Games make monitor sleep

[viperbri]

I am having trouble whenever I startup a game (Painkiller, GTA:SA, BF2 Demo) as soon as I load up the game, within a few seconds of starting it up the monitor goes into sleep mode and locks up the computer. The only thing I can do at that point is do a hard reset to reboot.

In Painkiller is does this right on the beginning menu, even before I get into the game.

My system specs are in my profile and I am currently running 77.13 of the Forceware drivers.

Any ideas on what would be causing this or how I can fix it? It is driving me crazy!

Thx in advance!

 

[Looney]

Very strange problem. Have you tried different nvidia drivers? If not, i would give that a shot first.

And has this problem always existed? Or is it just recently developed? If it worked before, maybe try doing a System Restore back to a point when it was working.

 

[viperbri]

Looney,
The last thing I changed on my system was swapping out a generic power supply (450w) with the Thermaltake Purepower 420w and added a better cooling fan to my 6600GT (Zalman VF700-cu)...which has reduced my temp on my video card.

I will try a different driver set first...thanks!

This happened a long time ago when I had an ATI 8500 but I don't remember how I solved it.

I will keep you posted on the driver issue.

 

[Looney]

Check the cooling fan on the 6600GT... it may not be completely secured, and when you load up a game, the load on the GPU is locking it up.

 

[viperbri]

thanks...I will try that too!

EDIT: How tight should I make sure the Zalman is on my 6600GT? If it is cooling my card more than before shouldn't it be secure enough? I am afraid of tightening it too much and breaking the chip on the card.

 

[mariosoft034]

I had a problem like that when testing a friend's monitor in my machine. That monitor was old (Samsung SyncMaster 3Ne). It went nice in the desktop then it would go into standby after entering a game.

That particular problem was related with the refresh rate, it was set at 70Hz. The desktop resolution was 800*600, wich the monitor suported at that refresh rate. When entering a game the resolution changed to 1024*768 at the same 70Hz, and the monitor only suported that resolution at 60Hz.

Solution: try to lower your refresh rate and see if it works. Please post your monitor make and model nevertheless.

Hope that helps. Keep us updated

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: viperbri
thanks...I will try that too!

EDIT: How tight should I make sure the Zalman is on my 6600GT? If it is cooling my card more than before shouldn't it be secure enough? I am afraid of tightening it too much and breaking the chip on the card.

If you're sure it's cooling more than before, then it's probably on correctly, and that's probably not the problem. Try mariosoft034 suggestion, though don't most games default to 60ghz ingame? Still, it doesn't hurt to check.

 

[viperbri]

Thanks...here are my monitors and current specs they are running at:

Envision EN-985e 19" CRT 1024x768, 85mhz refresh
Acer AL1912 19" LCD 1280x1024, 75mhz refresh

I have tried disabling both monitors independently..first the LCD as primary, disable CRT...then setting the CRT as primary and disabling the LCD...still same behavior on bth.

I have never had a problem running games when my desktop was 1024x768 with a 85mhz refresh rate.

I will try different Nvidia drivers tonight and report back.

 

[Looney]

Use Driver Cleaner to completely remove the drivers before reinstalling others.

 

[viperbri]

Well....It turns out that my problem was that I didn't connect power to the molex connector on my XFX 6600GT card. I guessed since I replaced the stock fan with the Zalman one that I didn't need to reconnect the on board power...turns out you do need that connected for the additional juice needed to run the 3d games.

Didn't need to change drivers...
Didn't need to change PS...

I am a bonehead!

Hope this helps out others.

 

[OAKside24]

Glad to see it was an easy fix, at least!

I am having the exact problems. My BFG 6800GTOC seems to 'sleep'
under high stress, like BF2 [disconnect] and 3DMark05 tests.
Have a 430W Antec, connected molex.
Maybe I am running out of power still? Hmmm.
I'm having a hard time figuring this out.

 

[viperbri]

OAKside24 are you able to play the games for any period of time or does it 'sleep' right away?
The Antecs are great PSU from what I hear so I would be suprised if it was that.

I would check the temperature on your video card first and if that is okay then try a higher watt power supply.

 

[OAKside24]

Thanks for the reply, viperbri.

It sleeps -always- after a while of playing,
like it's under heavy load/stress and can't take it.
Fastest 'sleep' was running 3DMark05 tests, test #2 like 5 minutes.
Temperatures are right-on, voltages are right also.

Did you connect a molex from/for a HDD? I -had - it connected to
the easiet/closet molex, but it was split up into like four.

Last night changed to an extra HDD molex, split into two [HDD and 6800GTOC].
Also updated ASUS BIOS. Still having 'sleep' problems, now I think it may be
my Audigy beta drivers.

 

[viperbri]

Are you able to seperate your connection so that your 6800 and HDD are on totally different molex connectors? Maybe share the 6800 with a CDROM/CDRW instead since those are using less power during intesive processing.

I also have an Audigy sound card and now that I have my games working great with video I am having intermittant sound problems. During gaming once in a while the sound will turn into a high pitch noise and even though the game is still running fine I have to exit the game and reboot Windows as the sound is still high pitched whenever a sound is used in windows....time to go post this message.

Let me know how you progress on your video issue.

 

[OAKside24]

Yes, I am going back to my original molex when I shutdown again.
It doesn't quite have it's own molex, but it shares with two small voltages [fan/etc.]

What drivers [ForceWare/Audigy ZS2] are you using viperbri?
I believe I remember the first day I got my 6800GT and I was using
the drivers that came with it. Some BF2 shadow issues but it never made
my monitor sleep. Also, the [newest official] 77.72's may have worked also,
but all my Steam games were unplayable.

 

[viperbri]

I am still running the 77.13 Forceware drivers. Although I haven't tried HL2 or Far Cry on it but BF2, Cross Championship Racing 2005 demo, GTA:SA, and Painkiller (current games in play) all run and look great.

 

[OAKside24]

Got the 77.13s' , official Audigys' [1.84.55] and new Intel chipsets' runnin'.
PCI fan underneath my 6800GT now, and better molex connected.
-!<Something>!- had better work noticeably better now.

EDIT: This time it fell asleep on the 3DMark05 Multi-texture Fillrate Test.
Monday I'm shipping it back. Who knows what the problem is.

I also noticed me Lavalys EVEREST UE says something under DirectX Video, bottom:
"Problem: 32-bit Z-Buffer is not supported. Modern 3D games may require it."
Have to set >Preferences, >General to >'3D Gaming' for this warning,
if someone wants to try it for me!

 

[viperbri]

Ah man...sorry to hear that...you sending the video card back? I thought the BFG was supposed to be a great card.

Good luck...keep me posted.

 

[OAKside24]

Just an RMA, not back to store.
No big problem, I trust BFG TechSupport
will get this thing working for me somehow.
And of course youguy's help!

Good News: I can still play D00M3 to my heart's content.
Which, coincidentally, is an OpenGL game.. .
--
. ..Check it out.. .
That's the Exact thing with mine.
I have yet to watch someone see it thru without RMA.

 

[OAKside24]

It's back with a vengeance.

EDIT: All I can recommend is clean out your comp, blow out the dust,
reroute wires for some nice airflow and cool temperatures.
Cause you'll have plenty of time while waiting on your new card via RMA.

Tried everything, but at least my comp is in tiptop shape and has no excuses
from now on. [ If it did in the first place... :\ ]

 

[Griffv8]

:|

I kinda have the same problem, when I play a 3d kind of game (Psychonauts, Blockland).
I can play it for abit of time, then my monitor (hp vf15) goes to sleep. I tried it on my other monitor also (its a normal one, CRT, i guess), but the game showed stripes when i played for abit.

I can't do anything, its like my computer is frozen, the only way to get out of it, is to hold the power button for a couple of seconds, then it turns off and I press it again to turn it back on.

This problem happened to me before, like a month or 2 ago, when I was trying to figure the problem out, I found a black piece near my ATI 9800 card fan thingy, it was melting off, i took it off, and everything was fine. Now the problem is back.

Intel Pentium 4 with h/t
ATI RADEON 9800
1 GB RAM
250 GB Hard Drive

 

[Griffv8]

Ok, things are different now.

When I used my old vid card drivers that came with my comp, the monitor goes to sleep.
When I updated my vid card drivers, the games now show stripes.