Diagnose this! (erm, please..).

Hello all,

I'll start out by confessing a complete lack of any technological prowess - so be merciful

My problem is that my computer occasionally freezes while playing GW (usually during some spectacular battle with associated flashes/action...a goodly way into a mission/dungeon ... but I digress). If I have some music in the background, this will also freeze.

Unfortunately I am unable to use the mouse or keyboard at that point, so there are no images of what the screen looks like. My best description would be a 'kind of speckly posterised version of the screen with some vivid colours thrown in".

I am forced to hold down the on/off button and start everything up again (ctrl,alt, del has no effect). While this normally works, occasionally this speckly imaging and poor performance occurs whilst trying to restart. This will mean I have to do the restart thing a number of times.

My PC is (no pointing and giggling):
Dell Inspiron
Intel Core 2 duo
2.66GHz 2.66 GHz
3 Gig RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

I assume those things mean something to ppl, I haven't a clue.

Any suggestions with what is the likley culprit on my PC? I don't use any umm, texmod stuff, or anything like that.

Edit:
My thanks for your informed suggestions. That link was awesome - here is a pic of what the PC is uh 'running at'.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h9...i/screenie.jpg

Oh dear - this is when I actually ran about in the outpost...
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h9.../screenie2.png

No idea if this is bad or not?

Its eigther a temp problem like a broken fan or your graphicscard is running on empty. I'd suggest running some diagnostics tools.

try updating both directx and your graphics card driver.
your computer is more then capable of handling the game, stats-wise.
Also, go here: http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
and see what some of your temperatures are running at.

Graphics card is overheating. Possibly fried and needs replacing. Possibly just needs fans cleaned/repaired.

Good work on providing information, despite the "complete lack of technological prowess" you provided the information quite well.

Now, this looks to be almost certainly a graphics card problem, but there are a couple things to consider:

Does this happen when playing other games or running 3D applications?

Your Power Supply may not be providing enough power to the graphics card, the easiest way to find out what you have is to take the side panel off your case and read the sticker on the box in the top left corner (may be in bottom left, but not usually) - see what it says for total watts. Also, make sure there is a 6 Pin cable running to the video card from the power supply.

If you open the inside of your case and see allot of dust on things, I would reccomend buying "Canned Air" at Staples or Best Buy or some such place and blowing out the dust. Just make sure that you do not touch anything other than the case itself with your hand, as to prevent static electricity damage. A dusty computer will run hotter than a clean one, by a fair bit.

I hope that makes sense and is clear to you. I really do suspect a failing video card, but those other steps are quite simple to do and I would recommend that you try them before spending the money on a new video card.

Hmm, going off those temps, I am actually going to disagree here....

I don't think it is the graphics card overheating, but rather your CPU.

The SiDeg temperature threshold on the 8600GT is incredibly high (this due in part to high cobalt doping, but irrelevant). I have seen 8600GTs reach upwards of 92C and still perform their duty. Your card is peaking at 81C, which is hot, but not lethal to that card. However, I must point out... at those temperatures, the heat being exchanged from the core would be quite high, and would drastically increase your cases ambient temperature. The processor is also running fairly warm, and all this warm air doesn't seem to be escaping the case at any high rate of speed.

The other thing that is tipping me off is a massive droop in your Core0 voltage on the CPU. This leads me to believe that you might have some SiDeg in the Core0, maybe around the CM or register area that wouldn't cause constant issues (like damage to the ALU)

The other two options beyond the CPU are the GPU and RAM. While I say that I suspect the CPU more than the RAM, that doesn't mean that your particular 8600GT didn't suffer SiDeg at those temps. I would highly advise you lower the internal temperatures of your system, through a complete cleaning and perhaps the addition of larger/better/more fans with good airflow (CFM) rating.

What you might do is to go into your BIOS and disable the second core on your CPU. Run the PC (no games) and stress it a little. If it crashes far faster, that is a much more clear indicator to it being a CPU issue.

Thanks for all of your replies, I've taken (for me) the drastic step of opening up the case. My word - more dust / lint in there than under your grandmother's bed! After compressed-airing this all over the kitchen, it looks sparkling fresh.

I might try the dust-free approach for a bit, before embarking on the following, mysterious-sounding plan: "go into your BIOS and disable the second core on your CPU. Run the PC (no games) and stress it a little. If it crashes far faster, that is a much more clear indicator to it being a CPU issue." I think I'd need diagrams and a game of charades at that point.

My thanks again, I am grateful for access to techy prowess far greater than I could hope for at a local PC shop.

good to hear that you braved the unknown so gallantly. I personally like to blow the dust out at least once a year by default and more if you have an abnormally dusty house etc...

Without too much detail ... Yes clean your box every now and again ... Yes it could be CPU, RAM or even Motherboard. However you mentioned that some times even at startup you see specks and weird graphics. THAT makes me vote Graphics card ... almost 100% sure. I had this issue some months ago and ended up buiyng a new card. Oddly I had the exact same Nvidia card so I knew it could stand very high temps and I monitored it with hw monitor - but after "downgrading" to a 9800 GT (in fact about the same performance or even better) everything is smooth.

Aw now come on chaps, some very creative responses - including looking for a 6-pin power cable to a GeForce 8600 GT (last time I looked it doesn't use 'auxilliary' power)

The 8600 GT does run 'toasty' but you've got to work pretty hard to fry a GPU in a bog standard PC.

The OP didn't mention which Operating System he's running under - if it's Vista then the dreaded nVidia nvdllkvm driver must be a prime suspect. Even if a complete system freeze does point the finger more at a CPU overheat.

1st thing to try would be to run GW in windowed mode (and see if a death really does cause a complete freese or just a graphics layer lock) and also try running GW in dx8 mode (add "-dx8" to the command line). This'll will tone down many of the more GPU intensive graphics.

The 8600 GT driver really doesn't like interacting with onboard sound cards either - so if you're in the habit of listening to streaming audio while playing GW then don't! That'll make the driver throw a hissy fit.

It's very unlikely to be a power supply problem, simply because the symptoms are wrong.

Cheapest option for cooling the card would be an 'exhaust' style fan mounted in the slot next to the graphics card. These are like a $5 investment but its amazing how much hot air they can blast out of your case.

If you are running Vista then be prepared to just live with the odd graphics brain f*rt.. until nVidia sort out the driver the problem isn't going away.