Hi,
I’ve been having this problem for about one and a half years (My computer is about 2 years old – I THINK) with my Advent QC5003. I’ve looked all over the internet, I’ve asked on forums, I’ve emailed customer support technicians, I’ve asked friends, and I’ve asked everyone who knows even the slightest bit about computers. The best answer I’ve had is "update your sound, graphics, network and chipset drivers". There are no chipset drivers available at all for my PC, but I update all the other drivers every month (if they are available) and my BIOS. There are VERY VERY few people who share the problem, and nobody that I’ve heard of that has had the problem has ever been able to solve it.
My PC specs should EASILY be able to run the the games I play (actually only Oblivion and World of Warcraft, although I did once try out Batllefield Heroes to get veteran status on BFBC2 on PS3) on max graphics settings (I’ll list the specs below) which it can on a very decent FPS. Problem is, every so often (ranging from 5-30 mins, not any pattern that I’ve noticed) the whole PC locks up and becomes entirely unresponsive. The image freezes, the sound stops and nothing works. It doesn’t start working again over time – I need to turn off the PC by holding the power button and rebooting. This problem occurs on all three of the games mentioned above, whether I’m playing them on max graphics settings or min graphics settings. One exception to the problem that I’ve noticed, however, is Microsoft Flight Simulator X, which makes me think it is a problem with the Graphics Card (because as far as I know, FSX doesn’t use the graphics card because it isn’t very graphically intensive). I’ve somehow managed to put up with it for all of this time but I can’t even complete the WoW pre-expansion event because of it and with the new expansion coming out I really want to be able to enjoy it without rebooting my PC every 15 minutes. I would seriously rather not need to get a new graphics card because, unless it is a cheap one in a budget (my birthday money), I would need to wait until Christmas to get one. However, if that is 100% definitely the problem and a new card would fix it then I’ll get one, but it would be nice to know for certain.
My Specs:
Advent QC5003
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz (2CPUs), ~2.3GHz
3GB RAM
DirectX 11
NVIDIA 9400 GT
IDT High Definition (Sound)
I’m 100% sure that it isn’t a sound problem because I have completely disabled my sound drivers when playing the game. I’ve ran countless virus scans using Norton Internet Security (although I accidentally uninstalled that a couple of days ago, going to buy a new version soon) and system tuneups using System Mechanic Professional. I’ve ran the game with most programs and services disabled (Aero, Themes, and all other non-essential programs) and I’ve ran it with all my startup programs on, I have done everything physically possible and NOTHING is working AT ALL.
I would really, really, really appreciate some help with this, or even just some confirmation that I do indeed need a replacement graphics card.
Thanks very much for reading, and thanks in advance if you answer.
Jordan
My computer hardware is completely unchanged from when I bought it. There is no onboard video, and I had the same problem with my old PC. The power supply is the power supply that the system came with. I also forgot the mention that for the first few months I had it I usually left it on overnight and only turned it off every few days (sometimes I would leave it on for a week to 2 weeks straight), as I did with my old computer, and I think this could have possibly fried the card. I should also mention that from today I’ve had a fan pointed to the computer, idle temperature is around 93 Farenheit but it still crashes. I don’t think it will fix it, but thanks John R for the answer, I will try to take a look at the vid card.