Update Regarding Freezing on my Computer

[Darla Hadisson]

I posted this in another thread, but that thread is deep down on the first page, so I will post it here...

Apparently, I seem to get freezing at times to this day, and apparently it occurred while I was on YouTube, and not Second Life.  I had a freezing occurrence a few minutes ago, and a pop-up just before the last unexpected crash showed something associated with NVIDIA.  Sounds like a graphics card issue, and not my computer.  Would I have to update my NVIDIA graphics card, or would I have to get my graphics card replaced?

I did also have dust accumulated in my CPU tower over the last few months.  The tower is cleaned out as of this evening.

It seems to be pretty clear now what it is on my side.  Or could dust have taken a toll on my NVIDIA graphics card?  My graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce GT420.

Lucky for me, I can go on Second Life on my laptop for the time being.

[Dillon Levenque]

Chances are no one is going to have your answer without knowing exactly which file is being called 'corrupt' and the exact wording of your error message. Getting the dust out of your tower and downloading the latest drivers is probably a good idea but it may not help.

Just so you'll know—I have my Forum viewing settings arranged so that latest posts show at the top of the page. Any section I open shows me threads in order of the most recent post. When you posted to your original thread, you moved it to the top of the page in my view.

I'm pretty sure that's a pretty commonly used setting, because it's easier for most of us to keep track of what's new that way.

 

 

ETA: Since I knew someone might ask and I didn't have the faintest idea where I'd done that I went and looked it up. Click 'My Settings' at the top of the page. Click Preferences>General. Put a check mark next to "Sort topics by time of most recent post".

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Darla,

I've experienced crashing due to dust bunnies blocking air to the graphics adapter (GPU) in the past. It always happened several to many minutes after logging in, sooner if I was in a graphics intensive area, or had draw distance turned way up.

I run on Macs, but I expect Windows PCs are similar in that the operating system monitors chip temperatures and either adjusts fan speed, chip (CPU/GPU) clock speeds, or both, to maintain safe operating temperatures. If airways are blocked or a fan is stalled by bunnies, the operating system will command the fans to full speed, but that won't be enough. The next step will be to slow the clocks to the too-hot chips to reduce energy consumption. If the GPU clock is slowed enough, SL crashes. I've never seen any other application crash under such circumstances, SL is apparently a temperamental brat.

If you're watching a YouTube video that's encoded using an inefficient codec, I suppose it could tax your GPU enough to cause the same problem. My experience with video has been that it stalls or stutters, not that the computer crasheds.

In my case, cleaning out the bunnies restored normal operation. If your cleaning hasn't fixed the problem, then I suspect it's something else.

Good luck!

 

[Sparks Racecourse]

Actually, it is posted on several forums about the freezing problems with Nvidia GeForce GT420.   Doesn't matter on the game, but it seems to be related to that card.  

[Orca Flotta]

Hi Darla, without knowing any specifics of your compi I must say it really sounds like dust/heat issues to me. Dust clogs up your computer, particularly the fans and leads to overheating. The occuring heat slowly kills your machine. Rule of thumb: clean out the case every 6 mth, 3 if you're a smoker. Always have ample air supply around the case, particularly the intakes and exhausts. You know, all those meshes and holes in the computer case aren't there for styling purposes.

GT420 isn't a very good GPU neither. AFAIK it was Nvidia's 2nd worst at the time. It's about 4 years old now, was a cheapo and would be no problem to be replaced by something with considerably more Ooomph! Go for GTX series, at least a x60. Just make sure your PSU can deliver enuff of the good juice to power that card. Let's not forget, the GPU is the single most important part of your rig.

But for now, yeah, CLEAN THAT CASE!!! Here's a nice link for you that shows how easy it is. Shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes. All you need are 1 or 2 cans of compressed air, or a leaf blower, or a vacuum cleaner ... no, I'm not talking about your boyfriend

Wow, Linus was young and video quality was terrible. This one is much more advanced and silly:

And as always: GRRRLPOWER! Don't let any guy get even close to your rig, for 2 reasons:

1) Cleaning is wimmin job! Boys dunno how to clean **bleep**

2) Boys get distracted easily and willl have many "helpful"hints for you and tell you what parts you gotta put into your rig ... and meanwhile they'll forget why you granted them access to your computah in the first place.

 

 

[Darla Hadisson]

I tried to log in to SL using Firestorm's latest update, but I was successfully loggd on for a few seconds, then my computer crashed.  The issue most likely is what I suspected - a graphics card issue.  It looks like I'm bringing my computer to the shop tomorow to be fixed - whether it means a new graphics card, or whatever.  I am suspecting my graphics card has had its day, and it's time to get a new one, most likely.

[Orca Flotta]

Darla, again: simple thing like GPU swap is no reason for schlepping the whole rig to the shop. But okay, it's maybe better so they may check if there are other problems as well and if your PSU is strong enough to power the new graphics card. As I said, don't let them sell you any **bleep** below GTX. Tell them you need a gaming card. Once back home surf to Nvidia and install the latest driver. Don't take the long route via Microsoft update, do it directly. Nvidia have a clever site, they will practically guide you through the really simple process to locate and install your specific driver.

[Phil Deakins]

I've been experiencing graphic card related problems lately. The message I was getting was that Nvidia timed-out. Sometimes the card recovered after closing both SL viewers and other porgrammes could continue, but mostly my monitors just went black and i could do nothing other than turn the computer off and reboot. At first it happened twice a day very early on, after which everything behaved normally for the rest of the day. Later it did it more times every day before it got to normal for the rest of the day. For at least a year I've been using two monitors and two viewers without any problems at all.

I checked on the web and found that plenty of people are having the same problem - Nvidia timing-out - and it's being put down to either a driver update or a Windows update.

When the card receives an instruction to do something, it is allowed 2 seconds, by default, to complete it. It it doesn't get done it time, it times-out and the message is popped up. In the Windows 8 registry, there is key with the value of 2 (seconds). Increasing the amount of time to, say, 4 seconds, fixed it for some people. Windows 7 doesn't have that key but it can be added. I did that for my Windows 7, and set it to 4 seconds, but it didn't make any difference. So I disconnected the second monitor and that fixed it. Since then, I've only seen the problem occur once.

I suspect that a Windows update caused it.

I've written all this because you did say that it was an Nvidia message you got, so you may be experiencing the same problem.