Hi there

About 8 days ago after installing a game called Archlord, I noticed I would freeze, lock up and then have to manually shut down the computer. The game however didnt interest me so I totally ignored the problem thinking it was a 1 off (played the game for maybe 2hours happened 1-2times).

I then tried other games such a warcraft 3, world of warcraf and the problem continued. Usually after 15mins the game will freeze and the only way to fix it is to manually shut down. The time between freezing can be 3mins or 40mins. Browsing the net/watchin wmplayer/ dont cause any issue only when playing games.

Sometimes im able to get error msgs, this is rare however. The 1 that springs to mind is

"nv4_disp" drivers stopped working. Also a few times on startup I have a serious error that needs sending to microsoft which i do and it reported something about ram (i 4get now as the error on startup doesnt seem to com)

So far I have tested my ram, by removing 1 stick of ram at a time to see if thats the issue. When playin with just 1 of either sticks it still freezes

I have also unistalled my drivers and reinstalled new 1s with no luck.

my specs are

windows xp/service pack2
nvidia geforce fx 5700le
amd athlon 2600+ (2066mz)
1gig of ram

Ty for any help, be much appreciated

Hi James, welcome to the PCHF!

As you have a geforce5, and the nv4_disp error is coming up...this generally points to your motherboard.

Are you able to tell me what model motherboard you have?

Today I removed the Gcard and was able to play wc3 fine on it. So it is definately the gcard or something related.

The model number of the mobo is "E22M" and the computer is an acer, quite old now I guess (2years near 3)

My initial thoughts are heat dispersion problem. If it is a new card you are using, then it may be overheating in your system, expecially if you have poor cable ties/fans in your system.

If it is an older card, check your graphics card fan for excessive dust which would be obstructing the fan. The more graphics intence games which we play use your graphics card to its maxmum potential which inturn causes heat, greaphics hards with too much heat have been known to freeze/lock up systems or depending on configuration restart your pc.

Other than that have you noticed any other prolems with the visual display of your games, I.E green pixalated dots? or does it run fine for a random ammount of time before locking up?

I had a similar problem and heat was the problem, random between 2min to 2 hours i could play before it would shut me down.

How did i fix this? Simple bought an exhaust fan, placed is right next to my graphics card so that it was taking the heat away from the card with double the fans. Solved the problem.

Could be a number of thigns thou.

Just my thoughts anyways.