DescentBB

So I got the new comp. up and running. Got the correct mem. settings in bios that cured a couple of problems.

So here's the problem. I play Eve On-line. While running missions or ratting in asteroid belts, the game runs fine. It is when I get into larger fleet pvp battles (400-1000 players in system) that I run into a situation where the screen locks, then the picture starts breaking up into little squares and then comp. freezes. I have to physically push the reboot button (ctrl/alt/del does nothing)to get started again and the comp. reboots with no problem.
So the question is would this be a memory problem, a vid card problem or something else? Any ideas welcome.
MB Asus 5Q deluxe
cpu intel q6600 quad core. Not OC'd and temps are around 40c
Corsair Dominator 2x 2gig sticks
Saphire radeon 4870 vid card.

Vid card and MB drivers updated

I'd suggest taking out 1 stick of RAM, test the game. If it still happens, take outt he other stick and insert the one you removed. Test it out. If it still happens, try the sticks in different slots.

It could also be a your video settings. This may be the easiest thing to change first. Remove AA and AF and see if it helps.

Problems with the system memory generally don't cause video artifacts, it would cause application crash-to-desktop and or outright BSODs (most commonly of the IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL variety). The most likely cause of this set of symptoms is the video card overheating.

Thanks guys. I have the in-game settings to premium graphics so I will try setting it to standard graphics and turn ati anti aliasing down from the 8 level. Will vpu being turned on have any effect? I seem to remember years ago, at least for Descent, that vpu recovery should be turned off.

If turning down the graphics seems to help, then you can start taking measures to keep the gpu cooler and start turning the graphics back up. RivaTuner + dynamic fan-speed profiles (good guide for setting this up) seems to work perfectly for me.

Thanks Foil, for links

there is an issue with the 4xxx series radeons where the fan was spinning as much as it should wrt heat. I think they fixed it in last month's catalyst release.

OK, update time. In Eve-online I turned off all effects. Turned off sound. Set premium graphics back to classic (less detail). In ATI CCC, I set everything to performance instead of quality. Still got pixillated screen freeze and comp lock-up. Only happens when in a fleet. All other areas of the game was fine. I then checked around and found a way to turn off Power Play:

http://www.gamereplays.org/community/in ... 98980&st=0&

It didn't help.

I then ran ATI's Auto Tuner. Didn't help either.
I have latest ATI drivers dated 10/28. First install I forgot to uninstall older drivers but then I uninstalled both driver sets and reinstalled the most current drivers (10/28)

Now I get comp lock when I dock or undock from station. All of this is random. I can play for 2 hours and nothing happens. Then screen freezes and comp locks.
I did a MS test for graphics but there was no problem. I loaded some games like Sins of a Solar Empire, UT2004, Battlefield 2 and Gothic 3. All games in single player with settings at highest possible, played flawlessly.
Thinking maybe there is something with the internet, I then played UT2004 online. Game played to perfection (I forgot how much fun this game is. Might even have to try Descent online again.).

I have heard that EVE-Online is suffering from a memory leak problem where mem. usage may spike from 300meg to 1000meg. I don't know if this may be the root of the problem.

Only thing I have not yet tried is flashing the vid cards memory. Don't know if I want to try that yet if something else is causing the problem.

There is one anomaly with the comp. itself and that is the clock and date change for some reason. Don't know if that is caused by the comp. locking during game play or something else. Anyways...I know, \"Wall of text! My eyes!\"

Check or replace your CMOS battery. If your date and time change all the time then it's the battery. Windows takes that info from the BIOS.

Would the battery have any effect on my screen freeze problem?

Heh, date time was set to Pacific time instead of Eastern.

Don't think the battery would affect it but I know if you'd reboot your BIOS would lose the info it had.

UT2004 also froze up while playing online. So I will try flashing the cards bios. IF that doesn't work I'll RMA it.

I take it a vid card works a lot harder while playing a game online?

Not really, the vid card just works a lot harder playing a game period, online games might actually be easier on the video card because the CPU is probably managing some of the network traffic that it doesn't have to do in single player games. I have one suggestion that is worth trying but might be annoying and loud, if your video card has a fan on it download a copy of rivatuner ( http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTuner-v ... d-163.html ) and force its fan to 100% speed while you are playing a game. It will probably be loud, but if your games quit locking up you have proven that heat is the issue.

ATI's CCC has a manual fan control under a new ATI Control section (interesting what a little poking around does). It's default speed is 24% and I cranked it up to 58%. Temp went from 68c down to 38c. Still got game lock up tho. So I found out how to flash the bios thru windows using ATI Winflash. Now I can get into EVE which just prior to flashing vid bios wouldn't even let me load. So crossing my fingers and hope this is cure.

You shouldn't have to flash the card to fix it for moderate gaming (or even mess w/ the fan).. ATI cards are notorious for overheating tho -- if you still get lock-ups w/ the increased fan setting try 100% fan. If that fixes it (or makes it less \"crashy\") I would suggest to RMA the card, something seems to be wrong w/ the cooler.

Well it was of note that the only time I had crashes was while playing via the internet. So far, after the vid bios flash, I was able to play both Eve and UT2004 online. There have been a number of complaints of the 4870 crashing and the bios flash was a cure. I will have to play a bit more to see if it works for my card.