Video/Computer Freezing (nVidia GX280)

I logged in today and tried to play and my video is freezing which takes down my entire system. I've had no issues with i17 until today. Seems to be happening only when I'm over water.

I had the latest nVidia drivers installed (197.45) and I just did a rollback to the prior version that I had (197.13) to no avail.

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at May 13, 2010 15:08 (-04:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.100218-0019)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: P5E3 Deluxe
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/26/08 20:55:07 Ver: 08.00.12
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 8190MB
.Net Memory Report: 6129MB out of 8190MB available
Page File: 14419MB (2012MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD3000GLFS-01F8U0 ATA Device) 177314MB out of 286165MB (61%) free
J Drive: (WDC WD10EACS-00D6B1 ATA Device) 791372MB out of 953866MB (82%) free
D Drive: (HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce GTX 280
Video Memory: 4077 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.0011.9713
Driver Date: 3/16/2010 2:51:59 AM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1373
Driver Date: 6/4/2009 2:49:08 AM

Sound Device Description: SPDIF Out (Creative SB X-Fi)
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1373
Driver Date: 6/4/2009 2:49:08 AM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P5E3 Deluxe
Motherboard Version: Rev 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 08/26/08 20:55:07 Ver: 08.00.12
BIOS Version: A_M_I_ - 8000826
BIOS Release: 20080826000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1680x1050
3D Resolution: 1680x1050 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: -2, -13
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Ultra quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Shadow maps
Shadow Map Shader: High quality
Environmental Reflections: High quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: High quality
Occlusion Strength: Strong
Blur: Trilateral
Ambient Resolution: Quality


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: No

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: Yes
FX Sound Volume: 0.202
Music Sound Volume: 0.005

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.750
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 623902 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201003300904.20T5r
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
.\texture_library\GUI\Icons\Powers has 120 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 34 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files

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@Griffyn

"40 characters is my limit... okay, 50... 50 is my limit... okay, 60... 60 is my limit... okay, 70..."

This is not a CoH related problem. It's either a hardware or driver issue as I just had the same crash with another game.

---

@Griffyn

"40 characters is my limit... okay, 50... 50 is my limit... okay, 60... 60 is my limit... okay, 70..."

If you haven't already try refreshing the drivers but make sure the current driver files are cleaned out first. Uninstall them, then boot to safe mode and run Driver Sweeper to get all the leftover bits. Then boot normally and install the latest driver set. That should make sure there's no older driver files mucking up the works. If that doesn't fix it then you may have a deeper issue as a 280 shouldn't have much problem with UM and as you've not had a problem till now.

---

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

I removed the old drivers and then ran Driver Sweeper and CCleaner. There was a lot of left over junk. Reinstalled the older drivers and got back into CoH. Bounced around for a minute on the water than then cranked it back up to Ultra. Two minutes later... BAM!

Looks like I have some bad hardware somewhere. I hate this part. Ugh!

---

@Griffyn

"40 characters is my limit... okay, 50... 50 is my limit... okay, 60... 60 is my limit... okay, 70..."

Have you cleaned the dust out of your case lately? Might wanna do that and make sure all fans are working properly. Could be a heat issue. I don't suppose at any point you have used or are using the 196.75 drivers? There's a known issue with them causing the GPU fan to not work properly and overheat the card. You can also run GPU-Z to monitor the card's performance.

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It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

I cleaned the dust out of the case earlier and verified that all of the fans were running. System was still having issues. Even froze on boot. Then, I downloaded RealTemp to check on the core temps and all of a sudden it's working without any problems. I really hate when that happens.

Thanks for the help.

---

@Griffyn

"40 characters is my limit... okay, 50... 50 is my limit... okay, 60... 60 is my limit... okay, 70..."