Got a new pc several months ago, right from day 1 i havent been able to play games first time, they load ok but as soon as game play starts it freezes on me and the graphics are all distorted, once i re-boot and try it the second time its perfect and runs smooth with no probs at all, i just want to be able to pop a game in and play first time without all the hastle of re-booting, i have the latest nvidea drivers for my card which is an 8500 gt, any suggestions please....thanks
Sorry, Barndog, but I'm not a gamer. If it runs after a re-boot, though, I wonder if it could be something to do with the software you've been running before the game?
Yeah Rik, its very strange that it runs after r-boot ok, i have tried installing different firewalls and antivirus, but still the same, the pc was advertised as a gaming pc, even when i bought it the games didnt run first time, and that was when no av or firewall was installed, im completly stummped on this one?
Can you identify any pattern to what you have been doing before running the game?
I think a few more details would help such as OS ,PC type , Ram etc. Games which crash? Directx diagnostic results.I suppose were talking of a software conflict/incompatiblity or hardware issues.
Also what games are you trying to play? Are they patched to the latest versions?
as steve mentions some more information please :)
Im running amd athlon64x2 duel core 5000 plus, 2 gb ram, 8500 gt card, im not doing anything before i play, even after just booting my pc in the morning say i still cant play first time round, i run a directx diagnostic check and it tells me no problems found, like i say it plays the games fine after re-booting, at the moment im playing cod4 and bioshock, which are all patched to latest versions :bawl:
Is it overclocked at all?
Check your running temperatures - could be throttling due to temperatures
How do i go about checking temperatures?...thanks
Try Siw:
http://www.gtopala.com/
What about PSU how many watts? Not sure that card has its own power lead but presumably the PCI-e slots will need extra power?
Audio drivers up to date?
Could be a memory issue, Windows has always been notorious for not "handing back" memory to the system when closed programs no longer need it. Rebooting would put you back to "normal" and things are ok again. Maybe?
Thanks for the replys again guys, as far i remember the psu was 600w, and audio drivers are up to date, if it is windows memory loss causing like Ted thinks is there any way of fixing that?
speedfan is my fav for checking temps
perhaps a windows reinstall may help?
A quick google tells me your not the only one having issues getting these games to work? Are you using XP or vista
Just to clarify, are you saying that you switch the PC on but games will only run after pressing the reset switch?
What happens if you switch the PC on, shut it down via Windows 'Shut Down' and then power it back on via the on switch? What I'm getting at here is, is it that the reset button must be used before games will run?
The first thing I'd try is to update the graphics drivers to the latest version.
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp_178.13_whql_uk.html
Im using xp, the point im trying to make is my games wont run first time i try to play, i have to then re-boot and then pop the game on and it plays ok, i have to go to work now guys but when i come home tonight i will try the driver that Sebby suggested, will keep you informed, thanks again
I am trying to recall whether nvidia drivers are completely removed on uninstall? I know a couple of years ago I used to use a program to clear the remnants prior to installing the latest update.
Drivercleaner was always great but now they charge for it :shake:
Not sure whether its a good idea or not but here's another one http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=driversweeper
Afaik, it does uninstall fully.
Quote from: Sebby on Oct 14, 2008, 00:28:17
Afaik, it does uninstall fully.
Drivercleaner actually could cause some issues it once wiped out my Creative drivers along with the Nvidia chipset ones which is all I wanted, I just updated to new Nvidia graphics drivers and have had no framerate issues its faster which is good, the new Nvidia drivers uninstall well :)
I do it the way nvidia recommend & its always worked fine for me, go into the control panel, add remove programs, uninstall the nvidia graphics driver from there ( you may have to be careful if you have an nforce motherboard as well, as the graphics driver uninstall is also inside the motherboard drivers sometimes) reboot, install new drivers, reboot again & your done.
what happends when you run the game on the lowest graphics settings? Are you using anything like daemon tools?
Are the motherboard chipset drivers up to date?
Think I might know what could be the cause.
If you use Xfire with COD4 it doesn't like running at the same time as any games for window game like Bioshock.
I've have similar issues with COD4 and Flatout Ultimate carnage. As long as Xfire isn't running Flatout is fine.
I think they are both trying to connect to the same dll file or something.
If that doesn't help, its worth disabling your firewall and anti virus for a test to see if that solves the problem. I've had issues beofre where its turned out to be the firewall, once I'd tracked the issue down to being zone alarm, it was pretty straight forward to fix.
Dont know what has happened but alls well now, it seems it might have been the zone alarm firewall, i have it removed now and am just using windows firewall, been running great but do you recommended windows to be safe enough to use?
Should be fairly safe using Windows firewall if behind a router.
Xfire should work ok with CoD - i have it running as a rule when i play with no problems
Its not Xfire and COD4 thats the problem they work well together, but Xfire and any "games for windows" titles such as bioshock.
I just thought that as he mentioned playing COD4 and Bioshock, its quite likely he used Xfire with COD4 and might have left that running when he tried to launch bioshock. I had a few problems with that myself until I realised what was the cause.
Ah, picked you up wrong