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Post by Jarhead on Mar 19, 2013 1:08:28 GMT -8
I gave up PC gaming a while back and switched over to consoles. It was a simple time of my life. No constant upgrading and figuring out what settings you needed to play a game. Just put the disk in and play.
The consoles weren't satisfying me for racing games so I decided to get back into PC gaming. At first I used an old PC to run rFactor. What a headache getting all that set up and working properly. But the end result was worth it for the realism and immersion.
Then I decided to try iRacing. The best sim racing game I have ever played, but I need a better PC and triple monitors to enjoy it properly. So now I have all that and for the few moments I have been on the track, it looks awesome.
But a few moments is all I have seen so far. One time I was even able to run a couple of laps. But always within a minute or 2, my PC locks up and restarts, or just restarts right away.
I have all the windows updates, all the graphics card updates, and adobe flash player and Java installed. I have tried a bunch of different settings in the graphics options on iRacing, but my PC keeps on locking up/restarting whenever I try to get out on the track.
Any suggestions. I already solved the memory problem, I hope I don't have to keep trouble shooting every time I install another program, but I'm afraid that's what it will take. Why can't someone make a better console sim racing game?
Well I've had enough headache for one night, time to sleep it off and hope for a better day tomorrow.
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Post by Knight of Redemption on Mar 19, 2013 3:33:58 GMT -8
Heh I posted much the same when I first came back to PC, but your issue there must be very disheartening. Something is very wrong, if the software starts to run and you can do a couple of laps then that suggests to me a hardware issue. Something failing under load...Is it only iRacing? Have you had the same from other games/sims that push the system? rF2 for example, notoriously heavy on resources.
Can you monitor temperatures on your MB? see if there is any overheating going on?
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Post by Kelly G on Mar 19, 2013 4:23:47 GMT -8
Given your post regarding your memory, I would point the finger squarely at your builder. If they can't configure something as simple as memory on a new build, well that doesn't bode well for the rest of the build.
My suggestion would be to find someone here in GBR that you trust that is fairly near you and send that puppy over to them and have them wipe it and start fresh. Save yourself the headache if you aren't really tech savvy. Why bang your head against a wall if you don't have to.
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Jeff H.
Race Coordinator
Posts: 1,237
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Post by Jeff H. on Mar 19, 2013 4:35:50 GMT -8
Troy, go to Event Viewer and see if you can find any errors. It might get you pointed in the right direction. More than likely the computer is getting a blue screen but automatically restarts. To actually see the blue screen, go to Start, right click on Computer and choose Properties. Click Advanced System Settings on the left hand side, click the Advanced tab, click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery and uncheck the box that says Automatically restart. Now if the computer is actually blue screening, it should sit there so you can see if it is giving some sort of error.
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Post by zero7159 on Mar 19, 2013 4:53:33 GMT -8
Get the blue screens going and see what they say during the crashes. My bet is that your GPU is bad out of the box.
Sent from my HTC One X using proboards
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Post by Jarhead on Mar 19, 2013 7:38:31 GMT -8
I never actually see any blue screens. The computer just freezes and sometimes restarts immediately or sometimes restarts after a few seconds, sometimes up to 10 or 15 seconds.
iRacing is the only thing I have tried so far. I don't have rF2. I could try rF1.
Craig you could be right. When I first opened up the PC to take the shipping foam out of it, I noticed that the GPU appears to be at a slight angle and not perfectly lined up with the PCI slot. I think it may have been torqued when they put the shipping foam in. I will get a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about
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Post by zero7159 on Mar 19, 2013 7:53:46 GMT -8
The GPU might be sitting incorrectly in the slot. Try taking it out completely and reinstalling it. Don't worry, you cannot break it anymore than it already is. Make sure that you seat it correctly in the slot and then put the little screw into the appropriate hole. That will keep it from moving around again.
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Post by Knight of Redemption on Mar 19, 2013 8:07:06 GMT -8
I agree that the GPU is the main suspect, and it should not be sitting at an angle. Given the memory issue and what sounds like bad packing, it looks like a Friday night, Monday morning job. To be honest I would just put it back in it's box and return it. It's a pain in the ass but who knows what other cock ups there are.
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F1Fan07
Race Director
Ludicrous speed. Gone to plaid.
Posts: 9,366
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Post by F1Fan07 on Mar 19, 2013 8:12:37 GMT -8
Did you do a fresh iRacing install on this system or copy your user folder from your old PC? If you copied then re-run the iRacing graphics configurator. I forget how to do that... Google it. Games crashing a few minutes in is the textbook case of overheating GPU, VRAM or CPU. My steps going forward would be: - Reseat graphics card (there should also be a little catch at the front of the connector slot that should engage. Also ensure its fan (and the CPU fan while you're in there) is spinning and the card's PCIe power connectors are firmly seated. - Run Furmark (linked below) to stress the card and remove iRacing from the troubleshooting. If it's still crashing a few minutes in then I'd really suspect an overheating issue. As Furmark runs you should also be hearing the graphics card fan spin up faster 15-45 seconds into the test. Is that doesn't help: - Go back to the RAM, remove the XMP profile and get it detected properly at 1333 MHz then test. XMP is like a factory-certified overclock for the RAM and I'm a little perplexed why that changed Windows' detection of available RAM. Anyway, there is no guarantee that the other components in the system will get along with the RAM at 1600 MHz. Nvidia 600-series cards, for example, can sometimes be touchy here. - You got an AMD card right? Look in the iRacing hardware forums and see what driver is working best with iRacing. From what I read it's hit and miss and if the system builder gave you a WHQL driver (or worse, let Windows install a lower-featured driver) you may find more stability with a newer WHQL driver or even a beta. I don't know how much effort you wanted to put into troubleshooting before sending it back but the following utilities are helpful for narrowing down the problem: Memtest86 www.memtest86.com/ - Tests the RAM, leave it running overnight or for the day while you're at work. Furmark www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/ - Nice simple graphics test. Pick some high settings and let it run for a few hours. This will get the GPU nice and hot. Heaven Benchmark unigine.com/products/heaven/ - Use it to try and find video driver issues. Helpful to test different DirectX versions too to uncover driver/library problems. |
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Post by Jarhead on Mar 19, 2013 9:27:30 GMT -8
Well now the PC is locking up when not even in a game. It locked up just loading Internet Explorer, then it locked up again just turning on the PC. Here is a picture of the GPU where you can see how it is not sitting in there straight. I think the card itself is bent.  I just got off the phone with Cyberpower PC customer support. While I was on the phone with them, I sent them the same picture. They agreed that it's a good possibility the card is bad and are sending me a new one. I'm just going to continue using the old PC until I get the new card. I don't need this kind of headache right now. Thank you for all of your help and suggestions. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2013 9:40:55 GMT -8
when i got my pc there was a cord dangling down that would catch in the gpu fan and cause the cpu and card to lock up...check and see anything is near the fan
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Post by spazsterian on Mar 19, 2013 9:58:28 GMT -8
Troy...if you dont have to send them the card back..I'd like it to tinker with. Sucks your having so much problems. I think from sounds of everything they rushed it. Its part of the reason Mikeys comp took a while to get to him after we got all the parts to him..I bench tested everything and then raced with it for a few weeks to make sure everything was good with it before I shipped it to him.
It sounds like they were in a rush to fill back orders due to their relocating. :/
Sent from my SPH-D710 using proboards
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F1Fan07
Race Director
Ludicrous speed. Gone to plaid.
Posts: 9,366
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Post by F1Fan07 on Mar 19, 2013 10:03:42 GMT -8
^ that picture... it's a bit dark and fuzzy but it almost looks like the expansion slots aren't lining up with the case properly for the card to be that skewed.
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Post by Jarhead on Mar 19, 2013 10:33:17 GMT -8
I think it just looks that way from the angle I took the picture. I couldn't get a straight down picture because of shadows, but the slots are lined up.
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Post by Jarhead on Mar 19, 2013 11:32:43 GMT -8
Troy...if you dont have to send them the card back..I'd like it to tinker with. Sorry Spaz, I do have to send the old card back. In fact, I had to give them a deposit equal to the price of the new card which I won't get refunded until they get the old card back. In the end it won't cost me anything though. They are sending a new card with a return shipping label in the box. I will just have to put the old card in the box, slap the label on it, and send it back. Then they will refund the deposit they are holding. |
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