Hardware problem, help needed

Hey guys I'm posting this on behalf of my friend over who's computer I just busted my head over with no solutions in sight.

So I went over his place today to work out some issues he's having with his computer lately, some mouse scrolling problems, sound setup with his new speakers, etc etc etc and finally, Battlefield 3.

Now, I got all the problems worked out within 5 minutes and everything was running great, when he finally told me that his Battlefield 3 is acting up.

So we fired it up and true to his words, after aproximately 5 to 10 minutes of gameplay, check this (I didn't believe it either) his computer completely shuts off with on-display message of "Out of Range" (stock monitor Error message).

Totally dumbfounded, I worked a bit on the in-game settings, tweaking some performance issues to see if it weren't some memory leaks or stuff like that. Nope.

Since BF3 is the most hardware intensive game he's ever ran on his computer, I thought maybe his power supply was giving out, and I opened that up, cleaned it thoroughly to prevent it from overheating, closed all up.

Didn't work. To absolutely help eliminate that possibility, I had him run Super Pi in background along with Just Cause 2 (the only other DX10 exclusive game he had installed) to fully stress out the system, and it didn't crash.

So problem lies strictly somewhere with Battlefield 3 alone, all hardware issues checked up and eliminated (updated all drivers, played around with all video and audio system settings), and I cannot see the solution to a problem.

So in short, his system is
Athlon II 6000+ Dual core processor,
3.25 GB usable RAM (has 4GB total but 32 bit OS)
Raeon 4850 with aftermarket upgraded cooler, temps never go above 45°C
Noname PSU with about 450W total declarated power if I summed up all the ratings right.

Problem is:
After 5-10 minutes of gameplay of Battlefield 3 (no other game), computer completely shuts off, either with no error message on screen beside standard "No input detected", or sometimes with "Out of Range" with named resolution of 1440x900 (his native 19" screen resolution) and frequencies listed somewhere around attempted 110 Hz rate (in-game Vsync settings does not help).

After telling him to update drivers, try affinity with only 1 core and some other minor tweaks, I've ran out of ideas and helpful Google results.

Anybody had any similar experience with this, perhaps know a fix, or have an idea or two?

Isn't Radeon 4850 a old videocard for this game ? Maybe too old. I suspect the GPU is getting too hot.

Nah, it's not too old, it runs the game just fine, and we worked out GPU temperature issues back when we replaced the stock reference shit cooler with aftermarket Zalman. As I said, never goes above 45°c even under 100% stress.

Believe it or not.... It's a monitor issue.

It's the screen size or refresh rate that messes with the monitor drivers. First thing I would do is update the monitors drivers... if that doesn't fix it... delete the battlefield folder from my documents and try to keep the resolution to the monitors native resolution when in regular desktop use.

That should solve the problem.

-Adrian

Game runs at native resolution of monitor at 1440x900 and I have tried switching Vertical Sync on and off.

Drivers for a monitor? That exists?

Besides, if it's a monitor issue, then how come the entire computer simply powers down when error occurs?

I've had Out of Range errors before but I waited a few seconds and GPU defaulted the settings to desktop after exiting the game and it worked fine.

It's defiantly a monitor issue. There was a massive amount of people complaining about this issue in Australia.

Apparently the game tries to force 100Hz refresh rate or tries to increase the resolution past the monitors range... hence the "out of range" message.

I know it's slighty off topic, but out of curiousity what frame rates is he getting?

I don't know if this is helpful at all since by the description of your troubleshooting I think you know far more than me but would any of the following be a potential issue?

Is there any possibilty that because Battlefield 3 is a newer game that 1440 X 900 is a lower resolution that is not supported as well by the game? Could he try running 1680 X 1050, do you think that would make any difference?

I wonder if some newer games might not do as well with less common or older resolutions perhaps.

Have you checked to see if it happens in multiplayer vs. singleplayer?

Could it be that older video cards actually are not as compatible even though they are said to be compatible? It might be really taxing his older video card. I know Battlefied 3 heats up my GTX 260 like no other game I've played, and I think the GTX 260 is older but still a little more advanced then your friends card, although I can't remember for sure how close they are in the benchmark rankings.

I wonder why it would suddenly switch resolutions/refresh rate mid-game? Is there a video sequence at that point or something? In my experience that error occurs when the monitor gets a signal that it can't handle (resolution or refresh rate too high or low etc). Unless of course there's a known incompatibility somewhere between BF3 and the monitor in question.

Not to disagree but it sounds like the psu getting old to me. BF3 pushes max watts from a gpu, an old psu or underpowered one will start to fail or its 12v rail gets noisy as it heats up. Lower settings to or even underclock the gpu to see if it helps from drawing less power. I think you had it right the with your first choice. It may be the moniter though, I just think the driver is glitching as the GPU looses power.

bobhaha said:

It's defiantly a monitor issue. There was a massive amount of people complaining about this issue in Australia.

Apparently the game tries to force 100Hz refresh rate or tries to increase the resolution past the monitors range... hence the "out of range" message.

Click to expand...

I really didn't know that. I'll google that around, see what comes up,

Thanks.

ElectroMagneticFreak said:

I know it's slighty off topic, but out of curiousity what frame rates is he getting?

I don't know if this is helpful at all since by the description of your troubleshooting I think you know far more than me but would any of the following be a potential issue?

Is there any possibilty that because Battlefield 3 is a newer game that 1440 X 900 is a lower resolution that is not supported as well by the game? Could he try running 1680 X 1050, do you think that would make any difference?

I wonder if some newer games might not do as well with less common or older resolutions perhaps.

Have you checked to see if it happens in multiplayer vs. singleplayer?

Could it be that older video cards actually are not as compatible even though they are said to be compatible? It might be really taxing his older video card. I know Battlefied 3 heats up my GTX 260 like no other game I've played, and I think the GTX 260 is older but still a little more advanced then your friends card, although I can't remember for sure how close they are in the benchmark rankings.

Click to expand...

Okay, please don't take this the wrong way, but please don't be the "Whaaat your computer is more than 2 hours old?! What are you a god damned hipster, get yourself a REAL computer for nothing less than a yearly budget of entire Croatia!!!" type of guy. I hate those types.

Look man. 1440x900 is a "native" resolution of his 19" monitor. That means, maximum resolution that monitor supports.

What you $2500 computer people probably don't understand, most games can be ran at 800x600 resolution via in-game settings. Or if you'll like me, you dig around configuration files a little bit and force a game that will run on 640x480 resolution so I can play it on my 4 years old low-budget laptop (Like I did with ME3 series).

Not having any extra cash around in a country where the life's standards are a bit lower, having a computer equates to you having a car. It's valuable, it's something to save a year worth of extra cash for, it's something you care for and are pride of, and do not solve it's problems by buying a new one. You dig around, improvise, Google it around, ask people on the forum how to fix it.

And about your ripe old ancient GTX260 - I just upgraded my GPU to GTX260. It effectively doubled my computer's value, and tripled it's performance, and I'm very happy with that.

At an old museum piece 4850 radeon, he gets around 30 FPS in most battle scenes at 1440x900, with game settings optimised for max looks/performance ratio. So it's more thna adequate.

Sorry for the rant.

ElektroFreak said:

I wonder why it would suddenly switch resolutions/refresh rate mid-game? Is there a video sequence at that point or something? In my experience that error occurs when the monitor gets a signal that it can't handle (resolution or refresh rate too high or low etc). Unless of course there's a known incompatibility somewhere between BF3 and the monitor in question.

Click to expand...

That's what bugs me - it seems to occur randomly. Once in the beggining of the mission, once through the middle, some times you can finish a mission without the error, sometimes it's 2 minutes after you load a level.

No visible pattern at all.

TheReddish said:

Not to disagree but it sounds like the psu getting old to me. BF3 pushes max watts from a gpu, an old psu or underpowered one will start to fail or its 12v rail gets noisy as it heats up. Lower settings to or even underclock the gpu to see if it helps from drawing less power.

Click to expand...

Yes that's exactly "disagreeing". If you'd, pretty please, READ my opening post, you will see that I have completely and undoubtfully eliminated the possiblity of PSU causing the fault.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you in any way, I apologize. I am no hipster or affiliate in any clique, nor am I snobby over computer tech. I am not rich by any means and live far below the mean average salary in my country here believe me .

I don't have the most up to date system either and I was actually trying to convey that, I payed $580 for my computer 5 years ago. I think you really misinterpreted where I was coming from, I am absolutely no rich snob believe me and I do know what it is like to live poor because I am!

My apologies... I won't try and help in the future as I don't know as much as some others so my bad.

I just enjoy Battlefield 3 as well as you and there are not as many people on the forums that seem to play it but I don't know as much about computer hardware as many people on here that do so was just trying to help if I could.. Geez louize.

Ehh you did exactly what I asked you not to - took it the wrong way.

It was really and honestly nothing personal and nothing towards you, just using a slight window of opportunity to slip a rant to hopefully prevent the "Buy a new computer" type of posts.

It's just that I was somewhat disappointed that you could possibly think that 1440x900 would be too small of a resolution to be supported by the game and you suggested using a larger one (obviously impossible on current monitor, that would just cause the exact same error I'm trying to avoid).

The cart is properly stressed out for sure, but nothing temperature related and nothing the card can't handle. The game is perfectly playable and all.

It's what bobhaha said, problem being in the monitor - that I never thought of. Or crossed paths with it before.

Another possible thing to try is resetting the bios. Unplug the wall power, remove the battery, try starting (with power still unplugged... it will drain all the power from the PC) then plug power in, boot to windows then put battery back in.

Worth a try

I'm sorry again, and I don't take what you said personally as I do know what you are talking about related to rich uppity snobs and their superiority complex

Probably better for me to just stay out of it since I probably don't know enough to make any really good suggestions on the possible hardware or software problems so it is my fault.

It's all good, and my apologies for making it sound like it was directed to me.

I really hope you guys can figure it out so you can get the game going. Maybe we can meet up online on BF3 for a few rounds sometime once things are all figured out!

Aaron

bobhaha said:

Another possible thing to try is resetting the bios. Unplug the wall power, remove the battery, try starting (with power still unplugged... it will drain all the power from the PC) then plug power in, boot to windows then put battery back in.

Worth a try

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The BIOS was never touched and is at it's default settings, so resetting wouldn't do much except reset time and date.

ElectroMagneticFreak said:

I'm sorry again, and I don't take what you said personally as I do know what you are talking about related to rich uppity snobs and their superiority complex

Probably better for me to just stay out of it since I probably don't know enough to make any really good suggestions on the possible hardware or software problems so it is my fault.

It's all good, and my apologies for making it sound like it was directed to me.

I really hope you guys can figure it out so you can get the game going. Maybe we can meet up online on BF3 for a few rounds sometime once things are all figured out!

Aaron

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Yeah I really didn't wish to offend you or anything, and I appreciate you trying to help, and I'm glad we're on the same viewpoint regarding the guys with "superiority complex" as you have adequately put it.

Don't you just hate it when you google some problem around and you find responses such as "Man the GTX460 is outdated, get GTX680 and new PSU". As if I could upgrade my computer anytime, but choose not to until some random internet messiah comes up and says "Thou shalt upgrade like a rich muthafukka". Nobody ever thinks that there is a REASON I do not just go out and get myself a new $350 set of components.

Meanwhile I'm reading that on a 4 year old laptop with nVidia 9300M card which finely runs ME3 at comfortable 20-25 FPS on forced 640x480 resolution with settings tweaked and tuned. I play it primarily on my PC back home but if I ever need my quick Mass fix, I can run it and finish a mission or two. And hell, I wouldn't have it any other way. Really makes you appreciate the performance I get on my home PC.

Yeah, that deserves a lot of respect to pull off running newer games on slightly older equipment! I always think it's amazing when people are able to get games to run on platforms they are not supposed to.

If you can pull it off ,why upgrade and go broke for a few more frames per second?