I know a little about computers and can troubleshoot a decent amount of problems but I'm at a loss on this. Also on a limited budget, so hoping to try a few things before I have to break down and buy a new graphics card. I'm really hoping someone here can help.
For about 2 years, I never had a problem playing most games on my computer. Fallout 3, Borderlands, Star Trek Online, WoW, and Sims 2, Sims 3 all ran just fine. But about a month ago, when I downloaded Fallout 3 expansions broken steel/point lookout, I decided I needed to upgrade my drivers because the game kept freezing up.
After I downloaded new drivers Fallout 3 kept crashing and was now giving me the error code "nvlddmkm has stopped responding and has successfully recovered". I couldn't manage to fix it, so I gave up trying and just went back to playing the Sims 3 instead.
Sims 3 kept working fine for about a month but now it is freezing once the game runs for about 15 minutes, and the whole screen becomes pixelated in rainbow colors and completely locks up the computer. The only way to get out is a hard reboot. When I try to run Star Trek Online, it does the same thing but in about 5 minutes after the game starts.
I can play youtube videos and do all the basic computer/internet things just fine, the picture is completely normal.
So far I've tried new graphic card drivers, using "Driver Cleaner" repeatedly to make sure the old ones were cleaned out first, new motherboard drivers, cleaned the outside of computer tower, opened it up and blew out all the dust with canned air (it wasn't too bad). I've downloaded HW monitor to check temperatures.
I don't know how much info to post from the HW monitor but the graphics card seems to be running around 80 degrees C when not gaming and in the lower 90 C range when trying to game.
I haven't changed anything on my computer hardware since I took it out of the box, and here is the computer info...
My computer is a Gateway Model FX4710-UB003A
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Memory (RAM): 6.00 GB
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System
Graphics Card is a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Clocks: Core 650 MHz, Shaders 1620 MHz, Memory 950 MHz
Memory: Size 512 MBytes, Type GDDR3, Bus Width 256 bits
(I don't think it's overclocked unless it came with the computer that way, I don't really understand what overclocking is, to be honest)
I don't know if you'd need any other info to help, but I will happy to find it if I can and it would help!
Thanks!
For about 2 years, I never had a problem playing most games on my computer. Fallout 3, Borderlands, Star Trek Online, WoW, and Sims 2, Sims 3 all ran just fine. But about a month ago, when I downloaded Fallout 3 expansions broken steel/point lookout, I decided I needed to upgrade my drivers because the game kept freezing up.
After I downloaded new drivers Fallout 3 kept crashing and was now giving me the error code "nvlddmkm has stopped responding and has successfully recovered". I couldn't manage to fix it, so I gave up trying and just went back to playing the Sims 3 instead.
Sims 3 kept working fine for about a month but now it is freezing once the game runs for about 15 minutes, and the whole screen becomes pixelated in rainbow colors and completely locks up the computer. The only way to get out is a hard reboot. When I try to run Star Trek Online, it does the same thing but in about 5 minutes after the game starts.
I can play youtube videos and do all the basic computer/internet things just fine, the picture is completely normal.
So far I've tried new graphic card drivers, using "Driver Cleaner" repeatedly to make sure the old ones were cleaned out first, new motherboard drivers, cleaned the outside of computer tower, opened it up and blew out all the dust with canned air (it wasn't too bad). I've downloaded HW monitor to check temperatures.
I don't know how much info to post from the HW monitor but the graphics card seems to be running around 80 degrees C when not gaming and in the lower 90 C range when trying to game.
I haven't changed anything on my computer hardware since I took it out of the box, and here is the computer info...
My computer is a Gateway Model FX4710-UB003A
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Memory (RAM): 6.00 GB
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System
Graphics Card is a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Clocks: Core 650 MHz, Shaders 1620 MHz, Memory 950 MHz
Memory: Size 512 MBytes, Type GDDR3, Bus Width 256 bits
(I don't think it's overclocked unless it came with the computer that way, I don't really understand what overclocking is, to be honest)
I don't know if you'd need any other info to help, but I will happy to find it if I can and it would help!
Thanks!