Windows 7 GTX 260 games freezing.

ineedmunchies

New Member
I am having trouble with playing games, they freeze pretty much any time I start them. I think around 30 mins is about the longest I've manage to play without the games freezing. (The image freezes and the music keeps playing)

Is there anyone that might be able to help me at all? I've tried it with a few different drivers but that doesn't seem to solve it.

My system spec is:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260
GPU Driver: 258.96
RAM: 2x Corsair DDR2 (PC2-6400)
PSU: 550W

Need any other data to be able to help? Any help would be greatly appreciated! It's essentially made my card worthless. (Oh and I tried it out on someone else's system and the GPU works fine with them)
 
Hi,
I see your PSU is 550W which is the minimum needed for this card although it also should have around 40Amps across the 12volt rails do you know if this is so?
Other causes for freezing can be overheating, Bios need updating and/or dodgy RAM.
To check it's not overheating, try using something like GPU-Z: GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

Check with the motherboards web site to see you have the latest bios and a quick way to check the RAM is only run with one stick installed and if things run fine then try the other stick. If the machine freezes on one and not the other then you know which one is bad..
 
On the back of the box for the PSU there is a table of output characteristics. For +12V1 and +12V2 it says 16Amps. I really should of researched more before buying the PSU/card. Thank you, I shall try with a better PSU and see if this remedies the problem. How can I tell when buying a PSU if it meets this need? From the specs I have seen in online shops they do not tend to give this data. Again any help is appreciated. Thanks again.
 
Hi.

You can type msinfo32 in the start menu then hit enter. File | save on the screen that opens. Zip the saved file and attach to a post using the paperclip above where you type, in advanced mode reply.

I'll have few suggestions after looking at this. Maybe one will help.
 
On the back of the box for the PSU there is a table of output characteristics. For +12V1 and +12V2 it says 16Amps. I really should of researched more before buying the PSU/card. Thank you, I shall try with a better PSU and see if this remedies the problem. How can I tell when buying a PSU if it meets this need? From the specs I have seen in online shops they do not tend to give this data. Again any help is appreciated. Thanks again.

With PSU's it's always best not to skimp and buying a named brand is always a must. Usually if one checks with the manufacturers website you can find out the nitty gritty details. What PSU is your friend using?

Edit: Just to give you an idea I'll include the web site for my PSU (600W) : http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/power_management/ocz_500w_700w_modxstream_pro_power_supply
 
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Freezes can be caused by many factors, including insufficient (non-branded) PSU, wrong memory timings, overclocking, outdated motherboard drivers such as ACPI, etc. etc.


After a freeze, does anything appear in the event viewer once you've rebooted?

Your msinfo would be good too.
 
With PSU's it's always best not to skimp and buying a named brand is always a must. Usually if one checks with the manufacturers website you can find out the nitty gritty details. What PSU is your friend using?

Edit: Just to give you an idea I'll include the web site for my PSU (600W) : OCZ 500W-700W ModXStream Pro Power Supply OCZ Technology

I'm not sure what PSU he's using but I assume its better than mine because he just bought it for his gaming rig. I bought a cheap no brand one when I was building my computer, unaware of these issues. Is the current cumulative between the two 12Vs? So that you'd have 50A out from your data sheet?

EDIT: here's the zipped sysinfo:
View attachment sysinf.zip

Also when it freezes I do not have to reboot I can close it with task manager and return to using the comp as normal bar gaming. I will try it out with a power supply that meets the spec as soon as possible.
 
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I looked over the msinfo32 file.

Please update your M-Audio Delta Audiophile driver. The current one is from last July.

If you have Audiophile 192, install this - M-AUDIO - Drivers
If you have Audiophile 2496, install this - M-AUDIO - Drivers

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NVIDIA has a brand new driver to install for the video card:

NVIDIA DRIVERS 258.96 WHQL

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Your Realtek Gigabit lan driver is too old, from well before Windows 7 RTM was released. It's from March 2009. Install from this link and it will update it:

Realtek


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Type services.msc in the start menu then hit enter. Disable the Yahoo! Update service.

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Daemon Tools is known to cause many problems on Windows 7, including being notorious for causing bsod. I would uninstall that, then use the installer/uninstaller found at this link to remove sptd.sys from the system, which is important:

DuplexSecure - Downloads

Reboot after.

A great, stable drive emulation software is PowerISO. It is not free but the emulation aspect of the software always remains free.

PowerISO - Create, Edit, Compress, Encrypt, Split, Mount, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter, Virtual Drive

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Make sure the hard drive(s) are well defragmented. A highly fragmented drive can cause many types of problems, including freezes.
 
I'm not sure what PSU he's using but I assume its better than mine because he just bought it for his gaming rig. I bought a cheap no brand one when I was building my computer, unaware of these issues. Is the current cumulative between the two 12Vs? So that you'd have 50A out from your data sheet?

EDIT: here's the zipped sysinfo:
View attachment 7116

Also when it freezes I do not have to reboot I can close it with task manager and return to using the comp as normal bar gaming. I will try it out with a power supply that meets the spec as soon as possible.

Yes when coupled the output is 50A. So is yours 16A each 12v rail meaning 32A in all or is 16A the actual total? If it's 16A total then I'd definitely upgrade. If however it's actually 32A then I'd try all the fixes TorrentG has posted before changing the PSU. This is because your system might actually be fine with that ampage. All pc's are different so it's worth at least checking before splashing out..
I would upgrade at some point though as PSU's are the power source which keeps the pc happy and if it's not powerful enough or not stable problems appear.
 
I tried all of these fixes and none of them have resolved the problem.

I am unsure whether it is 16A combined or on each line. It says its for 12V1 and 12V2 so I assume its the two combined to make 32A. But this is still short of the minimum spec of 36A for the graphics card.
 
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