undergo the
whole freeze up sequence. So it appears to be something that's
triggered by visiting the desktop (which explains why it happens
everything I start up a new game session). This doesn't happen with
productivity applications, even graphics-intensive ones like Adobe
Premiere Pro. Just the games. Which is why I suspected DirectX or
firewall issues.

Thanks for any continuing thoughts.

 

[DL]

A couple of things to try
memtest86, run over a period
Msconfig; disable all startups and test
Msconfig, hide all MS and disable the rest, and test
Finally try this http://www.dependencywalker.com/
You need to run a game that results in lockups through this, it may help in
locating a faulty module
I assume Event Viewer dosnt show anything?

 

[RP]

A couple of things to try

That's a breathtaking list of things to try. But I'll give it a go if
nothing else I try works.

I assume Event Viewer dosnt show anything?

Correct, no errors of any kind. Information boxes. It's a pretty clean
system, well maintained and 100% latest drivers of everything. Very odd
problem. I reinstalled the chipset drivers, all device drivers, latest
bios, latest DirectX, and still I see the problem.

I've always been one to believe that "if you think it's the hardware,
it's never the hardware". Almost always a software issue somewhere. But
I'm coming to the conclusion that my video card may just be bad. On
occassions when the problem is really pronounced, the computer will not
return from the lockup state and will instead go BSOD with a message
that things went south in the nVidia drivers.

 

[DL]

I had problems once with IE lockups, using Dependency Walker, as advised by
MS Tech I was able to locate a faulty Nvidea display dll.
I uninstalled NVidea drivers (Add/Remove dialogue) used a driver cleaner
tool to remove all ellements of Nvidea
http://www.drivercleaner.net/
Then reinstalled vid drivers, problem solved

 

[RP]

I had problems once with IE lockups, using Dependency Walker, as advised by
MS Tech I was able to locate a faulty Nvidea display dll.
I uninstalled NVidea drivers (Add/Remove dialogue) used a driver cleaner
tool to remove all ellements of Nvidea
http://www.drivercleaner.net/
Then reinstalled vid drivers, problem solved

Yeah that's a good technique and I tried something similar using
DriveCleanerPro, meticulously uninstalling via Add/Remove, followed by
DriveCleanerPro prior to restart, followed by logging back into Safe
mode with the network cable unplugged and running DriveCleanerPro
again, followed finally by rebooting and reinstalling (currently using
the 91.31 drivers).

Thanks for the suggestion, tho, and keep those cards and letters and
ideas coming, folks. This one's a stumper. I'm still wondering if there
might be firewall issues, and why is it only manifesting in game
applications? That's why I thought of DirectX but I reinstalled that,
too. Not sure, but I don't think there's a way to uninstall DirectX, is
there?

 

[Thomas Kuck]

I followed this thread and one suggestion I have not seen is this:
disable your AV and Firewall one at a time and try to play. Mind you,
don't do this when you are connected to the net.

 

[Jimmy S.]

RP Wrote:
=================

| Thanks for the suggestion, tho, and keep those cards and letters and
| ideas coming, folks. This one's a stumper. I'm still wondering if there
| might be firewall issues, and why is it only manifesting in game
| applications? That's why I thought of DirectX but I reinstalled that,
| too. Not sure, but I don't think there's a way to uninstall DirectX, is
| there?

Hi RP,

Yes, there is.
That information and more is in my reply at the beginning of this thread.


--
Cheers, *Windows_XP_MVP_Shell/User*
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Visit my MSN Games and Windows Gaming Help Site: www.msce.mvps.org
MS Games Help and Support Center: http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=gms
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

 

[RP]

| too. Not sure, but I don't think there's a way to uninstall DirectX, is
| there?

Hi RP,

Yes, there is.
That information and more is in my reply at the beginning of this thread.

Thanks for the reply Jimmy, and I did scan all of your information
regarding DirectX but it just confirms my belief that there's no
official way to uninstall DirectX. The site correctly warns that using
one of the various 3rd party uninstallers is done "at your own risk".
All things considered, I'd probably prefer to just nuke my system and
install a fresh copy of XP Pro and reinstall everything from the ground
up.

But I'm starting to doubt that it's a corrupted DirectX and am leaning
more to a corrupted video card. Every GeForce I've ever had has
eventually died some kind of premature death. They don't seem to have
good longevity around this household. The card has served me well over
the years (it's a 6800 Ultra, purchased the day they were released) but
it's probably time to move on from AGP. I get weird screen artifacts
too, just as the problem starts manifesting. I would just get a new
video card and try it to see what happens, but if I'm going to upgrade,
I need to do a whole mobo, etc. Groan. I was hoping to learn it was a
firewall or DirectX issue ...

 

[RP]

I followed this thread and one suggestion I have not seen is this:
disable your AV and Firewall one at a time and try to play. Mind you,
don't do this when you are connected to the net.

I haven't found a good AV product that is sufficiently inobtrusive so I
don't use them (I know, shudder) but I have a couple of firewalls and I
practice very safe computing so I'm reasonably comfortable. I'll
experiment with turning off the FWs while disconnected and see if that
makes a difference. Thanks for the suggestion, much appreciated.

RP

 

[Guest]

Its probably not the video card. I've got a brand new system here that'll run
xp sp2 beautifully, but can't game with server 2003. It has the exact same
problem. The only fix I've found so far is a fresh install with the latest
drivers (91.31). None of the older drivers will work in games, and if I
change drivers, the nvidia control panel will begin showing directx 3, and
the lockups come back. I plan on trying to turn off DEP/PAE and see what
happens, its my last chance before tossing this os. Also, you'll probably
notice that it's only directx 9.0 games that has this problem.

 

[RoyG]

I came to think about one thing:

You haven't installed the Direct X Debug Runtime, have you? In that case,
make sure you install the End User Runtime instead.

Run "dxdiag" to see if you have. You may also see if there are other
problems there if your problem is detectable from Direct X.

Regards
Roy