Computer Hope
Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: LeonStrider on April 22, 2008, 07:51:17 PM
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So I went to the Computer Viruses And Spyware section, hoping to fix this problem. It still hasn't been fixed, so I hope someone here can help me. Here is the updated copy & pasted summary of my problems from the Viruses And Spyware forum (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Leon_Strider/specs.jpg)
Almost a week ago I was playing a full-screen online game (MapleStory to be exact;
http://mapleglobal.com) and suddenly the game, along with the computer, just completely froze.
I couln't alt-tab out of the game, ctrl-alt-delete did not work either, so I had to reset my computer. I tried getting in-game again, and about 10-20 seconds after getting in-game, it freezes again.
Almost immediately after the problem began with the game, my PC began to become unstable. While I'm browsing the internet or even through my folders, one of the fans in my laptop would start to hum, and about 5 seconds later the computer would freeze, 3-5 seconds later the monitor would black out and 1 second after that, the screen would return to normal and everything would be unfrozen. The humming noise that comes before is the tell-tale sign that this will happen. Also it is not a fan I usually hear running; it sounds "smooth" when it runs, and I only hear that fan run when I'm playing full-screen games or games that take up alot of memory, like TankBall (which I will cover later), or even just programs in general that take up alot of memory.
Also, sometimes the monitor will keep blacking out at random times WITHOUT freezing, usually just once or twice in a row, but sometimes it would keep blacking out every 2 seconds. The thing is, unlike the problem stated about the monitor blacking out in your official Windows XP faq, and I quote: "The screen blacks out every few seconds, though the Windows seems to be operating underneath", in my case you cannot see Windows operating underneath. The way my monitor blacks out is like how the screen blacks out when you change the resolution of your monitor. Also, after the 5th-6th consecutive blackout, for the 1 second I can see my screen, all the windows that are opened look messed up, as if I changed the resolution to a much smaller one.
Also, the total freezing of my system is not isolated to just that one full-screen online game: I tried playing a flash game called TankBall 2 (http://maidmarian.com/tank.htm) and I put it in "full-screen" (That is, I opened up the game in IE6 and pressed F11 to put the browser in full-screen; the game takes up the entire screen) then about 10 seconds later after getting in-game, the computer freezes the same way it froze in MapleStory. I also tried not making IE6 full-screen while playing the game, and yet it still freezes. Sometimes the computer just freezes on its own, regardless of what I'm doing.
I tried watching a video using RealPlayer, and I couldn't watch it; the picture was all blurry. I'm not sure if this is related to the problem, because I haven't used RealPlayer or any other video player on my PC for a few weeks.
I have done the following in order from 1st to last:
1. Scanned for viruses/spyware using ZoneAlarm Security Suite
2. Ran Norton Systemworks Premier's One Button Checkup
3. Used Registry Mechanic 7 to diagnose and repair any registry files
4. After all of these attempts to fix the problem failed, I used Norton Ghost to restore my system to its state back in November 2006. Alot of my installed programs changed from Nov 2006 to Apr 2008 (And I mean alot), and I was hoping that this would be the fix, but alas, it wasn't. The problem persisted even in this reverted state.
5. At this point, I went to the Computer Viruses And Spyware section of ComputerHope and we tried to fix the problem. It didn't work. Details of this can be found here: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,55545.0.html
Here are my PC's specs:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Leon_Strider/specs.jpg)
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Someone help please... I need this laptop fixed asap before I start online schooling.
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How does your computer behave in Safe Mode?
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In Safe Mode, my computer works just fine. In fact, I'm typing this right now in Safe Mode, and I have no problems. I tried watching a video using RealPlayer in Safe Mode, and there's no problems (besides having no sound). Also, I tried playing that Shockwave browser game TankBall (http://maidmarian.com/tank.htm) and even though I couldn't connect to the game server, all my laptop fans were running, the laptop got hotter, and yet it didn't freeze.
There IS one problem however. When I try to move a window, it lags really, really bad. And it's the same when I try to scroll up/down. But, this has been going on for as long as I can remember, so I don't think it's related to the problems I'm having right now.
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What video card do you have? Did you try to get the newest drivers?
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I got the following information from the "Display" tab of the DirectX Diagnostic Tool:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Leon_Strider/vid.png)
No, I have not updated any of my drivers. The thing is, I don't know how. Could you show me please?
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Your driver is here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html
It comes as exe file, so it should be self-installing file. Uninstall old driver through Device manager, first.
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Ok, I'm having a problem installing the new driver.
I uninstalled the old driver through the Device Manager and restarted my PC. Now, when I try to install the new driver I downloaded from the link you gave me, it won't let me do it. It give me an error message that says "The NVIDIA setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit." I closed ZoneAlarm and disabled ThreatFire before running this by the way.
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Was the exe file, you downloaded self-installing file, or self-extracting file?
You just double clicked on that file?
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There was only one download on the page you gave me. I'm guessing it's the self-extracting file because when I double-clicked it, it said:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Leon_Strider/nvidia.jpg)
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...and what happened when extracting was over?
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It was able to extract, then it continues normally until I get to the setup screen. The first thing I get after getting into the setup screen is this:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Leon_Strider/nvidia2.jpg)
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What is the brand, and model of your computer?
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It's an ASUSTeK. System model is M7V.
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Oh, a laptop, that why that download gave you a problem.
Go here: http://laptopvideo2go.com/drivers
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I need to follow the tutorial it gives about the Modded .inf thing, right? http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9243
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Yeah, it's explained pretty well there.
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Ok, I installed the drivers, I'll go try and see if the computer still freezes.
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Bring some good news.
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Good, good :)
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Good news: TANKBALL IS NOT FREEZING! Time to try MapleStory...
Ok, MapleStory worked... for about 7 minutes. The few seconds before it froze, I started spamming a few sentences (hard to explain), and then it froze. I'll try doing it again to see if that's what the cause is now. But other than that, all systems are go.
Thank you very much Broni, I'd be screwed if you didn't help. I'll post in this thread if the problems come back today or tomorrow.
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Some progress, at least :)
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Good your'e having progress...try re-installing Maple Story and freeing up some space on that hard drive in the meantime...
Also get in the habit of doing the regular maintenence such as DiskClean and Defrag on a regular basis...
Laptops tend to need more babying in order to run games...
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So after I installed the new drivers, I tried playing TankBall. It froze for about 20 seconds at the start, then it unfroze and I was able to play from there on. Then I tried MapleStory. I was able to play for about 7 minutes, then it froze. I reset my PC, and play again. This time it freezes when I get in-game, but about 30 seconds later it unfreezes and I'm able to play for an indefinite amount of time. By "indefinite" I mean that I don't know how long it'll freeze on me again. It can be from as little as 2 minutes to an hour. The wierd thing is, when I alt-tab out of the game then go back into the game, within 1 minute the game will definitely freeze, then in 10sec-1min the game will unfreeze. On a few occasions it doesn't unfreeze, and on one occasion it caused a system reset. A few hours later, after it took 2 minutes for the game to unfreeze, my monitor started blinking again, and it wouldn't stop so I had to shut down the PC.
Now this morning, when I turn on my PC, explorer.exe didn't load, and all my programs that were supposed to start up when my PC turns on didn't.
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I'm assuming, you're playing those games in full screen, right?
If so, try to play them in reduced screen. See, if same thing happens.
If that doesn't help, your video card may be going south.
It may be good idea to borrow one from a friend, and see, if same thing happens.
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Yeah, I tried both in full-screen. I'll test TankBall and MapleStory in a smaller window then.
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What brand; age and wattage is your Power Supply ? ?
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I use a laptop.
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What brand; age and wattage is your Power Supply ? ?
OOoooops. :-[
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I have an important update for this thread:
My brother decided that Windows Vista is better for this laptop (By the way, I never told him about the monitor problem) so he installed it. He's already installed all the drivers (sound, video, etc.) and now the problem I've been having isn't happening anymore... Not that I'm complaning about it, hehe.
I don't know how it could've been fixed from installing Vista. Anyone have any ideas?
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Not really...but it does tell us that something in your XP install was wonked.
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Ok, I was wrong. This problem's still going on, even with Vista. However... Vista has this alert thing that alerts you if something goes wrong.
So while playing MapleStory, the computer froze for about 20 seconds then it unfroze. A few minutes later, I minimize the game and I see this thing:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Leon_Strider/driver.jpg)
So, how do I fix this buggy driver?
(P.S. - It didn't freeze just today, it froze again the day I posted on this thread again saying it wasn't freezing anymore.
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I can see, you have on-board video with up to 128MB of integrated RAM.
What do those games say about amount of RAM needed to play them?
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Here's a copy&pasted list of minimum required specs to play MapleStory, along with recommended specs:
[Minimum Requirements]
CPU: Celeron 500MHz
RAM: 64MB
HDD: 300MB Disk Space
OS: MS Windows 98/ME/2K/XP
VGA: 3D Acceleration Card
SOUND: None
NETWORK: 56kbps Modem
[Recommended Settings]
CPU: P3-700MHz or higher
RAM: 128MB RAM
HDD: 500MB Disk Space
OS: MS Windows 98/ME/2K/XP
VGA: 3D Acceleration Card
SOUND: 16bit Sound Card
NETWORK: Cable Modem
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Reading your video card specs, I can't see anything about "3D Acceleration". Would that be a reason for lags?
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Well, dxdiag says I do have 3D Accel. It says it's enabled, along with DirectDraw Acceleration and AGP Texture Acceleration. Also, I searched "nvlddmkm" on Google, and the results that popped up were pretty surprising. Alot of people using the GeForce 6600 video card are having the same problems as I am. A few people are able to fix it, but their solutions don't seem to work for others, only themselves. And on top of that, each person's solution is different than the other's. Here's one of the threads: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=38941
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Yeah, there has been a problem going on between Vista, and nVidia video, but I have no idea what else to advice you.
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I was thinking the same. From what I've seen from other people having the same problem as I have, I think I'm better off just buying a new video card. Well, thanks for all the help Broni. :D
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I think I'm better off just buying a new video card
Probably the best option.