Shoutbox

I have a problem on BF2

I ahve Ati Readon X800XT (It dosent seem to be on the suported list, only X800XT Platnium or sumething.) and while playing, sometimes it just freezes, and after like 10 seconds my screen turns black, and the monitor button (A dell 19" monitor) turns orange which i guess means "no input"

I have overdrive enabled, and it displays 70°C when I reboot, is this abnormal? Its at about 60°C on right now. Well the room is about 30°C, it so friking warm

I just tried before turning off VPU-Recover, and this time it just locked up.

Anyways my specs are:

[Dell Dimension 8400]
3.2GHz P4 HT, 2GB RAM
Soundblaster Audigy 2
Ati Readon X800XT

DirectX 9.0C, the one with BF2
And the latest ATI drivers.
Windows SP2

I have tried on High (the Default settings on my PC), Medium, and Low video settings in BF2. And Optimized OpneGL & Direct3D for performance, but it hapens just the same, sometimes it takes longer for it to frezee though.

[Also when testing Direc3D under dxdiag, the directX box spins so fast u cant see wahts on it. ]

I might not be able to answer too quickly as im going on vacation, and ill only have a 56K modem on an 233MHz laptop .

70 and 60 is pretty high I think.  That could be cause of overheating, try turning off Overdrive, set all your settings to high (Your card will run it smoothly on high ), and try again, there should be no problem like that, I guess it's only your video card heating.

I'm having the same problem with heat... My pc is getting a bit too hot..

We both got Prescotts (yours is a Prescott build, right?)... They get a bit hotter then the Northwood cpu's..

You processor can be 75 ~ 80 degrees celcius, without problems...
If you hit 120 degrees celcius, i'll be dangerous because the core melts (well, at boilingpoint maybe even more than just the core.... cables etc)

You can try upgrading your cooler.. I guess you're using a "stock" fan, Intel delivered on your CPU... There are a lot of good fans, you might want to try a Zallman cooler, they are very good and not too expensive...

Try searching Google on some reviews, most of them are positive..

Second, airflow is important.. Cables can block it, and multiple fans can also...

You're videocard is a High end one, which get pretty hot aswell.. You can also put a new cooler on it (the only problem is that your warranty is voided sometimes, but well...)

On the freezing specific... I've heard that it sometimes helps when you disable HyperThreading.... I haven't tried it though as i'm still waiting for my disk to be delivered

Good luck, and if you've got any questions about what i've said you can send me a PM!

I just have the fans that came with it.

I opened the case yesterday, and the fan on the the mobo (the core or whatever it is in english), was pretty dusty, so i cleaned it a bit. im on vacation now, on my laptop, so i cant do much. Also the gfx card and the sound card are prety close together, maybe moving them apart will help?

Anyways, ill check with the dell support oche i get home, next weekend or so.

Also the cables just hang around, when the case is lying sideways, which u need to when opening a dell case, the calbes touch the mobo. I dont know about when it is standing, but it might still. Damn i go so scared when opening the case ( i did exactly how it said in the manual) and the cables conecting to the gfx card pulled on the card, but it still works.

Yes i think it is the prescott build, how could i check?

About the "Stock" fans, i have no idea, anyway to check. Im no wiz at this, but its a huhge metal thing, with a fan on the side pointing to th outside. Also i can see some heatpipes (or whatever theyre called) under that metal thing. It my sound like total garbage but, maybe someone will understand...

Well dusting of the fans might help
You can also try and use tiewraps to put the cables together

Sometimes "rounded cables" instead of flat might cut down the blocking of the airflow

The soundcard mostly don't get hot, but if you're GFX card doesn't have the "breathing space" it might get hot.. My card (Radeon 9800 Pro) doesn't have space at all (all my PCI slots are full) and is running around 50°C (normal temperature I guess)

You can check with the program called "CPU-Z" (http://www.cpuid.org/download/cpu-z-129.zip) , but I think (99,9% sure) that you have a Prescott build, because Northwood's Max Ghz is 3.06 GHz (if i'm right).

The Intel Stockfan looks like this:

The fan on the mobo looks similar, exept the fan is on one side and there is a green plastic over part of it, oh and theres also some pipes at the bottom.

Hmm, i mean if dell builds it , they should give it enough space right?

I mean there is one space free i think, between the gfx card and soudblaster card, but i think its used by the, got no idea though.
Cant check though, my desktop is 6 Hours drive away from here

I just want to know, because im planing on buying BF2, but if this persists then i wont.

BTW im on a very hard decision BF2 or GTA: SA?
By the looks its gonna be GTA though

Im back home now.

I have BF2 (full game) now, and while playing my gfx crad goes up to around 75-80°C.

I opened the case, and it dosent seem to get too warm in there. I have no way of checking the temperature inside the case acurately. Other than sticking a thermometer into the case .

I dont know if moving the Sound card away a bit would help. I would do it, but i think it voids my waranty. At least if i break anithing it the proces they wont replace it. And i dont really want to risk it.

Moving cards won't void warranty, why should it?

As long as you're carefull....

I have had a similar problem with my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.
In my case, it was because the video-card didn't get enough power.
I fixed it by changing the AGP voltage from 1.5v to 1.6v...
Try it, if it works: great, else put it back to where it was.
A little bit extra voltage shouldn't hurt the card, but the lifespan might get decreased a little (like a month less )
Tell me if it worked...

PS: Just to make sure we're on the same line, if the problem really is the heat, then this won't work (more voltage is generally more heat), but to be honest, I'm notn sure 70 degrees is considered a risk yet.. especially not under full load with BF2. I had the same problems, with games going black after a while and all that, and I tried several different cooling solutions, but in the end all that worked was to crank up the voltage

I have PCIex, and i wouldn't know how to do it anyways. Its ok, it dosent freeze too much anymore, after switching off Hyper-Threading. Anyways I played 5 Hours straight multiplay, and it didnt freeze. Also the card was running at around 80°C which I dont think is too high.

Thanks for all your help. I guess ill just live with the very few freezes that happen now once in a long while.