So I've been around, seen a lot of similar issues but none that actually fits the exact problem I'm having. Not sure where else to put this so I'll just explain here.
My computer is something I built myself and it's a year old as of May. At the time I was running:
2.4ghz x2 AMD Athlon Dual Core 64bit processor
2gig ddr2 ram (least I think but I can't quite figure out, was a special at fries. 1gig each has a special military decal for heatsinks)
Nvidia 8600 GT OC PCI-e (BFG version) - now replaced by Nvidia 9600 GT OC PCI-e
Sound Live 7.1
650w powersupply
Having played Tabula Rasa for a bit I did figure the 8600 was over heating as after hours of extensive play the colors would give and go all wonky. Pretty self explanatory as it's a sign of over heating issues. I could keep my computer on for days at a time but sooner or later reset so that memory could reset. Drivers had been up to date. Upon playing Assassin's Creed in April issues such as snowy effects and freezing in the game made me tone down the card's settings and when Rainbow Six Vegas 2 came out by retuning the anti aliasing, both games ran fine within reason of adjusting each through the options. Since then problems became very rare.
Well I turned to playing City of Heroes/Villains in about late April and early May. Everything was fine, the only time lag set in was during Rikti Raids where massive amounts of people gathered in a particular zone in which case nothing graphically damaging just lag.
Ever since one of Cryptic's last updates to the game I've been experiencing restarts from continuous play starting about two weeks ago. At first this seemed a sign of Power Supply dying but again the rig is kept on two days at a time, thought it was merely forceful restarts to reset the memory. Couple days later, sometime last week, the game would actually freeze and the screen would turn into a plaided design. Like a plaided t-shirt except the shirt itself are all colors of the rainbow. At which point if I waited, the computer would restart, or I would do so manually by pressing the button and waiting the lotted amount of time before rebooting. (mind you similar situations prior I would let the rig cool off before jumping into a game. For instance reaching the desktop and shutting down most likely)
So a couple days ago I goto turn on my computer, system boots up but the monitor stays black. I hear the chime of windows but the screen is blank. So I thought, ok the video card finally went curplut. I ran over to best buy and bought the next newer but cheeper model, the 9600 GT OC (again by BFG as that's all Best Buy had for Nvidia's) Got home and installed the card. Low and behold everything boots up properly, I install the drivers latest from the Nvidia site before finding out about the 177.83 which I switched over to that. Tried to load up CoH/X and about 10-20minutes in the screen would go black and the computer would restart. So I tested and played with Rainbow Six Vegas all of which was fine before installing the 177.83 patch, after installing though I wound up with (after maybe 5 hours of play) a white screen, everything was horribly choppy and digital, and characters (numbers and letters) were all blue. I managed to exit to desktop and everything was fine.
At this point I was ticked and stubborn but thought this was from 5 hours of extensive play with graphics tweaked within reason. (considering RBV2 doesn't like AntiA on) So I ran CoX again and within 10-20 minutes it freezes, goes black, and I had to hold the button to power down. I let the computer cool, reboot, and try to execute the game again, about five minutes in it does it again. Ok so I'm really ticked now thinking it's been the monitor itself. Now I try to reboot without going into the game but the screen is completely black and the light on the Dell monitor registers orange. (keep in mind resolutions weren't changed beyond that which the monitor could handle a '17" with 1024x786 some games I could run the 1157x or whatever with not too much problem) So I perform a test by grabbing a spare monitor, a '15", and hoping that I could boot into Safe Mode to reset everything before strait into the normal desktop. Low and behold, now the screen doesn't register, lights are all green with the exception of the right light being red, just next to the power button.
Been around these forums seeing issues like the little bulb things (forget their names) perhaps blowing, I see no issues; they all look fine. No recorded smell that I could remember before hand. So if it wasn't the card nor the monitor, I was thinking maybe the Power Supply, but it (before the 177.83 patch) could handle the whole rig quite well. So I'm completely stumped. I can't see anything, even the boot up prompt nor the logo; and in fact theres no chime in the background indicating it's booted up properly. I have no idea what to do and I'm afraid of spending any more money only to see the change not correct the problem...
My computer is something I built myself and it's a year old as of May. At the time I was running:
2.4ghz x2 AMD Athlon Dual Core 64bit processor
2gig ddr2 ram (least I think but I can't quite figure out, was a special at fries. 1gig each has a special military decal for heatsinks)
Nvidia 8600 GT OC PCI-e (BFG version) - now replaced by Nvidia 9600 GT OC PCI-e
Sound Live 7.1
650w powersupply
Having played Tabula Rasa for a bit I did figure the 8600 was over heating as after hours of extensive play the colors would give and go all wonky. Pretty self explanatory as it's a sign of over heating issues. I could keep my computer on for days at a time but sooner or later reset so that memory could reset. Drivers had been up to date. Upon playing Assassin's Creed in April issues such as snowy effects and freezing in the game made me tone down the card's settings and when Rainbow Six Vegas 2 came out by retuning the anti aliasing, both games ran fine within reason of adjusting each through the options. Since then problems became very rare.
Well I turned to playing City of Heroes/Villains in about late April and early May. Everything was fine, the only time lag set in was during Rikti Raids where massive amounts of people gathered in a particular zone in which case nothing graphically damaging just lag.
Ever since one of Cryptic's last updates to the game I've been experiencing restarts from continuous play starting about two weeks ago. At first this seemed a sign of Power Supply dying but again the rig is kept on two days at a time, thought it was merely forceful restarts to reset the memory. Couple days later, sometime last week, the game would actually freeze and the screen would turn into a plaided design. Like a plaided t-shirt except the shirt itself are all colors of the rainbow. At which point if I waited, the computer would restart, or I would do so manually by pressing the button and waiting the lotted amount of time before rebooting. (mind you similar situations prior I would let the rig cool off before jumping into a game. For instance reaching the desktop and shutting down most likely)
So a couple days ago I goto turn on my computer, system boots up but the monitor stays black. I hear the chime of windows but the screen is blank. So I thought, ok the video card finally went curplut. I ran over to best buy and bought the next newer but cheeper model, the 9600 GT OC (again by BFG as that's all Best Buy had for Nvidia's) Got home and installed the card. Low and behold everything boots up properly, I install the drivers latest from the Nvidia site before finding out about the 177.83 which I switched over to that. Tried to load up CoH/X and about 10-20minutes in the screen would go black and the computer would restart. So I tested and played with Rainbow Six Vegas all of which was fine before installing the 177.83 patch, after installing though I wound up with (after maybe 5 hours of play) a white screen, everything was horribly choppy and digital, and characters (numbers and letters) were all blue. I managed to exit to desktop and everything was fine.
At this point I was ticked and stubborn but thought this was from 5 hours of extensive play with graphics tweaked within reason. (considering RBV2 doesn't like AntiA on) So I ran CoX again and within 10-20 minutes it freezes, goes black, and I had to hold the button to power down. I let the computer cool, reboot, and try to execute the game again, about five minutes in it does it again. Ok so I'm really ticked now thinking it's been the monitor itself. Now I try to reboot without going into the game but the screen is completely black and the light on the Dell monitor registers orange. (keep in mind resolutions weren't changed beyond that which the monitor could handle a '17" with 1024x786 some games I could run the 1157x or whatever with not too much problem) So I perform a test by grabbing a spare monitor, a '15", and hoping that I could boot into Safe Mode to reset everything before strait into the normal desktop. Low and behold, now the screen doesn't register, lights are all green with the exception of the right light being red, just next to the power button.
Been around these forums seeing issues like the little bulb things (forget their names) perhaps blowing, I see no issues; they all look fine. No recorded smell that I could remember before hand. So if it wasn't the card nor the monitor, I was thinking maybe the Power Supply, but it (before the 177.83 patch) could handle the whole rig quite well. So I'm completely stumped. I can't see anything, even the boot up prompt nor the logo; and in fact theres no chime in the background indicating it's booted up properly. I have no idea what to do and I'm afraid of spending any more money only to see the change not correct the problem...
