Hardware skipping and buzzing
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Occasionally while running a game the system freezes up for about ten seconds, then makes this horrible skipping, buzzing sound for about five seconds, and then resumes running again. Sometimes it happens every ten minutes or so, other times it happens constantly and the game is unplayable. I thought it was a software problem originally, like maybe the game wasn't installed right, but it's happening on every game I have, particularly 3D games. So I'm assuming it's my GeForce card that's the culprit. I've upated the GeForce drivers and DirectX and reinstalled the games in question. I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem. Someone I talked to suggested the powersupply might be failing, not getting enough juice to the graphics card, but wouldn't that just shut the whole system down? The only other option is a conflict with certain drivers working together somehow. Maybe my graphics card doesn't like my sound card or something. I'm just wondering if this has happened to others, and what they did to fix it. Thanks for your help, folks.
"Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet
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Occasionally while running a game the system freezes up for about ten seconds, then makes this horrible skipping, buzzing sound for about five seconds, and then resumes running again. Sometimes it happens every ten minutes or so, other times it happens constantly and the game is unplayable. I thought it was a software problem originally, like maybe the game wasn't installed right, but it's happening on every game I have, particularly 3D games. So I'm assuming it's my GeForce card that's the culprit. I've upated the GeForce drivers and DirectX and reinstalled the games in question. I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem. Someone I talked to suggested the powersupply might be failing, not getting enough juice to the graphics card, but wouldn't that just shut the whole system down? The only other option is a conflict with certain drivers working together somehow. Maybe my graphics card doesn't like my sound card or something. I'm just wondering if this has happened to others, and what they did to fix it. Thanks for your help, folks.
"Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet
I'm assuming that it's not just your drive spinning faster, which usually happens during rapid file access and playing games. So it may just be a bad drive. My CD-Drive acts up occasionally and does the same thing, but it runs fine otherwise. If it's not slowing anything down or causing problems, then it's probably no big deal. But don't take a chance. Try running a hard drive diagnostic tool (one is included with your BIOS), and then see if there's anything wrong.
Kevnar wrote:
Someone I talked to suggested the powersupply might be failing, not getting enough juice to the graphics card, but wouldn't that just shut the whole system down?
Yes, it would cause the system to crash and other hardware to act up also.
Trinity: Neo... nobody has ever done this before. Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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Occasionally while running a game the system freezes up for about ten seconds, then makes this horrible skipping, buzzing sound for about five seconds, and then resumes running again. Sometimes it happens every ten minutes or so, other times it happens constantly and the game is unplayable. I thought it was a software problem originally, like maybe the game wasn't installed right, but it's happening on every game I have, particularly 3D games. So I'm assuming it's my GeForce card that's the culprit. I've upated the GeForce drivers and DirectX and reinstalled the games in question. I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem. Someone I talked to suggested the powersupply might be failing, not getting enough juice to the graphics card, but wouldn't that just shut the whole system down? The only other option is a conflict with certain drivers working together somehow. Maybe my graphics card doesn't like my sound card or something. I'm just wondering if this has happened to others, and what they did to fix it. Thanks for your help, folks.
"Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath made me mad." - Hamlet
If the measures suggested before do not fix the problem, have an electrician measure your mains. The problems might be related to brownouts or other voltage or waveform problems. If you don't want to pay an electrician, try to rent a dual-conversion UPS (or maybe another true-online UPS design) and see if the problem persists. Other than that, check your hardware for signs of failure (blown capacitors, cracks, visible tension on PCBs).
Cheers, Sebastian -- "If it was two men, the non-driver would have challenged the driver to simply crash through the gates. The macho image thing, you know." - Marc Clifton