Games freezing

Renee

Thanks NM, I'll try Half Life, trouble is I've got all the Tombraiders and want to finish AOD.

I'll try the vacuum

Toxteth_OGrady

Don't say I didn't warn you :eek:

Courtesy of https://www.dansdata.com

"The obvious choice for getting dust off electronic components is a vacuum cleaner, but this is not necessarily a great idea. Household vacuum cleaners are, for a start, much more powerful than is needed to de-dust a motherboard, and can and do suck loosely-socketed chips clean off the board and into the dust bag. Using the curtain setting, if available, can prevent this - but it's not the only problem.

Regular vacuum cleaners also accumulate static electricity - old-fashioned belt-drive ones do a pretty good imitation of a Van Der Graaf generator, but the fast-moving air inside the plastic tube is enough to put a decent charge on the business end of just about any vacuum cleaner. Static electricity is, generally speaking, A Bad Thing for computers.

Many chips aren't static sensitive at all, but the ones that are can be destroyed by a static discharge as small as 200 volts, which is way less than you can feel and not nearly enough to make hair and scurf start sticking noticeably to the vacuum cleaner tube. Static electricity is also why you shouldn't use feather or other hand dusters on your PC; late night TV advertised "dust magnet" dusters are an even worse idea, because they're made to carry around a big static charge."

:cool:

TOG

Renee

OK I'll just blow.
That link you gave about the old nvidia drivers wont work. I've done a google but it keeps taking me back to the same site.

How do I get a smiley at the end of my message

blinky

nm63uk wrote:

The best tip here is the one about making sure your pc is clean. Turn it off and take the side off and stick your vacuum cleaner in there.

Don't use a vacuum cleaner to remove the dust. Vacuum cleaners create a large amount of static electricity which can kill your PC.

Use cans of compressed gas or an air line to remove dust.

Renee

Thanks Blinky. I'll be careful

criminal_smile

Renee wrote:

How do I get a smiley at the end of my message

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, small box on the left hand side, click on 'smilies'. This will show you the code for all the smilies on the forum. Just enter the code at the end of your text.

nm63uk

Ok, I forgot to say take static precautions. You should always take static precautions when opening up your PC. That aside though, the advice still stands. My vacuum cleaner is a Dyson and does indeed generate a lot of static, however I have never damaged a PC with it and have cleaned dozens.
If you leave your case plugged in (not switched on) whilst you have the side open you can discharge static by touching the case itself or touch a nearby radiator if this worries you.

Inside, first clean the dust from the bottom of the case then pay a lot of attention to the fans, take off the heat sink fan if you are brave enough - it will be easier to clean. Check for dust around the memory and the GFX card or chip, basically get all the dust out that you can.

The advice about not using you vacuum cleaner is good stuff, if you are worried about it then dont do it, however if you are careful it works very well. There are dedicated tiny vacs for cleaning computer components, I have one but have never used it. The compressed air idea is ok but unless you take your computer to bits this will just move the dust around, you still need to get it out or it will quickly settle on your vital components again.
You can then help reduce dust build up by regular use of the vac on the OUTSIDE of the case around all the air intakes.

A quick way of checking that you are suffering from a heat problem is to take the side of your case off in a room with the window open and no heating on. If things last longer, then it is pretty certain that heat is indeed a problem.

People who dont open up their PC on a regular basis often have no idea how much dust there can be inside. I built a computer for a friend a few of years ago and gave him loads of advice for keeping it running smoothly. After having it about a year he told me he was having trouble and brought it round for me to look at. His case lived on his living room floor, its an ATX case that draws air in from the front at the bottom so on the floor is possibly the worst place it could be esp with 2 kids and a front door that opens straight into that room. It had picked up so much dust that you couldnt see the heat sink on the cpu and the rear fan was so cacked in the stuff that it was practically useless. I cleaned it (yes, with the dyson) and it is still going strong after around 3 years. He keeps it clean now.

If you find that it isnt a heat problem, let us know then we can move on to the next likely cause. I enjoy diagnosing computer problems and will be chuffed if I help fix yours.

Again - Good Luck!

Cheers NM

Renee

Thanks for the advice nm. I've just played a game for approx 1/2 hour and when I took the disc out it was pretty warm, so it looks as if I might need to clear the dust.

T4i

Discs do get warm, any dvd/car stereo/cdrom will make a cd warm after long usage. This is quite normal.

spendaholic

If I break the seal on my pc box, I invalidate the lifetime warranty.

Thanks for this thread, btw. I've been having problems with every single RPG game since upgrading to Windows XP Professional. I'm reliably informed (i.e. from several sources) that XP is one of THE biggest problems in the history of Windows. But I don't think there's much light at the end of the tunnel for me. My pc crashes (or freezes) just reading this website. Frequently.