jannifer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jannifer) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
peopleofthedas2011-03-16 06:06 am
jannifer) wrote in peopleofthedas2011-03-16 06:06 am
Entry tags:
Help with Game Video Issue, I Hope
For well over a year, my game ran beautifully. Now, I am desperately seeking help for a problem with DA:O that's suddenly gotten much worse. I'm hoping that someone more technically savvy than I am can come up with a solution.
EDIT: Problem solved thanks to the lovely amhran_comhrac. A new video card is in my future.
To get the technical stuff out up front, here's what I'm running:
Intel(R) Core Duo E6550 @2.33 ghz.
2 gigs of ram
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS w/ 512 ram
Windows XP v.2002 w/ SP 3
40 gig hard drive with half the drive free.
The problem is that the game video -- while playing and during cutscenes and conversations -- gets kind of jerky, for lack of a better word. It's as if it kind of hangs for the barest fraction of a second, then jerks forward about five frames. It'll do this for about a minute or so, then all of a sudden the game will run perfectly for about 15-20 seconds. Then, it starts jerking again. This even happens when I'm in the Character Creator, it's not just during game play.
It used to be that this problem only occurred right after I booted up the computer and then immediately started the game. I assumed it was something going on in the background because it'd stop after a while and the game would run smoothly for however long I cared to play. If I exited the game and restarted it later without turning off the computer, things would still be fine.
However, the last couple of days, I've had to deal with this the whole time I've played, and I'm getting very frustrated. The game doesn't crash or hang up, it just does this weird jerky thing. Audio is fine, the mouse doesn't slow down, keyboard commands respond properly, and cutscenes and dialogue play (though they're jerky just like the game). It's all in the video.
Here's a list of everything I've done:
I've run dxdiag, and everything checks out. (DirectX 9c)
I've uninstalled and reinstalled the game.
I've adjusted the video settings for more or less quality, anti-aliased and not. (I had NOT made any changes in these settings when the problem started.)
I've tried starting a new game with all DLC disabled and my Override folder cleared out.
I've downloaded and installed the latest driver for my video card.
I've checked the thermometer which keeps track of the heat inside my computer case. It's not running hot.
Disabled or stopped any background programs. (Again, there's not anything running now that wasn't running before.)
EDIT: I've also tried rolling back my video driver to an earlier version. Still no luck.
I want to repeat that the game ran perfectly for over a year, then this became a problem only when I started the game right after booting up the computer (although it would resolve itself after playing for an hour or so), now it looks to be a permanent problem.
Does anybody have any idea what's happening?
EDIT: Problem solved thanks to the lovely amhran_comhrac. A new video card is in my future.
To get the technical stuff out up front, here's what I'm running:
Intel(R) Core Duo E6550 @2.33 ghz.
2 gigs of ram
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS w/ 512 ram
Windows XP v.2002 w/ SP 3
40 gig hard drive with half the drive free.
The problem is that the game video -- while playing and during cutscenes and conversations -- gets kind of jerky, for lack of a better word. It's as if it kind of hangs for the barest fraction of a second, then jerks forward about five frames. It'll do this for about a minute or so, then all of a sudden the game will run perfectly for about 15-20 seconds. Then, it starts jerking again. This even happens when I'm in the Character Creator, it's not just during game play.
It used to be that this problem only occurred right after I booted up the computer and then immediately started the game. I assumed it was something going on in the background because it'd stop after a while and the game would run smoothly for however long I cared to play. If I exited the game and restarted it later without turning off the computer, things would still be fine.
However, the last couple of days, I've had to deal with this the whole time I've played, and I'm getting very frustrated. The game doesn't crash or hang up, it just does this weird jerky thing. Audio is fine, the mouse doesn't slow down, keyboard commands respond properly, and cutscenes and dialogue play (though they're jerky just like the game). It's all in the video.
Here's a list of everything I've done:
I've run dxdiag, and everything checks out. (DirectX 9c)
I've uninstalled and reinstalled the game.
I've adjusted the video settings for more or less quality, anti-aliased and not. (I had NOT made any changes in these settings when the problem started.)
I've tried starting a new game with all DLC disabled and my Override folder cleared out.
I've downloaded and installed the latest driver for my video card.
I've checked the thermometer which keeps track of the heat inside my computer case. It's not running hot.
Disabled or stopped any background programs. (Again, there's not anything running now that wasn't running before.)
EDIT: I've also tried rolling back my video driver to an earlier version. Still no luck.
I want to repeat that the game ran perfectly for over a year, then this became a problem only when I started the game right after booting up the computer (although it would resolve itself after playing for an hour or so), now it looks to be a permanent problem.
Does anybody have any idea what's happening?
no subject
Do other games run ok? How does your system sound lately? Fans noisier than usual? Worse still- quieter? I'm wondering if the card is on it's last legs and you're getting inconsistent cooling.
Second guess... Did you upgrade the power supply when you put the card in? Most stock systems come with a 350 watt supply which isn't enough for all but the most basic of aftermarket cards. A 40gb gard drive set off major warning bells for me. That's generally a spec only found in small form factor/microtower low cost systems, and those can have a power supply as weak as 250 watts. If you've been running the system without an adequate ps you may have burnt yours out. Which can cause a whole host of ugliness since it's the main cooling source for the whole system.
My first step would be to check the system specs on the mfgs webpage, and the card specs. If you don't have enough power to run the card try upgrading the PS. If you do have enough I'd think about upgrading the card. The 7000 series came out seven or eight years back. That's a pretty good lifespan for a card, but you can get much better for pretty cheap nowadays. It may just be showing it's age.
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Anything else I run on this machine right now runs just fine -- games, applications, whatever. I ONLY have this problem in DA:O.
I am getting ready to open the case and see if it needs to be cleared out. I'll check the fans while I'm in there and make sure they're running as they should. I'd much rather replace a $20 fan. I simply can't afford to replace anything else.
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Although, if it were an issue with the video card overheating, wouldn't that happen after playing for a while or after the computer had been running for a while rather than happening after boot-up?
Oh Dear Lord, please don't make me have to replace the video card. The computer is my lifeline, and I've seen what good cards run.
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I have a headache. *headdesk*
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If you had your system made when Oblivion came out that would make the card five years old. Their average lifespan is between three to five years, without overclocking (depending on how much you game). (IMO, DA is far more taxing than Oblivion, even if only because of the memory leaks and other shoddy work on the back end of the coding. Really, it uses way more processing and graphics power than it has any right to looking like it does. DA2 is less taxing on my system, and that's with the directx 11 enabled.)
If it does end up being your card something like this will keep you going for under $50. I'd highly recommend going a few dollars more for this one, though. (Twice the ram, but I also personally think zotac makes a better card than sparkle. I've got this card now and adore it head and shoulders above my old evga.)
It may not necessarily be overheating, per se. It could just be the motor dying. If it takes longer to get the fan spinning, to get enough power to the card... well, that would explain why things seem worse on a cold boot until the card has a bit of time to "warm up," so to speak. That it's getting progressively worse also speaks to hardware failure, not software. A glitchy mod or whatever isn't going to get worse over time. Bad code is bad from the get go.
If something that once worked no longer does there's got to be a reason. There haven't been any patches out recently, you even went back to the vanilla unmodded game on a clean install. The software has remained consistent. That leaves hardware as the likely culprit.
If you start getting random full system crashes when the video cuts out, or artifacts, you'll know for sure, though. I've been there. It sucks.
(hates to be the bearer of bad news, but my day job does involve having to know about this sort of thing)
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I can't borrow a card to check things out, but after eliminating all other possibilities, one must face the inevitable.
I was trying to figure out how to come up with the $$ for a new card thinking that I'd be looking at a minimum of a few hundred dollars. I can find $60.
Thank you so much for such practical help. It is most appreciated.
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The 8xxx series was a big leap forward for Nvidia so I think you'll be plesantly surprised with the 9500 compared to the 7700. It's got a bit more power (not a TON since it's pretty firmly midrange, while the 7700 was closer to upper), but the dx9 to dx10 leap is HUGE. Plus, if you went with 1gb of ram you'll absolutely see a difference.
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Have you installed anything else that might be interfering with it? running any kind of power-sucking background processes or something, like, maybe a new anti-virus or anti-spyware, or anything that monitors your computer for changes or anything like that? It's possible that even your existing anti-virus has done an update or something that causes it to behave in a way that's causing trouble.
When it's doing this, can you open the Task Manager and look to see what processes are running? That may help you figure out of this could be the problem.
no subject
I do turn off a couple of things that don't need to be running all the time and uninstalled an Apple application aimed at mobile devices (since I don't have any). I did try turning off my A/V program last night to see if that made a difference. It didn't.
Task Manager shows the CPU to be running at 100% when this happens, but that's pretty much standard for DA:O. There are reports and questions about that all over the forums.
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