Can only play for few minutes and screen goes blank

[bryansdkim]

I have a Sapphire ATI x600 Pentium 4 LGA 773 3.0ghz MSI 915 combo. Samsung DDR 2 1024 RAM. Toshiba dual layer dvd. Have all the latest patches for farcry and video card. Motherboard downloaded patches also don't know what they are. Only Farcry has this issue already reinstalled 2 times. Game starts fine but during gameplay at random points (also I didn't get very far) my monitor blanks out like its getting no input. I do not overclock or tweak my hardware other than patches. Have to reset computer can't go back to Windows xp. I have Windows XP pro sp2.

[bryansdkim]

I have a Sapphire ATI x600 Pentium 4 LGA 773 3.0ghz MSI 915 combo. Samsung DDR 2 1024 RAM. Toshiba dual layer dvd. Have all the latest patches for farcry and video card. Motherboard downloaded patches also don't know what they are. Only Farcry has this issue already reinstalled 2 times. Game starts fine but during gameplay at random points (also I didn't get very far) my monitor blanks out like its getting no input. I do not overclock or tweak my hardware other than patches. Have to reset computer can't go back to Windows xp. I have Windows XP pro sp2.

[marts123]

I can take a guess at it maybe gettin too hot.

[CuZtds_Lst_Stnd]

Certainly sounds HW related...
Do you have any monitoring programs where you can see teh temp of the CPU etc?

Have you ran any diagnostic progs on your memory etc?

Afraid you only see this with FC as even a year after its launch, it is still probably the most HW intensive game on the market!

[bryansdkim]

I have a Hyundai LCD 17" i don't have any further specs than that. MSI gave me CoreCenter but I only use it to check CPU temps. I have played SplinterCell Pandora tomorrow on it. I have played RPG games for hours at a stretch. The only problem I have is with Farcry. My specs sort of exceed the recommended. I think my weakest is a lack of a seperate sound card and a more recent graphics card. Still other games ran fine other than StarWars KOTOR Dantooine stage but that's just an issue with ATI. Is there some security programs in the game that prevents me from playing. My dvd came with some video editing software that I never use so I am unfamiliar with it. The only Software that makes my system do what Farcry is doing is FarCry itself. I can play StarWars Battlefront just fine at any stage. I do try to run farcry when I can on its recommended settings.

[CuZtds_Lst_Stnd]

Okay lets take a step back, when you say all the latest patches you mean just 1.3 and 1.31, you havent loaded 1.1 or 1.2?

There is a good thread here that had quite a sad ending for steps you can take to diagnose HW, but first I would try different drivers for the Gcard. I am afraid I dont know much about which ones you should try but hopefully some of the guys that do can post...

Here is the thread I mentioned:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=400102&f=170106891&m=1251097592

CuZ

[pakmanis]

Yeah that was a sad ending http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/cry.gif

[fabulouscoops]

I think we are going to see this type of post more and more. When Far Cry came out there was no 915 or 925 chipset, no SLI, no DDR2, no PCI-e video cards, no 64 bit intel CPUs, no SP2, the list goes on. Games do become obsolete on newer hardware. Try playing Duke Nukem or Descent on a Windows XP system.
In this case, however, I agree that heat and the X600 is probably the culprit. My only other concern with newer systems is that DDR2 memory and its higher latencies leaves little headroom for borderline RAM. Far Cry will find the weakest part of the computer and make it pay dearly.

[bryansdkim]

So there is no quick simple answer to my problem huh? I live on Guam a small US territory and it is next to impossible to find a decent graphics card at a decent price. They blame everything on shipping here. I haven't seen any decent soundcards either. They have some stuff from two years ago for the price they got it at two years ago. I can also forget online because they charge international shipping rates. Very expensive at that excludes me from any deals. My system was built at a local computer shop here. I do supposedly have a 600W PSU but I don't want to void my warranty and open it up to check. It was suppose to be a 500w PSU but management decided to change it. I never heard of the case manufacturer its called ibest. well I just looked at the box and it is a 500w. They got me again. I had to take the system back because the computer had trouble booting up. It will power up but then nothing happens Power on light is on but system not doing anything its happening again. My PSU found makes a very loud noise at start up too. But when the system runs it runs okay. I give up I guess.

[fabulouscoops]

The X600 should be powerful enough to run the game. It's not that it isn't good enough just that the game is not coded with PCI express cards and DDR2 memory in mind. I think the problem is that one of the components in your system is of borderline stability (Memory, power supply, or something else) and Far Cry needs a very stable system. It sounds like you have problems other than running Far Cry though. I bet the shop wired the front panel wrong. It happens all the time.
Good Luck

[bryansdkim]

Sorry I only have Farcry Patches 1.3 and 1.31. I tried online for a little bit and it worked okay. Just thought I'd practice before I go online. The problem happened before I installed the patches and after I installed them. Does anyone know why the PSU fan would make a really load noise and then settle down. I have one SATA and one IDE harddrive installed both are 120gig. Not to show off and no I never thought of raid the IDE was a purchase to try to fix an older computer with didn't work so I hade to buy this one. But at 500W shouldn't that be enough for both hard drives? I also have Nero StartSmart. Never configured it for virtual drive or even know how and I don't want to install it. I just downloaded ATI catalyst 5.4 I hope that works doubt it though.

[bryansdkim]

Sorry bad english but its really late. I meant I don't want to uninstall Nero

[fabulouscoops]

A few things to address here.
1. The 1.3 and 1.31 patches are all you need. Do not go out and look for the others, they will only confuse the situation.
2. Fans make noise because of turbulence. The blades are dirty, bent, or unbalanced for some reason. The fans change speed based on the temperature of the computer.
3. We don't think you are showing off, and you cannot run a RAID array with two different controllers anyway.
4. 500 watts from a respected power supply manufacturer is more than enough for your system. 500 watts from a cheapo generic might also be enough. The point is, with the generic, you just are not sure.
5. If you are playing the game at all then the Nero program is not a factor. DVD emulation software would prevent installation.
6. Try the driver update.
7. The motherboard downloads you talked about might be chipset drivers. Did you load them up or just store without running the installer?

[marts123]

Sorry might have missed something but what settings are you using to run fc..is aa enabled?
And nero is not a problem.

[doyoucare]

Dont overlook the heat issue. A while back my system would do what yours does and after a lot of messing with everything I figured out the video card was susceptable to heat. I moved the card next to it into another slot - in order to allow more air to circulate and ultimately added a low rpm fan to blow onto the card. Never went to black again.

Im also sure that the chipset was slightly susceptable to heat and that fan helped it out as well.

Move some cards away from the graphics card, add a fan or two and see if it fixes it. My ultimate fix was to buy a case with 3 fans blowing in and three blowing out - very quiet.

Yeah I probably should have returned the card but I just waited for the next generation and replaced it.

It doesnt matter that the game only stumbles on FarCry or any one game. Its just that the game uses your vid card harder than anything else you are playing.

Good Luck

[fabulouscoops]

Good post doyoucare. Heat is always an issue and Far Cry is good at pushing the limits.

[bryansdkim]

Thanks for all the tips I downloaded ATI catalyst 5.4 and I got to the carrier then game died. there is two slots between my graphics card and anything else. Your right heat may be a factor since the prescott is a pretty hot CPU and the CPU fan just blows into the case. I haven't really looked inside my computer again warranty issues. I looked at the case and they is only room for two fans on on top of the case and another sort of a spot for another fan. The dealer tried to add another fan when I told him about the heat problem I had earlier. Oh yeah I had a problem when they hooked up the wrong molex connector to the rear fan so CPU temps started skyrocketing since there was no active exhaust. Back to story he said he had to take whole PC apart. I didn't want to let them touch the system again. I didn't see any A+ certifactes and since they still held my warranty didn't want to find out either. Not to blame intel but man did I really want and AMD 64 system. too bad it was impossible to get a socket 939 system here. I know the GPU fan works but is that enough to cope with heat problems. unfortanately the GPU fan also blows into the case no where near the exhuast fan. I only have one PCIe slot so no chance on moving Graphics card. Normally CPU temps are at about 43-45C sorry to lazy to convert that to Farenhiet. Without exhaust fan temps get up to 55 to 60Celsius on idle.

[marts123]

I'd ignore the warranty stuff,open it up a bit and stick a house fan there. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/88.gifI did just that with my last rig which was an amd which btw run hotter then intel,s.Was a niusance but did the job.

[bryansdkim]

The settings on farcry were set automatically but other than resolution at 1024x720x32 everythings at low and no aa. So game doesn't look as great as it should. I don't get the little fish in the water so it's real boring to swim. Just made it to fort stage and now problems starting all over again. The jungle stage is killing me. It worked great in carrier stage. Maybe the jungle setting is killing my system. I got room for ddr slots but that just means losing the ram I got now. I think the downloads my mother board got was to upgrade the bios oh yeah i installed it. also upgraded a program called MSI live update 3. It really doesn't seem to do anything.

[pakmanis]

That system spec should run FC with no problems.
That store's techs may have either set it up wrong or used faulty parts or ????. I think you should do everything and anything to make sure you got what you paid for (without breaking the "warranty void" sticker)...

Download..
Sisoft Sandra (one place here) (http://www.sysopt.com/sandra.html)
The free version "should" at least tell you if you have the components that they say they sold you.

Memtest 86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) or some other memory testing software and make sure that the memory not faulty.

Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) and 3dMark (http://www.futuremark.com/download/) if you can run the Prime95 torture test and 3dmark with no problems that's a good sign.

Misc.
Get adaware and/or spybot (or similar) run then defrag (even if it says you don't need to).

If you find serious problems bring it back and show them.

It could be as simple as a setting (MB bios, OS, driver, etc.) problem. Find out exactly what board you have and do some homework. A good place to start is the tweak guide (http://www.tweakguides.com/Farcry_1.html) stickied at the top of the forum.

[marts123]

Won't void the warranty just by opening the case.Stick a house fan in there just to see if you get a difference,if not then you know it's prob. not a heat issue.

[fabulouscoops]

I would not recommend a stock heatsink/fan for a prescott CPU in a gaming rig, especially if you live in Guam. You need better cooling.

[pakmanis]

If he bought a preassemblyed system with a warranty (as I'm guessing from his comments) there is a sticker on the back of the case that says "warranty void if broken". I've seen that quite a few times before. So, if broken, the store could say "not our problem, how do we know what you did in the case....Warranty Void!"

That's why I suggest testing the system components as throughly as possible before breaking open the case.

Either that, or find a reputable PC service and have them test it.

[marts123]

hmmm All the 1's I've seen that sticker is nowhere near to be of any prob.Maybe different here in Canada.

[pakmanis]

If I had a camara I'd post a pic. Just happens to been a broken one here at work http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif. Anyway that's besides the point. I totally agree with you guys on getting in there and seeing what's going on. Just be nice to know that the important parts are in working order. Rather than finding out the expensive way that something faulty.

[bryansdkim]

Sorry I forgot to mention that i have airconditioning and I keep it around 22C don't know in farenhiet. They gave me the box and I saw it when it was opened all the stuff seem to be there. The computer store does not own any diagnosis hardware. They do the old switch out parts till it works. I upgraded to from a x300ati changed it twice then upgraded to an x600 I watched them do it. We are never sure that the ram works properly. SOrry to use this a a general computer fix spot but does anyone know why a computer would just die for no reason. I mean just by leaving windows open and nothing else. I think i got it down to the mother board. We have alot of brown outs here. don't know how that affects PC. I have a UPS but it's too slow to catch a brown out. once in a while the ups has to kick in but my PC already feels the brown out. this is for my older pc still want to salvage it if i can and just use it for web browsing for my dad. Can a 1gig amd athlon with 256meg ram 40gig hard drive handle windows xp? It had windows me before and it ran great till I had the issue with PC just dyeing for no reason. It's about 4 years old now. Hard drive works. IT has a dvd and cdrw drive cd is 32x18x4. I have a 32meg ati rage fury pro on it. Don't know motherboard manufacturer the system was built by systemax. It had the old slot type cpu.

[marts123]

I would think no probs running xp on that.