The Glade 4.0

A few days ago, I bought a new game (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl). Since then, I've spent dozens of hours playing it with only minor hiccups now and then when the engine decided it needed to process a ton of info all at once and suspended screen updates while it was thinking. Then, last night, it crashed and seized up my system in the process. Now I can't play at all. I've uninstalled the game, and Steam, and then re-installed both. I've uninstalled my video card's (Geforce 9600 GT) drivers and installed the latest. I can't even play Rainbow Six anymore without the same thing happening. I thought perhaps it was overheating, but I've verified that all internal fans are running (albeit far too quietly for my peace of mind) and SpeedFan reports my GPU is running at about 62°C, which doesn't seem to be problematically high and honestly, I can't help but think that if it were an overheating time it'd take a bit for the card to get warm enough to crash and I'm experiencing this problem within the time it takes to boot up the system and get the game running. I'm about out of ideas. Can anyone throw me a suggestion? Screenshot of the attendant artifacting inside spoiler tags:
OK, it's actually not a screenshot. I had to take a picture with my phone because it's kind of hard to take screenshots of computer crashes that require power cycling, but you get the idea.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Is you video card fan running properly? Also, you might try pulling and re-seating the video card.

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"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." - Alice R. Longworth

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash Williams

Listen to Kairtane. Its what I would have said.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Not sure if it's running "properly". I turned the computer on while the case was open and the video card fan ran, so it's not dead; I just can't be sure whether or not it's operating at 100% because I don't know exactly how it should be running. I'll pull it and re-seat it later today, though, and see what effect that has. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

The fan should be spinning all the time. It should step up in speed as the load on the GPU increases.

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"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." - Alice R. Longworth

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash Williams

Yeah, I kinda thought so. I'm confused, though, as to how it could be connected enough to run at all and yet not be doing that thing which it is supposed to be doing.
In any case, home now and about to try re-seating it. Will see how that goes.
edit : No dice. Re-seated video card and my computer still dies almost the instant I start playing a game. Also, computer sounds as quiet as I always wish it could be; but since that's not normal, it doesn't strike me as being a good thing.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

If it has sufficient grit in it, it will spin but not really move enough air to perform its intended function. Take it out and really get a good close look at it. Is it dirty? If you spin it manually, does it seem to be easy, or is there resistance in the spin? Also, you may want to look closely at the rest of the card, too. See any scorch marks, or anything worrisome?

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Don't forget to ground yourself to something before touching the card. Hopefully that was an entirely unnecessary comment.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

While you are looking at it, check to see if the heat sink is not cracked/broken/loose.

Also, some manufacturers use the cheapest thermal paste/adhesive possible, and sometimes it will dry up and lose some of it's efficiency.

Also, if it has channels for the air to move through, are they full of dust? I've seen them so packed they completely destroy all heat dispersion.

Thing I failed to mention earlier, because I'm still not entirely convinced it's connected : the night the computer crashed (and hasn't yet recovered from), I heard a loud *SNAP* sound from somewhere in the room with me. Sounded to me like electricity arcing, but I couldn't isolate the source and the computer didn't start crapping out until almost an hour later. Also, I have been unable to find any obviously blown-out parts on the mobo or card.

New possibility, that I'm currently giving credence to but would like a second opinion on : the anti-aliasing chip blew out, which is why everything seems to run smoothly until I start gaming, and then it catastrophically fails within seconds of loading up the game. Thoughts on this?

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

The snap could be a capacitor blowing. They're the little cylinders that stick up from the boards. The tops should be flat, not "popped" out.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

The operating system likely makes use of anti aliasing anyway.

I suggest finding and installing an older video card, if you have one. Sounds like time for a new one.

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"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." - Alice R. Longworth

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash Williams

Dead on. Took a look at the card as I was pulling it this morning to replace with a new one and found this:

Picked up a GeForce GT220 this morning and my computer seems quite happy with it. Likewise, I'm happy to have the mystery solved. Thanks, all.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Ooh yeah, that's a kersploded capacitor alright. The smell from those things is astounding (and probably toxic as well).

I like this thread. Glad you got it fixed. *two thumbs up*

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth