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[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Anyone else had this problem?  I've looked it up on Google and have actually found allot of talk about it, but still haven't managed to fix it.  It all started after I installed an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS from PNY.

[Kagus]

Roughly when does it start?  Does it pop up shortly after booting, when you try to run something graphically-intensive, or is it just random?

Booting in Safe Mode should keep it from cropping up.  The only thing I can suggest is making sure you've got the appropriate drivers (may not necessarily be the latest).  Which is about the same level of advice as recommending bed rest...

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Seems to only happen when the card is trying to render 3d graphics.  Sometimes it only happens after hours of no problems.  Sometimes after less than an hour.  Doesn't seem to matter how graphically intense the game is, but the Source engine seems to trigger it faster than other games.

I have the latest drivers, but no idea what other than those would be the "appropriate" ones.

[Kagus]

It's just that, considering the card is from 2006, there may be a backwards compatibility issue.  I think nVidia guides you through the process of selecting a driver, by going through multiple drop-down lists and selecting your card.  So, if you just make sure that you've got the latest for the 7900 GS, you should be set.

Huh...  I hate those crashes that appear at random times...


See if a 3D benchmark test will set it off.  But it's especially annoying since you can apparently go so long without crashing.

Anyways, just to gather some data, here are a couple tests to run.   First, start a 3D program that's guaranteed to crash (since Source games seem to work faster, use one of those), get it to initialize, and then quit back to purely 2D.  See if it crashes after a while.

Another one would be to load one program, and make sure you can go through exactly the same steps every time (HL2 singleplayer campaign is good for this).  Then just make sure to do the same things in roughly the same amount of time.  See if it crashes after roughly the same place.


If the first test crashes, that means it starts something that it never stops, so it just keeps running until it reaches the end of its rope and dies.  If the second test gives results, that means that a particular usage of the driver is causing the flipout.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

One more thing I forgot to mention is that I'm sometimes able to recover from the freeze that happens just before the crash.  Sometimes I can C+A+D back to the desktop and it runs just fine from there until I try to render something 3D again at which point it freezes again.  Even stranger there are usually no apparent glitches in the rendering when it freezes the second time, but if during the initial freeze it manages to come back for a split second it will immediately start getting visibly glitchy.

Thanks for the help by the way.

[Puck]

Most probably its one of the following, I'd say probability is even in the right order when I list em like this:

1) Temperature related. Try a ghetto solution: take off side panel and put a fan there. If it works, you can go from there.
2) Some part of the vidcard is dead-ish.
3) PSU too weak. Normally I'd say thats even more likely than a borked card, but you said, the PC sometimes can snap out of it, which really is a point against a weak PSU.

[Cthulhu]

I fixed this by upgrading my drivers.

[Puck]

I just remembered something:

You can unplug the power connector to the vidcard. This will make it -usually- run in snail mode, so 3d apps would appear really really choppy...

But if it stops crashing, you got some sort of pointer to the power supply.

[Chutney]

The nVidia Geforce 7900 GS is actually a horrid piece of junk that has this problem because it's horribly made. My Dell Inspiron 9400 has it and I have had to use my warranty(thank G-d for it!) no less than 6 times in the 1.5 years I've had it. EVERY SINGLE 7900 has the flaw, something to do with taking more than 2 seconds to do something and therefore shutting down or something. Your best bet is to go back to whatever graphics card you were using or get the 7950 (which supposedly fixes the problem).

[Cthulhu]

Seems to only happen when the card is trying to render 3d graphics.  Sometimes it only happens after hours of no problems.  Sometimes after less than an hour.  Doesn't seem to matter how graphically intense the game is, but the Source engine seems to trigger it faster than other games.

I have the latest drivers, but no idea what other than those would be the "appropriate" ones.

The source-engine has a way of curb-stomping a lot of stuff.  It crashes all the time for me, I don't know what it is about it.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Unfortunately getting new drivers didn't fix it.  I did make sure they said they were compatible.

At first I thought it was heat, but it seemed to happen regardless of the temperature and weather or not I ran an extra fan on it.

Unfortunately I can't go back to an old card either because I only bought this to replace a broken one.  Looks like I've got another reason I need a job.

[Puck]

Try the thing with the power connector, tell us what happens.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Um... I don't see how that would help... I mean, without the video card won't I just be unable to run games at all?  Even if I could, if they're unplayably choppy I wouldn't be able to play them long enough to find out if it crashes.

[Puck]

If the psu is too weak for the card, all kinds of funky, hard to troubleshoot stuff can happen.

If the card works as I think it does, and is forced into "power saving mode" you might not be able to play games properly (scratch "might", you wont) but it helps narrowing down the problem.

Well to be fair, it wouldnt be totally exact and allow me to say "yeah, theres your cause" but its still better than nothing.

oh yeah and:

I mean, without the video card won't I just be unable to run games at all? 

If you pull that power plug from the back end of the card you dont really disable it, it just runs freakishly slow, reducing the power comsumption considerably. But I guess you know by now what Im getting at.

But even if you say placing a fan in front of the opened PC didnt do anything... the problems you describe totally reek of heat. Is the fan of the card itself clean? Also there are some parts on a vidcard that can get hot for various reasons. For instance (dont hurt yourself, please ) is the card radiating assloads of heat somewhere but from the big heatsink? And I'm talking "noticeable if you just put your hand close to it". Be careful not to actually touch anything 

[Chutney]

I'm going to repeat:I've been through this problem with this video card many times
it is a flaw with the actual video card. it cannot be fixed short of getting a new video card.