screen freezes

[J-wolf]

I have a p4 1.8g with 680 megs of ram and 64 meg nvidia Geforce 4
mmx440 agpx4 video card. and a proview 17' flat screen
I enjoy playing 3 games Mechwarior 4,Americas Army, and Enemy
Territory. These 3 games played fine on my system some for over 2
years.(at this time it had only 384 megs of ram and a 16 meg video
card) Then out of the blue the screen would hang up for 20 to 45 secs
with the sound suturing. then it would return to normal operation for
a min or two then stutter again. making the games unplayable it also
shot my online pings thru the roof from 80-120 average to 200 to 280
average. I have reinstalled XP, DX 9 updated all drivers including the
BIOS and add 256 megs of mem and a new video card to no avail. Any
ideas on what to try next.?

 

[Guest]

It could be caused by some of the utility packages, such as Customizer Xp, which run many background processes, I had very similar sort of problem when RAM freeing utility was performing its duties, make sure that any utuilities of that sort are disableb during gameplay.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi J-wolf,

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
( I know you've done it already, but maybe this technique is better)

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 Mainboard Monitoring 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 remove all
extra devices, network cards, extra RAM sticks, modem, scussi card,
sound card, unplug CD drives (if not needed to verify CD), and then
try the game again. If the problem is solved look into a 400 watt P/S.

4. Test your RAM using: http://www.memtest86.com/memt30.zip
after you extract that zip file, click on the README.txt file for the
instructions on how to create the boot floppy to test your RAM.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

|I have a p4 1.8g with 680 megs of ram and 64 meg nvidia Geforce 4
| mmx440 agpx4 video card. and a proview 17' flat screen
| I enjoy playing 3 games Mechwarior 4,Americas Army, and Enemy
| Territory. These 3 games played fine on my system some for over 2
| years.(at this time it had only 384 megs of ram and a 16 meg video
| card) Then out of the blue the screen would hang up for 20 to 45 secs
| with the sound suturing. then it would return to normal operation for
| a min or two then stutter again. making the games unplayable it also
| shot my online pings thru the roof from 80-120 average to 200 to 280
| average. I have reinstalled XP, DX 9 updated all drivers including the
| BIOS and add 256 megs of mem and a new video card to no avail. Any
| ideas on what to try next.?