[Visionism]

OK I thought I'd had and solved just about every problem imaginable but this is a new one on me. I first noticed this playing FS2 but it apparently effects every game I have now. Every so often while playing the game will pause for about 30 seconds or so. After that it resumes as if nothing happened. Sometimes it will be 10 minutes between pauses, sometimes 10 seconds. I cant see anything in particular going on on-screen when this happens so it isn't a particular effect that causing it.
Needless to say its making games unplayable.

Also in Freelancer some of the textures flicker, even on the main menu screen. It isn't effecting anything that isn't 3D.

So far I've reinstalled the latest video drivers, reinstalled DirectX, made sure I have plenty of room for the page file (tried with dynamic and fixed sizes) and played about with video settings (FSAA, aniso etc) until I'm blue in the face. Anyone know what I've missed?

(System specs: Athlon 1800+ 1.53GHz, 256MB PC2700, GF4 Ti4200 with extra cooling, XP Pro, DirectX 9.0a)

[diamondgeezer]

Have you picked a virus or piece of spyware that's eating your clock cycles?

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Diamond Geezer insists on the benefits of mayonaise

[IceFire]

Check the heat levels on your processor or on the video card.  If you can, check the power supply to see if its constant, check your Windows power settings to ensure that you aren't powering your hard drives down after 10 seconds of inactivity or something stupid.

This sounds more hardware related.  The missing textures and the pauses make me think video card...but it could be something else.

[J.F.K.]

Originally posted by Visionism
OK I thought I'd had and solved just about every problem imaginable but this is a new one on me. I first noticed this playing FS2 but it apparently effects every game I have now. Every so often while playing the game will pause for about 30 seconds or so. After that it resumes as if nothing happened. Sometimes it will be 10 minutes between pauses, sometimes 10 seconds. I cant see anything in particular going on on-screen when this happens so it isn't a particular effect that causing it.
Needless to say its making games unplayable.

Also in Freelancer some of the textures flicker, even on the main menu screen. It isn't effecting anything that isn't 3D.

So far I've reinstalled the latest video drivers, reinstalled DirectX, made sure I have plenty of room for the page file (tried with dynamic and fixed sizes) and played about with video settings (FSAA, aniso etc) until I'm blue in the face. Anyone know what I've missed?

(System specs: Athlon 1800+ 1.53GHz, 256MB PC2700, GF4 Ti4200 with extra cooling, XP Pro, DirectX 9.0a)

The pauses are likely to be caused by spyware (had that problem myself once), but those texture problems are something I've never encountered before. I would have said graphics card, but your setup there looks like it should handle everything fine...

[Visionism]

Scanned for viruses, nada. Ran Adaware and got rid of a couple of sneaky ones that slipped by but no change.

I'm inclined to think its a hardware problem myself (which is gonna REALLY tick me off) Its certainly not a cooling problem. My CPU sports an Alpha PAL 8045 and a Vantec Tornado fan. The power supply is an Antec so it should be good and MBM5 (which I know is notoriously inaccurate) doesnt show any voltages too far off what they should be. This thing has me pulling my hair out in clumps. I think maybe its time to slap the video card in another PC and see if it happens again with that one.

[J.F.K.]

Originally posted by Visionism
I think maybe its time to slap the video card in another PC and see if it happens again with that one.

That's a good idea. My PC is in a permanent state of open-case because of that sort of operation... btw, how old's your PC? Was this sudden?

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Visionism
Scanned for viruses, nada. Ran Adaware and got rid of a couple of sneaky ones that slipped by but no change.

I'm inclined to think its a hardware problem myself (which is gonna REALLY tick me off) Its certainly not a cooling problem. My CPU sports an Alpha PAL 8045 and a Vantec Tornado fan. The power supply is an Antec so it should be good and MBM5 (which I know is notoriously inaccurate) doesnt show any voltages too far off what they should be. This thing has me pulling my hair out in clumps. I think maybe its time to slap the video card in another PC and see if it happens again with that one.

Definately good parts in there...it may be specifically the video card itself then.  Thats what I was suspecting but unless one of those is seriously malfunctioning than it may be video.

[WMCoolmon]

I have a similar problem in some games(I think only some), and there is almost certainly a problem with my vid card. Sometimes, in Starcraft, the screen will suddenly tinge with a different color then immediately return to normal...a lot of times, the CPU is hot, and this has happened with an LCD and CRT monitor so far, both used over extended periods of time.

So I'd say checking the video card is a good idea.

[Visionism]

Yep, very sudden. Started yesterday. Usually when something like that happens I can trace it to something I installed that overwrote a DLL or something but in this case all I've installed lately is FS2 and that played fine for the first few hours. The whole system was a ground-up build last august btw and I'm pretty picky about the components that go into my systems. The Video card for example is an OCSystem enhanced 4200. A cherrypicked card with a copper cooler, copper ramsinks and a custom BIOS - The fastest (and most expensive) 4200 on the planet. It also has 2x80mm fans blowing directly across it. I even tried underclocking it in case I was having heat trouble but no luck there.

[J.F.K.]

Originally posted by Visionism
Yep, very sudden. Started yesterday. Usually when something like that happens I can trace it to something I installed that overwrote a DLL or something but in this case all I've installed lately is FS2 and that played fine for the first few hours. The whole system was a ground-up build last august btw and I'm pretty picky about the components that go into my systems. The Video card for example is an OCSystem enhanced 4200. A cherrypicked card with a copper cooler, copper ramsinks and a custom BIOS - The fastest (and most expensive) 4200 on the planet. It also has 2x80mm fans blowing directly across it. I even tried underclocking it in case I was having heat trouble but no luck there.

I can't pick anything wrong with it. I'd stick the graphics card into someone else's box without delay. Then again, that's me, I have no qualms with tearing apart my PC.

[Visionism]

Me either. Unfortunately the wife has plenty of qualms about me tearing apart her PC while she's using it

[Fury]

Visionism, go to your Add/Remove programs and see if you have WinXP patch Q811493 installed. If it is, remove it and reboot.

That patch has caused severe performance problems on many systems.

It is a minor security patch to fix a security hole in Windows Messaging. It shouldn't be an issue for most ppl. So do not download Q811493 until M$ has fixed the performance issue.

Edit: More information about this at Neowin

[diamondgeezer]

Thanks for the tip, Fury mate *uninstalls*

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Diamond Geezer likes to do a bit of gardening on a sunny day

[Visionism]

Thanks Fury. didn't have it though...arggghhhhh

[Visionism]

Ok its "beat Vis over the head with a stick" time. The video card fan had come unplugged.

D'OH!!!!!!!!