The Black screen of death

[Costin]

I'm currently experiencing the following fault on my home PC. For normal ops and low end games it works fine, however when you push it and run say Battlefield 2142 it fails in the following manor. The screen freezes, sometimes with or without audio loop, the screen then goes black. At this point the PC is still on and every 20 to 40 sec the little error screen pops up with "Attention, 6k/13Hz frequency out of range" The only course of action is to reset the PC and it may or may not occur again the next time you push it, prior to this I have been playing the game for some time. Now I have updated the video drivers, no luck (Ati 9550 256Mb). I have also aquired a new video card (Ati 9600 256Mb) and still no luck. I will try tonight to update the motherboard drivers and see what happens.

   Any other thoughts on what it might be?
 

[drmsucks]

Please provide OS, system specs.

What are the internal temperatures? Get Speedfan, http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php, if you don't have another temp monitoring program.

[Broni]

Also, what are requirements for Battlefield 2142?

[Costin]

Thanks guys, the system runs XP Home with an AMD Semparon 3000+ at 1.8Ghz with 2Gig DDR2 RAM. As far as the specs for BF2142 go I don't have them with me at work. However I have been running it for at least the past 3 to 4 months with nil issues. Another symptom prior to this was the mouse used to freeze during the game and I could only move fwd, back left or right for 10 to 15 secs and then it would come good. Done the mouse driver bit and tried another mouse but no diff.
Hope that helps.

[Broni]

Did you check computer temperatures?

[Costin]

No not yet will check that tonight. Depending upon the BF2142 specs I might try and remove one stick of RAM and see how we go it may be a croock chip.

[Broni]

Keep us posted...

[drmsucks]

Check Memtest86: http://www.memtest.org/

Run test for at least two hours on each RAM module, individually - longer is better; 7 passes is about ideal. If both pass individually, repeat with both modules installed.

[JXY]

Minimum System Requirements

    * 1.7 Ghz CPU
    * 512 MB RAM
    * 128 MB video card supporting 1.4 shaders (ATI Radeon 8500 / NVIDIA FX 5700 or above), DirectX Compliant
    * Internet connection: 128kbit Cable/DSL connection
    * Hard Drive space: 1.8Gb of space is required to install the game
    * Windows XP with latest service pack installed DirectX 9.0c February 2006 edition (included) (does not work on Windows 2000/Me)



Recommended System Requirements:

    * 3.0 Ghz CPU
    * 1.5 GB RAM
    * 256 MB video card supporting 1.4 shaders (ATI Radeon X700 / NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or above)
    * Internet connection: 512Mb Cable/DSL connection
    * Hard Drive space: 1.8Gb of space is required to install the game
    * Windows XP with latest service pack installed DirectX 9.0c February 2006 edition (included) (does not work on Windows 2000/Me)

--
SUPPORTED VIDEO CHIPSETS WITH LATEST DRIVER VERSION INFO.
--
ATI

Driver tested: Catalyst v6.7 Windows XP

Radeon 9500/9700 series
Radeon 9550 series
Radeon 9600 series
Radeon 9800 series
Radeon X300 series (non integrated versions)
Radeon X600 series
Radeon X700 series
Radeon X800 series
Radeon X850 series
Radeon X1300 series
Radeon X1600 series
Radeon X1800 series
Radeon X1900 series

if this is a laptop machine, then temperature is likely an issue.

otherwise, desktop fans may be faulty.

[Broni]

Thanks, JXY
Pretty demanding game.
And as always:
real minimum = recommended

[Costin]

Graphics card is a Radeon 9600 series. Will run some tests and look at a CPU upgrade as well. Thanks for your input Guys.

[drmsucks]

You may want to clean the computer inside: http://www.computerhope.com/cleaning.htm and then post your temps - cheaper than a CPU!

[JXY]

real minimum = recommended

\

lol. not the first time someone's fallen for that old trick. 

graphics card seems to be supported. go ahead with the cleaning and temp. checking process. keep us posted.

[Broni]

Very good advice from drmsucks, and also....
Your processor speed: 1.8Ghz, recommended: 3.0 Ghz
Your video card with 256MB of RAM matches recommended, which means. it'd like to have 512MB (real minimum = recommended).

[Costin]

Latest details. I have replaced the video card as I have mentioned before but same thing. I have loaded the ASUS PC Probe program to check CPU, MB temp and fan speed with an interesting result. The sample was set to every 2 secs and I ended up with the CPU temp 'cycling' from 33 - 42 - 51 - 60 and back to 33 again also a similar pattern with the MB temp 36 - 45 - 54 - 63 and back again. The fan speed also cycled from around 6000 up to a top of around 9000 but was reach max on a different cycle i.e. not linked to either CPU or MB temps. I reloaded the PC Probe program but got the same results.
I have also run with only one stick of 1GB ram at a time with the same result of the black screen of death, so it is not that. I even tried a bigger power supply and checked the PC Probe yep same cycling temps again. The black screen also made its appearance with the bigger power supply. It has also occured on other games eg FS2004.
So my next options are probably to reload Win XP, I also have another CPU on the way AMD 64 3200+ socket 754 @2.2Ghz. I guess if this doesn't fix it then it's motherboard time?

Any thoughts?
 

[drmsucks]

Check your shutdown temps in the BIOS - what are they?

[Costin]

The computer is still running when the screen goes black.

[Costin]

I'll double check the shutdown temps when I get home later.

[drmsucks]

Just to make sure that we're communicating - Enter the BIOS and see what the set temperatures are to shut down or slow down the computer.

[Costin]

Righto!

[Costin]

Unable to find shutdown temps in BIOS, opened everything. I have reloaded XP and still no real difference except the screen freezes for 2 to 3 mins with audio loop before going black and the audio still looping in the back ground. Also have loaded the latest drivers for the ATi 9600 (73Mb), checked the refresh rate and droped from 85hz to 60hz but still the problem persists only now it freezes and fails before even getting to the game, you are in the prelim/login/setup screen when it dies.

I have a new faster CPU arriving any day, I have been to the AMD website and copied drivers for it. What is the process for changing out a CPU?

[drmsucks]

Unable to find shutdown temps in BIOS, opened everything. I have reloaded XP and still no real difference

Surprised that there are no cutoff temps in the BIOS. Not surprised that the Windows re-install didn't help; most likely a temp, driver or hardware issue, I think.

To install your new CPU, first remove the old one: shutdown and unplug computer. Ground yourself. Unplug CPU fan lead,  unfasten heatsink from CPU socket, lift lever on CPU socket, gently lift heatsink and CPU out of socket.

If you're going to re-use the heatsink, remove the CPU, remove ALL thermal compound from heatsink (a credit card is good to use and then finish cleaning with isopropyl alcohol).

To install: raise lever on CPU socket, align CPU with socket - examine closely to be sure that socket and CPU are matched, gently place CPU into socket, gently press down on CPU while locking the socket lever down, place a small amount of thermal compound (about 3/8") onto CPU, fit heatsink to CPU and socket, plug in fan lead. Double check to be sure that fan lead is properly connected! Check all motherboard and other connections to be sure that you didn't accidentally disconnect anything.

After you get a successful boot, install the AMD drivers per AMD instructions.

Let us know how you make out and if you are still having problems.

Best of luck.

[Costin]

Motherboard, Motherboard, Motherboard Bugger

On the plus side it is an excellant excuse to upgrade the PC to a kick *censored* machine.

Thank you all for your helpful imputs

[drmsucks]

How did you attribute your problems to the motherboard?

[h0w]

is there any lights on the motherboard when the "freeze" happens? if so, what color are they?

[Costin]

Well everything other than the motherboard had been replaced, so I borrowed a motherboard and nvidia graphiics card from him. This combination works on BF2142 so we knew it was good. So after install and reload of windows as it was a faster motherboard, it kept cycling in the bios all was sweet and the game has worked without issue for the past 5 days.

When it ised to freeze on the old motherboard the led on it was green and remained so just as it did during normal ops.