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Hey Tech Guys.....

I could sure use some help!

I am currently having a lot of in game ( BF2) momentary freeze up's. I think one part is heat related. I hear the fan in the computer come on a lot causing the game to hesitate. Is this normal? Should the fan not be able to turn on and do it's job without the game freezing up? I stuck a regular fan behind the PC under the desk and it seems to have cut down on the cooling fan going on and off as much.

The other problem seems to be sound related. It too is causing the game to freeze for a sec or 2. It will make a noise like....Ah, Ah ,Ah, Ah ,Ah..........freeze for a few seconds then stop and go on back to game play as normal. I have realtek AC97 onboard sound and have all ways kept the drivers up to date. I have a radeon x800 series video card. Is it possable the onboard sound is not 100% compatible with the video card or is it totally unrelated? Would getting a pci dedicated sound card perhaps be a better choice for sound compatabilaty? This problem is not just related to bf2. It all so happens in DOD source when I play it, just not as often. Wondering if anyone has had this problem before, and had any suggestions.

My Specs are listed below. Thanks for any suggestions you guys might be able to offer.


Manufacturer:
HP Pavilion 061
Processor:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory:
2048MB RAM
Hard Drive:
315 GB
Video Card:
RADEON X800 Series
Monitor:
SONY SDM-HS74P DVI-D
Sound Card:
Realtek AC97 Audio
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)

Ok well my first question is,

Did you check to confirm that all your drivers for your devices are current?

Make sure that you have the latest drivers for your hardware, especially Vid and Sound.

You can also check you event log to see if anything is reported their.

Everything is current and up to date. I checked out the event logs as suggested. Don't see anything much there.

Hey Major!

Have you tried replacing all your thermal paste? GPU in particular? Murdoch also suggested that you make sure you don't have any active fan controls running. You'll want your fans spinning constantly.

As far as hardware goes, I don't think getting a sound card will help much. You'd probably get more bang for your buck with a new GPU.

Take care dude!
Bill

It won't help the pausing problem, but I'd recommend a sound card anyway. The Realtek chipset is a very poor audio chipset with broken 3D sound support and it relies on your CPU for it's processing. A Soundblaster X-Fi can be had for as little as $75, if you have the open PCI slot.

As for the pausing, I'll second the recommendations made for heat management so far. Also, is your CPU a dual core or is that second one from Hyperthreading? If it is you might want to try disabling Hyperthreading and see if that helps, I've read a few articles on it causing issues.

I like the thermal glue suggestion. Its just wierd the way it just started happening. You usually have some indication of a problem somewhere.
I'm leaning more toward a hardware issue like a slowly failing PCI bridge, or vid card itself.

Does the sound issue usually coincide with the video issue?

All interesting suggestions.......I guess the con census is try the thermal glue first, so I will give that a try. The prosseor is hyperthreading so I will see what I can find out about that as well. All so I'm interested in the active fan controls suggestion, but am unaware as to how I would access this to set it so the fan runs continuously. Is there a system setting I can access for this or is it a software program I need to get?

As far as the Video/Sound pause issue, Yes the video and sound issue coincide. I thought I read a while back that the realtek drivers were causing conflicts with some cards while playing games, but I have been unable to find anything on that since.......Hummm...........I'm always looking for a reason to upgrade something whether I need it or not. (it's a sickness ) I'm afraid I am about to fall off the wagon and go for the bigger bang for the buck!!! I just wonder if I stick with Radeon will I have the same issue?

Well I have learned some things here.....Thanks for the input. I will try all your suggestions. If anyone can fill me in on the fan control issue I would like to try that as well. Thanks again!

The fan speed issue may depend on the brand of your motherboard, Asus for instance has a utility that will adjust the fan speeds and display temperature readings. You might also check your BIOS for settings.

Another thing you can try is a freeware utility called Speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php , if it's compatible with your system it can control the fan speeds as well as display temperature information.

Buddy Lee wrote:As far as the Video/Sound pause issue, Yes the video and sound issue coincide. I thought I read a while back that the realtek drivers were causing conflicts with some cards while playing games, but I have been unable to find anything on that since.......Hummm...........I'm always looking for a reason to upgrade something whether I need it or not. (it's a sickness ) I'm afraid I am about to fall off the wagon and go for the bigger bang for the buck!!! I just wonder if I stick with Radeon will I have the same issue?

Well the easy test would be is to disable the sound card in Device Manager. Then play some games with no sound. If it doesn't freeze up you know its a sound driver issue.

You may also want to try to change your sound setting to software mode.

Quick note.......I downloaded the speedfan software. My one remote reading would go up to 145 degrees w/ a flame icon next to it while playing bf2. I turned the fans up to 100% and played a few multiplayer rounds. The temp that was 145 now stayed a steady 97 in game and down to 91 out of game. I had no pauses during play....NONE ..........Not even the one I thought might be sound/video related. I'll have to play a little more just to make sure I am correct, but it looks like it was all heat related. I guess my next question is..........Is it ok to keep the fans all ways at the max 100% or should I just turn them up before going into a game?

Normally the only issue with keeping the fans at max is the noise levels, if that doesn't bother you then it's no big deal.

Great!!!! I want to thank you guys again for all your help. You guys know your stuff, and I definatley learned a thing or two. Thanks!!