Crashing

[Tom37]

Hello there. I'm here in the hope that I can find some form of solution to a major problem I've been having with my computer (purchased in November 08). I'm an avid WoW player and multiple times in the day my computer will completely crash and I'll loose everything. The screen will go one solid colour, the colour varies if I'm in Ironforge on WoW when it happens it'll go a light brown/dark orange where as if I'm playing Dust2 on CS, it'll go yellow like the sand. Often when this happens, if there is a sound at the time of crashing such as gun fire on CS, the sound will loop for about 3 or 4 seconds and then go to a screen of whatever colour. It's done this since I pretty much brought it, but at maximum twice in a few weeks... so nothing I really was bothered about.

When this happens I'm forced to just hold the power button in. This only really happens in game but when it happens, it'll happen again and again and again after about 5minutes of opening up either CS or WoW. My computer specs are: http://www.packardbell.co.uk/products/desktops/imedia/imedia+2426+/productsheet-PB80146601-46.html

I'm aware that the graphics card is onboard but it should easily be capable of playing WoW smoothly, I'm playing with absoulely everything low too, FPS is not really an issue. I have the latest graphics driver for the card too, updated today. It was doing this prior to updating however.

This problem leads me to believe its graphics related, I'm getting tonnes of errors in the log but I'm not sure they're related to this. If you would like the ones I have gotten today I'd gladly post them.

Any more information you require I'll gladly provide. If you would even like to speak on Ventrilo so I can go into more detail or something, thats possible. I'm very desperate to fix this since its no longer just an annoyance I'm gonna live with.

*crossed fingers*

Thanks,
Tom

P.S. I'm not sure this is in the correct forum, it sounded right though.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Definitely a graphics card related issue if it's only happening while your playing computer games. Have you tried updating the video drivers?

I'd try getting the latest 8200 Nvidia driver for Windows Vista 32-bit (which I believe is what you're running).

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[Tom37]

I am on the latest driver, I updated today.

It's still doing it.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Hmm well I know with WoW that you're also going to be running the latest patched version of that, so that scratches that idea too. Maybe try closing all background applications, such as any instant messengers, etc. See if maybe a background program is running that's causing the problem.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chtsr.htm#01

[Tom37]

Well, I understand I can do this and it will probably affect performance however the way I see it is, my computer can EASILY run WoW and other applications at the same time, or well it should do. So its not really a fix to the problem...

I'll only ever have messenger, ventrilo and media player at same time anyway. Ventrilo is required too.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Ventrilo isn't required to run the game, just for RAIDS, I'd just try this as a test to see if it crashes without background programs open. If it does, it's likely one of the background programs is trying to become the active window and that's causing your issue.

[Tom37]

One thing I'd like to add is, last night I was speaking to a guy I know - he seems to think that because the GFX card is onboard and probably has no cooling of its own and well isn't designed for playing WoW that I have fried my GFX card. Not sure if this is true but it sounds right because if it happens once, it'll happen again and again and again.

I have been told that NVIDIA's get hot but last night after being on all day (on and off) it was on like 101-109C. Atm it's on 92C.

This is outside of game too.

[Spoiler]

If its a heat problem you can test it by pulling the cover from the case and setting up a fan to blow air into the case. That should cool things down long enough to test for heat problems.