Computer crashes repeatedly in-game.

[Ronin]

I have no idea when it started but as far as i can tell it began when i installed my new radeon 9600xt graphics card and A-bit NF7 series Motherboard.

In-game i can play great on lower graphics but my computer cannot handle the higher graphics settings and will just freeze up and go to a black screen and make that broken record audio sound like it was stuck on a track or something.
Also if i leave the game in a specific spot, like the start screen, it wiil not make it. The game will just freeze and lock-up, and i wasnt even playing a game yet.

The funny thing is that my desktop or movies do not get affected by this problem.

I cannot get the catylist utility center or control panel to work after i downloaded it from the website. I need to know if my graphics card is the problem, which others said it might be, or if its something else entirely.

Any help of anykind would be appreciated, Thnx.

 

[Sharkfood]

Hi Ronin,
You need to get the ATI drivers to install properly before we can condemn the videocard. I'd also say once you have the drivers- be it CCC or CP version- you can fiddle around with ATI's SmartGART to change some settings and VPU recovery to restore stability in games with higher settings.

First things first, I'd recommend updating to the newer (but beta) NForce drivers. You can get the 6.37 beta's from:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=971

Go ahead and download these and install them before proceeding.

After installing these, get Driver Cleaner Pro at: http://www.drivercleaner.net
Install this, but do not run it. Instead, run it's Live Update and close it right afterwards.

From here, download the Catalyst drivers from ATI's website. For the control panel 5.11's, follow this link and download but do NOT INSTALL (yet)- just leave them handily on your desktop:
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/...fbe40c49a20e4c0aaa6f&accountID=737&deptID=894

Now perform the following steps:
1) Open Control Panel, Add-Remove Programs. Hunt down the following ATI uninstalls and perform each one IN THIS ORDER- but do NOT restart when prompted until the very last one. If you do not have one in the list, skip to the next one:
ATI Remote Wonder
ATI Multimedia Center
ATI DVD Decoder
ATI Catalyst Control Center
ATI Control Panel
ATI Display Driver
ATI Software Uninstall Utility

Upon completion of the last one, go ahead and perform a restart. On restart, press F8 to interrupt Windows load and go into Safe Mode as Administrator.

2) In Safe Mode, as Administrator- you'll have to browse My Computer, C: drive, Program Files, Driver Cleaner Pro as there will be no shortcut for Administrator. Double-click on the executable to launch.
3) In Driver Cleaner Pro, select "Multiple Cleaning Files" and add ALL the one's listed as ATI (ATI, ATI CCC, ATI WDM, ATI CP, etc.etc.). Then click Start and let it process.
4) Upon completion of Driver Cleaner Pro, PULL YOUR NETWORK CABLE SO THERE IS NO INTERNET/NETWORK.
5) Restart your computer in Normal mode (but with NO NETWORK).
6) Launch the 5.11 Catalyst driver install previously downloaded on your desktop. Take the Express installation path. Upon completion, restart as prompted.
7) Let your system fully restart. Wait for all disk activity to cease, then perform yet another Restart. After this restart, you may reconnect your network/broadband.

At this point, you should have the 5.11 drivers properly installed. If you encountered any errors during the above steps, you may need to repeat the entire process, but be sure to disable/kill any systray applications such as Spyware detection, Antivirus or otherwise.

Once the drivers are installed, you can try your games for stability. If you still encounter stability problems, you should try several things:
1) Disable FastWrites in the BIOS or ATI's SmartGART
2) Reduce AGP to 4x
3) Disable VPU Recovery in the ATI Drivers.
4) Disable Overdrive in the ATI Drivers.

Good luck!

 

[Ronin]

still not solving my problem

Well I followed the instructions as written and it definately did something. I never seen age of empires look so smooth.

However my computer is stil freezing up in-game. I cant figure out y. One minute its looking great and then bam, black screen and frozen audio track.

What would cause this? im sure its something to do with the video but what? is the card not compatible with my mobo, or is the card just bad?

I've been doing diagnostics tests since the begining of time and it is really furiating me that i cant get an answer to my problem.

I also turned off the vpu recovery changed the agp to 4x and turned off bios fast writes. Im still locking up in-game. Its so annoying.Please help me!!!

Thanks again for that long post on how to update my drivers. it was very indepth and knowledgeable. Please, if you can continue to diagnos my problem please do so. Iappreciate it.