Official forums for BZFlag.org

Windows Vista Home Premium
HP Pavillion dv9500
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
17" Monitor
Intel Core2 Duo T7500
2GB RAM

Boy, I'm having a lot of problems with this expensive new computer I bought, lol...

When I am playing 3D games, my screen will randomly freeze for 3-5 seconds. I cannot move my mouse at all, or do anything. I just wait for it to pass. I have tested it with games other than BZFlag, and I experience the exact same problem. It doesn't normally happen outside of 3D games unless I just finished playing one.

When this freezing happens, my fan usually blows a tad harder, and the performance light goes on. The wierd thing is, it will happen totally randomly. Sometimes I can play for a few hours without anything happening. Other times, it happens every 10 seconds or so.

At first I experimented with my NVIDIA Control Panel, because people suggested different things in there. I was told it may be VSYNC, but turning that on/off did no good. Switching the card between Quality/Performance did no good either.


I am out of ideas. Please help if you can. If you need any more information just ask.

I HAVE updated my drivers.

Slime

Could possibly be heat related, try turning on energy saver mode in the bzflag client and see if that helps. That will limit your fps to 30 making the graphics card work less, making it not heat up as much, possibly stopping the freezing. I know, it's a shot in the dark but I have had video card heat build up on a pc i once owned and the problem exhibited itself only intermittently when playing video (a long, long time ago). My solution was to buy one of those cooling fan cards, andthe problem went away. It's worth a shot.

I think it is windows Vista that is your problem, it has been from my experience that Vista is generally NOT a game computable operating system. (there are exceptions)
When i say that i mean that it hogs all the resources and doesn't know how to give any up for the games.

I have a laptop with similar hardware in it and it doesn't preform well in games either, in fact your lucky you are running that well.
I just got finished installing windows XP on my Toshiba Satellite A135-S4666 and it was a pain because the USA branch of Toshiba doesn't support XP on that model, only UK, and they have different names and everything for the same machine. (model numbers and everything) I will say though that it is worth it to do that. Computers that don't run the best in vista usually run great in XP.

I would find a copy of windows XP SP2 lying around, and install that with the necessary drivers.
If you want i would be happy to help you.

Alex135 wrote:I think it is windows Vista that is your problem, it has been from my experience that Vista is NOT a game computable operating system.
When i say that i mean that it hogs all the resources and doesn't know how to give any up for the games.

I have a laptop with similar hardware in it and it doesn't preform well in games either, in fact your lucky you are running that well.
I just got finished installing windows XP on my Toshiba Satellite A135-S4666 and it was a pain because the USA branch of Toshiba doesn't support XP on that model, only UK, and they have different names and everything for the same machine. (model numbers and everything) I will say though that it is worth it to do that. Computers that don't run the best in vista usually run great in XP.

I would find a copy of windows XP SP2 lying around, and install that with the necessary drivers.
If you want i would be happy to help you.

I will respectfully disagree with you. I have used Vista to play many games, including BZFlag, and may others have too. The problem is NOT Vista.

Well, it could be the way Vista interfaces with his hardware, or i have also found that the heat sink on video cards, the material that binds the chip to the heat sink is junk, and you can buy better stuff to apply that will make your video card cooler and better.

Vista is NOT the problem. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate, and have had no problems. If anything, it runs even better than XP, IMO.

Vista shouldn't be reacting with his graphics card seeing as they specifically say it is designed to run with Vista:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html wrote:And since all GeForce 8 Series GPUs are designed to support Windows Vista™ you can rest assured that you'll be enjoying your notebook PC well into the future.

Alex135 wrote:I think it is windows Vista that is your problem, it has been from my experience that Vista is NOT a game computable operating system.

Yeah, that's definitely why people play Crysis on Windows Vista with no problem at all.


Slime

As a test, try playing a game with the laptop on a flat surface, with all of the air vents non-obstructed. Then, play with it on your lap. If you experience more issues with it on your lap, you've verified the issue.

Also, google "HP Pavillion dv9500 freezing", and see if anyone else has experienced the same issue... Or it might even be worth it giving HP a call, you could have a defective part in there.

A Heart Attack wrote:Vista is NOT the problem. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate, and have had no problems. If anything, it runs even better than XP, IMO.

Vista shouldn't be reacting with his graphics card seeing as they specifically say it is designed to run with Vista:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html wrote:And since all GeForce 8 Series GPUs are designed to support Windows Vista™ you can rest assured that you'll be enjoying your notebook PC well into the future.

My Toshiba Satellite A135-S4666 said that too (close anyway) and it doesn't do what its supposed to.
My FPS on 3D games is so low its unplayable, It has the problems with UDP on BZFlag (it works on every other computer that doesn't have vista and i tried everything ). The worst part is the USA branch of Toshiba doesn't support any other OS then windows vista for that laptop so when i decided to install windows XP i had to go to the UK site, find the laptop that had the same hardware and everything as mine (they have different names and model numbers) and download the drivers for it. After i was finished with that i got BZFlag running and it works better then ever.
I find that vista is slow and inefficient and that is why i recommend XP if not Linux... Of course mine was home basic.

I am not saying that non of the other statements aren't true, i am just saying what i know. However i am more into Linux debugging then I am into windows anyway. I just try and help where i can.

Winny wrote:

Alex135 wrote:I think it is windows Vista that is your problem, it has been from my experience that Vista is NOT a game computable operating system.

Yeah, that's definitely why people play Crysis on Windows Vista with no problem at all.

Hey i just call them as i see them, I really don't take the time to learn much about what games do and don't work on Windows Vista. I am just saying things from my personal experience of having a Vista computer.

Slime

Another thing you could try is seeing if any other processes are taking up the computer resources at the time. (Run BZFlag in a window with the task manager running right beside it with the processes tab open.)

My guess the CPU is getting too hot and it is throttling back to a lower speed to cool down. I had issues with this on my laptop, and it would cause games to jitter every 8 to 10 seconds. So, it's nothing to do with Windows Vista.

On mine, I actually had to undervolt the CPU with a utility in order to make it generate less heat. However, the utility I used didn't allow it to throttle back at all, so I'm a little scared about that part. If you use the Notebook Hardware Control application, you can decrease the voltages at various multipliers for the CPU, and still allow the machine to continue throttling. Just be very careful with stuff like this, as it can cause the machine to become unstable if the voltage is too low.

Anyway, I would first try changing the power settings for Vista to different modes and see if it works better. It might help with the throttling. That Notebook Hardware Control also has some power management controls that might help out. I just haven't been able to verify that on my gaming laptop, since NHC doesn't support AMD chips.

Thanks for all your ideas about this. I just turned on Energy Saver, so I'll see if this stops the freezing. I will let you know once I have tested it for a while.

At first everything was going all right, but after about 10 minutes of playing it started the freezing again. Could it still be heat related?

Slime wrote:At first everything was going all right, but after about 10 minutes of playing it started the freezing again. Could it still be heat related?

try setting the FPS really low...

/localset fpsLimit 15

If it still does it, then chances are you have a defective part.

Hm I don't believe after all it is my fan blowing louder. But there is definitely a connection with this noise I hear and the screen freezes. Every time my computer makes this sound, my screen freezes. At first I thought it was just in 3D games, but I have found this out; the sound happens no matter what I am doing, but the screen only freezes on a 3D game. Last night my laptop was idle (black screen) and the noise kept going off. I was not doing anything on it, so it couldn't be overheating.

The noise is definitely internal. It is not a beep, or a whoosh of a fan, or the sound of something loading. I know it is vague, but that is all the description I could give. Any other ideas?

Is the sound a constant sound, or does it sound like something powering up (going from low to high)?

Something going from low to high.

I once had a problem like this: I cannot remember how it was fixed!

Vague idea: find a way to turn whatever it is that spins up to be constantly on. That sound reminds me of when I am playing a 3D game on knoppix (linux on dvd) and it makes that sound when I start a new program or something.

I'm sure someone has more of a clue than me. Wish I could remember...

Hm, could it possibly be the hard drive?

After searching for what you said, it seems I am not the only one experiencing this (if they are indeed the same problems). According to people it is only on Vista that they are getting this problem. I will read about it and see if anyone knows how to fix it.

Any further help is appreciated!

********EDIT**********

After searching, one person suggested something in which I tried, and I am getting no more freezes! (so far)

What I did was go to Start->Control Panel->Power Options

From here (I have my power option on High Performance), I went to the advanced settings for High Performance plan. I clicked on
+Hard Disk
+Turn off hard disk after
Plugged in: NEVER (Was 20 minutes)

So far, no freezes. I tried experimenting with it and switched it from NEVER to 1 minute, then went into BZF. Sure enough, 1 minute after the switch I was getting freezes again. After switching it back to NEVER, not a freeze to be seen!

I will try it out for a day or so, and let you know of the official results.