Random black screen (=No Signal) ToMI
Hello,
Right now I'm playing ToMI chapter 4 and approximately after 15 minutes of smooth game play, at ANY point of the game, my screen turns black (and reads: "No signal") while I can still hear the sound of the game. But, it is very clear by the sound I hear that the game itself also get stuck. Ctrl + Alt + Del does not work as well Alt + Tab or anything. The computer just dies or something like that. I have to shut it down by pressing the on/off button for a few seconds.
I had no problems with episodes 1 and 2. The problem did appear at episode 3 but I had some hope it won't happen with chapters 4 and 5 (Which sadly it it). I did not change any thing in the computer between the episodes.
My operating system is Vista 32 bit. I have installed the latest drivers - video card is the 'Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT'. Tried running as administrator and compatibility mode of Windows XP. Tried Full screen On/Off and also playing with different resolutions. Nothing helped.
I am sure it is not a problem with any thing else because other games work perfectly (Just played Dragon Age for 3 hours).
Thanks in advance for any help or for even just reading this ^^
Right now I'm playing ToMI chapter 4 and approximately after 15 minutes of smooth game play, at ANY point of the game, my screen turns black (and reads: "No signal") while I can still hear the sound of the game. But, it is very clear by the sound I hear that the game itself also get stuck. Ctrl + Alt + Del does not work as well Alt + Tab or anything. The computer just dies or something like that. I have to shut it down by pressing the on/off button for a few seconds.
I had no problems with episodes 1 and 2. The problem did appear at episode 3 but I had some hope it won't happen with chapters 4 and 5 (Which sadly it it). I did not change any thing in the computer between the episodes.
My operating system is Vista 32 bit. I have installed the latest drivers - video card is the 'Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT'. Tried running as administrator and compatibility mode of Windows XP. Tried Full screen On/Off and also playing with different resolutions. Nothing helped.
I am sure it is not a problem with any thing else because other games work perfectly (Just played Dragon Age for 3 hours).
Thanks in advance for any help or for even just reading this ^^
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dxdiag
Windows XP: Go to your start menu and click on run. Type in "dxdiag" and hit enter
Windows Vista / 7: Press the windows key on your keyboard or click on the start menu. Type in "dxdiag" and hit enter.
Now click on the button that says "save all information".
It will prompt you to save a file. Save it where you can find it.
Then zip the file and attach it to a message.
Then log the temperatures while playing until the game crashes.
Logging your CPU and GPU Temperatures
CPU: Download Core Temp. Start it and activate logging in the menu under "Tools/Logging on".
The log file created is called similar to "CT-Log [TIME][DATE].csv".
GPU: Download GPU-Z.
Start it, select the "sensors" tab, and activate "Log to File" at the bottom of the window.
The log file created is called "gpu-temperature.xml".
Zip the files and attach them to a message.
I attached the DxDiag file (Had to cut it into 3 parts, sorry) and will try to check the heat problem in a few hours, right now I have to go
Also, sorry I just go while you try helping me. Again, thank you very very much!
Here's an update for these sound drivers.
Your secondary audio device also uses old drivers. Here are the new ones.
In case you install both make sure your default audio output is still set to the correct card afterwards.
ThoughI attached the other document - ToMI just crashed after 2-3 minutes while GPU-Z was on. But no black screen, just a 'normal' crash.
Looks like we can't use core temp for logging then. You can try realtemp instead.
Your graphics card starts with 81°C. Did you do anything graphics intensive before you started the game or is that the regular idle temperature you get?
How many cooling fans are in your system and where?
I've got two cooling fans:
One at the back of the computer and one at the side where most of the chips and cards are (Between them all). They are the same size, can't tell what size really.
Sorry for my lack of knowledge but I don't think I can get realtemp to work either.
For idle that is a very high temperature. Take a look at this review. There are a few 9600GT and the highest temperature is 66°C under maximum load(!).
You have more in an idle state.
Have you made sure that the fan on your graphics card is actually working?
According to the specifications your graphics card should operate at 105°C max.
I have a test procedure similar to the one in the review that we can use to see if your system crashes when the graphics card gets hot:
Testing your graphics card:
Download FurMark to stress test your graphics card. Start it, select "Stability Test", "Xtreme Burning Mode" and "Log GPU Temperature". Now start the test by pressing "Go!".
While running you should be able to monitor the temperature at the bottom of the screen. Run it for 10 minutes or until the temperature seems to be stable for some minutes. If the temperature exceeds 100°C, abort with Escape.
The log file created is called "gpu-temperature.xml".
Zip the file and attach it to a message.
I've checked and the fan on my graphics card is working and clean of dust. Any way I've cleaned my whole computer from dust just 2 weeks ago.
No need for the log file then. That makes it even more plausible that the temperature gets too high while you play ToMI and makes your system crash.
It would be interesting what the other temperatures in your PC are like. If the temperature inside the case is high, than the graphics card has a hard time cooling down.
You can try HWMonitor. Maybe you get that one working for your CPU/Mainboard temperature.
Besides that it would still be interesting to see a GPU-Z log of an actual crash of the whole system as you described in the beginning.
When the crash occurs your graphics card is at 135°C, which is 30 K above the specified maximum.
Something is definitely wrong with your graphics cards cooling. Maybe the heatsink lost contact to the chips?
Come to think of it, the log file mentions the fan speed being at 100% - if that were my Radeon 4850 it'd sound like a hair dryer was inside my PC; but if you're not hearing something similar it has to be the card's fan not turning...
We checked that already:
Wow that is... bad. I'm afraid my PC will go boom soon enough.
I'll check for ANY thing that is unplugged inside my computer soon. Can you tell me how does the heatsink thing looks like so I can check it out any way?
Leak, thanks for the help ^^ I do not hear any loud noise, it is like it always was. No dust, and I have cleaned it a few days ago.
In this picture you see the transparent fan, and the heatsink is the copper element it sits on.
Now what is suspect in your case is that the heatsink has no proper contact to the chips below anymore.
So something must be very wrong with the fan, I'm afraid.
NB: All cards I've bought in the last few years were ATI, so I'm not sure if the same goes for nVidia cards, but all those cards had a cable running from the fan to a 3-pin connector on the card to operate the fan - maybe the equivalent on his card has gotten disconnected?
Do you happen to know what your power supply is?
"maybe the equivalent on his card has gotten disconnected?" Every thing looks connected. Though I can't really tell because I do not understand so much about those kind of things.
Pale Man- "Do you happen to know what your power supply is?"
Not really. How can I check it?
My graphics card did start to make ticking noises after I cleaned the fan yesterday. Like "tick, tickck, tick". But I fixed it (I got the card connected with a slight slope by mistake).
Though I have no idea what have I done. All I did was getting the graphics card out of the PC looking for some thing wrong, found nothing. Than when I got it back inside it was so quite and I played ToMI for 4-6 hours straight (I lost the feeling of time).
Just finished chapter 5 - Super Epic.
Thank you ALL for helping me out. With out you guys I would have probably had to buy a new PC.
Happy new year all ^-^
I know your problem has seemingly gone away, but you can usually check what type of power supply you have just by looking at the back of your case where the power cord plugs in.